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Day 130 – Old Picture of a Bunch of People I Don’t Know (Throw)
This old framed photo came from my Grandfather’s house … I think. I don’t know … maybe I got it at some garage sale. All I know is I liked the antique look of the thing, but I’ve never found an appropriate place to hang it. I guess I should check with my mom before I get rid of it to make sure it’s not a picture of family… But I will have time to check with mom because before I officially toss this photo, I am going to use it as a prop in the play I am directing at school…
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Day 129 – Altas of World History (Give) and Day 130 – Toilet Paper Holder (Sell)
I had gotten this Atlas for a college class. And if I remember correctly, I paid about $10 for it and it was never actually used in the course of study. If it were a regular world atlas, it would be way out of date by now. But it has historical maps – like how much territory comprised the Roman Empire at the time of Julius Caesar and so forth, so it will never go out of date. I figured I would pass it on to one of the history teachers at my school rather than toss it in the…
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Day 128 – Nested Babushka (Throw) and Open House Disappointment
The best boss I ever worked for, Pastor Mark, brought this back for me from his trip to Russia years ago. (No offense intended to current or other past bosses!) The kids always thought these things were toys … and you can’t blame them. And over the years, several pieces have been lost. Dats (age 9) feels personally responsible for permanently separating the nesters by dropping one down a furnace vent. Oh well, now I’m tossing all of it, so he need not feel guilty about it any longer. In other news… Yesterday was our Open House. We spent all of…
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Day 127 – My Old High School-Era Artwork (Throw)
I was cleaning out the garage yesterday during final preparations for our Open House. The leaky garage roof got fixed a little too late to spare my artwork stored in that particular corner in a cardboard box. It was all moldy. Smelled terrible. So it made it easy to part with. But I thought I’d take a few pictures before I tossed it so I could share my artistry with the lucky handful of people who look at this blog! For your viewing pleasure: So there you go. I didn’t include everything I found, just the ones I wasn’t totally…
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Day 126 – Records, etc (Throw) and Progress Towards Haiti
Tired. I don’t have too much to write regarding things I’ve thrown away – I’ve been tossing a lot of stuff about every day this week as we get the house prepared for our Open House on Sunday. For instance, I had set aside several records that I had various plans for. They were on a table in the living room and I just am tired of looking at them, so I tossed them today. Should have done that when I threw all the rest of those records away a few weeks ago. More significant today were two steps toward getting the kids to…
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Day 125 – Shells from Myrtle Beach (Throw)
Last summer we used our time share to spend a week in Myrtle Beach. It was a fantastic experience and the most relaxing vacation we’d had for a long time. Our kids are finally getting old enough to make a vacation enjoyable … instead of work in an exotic location. We spent quite a few hours on the beach, of course. And each time we hit the coast, the kids collected shells. And more shells. And more. Until we had an entire bucketful of shells that just HAD to go back to Indiana with us. Why? Because we’re going to make…
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Day 124 – Homemade Bird Feeder (Throw) and a New Garage Roof (Receive… Gratefully!)
This was a productive day … made all the sweeter by the fact that most of the productivity was not generated by me or Melissa! Melissa’s cousin Angie and her husband Phillip came to work on our garage. Actually, Phillip’s friend Tony and his crew worked on the garage roof while Phillip took his power washer onto the roof of the house to clean things up. Originally, Phillip had said he would be willing to reshingle the garage if we would buy the materials. And we were excited about that possibility. Afterall, that’s a good deal: I would either be saving…
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Day 123 – Cassette Tape “Walkman” (Throw) and Day 124 – “Through Painted Deserts” (Give)
Not much to report today. Our day was thrown off by The Princess (age 4) coming down with a stomach bug. Melissa actually had her at a doctor’s office (a dermatologist though!) when The Princess first ralphed. She has literally thrown up at least 20 times since. It’s so tough to watch her go through this. At one point she looked up and said, “I just wish this day was over.” I have to admit that a little stomach bug like this can summon up a bit of anxiety in me over taking my kids to Haiti. Even a little…
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Day 122 – Vaguely-Celtic Cross (Give)
Melissa and the kids and I drove to Shelbyville to attend little brother Russ’ church. Big brother Spencer and his family came too. We gathered because Russ was taking the big step of joining the church and, more importantly, professing his faith publicly. Spencer pointed out that a lot of folks had been praying for this day to come for a long time. Russ will tell you that he spent many years far from God, living life on his own terms. This past year has been a spiritual journey for him. Then, on a recent weekend, he attended an Emmaus…
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Newspaper Article Published Today
As part of my job, I write an article now and then for the local newspaper. Here is the original text – unfortunately, when they printed it today, the paper left off the information about the Starfish Kids website! Here’s what I wrote: As the plane dropped low for landing, I peered out the window at thin cows nonchalantly grazing at the edge of the tiny runway and knew I was in a very different world. The plane pulled up alongside three broken down aircraft at the end of the runway and within a few minutes our eight-man mission…
