Home Safe Volunteers

For the last several weeks, there have been plenty of volunteers helping out with the 5-and-under group at Home Safe, where I volunteer on Tuesday nights. What a difference! There were 4 of us tonight; and each child got some special attention instead of just me and one other person making sure no one gets hurt, and breaking up fights. Rain kept us indoors tonight; but we colored, played tic-tac-toe, read books, played with the toys and put together puzzles. Even the difficult children respond so well to the attention! I always have at least one I worry about; right now it's little M. She's 2 1/2 or 3, never smiles, seldom talks, and refuses to interact with adults or children. She won't let anyone get close to her. I worry about what she goes home to, and hope the program is helping her mommy. I often can't fall asleep for thinking about my little charges, and have learned to take a Benedryl before I turn in on Tuesdays to help turn off my brain!

Inspiration Challenge

Last Monday Lisa at Coordinates Collections posted 5 or 6 ads she had clipped from magazines, and challenged us to create a layout, using an ad as inspiration. I did three; but this one is my favorite. I loved the white on white, with a little black and a hint of color.

Did I mention there's a $10 store credit as a random prize? Love the fun contests at CC!

What's Digging These Holes?

The weather is finally cooling off a few degrees and I got to spend a couple hours in the yard. I know I'm odd; but I actually like pulling weeds; and there's no shortage of them! I especially get a lot of satisfaction out of pulling out garlands of Virginia Creeper which I've never been able to eradicate.

Anyway, the back corner of the yard around the herb garden has been dug up sporadically for at least a year. What critter does this, anyway? I suspect raccoons, since two of them tried to make a hole in our roof last year and cost us $300 in repairs. After that episode, we greased the pipe they were climbing with Vaseline. It was pretty funny to see the claw marks sliding down the pipe the next day. The holes are about 5" deep and come to a point. I would dearly love to know how to encourage these unwanted visitors to go away and never come back. What we really need is to borrow a big dog!

Something New

Well, I never thought I had any interest in trying to blog, but here goes nothing! I was astonished when Jack brought it up last week as a way to share my scrapbooking interests. Then right on the heels of that idea, my favorite scrapbooking website, Coordinates Collections, announced the start of a monthly blogging contest in October. And Lisa of CC mentioned that her blog works for her as sort of a diary. And...I always like to learn something new. So for all those reasons, I'm giving it a shot. I hope as I go along I can improve the design and the content.