Rhonda's (Open) House

My friend Rhonda is creative, talented and devoted to helping missionaries spread the Gospel throughout the world.

A couple of the several ways she helps are:

    1) To have an annual Christmas Open House.  Rhonda spends months preparing and her husband Russell,  sister Ginny and her daughter-in-law Sherry are her right, left and extra arm in helping make things happen.    

Rhonda and Russell live in a fabulous home.  The ceilings are very high and thus conducive to large trees and lots of decorations.

The staircase to the second floor has 21 steps and the banister can hold a LOT of stockings.  I will let the photos do some of the talking:

(Disclaimer: I'm a terrible photographer and the photos that look like they are videos are indeed videos--with lots of talking--so I just left them as photos.)

I neglected to take photos of the trees in the kitchen, the master bath and one important one in the master bedroom.  

However the next photo will give you an idea of what was on the second master bedroom tree and is a nice lead in to my second account of her fund raising activities. The tree was covered in creations like this. 

A gift from Rhonda: my Irish Cottage 

Rhonda makes putz houses and Christmas decorations (see photo #3) and sells them at her Etsy shop: 

ChristmasNotebook.etsy.com

As if creating putz houses and shadow boxes to sell at the open house, putting up at least one tree in each room on the first floor, and decorating every inch of available space to make her home beautiful, isn't enough, Rhonda also spends weeks baking up a storm.  The following photos show a fraction of the goodies she created to share with guests. I should have taken  pictures of the kitchen tables, counter tops and inside the oven where she stored the extras to be set out as needed.

 (See disclaimer 😋 )

Rhonda is the hostess with the mostest and it was so nice, after hearing about the open houses for 21 years, to finally be able to attend and see for myself how much she loves Christmas and the missionaries. 

Please check out her Etsy Shop, pick something special for those special someones on your list and help spread the message of the Gospel throughout the world.  

The Day I Became THAT Person

I consider myself a seasoned traveller.

I have been on numerous plane trips, often with a baby, toddler or youngish child along.

I've been to Metro, LAX, Logan International, SFO, Orlando and Will Rogers Airports.  I've ridden the tram to get to my gate, and taken the shuttle to get to the car rental location.

I know to take my luggage to the gate because I will likely be invited to leave my bag at the boarding door and pick it up there when I deplane, thus avoiding the baggage pickup line.

I always get there EARLY so I have time to find the restroom meaning I will not have to get up when the plane is in the air, or find a quick snack so I don't die of starvation on my 1.5 hour flight.

Last weekend I was blessed to be able to attend a friend's annual Christmas Open House. The only catch was she lives in Sparta, IL.  Having been to her house once before (21 years ago for an online-moms'-group-finally-meet-each-other party), I knew that the best way to go was to fly to St. Louis, MO and drive to her house.

I planned my whole get-away weekend: flight, rental car, hotel, me-time book and journal, and directions to Rhonda's house.

And, I got to the airport (nicely decked out for Christmas)  EARLY.

So early in fact when I got to my gate there was another plane, going somewhere else, boarding before my flight.  No big deal.  I sat down and waited for the airport employee to change to the sign to my flight number after everyone else boarded and the plane took off.

While I waited, I watched all the passengers jump up to get in line when their zone was announced.

Once everyone who had been waiting was on the plane and a few minutes had passed, someone came strolling up to the gate, showed their boarding pass and walked on with no wait and no crowd.

Wow! I thought. They are brave!!  How can you just show up right before the plane takes off and board with no fuss and looking as calm as can be?  No running, no apology for showing up at the last second.  Just calm and composed and barely on time.

Then two more people showed up right before the door closed and they got on, again with no wait and no line.  Whew.  Never. I'm not that brave.

The plane took off and the sign changed to announce the next flight.  It departed at NOON and was not going to St. Louis.  Hmmmm.

I must have remembered the gate number incorrectly.  It was not on my boarding pass and I had had to find it on the monitor when I got to the airport.

I quickly checked on my phone (thanking God for technology) and realized that my actual gate was A-59 not A-56.

I knew I still had a few minutes so I strolled over to gate A-59 and lo and behold everyone else was already on the plane and the door was going to shut in 5 minutes.

Up I walked (no running, no panic).  There was no line so I flashed my boarding pass and walked up the ramp to the plane all by myself.  I thought to myself, after I found my seat and realized they had shut the door behind me, that I had just become THAT person.

Though it worked out just fine and I didn't miss my flight, I don't plan on going that route again!  I will still get to the airport early and still sit around for 45 minutes waiting for the boarding doors to open and I will again stand in line and check my bag at the door.  Once on the quick and easy was enough for me.

Bath Bombs

Well, school is in full swing and with it comes the necessary homework.

Each student in the 7th and 8th grade has to do two science projects per year.  They have to write a lab report and present to the class.

Our tenacious one, hearing for years on end to volunteer to go first with projects at school, did just that.

The first day of projects is Friday, September 8th.

