Mums

I'm really proud of my one big purple mum that is on the right side of my porch in the picture below! I bought it as a tiny little mum in the spring of 2021 and planted it in the ground. It came back this year and it so big! I planted mums on the other side of the porch that did not come back (what you see in the picture are mums I planted this past spring) so I'm just so happy the purple mum made it through the winter! We had a hard freeze two nights in a row last week and I made sure to do a very good job covering up the mums. The purple mum had just started to bloom out before the freeze and I knew it had plenty of life left in it for the fall season, so wanted it to last. I put two sheets over it and am so happy to say it survived! Now to make it through this winter to next spring! 

Yard Project Update

In September Ross began a big yard project. For a few years he's wanted to kill off our grass, that is mainly weeds, and plant new grass. He decided to just go for it. He did a lot of reserach (which he is very good at) on exactly what/how to do and began with spraying weed killer all over the yard. It took a few times of spraying it and a few weeks before our yard looked like a hayfield. This was so funny to me because it was completely golden and dead! I felt the need to explain to our neighbors and anyone who came over that we were aware of how bad our yard looked and had a plan for it! 

After the yard was dead, Ross mowed it up, bagged it all up, and raked it a bit to get all the dead stuff collected. Then on October 1, he tilled up the yard! Thanks to my dad for loaning us his tiller! You can watch Ross till up the yard here. After tilling it, Ross spread the seed and fertilizer, then my dad helped us by bringing his roller over and rolling it for us. This helped to smash the seed and fertilzier into the ground. You can watch my dad rolling it here. The last step was to spread straw out over the entire yard and we even got the girls to help with that! You can watch them lay the straw here. 

We have had great weather as far as temperatures are concerned - warm days and cool nights. Perfect fall weather! We haven't, though, had any rain! We've been watering our yard two times a day and after about 8 days we started to see a little bit of grass sticking up. That was very exciting! After that the grass just took off and popped up all over, giving us a good looking yard again! I'm so proud of Ross and all his work on this. He's done a great job and our yard is going to look so nice from now on! 

Sisters

Our church had a one-night women's conference a few weeks ago called "Sisters." They set up this photo booth for the event so I had to have my girls take a picture in front of it when we were at church the Sunday before the event. They might fight some, but I do think they truly love each other. And I do truly love them! 

Libby? Lucy?

The picture below is from a Commonwealth newspaper clipping from when I was in elementary school. The Commonwealth was the Ash Grove town newspaper that was published each week when I was growing up. It often had areticles and pictures in it from school happenings such as special events or sports events. It was always fun to see yourself in the Commonwealth! 

Someone from Ash Grove tagged me in this picture on Facebook. I have no idea what the picture was for and there was no explanation about it on the post. I was maybe in 5th or 5th grade here?? When I  look at this picture I can see Lucy's face in my face! Other people might not see it (and I don't care!), but I can see it! Lucy has made this same half smile/fake smile that I have on my face many a times for me and it just makes me laugh!    

Gifts

Lucy is doing choir at school this year on Thursdays from 2:20-3pm. A friend is also doing choir but her mom works and is unable to get her until about 5pm. The friend's mom asked if I would be able to get her daughter for her after choir until she got off work. So I said sure because I had no reason not to! I have the time and ability to help her out, so feel like I should. Our kids are all friends and play together after choir, so that works well.

The mom gave me this little note pad and pen set last week as a thank you for watching her daughter. I thought it was so nice! It wasn't anything big, but it was such a nice little gift and probably more so thought! This is something I would probably like to buy myself but wouldn't find it necessary to buy, so it makes a perfect gift. I appreciate her thoughtfulness and have had fun using these notes this week! 

Meal Delivery

I took the summer off, but am back to delivering Meals On Wheels on Thursday mornings! I have been doing this for almost two years and do enjoy it. I've gotten to know several of the people I deliver to and often sit and chat wtih them for a few minutes. 

My route has changed a bit since last spring. I now go to one apartment complext and have about 7 different people I deliver to in that one place. I do have a few houses to stop at along the way, but for the most part it's a pretty easy route! Each person get a box of food, a bag of fruit, and a loaf of bread. The boxes are a big awkward to carry sometimes with the other items I have, but it works. I'm so thankful I'm able to have the time to do this volunteer work. I know it helps several people and I'm glad I can be that helper! 

See You At The Pole

See You At The Pole was two weeks ago this morning. It's a time set aside where students all over the country gather together around their school flagpole on the same day at roughly the same time to pray for their school. It has been around for quite sometime and I remember friends doing this when I was growing up but I never participated. 

One morning this summer the SYATP event crossed my mind and I decided I was going to do this at Mann! I messaged a friend of mine who I knew would help me with it and she said yes, and I asked our principal if it was okay to do and she said yes, too! 

Something like this is kind of hard to advertise. Since it's a religious event I can't post it on our PTA Facebook page or advertise it with a flyer sent home with students like we would for PTA events. My advertising was telling some friends about it and posting it on my personal Facebook page. 

As the date got closer I was dreading it. I didn't think anyone other than my familiy and my friend's family would show up and we would need to get up at 6am that morning to make the 6:45am SYATP start time. (Our school begins at 7:20am this year so our principal said to have it go from 6:45-7am...snooze!!) So I was kind of wishing I hadn't decided to do this! But, it ended up being a good thing! We had four famlies show up giving us 15 people total. I didn't get a picture of all of us at the pole, but I did take a picture of my family. I'm proud of them for getting up early and doing this with me!

That morning after the event I read the verse of the day on my Bible app and thought it was a very timely verse. It was  from Isaid 6:8: "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

I know the verse is kind of taken out of context, but I felt this verse was the Lord saying to me "good job for doing SYATP!" One of my goals with being involved with the PTA was and is to be a light to people and show them God's love. I'm not a vocal person with my faith at all and a lot of people maybe don't even know I go to church. It's just not something I talk aabout a lot, but probably should. So I see the SYATP as a way to continue on my goals of showing God's love to people and look forward to doing it again next year!