Giving Back

 Today was my annual trip to Walmart to fill a shopping cart with toys for a reasonable price.  They do it with yearly sales this time of year on a wide variety of toys and sports equipment.  I shop carefully to try to include as many age groups as possible.  I always include at least one Elmo stuffed toy in memory of Eric, who was a big Elmo fan.  I only fill one cart  to keep within my budget and space in my car.  I always include at least 6 Soccer balls in a variety of sizes and colors, soccer is very popular here in Tucson.

Not surprisingly at all, no one wants to get behind me in the checkout line.  It takes a while to put a whole basket of toys on the conveyor belt. I am getting more efficient at packing the shopping cart. The cashiers always ask how big is my family?  Then I explain that I never removed the yearly budget line for toys.  I figured that since my kids are out of the house I might as well use that money for toys, anyway to help the kids in Pima County have a better holiday season.  

So after I check out and load my car up.  I head to the nearest Fire Station to drop off the toys.  This year it took 3 firefighters one trip to empty the entire back of my car.  I thanked them for collecting the toys to help the kids and they thanked me for bringing the toys and sporting equipment.  

All the helpers were doing a good job today.  Please consider being a helper this year for your favorite charity project.   Because of the economy, I personally feel the need will be greater this year.  This is my personal guesstimate since I don’t have any empirical data to back this up. I certainly hope I am wrong, but I don’t think so.

A Very Busy Week

It has been a very busy week since I last blogged. John had the week off so we got a lot done around the house. The craft room was semi cleaned and the 2 old machines, manuals and parts went to our Local Goodwill for their program. They will be cleaned and refurbished for someone else to use. So 2 more boxes out the door.

I also picked up my new sewing machine. I practice on some pillows for some small dogs. They are filled with scrap yarn, old clean rags, sewing scraps and poly fill picked up from the thrift store. The fabric is left over from other projects.  They are a real up-cycle project. I still need to fiddle and play with the machine before I start making some new bibs for Eric. But so far so good.

Eric finished one of his favorite holiday projects. He gets to choose some toys that he thinks that other kids will like. He then gets to deliver them to a Toy for Tots drop off location. I really think that he enjoys this more than the people collecting the gifts for the kids.

We landed up with an extra turkey for Thanksgiving. Don't ask. So John made a mad dash to the Tucson Community Food Bank with a frozen turkey in the back of his car. It was all the way across town in the middle of rush hour and dropped it off 2 minutes before the food bank closed. We really hope that this will make someones X-mas meal a little better.

John and I cooked Thanksgiving dinner together. John sliced and diced.  I mixed everything together. Since it was just the two of us we skipped making a pie and sweet potatoes. The rest of the day was a just hang around the house day. We did get to talk to Teri who spent Thanksgiving with a classmates family. It was just to much for us to ask her to fly home in the middle of finals for a few days.

After a very slow start to today we did manage to do some clothes shopping and sneak out to our last dinner out for this vacation. Well it has been a long busy week and I think my closet is next on the cleaning agenda.

 I almost forgot. I am thankful for all my family and friends. So have a good weekend and enjoy your friends and families.