At first she was going to take alkaline metals and drop them in water to show the kids how cool the reaction is. (I believe she had help from an older sibling for this particular idea.)

When we discovered that the metals were expensive and took two weeks to deliver, we talked her into something a little more on her level.

So she decided to make bath bombs with two different sets of ingredients and see which recipe works best (meaning-gives the most fizz in the tub.)

She looked up recipes online and found a youtube video of two very cute little girls whose mom lets them experiment and put their finding online for others to try.

Wayne took her shopping for the ingredients, most of which are normal household items with the exception of citric acid (unless you can your own food), and molds.

I wish I had a video of the first bomb she tested.  I was watching the proceedings and saw that the tall container they were going to put the bomb in was full almost to the top with water. I kept my mouth shut because this was not my gig.

It was epic!  And they both figured out that they need a whole lot less water in that container next time around!

Round two with a different recipe happened today.  It was a success.

Now that she is close to being ready to present we found out that her science teacher quit.  He is moving to the public school system.

So all this fun may be for naught, but she and Wayne want her to be ready just in the case the substitute teacher (or new hire) isn't quite ready with lesson plans and (s)he needs this plan to fall back on.

Whether she gets to present or not, she is excited and that is what counts.  I think I see bath bombs in our future as possible Christmas gifts.


My other blog

New Normal

I am now, officially, a former home school mom.  Our tenacious one joined her sister at school this year.  They ride the bus so my mornings and afternoons have gained at least 40 minutes each of not sitting in the truck fighting traffic. This afternoon the consensus was that the bus driver is awesome.

One hurdle cleared. 

Now our middle-schooler needs to make a forever friend.  I have it on good authority that seventh grade is the year to do this.  

The college boys are still home but they sleep in, so my mornings are amazingly quiet.  No more audiobooks running almost nonstop throughout the day (unless it's one I've chosen). 

Two or three afternoons a week I get to watch this cutie.  This is GigiMim, grand baby #2.  She is 3 months old and has been known to take three-hour long afternoon naps.  Lucky grandma.  During one of those naps I may or may not have slept the entire time she did.  (It was amazing.)  

Our oldest grandchild (I call him Bubby) became a big brother this summer.  Here he watches over his baby brother while also watching either Wild Kratts or Daniel Tiger.  I told their mom before she knows it they'll be sharing a show and a bowl of popcorn! 

In October, I will have all three kiddos.  Everyone tends to freak out a little when I say that.  Not only have I done this before (I'm a pro) but it will only be for two hours, 1 or 2 days a week depending on Caitlyn's work schedule.  My Bubby is a great helper so I'm sure we will be fine. 

I have also embarked on a new adventure.  You'll have to come back for more blog updates since I'm not quite ready to go public with it yet.  

Please send up a prayer for our tenacious one.  It's going to be quite a transition for her, but she is up for the challenge. 

www.centeredinchrist1.blogspot.com

Holy Quiet, Batman!!

For the first time, in I cannot even tell you how long,  the house is silent.

It is empty except for me and two rodents (hamsters) who live upstairs in Hannah's room.

Our tenacious one is shadowing at the local Catholic middle school. She is registered there for next year for 7th grade and wanted to see how it would feel to actually be there.

She is shadowing with a 7th grader whose family I've known for years, though she has never met this particular member of the family.  She did exclaim upon first seeing her, however,  "You were Mary Poppins!!"  I think they will get along famously.

I have many things to do today:

• iron
• do homework for Bible school
• pick up Wayne's pants from the cleaners
• shop for a requested item for one of the kids
• fill out paperwork 
• make a mammogram appointment (ugh)
• think of something to make for supper and make it

The only thing I really want to do is take an uninterrupted nap.  

This is my procrastination from that, while I have a cup of coffee and enjoy the peace. 

Around 3 o'clock all will return to normal when I go get Hannah from school, drop her off to watch Max while I get our shadower from choir practice, and eventually actually watch Max for two hours.  Thankfully, there will be no homework to conquer. 

This could be the new normal come August though.  Unless God throws me a curve ball and offers something amazing to keep me busy while all the kids are in school once again. 

www.centeredinchrist1.blogspot.com

Baby Boom

We're having a baby boom in our family and neighborhood.

Twenty-six years ago, on one block of our street, there were seven babies born within six months of each other. I was one of the moms who gave birth that year. We got a write-up in the local paper with a photo of the moms and babies.  It was pretty fun.

Well, there seems to be another baby boom happening, only this time  it a grandma boom.

Our grandson Max is a big brother,

and will find out in July if he has a sister or a brother.

He now has a girl cousin as well who is due in May,

and is a 2nd cousin to another girl cousin due in April.

My sister will be a grandma for the first time and my parents will be great-grandparents four times over.

Several friends from church and from my Lay Dominican group are expecting either a first or subsequent grandchild.

Life is never boring and we look forward to greeting these little ones who will keep us young.


centeredinchrist1.blogspot.com