Monday, Monday....

Every time I write Monday on anything, that old song by "The Mamas & Papas" goes through my head.....

Today was a busy Monday. I delivered pajamas and books to two local children's shelters, and I swear, it just breaks my heart at times. One of the shelters, right here in the middle of an affluent community, is hidden on a road that you wouldn't know about unless you were given specific directions, which I was. The property surrounding this particular shelter is closed in with wrought-iron gates, and the front door is kept locked at all times. You have to ring a buzzer and then speak into a little box to tell them who you are and why you're there. If they're not expecting you, then you might not even get in. All of these precautions are for the children, of course, being that they come from abusive homes. Mostly all the kids in there are being hidden because their mothers have run away from their out-of-control husbands.

So there I was, with pajamas and books, and the director was just so grateful, and telling me how much the children are enjoying the books and pajamas. The kids can't get over the fact that everything they've received from the Pajama Program has been brand new. The kids are used to hand-me-downs and donated clothing....... anything new is a luxury. I swear, if that fact alone doesn't make a person stop for a minute and count their blessings, then nothing will.

The pajama/book numbers continue to rise..... 665 pajama sets, 417 books-- as of today.


I spoke to my dad yesterday...... I called him up to say hello and see how he was doing. "I'm doing okay for an old man," was his answer. For some reason, he got to talking about Christmas, and asked me if my husband was still "buying the biggest tree he could get." I told him that he was, and daddy asked me if I had a picture of last year's tree. I told him that I did, but after the phone call when I looked through the Christmas photos, the only printed picture that I had is of our tree from two years ago, which was 14-feet tall. All the other Christmas pictures are being held hostage inside my husband's computer. Rather than asking my husband to print out Christmas photos, I figured I'd just send my dad the photo that I had..... he really won't know if the picture is from last year or two years ago, so what's the difference anyway.

And this photo (that I mailed to him this morning) has my husband and I standing in front of that huge tree, along with Gracie and the cats. My husband used photo-shop magic to have it look as if Gracie was pulling the cats in a sleigh. He had taken pictures of each cat individually, then put their photos into an actual wooden sleigh that I had. Then he "painted" a red ribbon leading from Gracie to the front of the sleigh..... what a great photo. When daddy sees that, he's going to laugh out loud.


Summer is here with a vengeance. Hot, hot, hot...... bright sun..... balmy breezes. And I'm not complaining. This past winter was cold here, way too cold, so I don't care how high the temperature gets from now till October.

I have created a monster... a tool monster....... my husband has been working on those two rotten boards near the front porch of our house for the past couple of days. What looked like a simple job turned into a bigger job, being that you never know what's going to be behind the wood when it's taken off. The new boards are up now, and all that's left to the job is some sanding, priming, and painting. And my husband has been to the hardware store just about every day for the last few days. That tool-box that I gave him last Christmas has turned him into a handyman.... a real honest-to-goodness handyman. So much so that my husband asked me to make him a list of any and all things around the house that need attention and/or repair. We were eating dinner when he told me that tonight, and he's lucky that it's rather difficult to choke while eating salad.