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Day 178 – Stained Glass Wabash Sign (Throw)
My parents gave this stained glass creation to me many years ago. Wabash is the college from which I graduated … way back in 1990! I’m sure they paid good money for it. Unfortunately, I had it hanging in my classroom and last summer, while all the various construction projects were going on all over the school, it got broken somehow. I came in one day to find it smashed and thrown on top of a filing cabinet. No note. No explanation. No “Sorry about that”. That sort of behavior irritates me. So it’s been stashed away in my classroom…
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Day 177 – Tamarind Nectar (Throw)
I don’t even know what a “tamarind” is exactly, so I’m not sure why I have its nectar, except that it was apparently a cheap souvenir from my mission trip to Mexico years ago. I poured the contents of the can down the sink and it looked disgusting – all brown and chunky. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to enjoy tamarind nectar now!
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Day 176 – Oil Painting Book (Give)
Real quick as I try to catch up: I walked past the artroom at school a few days ago and saw one of my students creating a beautiful picture with oil paints. I knew she was an artist, but I’d never seen any of her oil painting talent. I found this book on oil painting landscapes, and thought she’d maybe get some use out of it.
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Day 175 – LeMars Bulldog Pom Pom (Throw)
This is one of those things I dig up and throw away late at night before my 4 year old gets a chance to see it and latch onto it. If I’m not careful, it will become one more item on top of the junk pile of toys which is her room. We avoided spreading Easter grass everywhere this year, so why risk finding strands of this pom pom strewn about for the next two months. It goes into the trash can at 11:30 PM so it doesn’t get sidetracked on its way to the dump. P.S. It’s late Friday night…
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Day 173 and Day 174 – Hats and Shirts (Give – to the Ginormous Clothing Drive)
I must confess that I was none too happy when Melissa informed me that she had signed our family up to help sort clothes during the “Ginormous Clothing Drive” that our church sponsored last Saturday. The only upside I saw was the opportunity to get rid of some more clothing out of our closet. Mainly I was irritated about the time commitment: 8:30 to noon. We already had Dats’ soccer game at 9:30 and I didn’t want to “kill the rest of the morning”. Ha! Shows you how mission minded I am!Most of our small group families also showed up…
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Day 172 – Birthday Card (Give Back) and 1975 Cincinnati Reds Program (Give)
I embarassed my niece by returning this birthday card in front of a class of her peers. Fortunately, she’s got a good sense of humor AND she’s come a long way as an artist, so she was able to laugh about it – along with everyone else. But she wasn’t able to tell me if those things were supposed to be hearts or flowers. I don’t have a picture, but my second Give was a Cincinnati Reds “Scorecard” program from 1975! Pete Rose was on the cover! Apparently, my packratting started early. In ’75, I would have been 7 years…
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Day 171 – Scottish Map and Postcards (Give)
Gave my map from Scotland and some Colin Baxter postcards to my little Scottish enthusiast student. No pics to show. I wanted to pull a picture by Baxter to place here, but he’s apparently pretty particular about copyrighting and has figured out how to protect his photos on-line. So I’ll just give a link. He’s one of the most famous photographers in Scotland. Some Scots love his work and others think his images are overworked and overly romanticized. Personally, I like ’em. His pictures are about as close as any camera can come to capturing the stunning beauty of Scotland.
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Day 170 – Shopping Bag Collection and Assorted Papers (Throw)
Sorted through a whole bunch of old papers to put in recycling… Among the papers: Numerous Brochures – Epcot Center Kennedy Space Center (1984) Wall Drug Mammoth Cave Badlands Faneuil Hall (Summer 1987) Coca-Cola Museum Various Summer Camp brochures from camps I worked Also: Flight Itineraries (Saudi Arabia and Scotland) Easter cards from Grandma Gross Various Photos Thank You Cards Newspaper Clippings Wedding Announcements and Programs Church Bulletins Obituaries Cats Playbill A Kwanzaa Card … from Luke and Gavin And just to show that my pack-rat tendencies also have a romantic side, here are some…
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Day 169 – Last Century’s Jeans and Tie-Dye Pants (Throw)
I’ve been exploring one of the boxes I pulled from the back of the storage shed as we prepared for last weekend’s garage sale… Bizarre stuff. Like these jeans from pre-2000. They were signed by several youth and adults – some from Indiana and some from Iowa. I must have worn them last on a joint mission trip between my LeMars (Iowa) group and my Shelbyville (Indiana) youth. Melissa was jealous because I still fit in these jeans. In fact, I had a bit of extra room! Just sayin’. But here are the pants I was really tempted to keep:…
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Other Bloggers in the Family…
I just found out that I’m not the only one in my family who is blogging (but I was THE FIRST). I’ve mentioned my “little” brother Russ a few times here. He’s the one who has had quite the physical and spiritual transformation over the past two years or so. Russ is learning bunches about God right now – and he’s learning it the best way possible: firsthand. I have to admit to being a bit jealous of his most recent post: Russ wrote about how he and his fiancee won a raffle over the weekend… … to the tune of…