Operation Christmas Child

"What's that shoe box doing on the table?" Matt asked when he came home from work.
"That? Operation Christmas Child," I replied.
"What? Are you giving them shoes?" he said.

Nope. Not shoes. That orange shoe box (yes, I left it unwrapped) was full of goodies, destined to a foreign land for a little boy for Christmas.

I was introduced to Operation Christmas Child in 2007. I was in my first year of MOPS and was moved to tears at the little video we was showed. It was amazing how one shoe box, full of things a lot of us would take for granted, totally brightened a child's day. Our group put together a lot of boxes during one of the meetings. It was so much fun. Lots of little toys, boxes of crayons, hair bows and brushes, and hygiene things like soap, washcloths, and toothbrushes went into those boxes.

MOPS has ended for me, but this is one of the things I have continued to do. I think what drew me to OCC is the sheer simplicity of it. It's a shoebox full of simple things, things a lot of us may just toss out (Happy Meal toys) or things we seem to have at our disposal, like soap and a toothbrush. Or a pencil. And it brings these children such joy. Our family participates in "local" giving as well, but this has just has a special place in my heart.

Since I started doing the box at home (I think this is year 3 for us), I've enlisted Logan's help. I let him pick if we should fill the box for a girl or for a boy. This year he picked a boy. We keep the age consistent with his age. Then we shop. This year the shopping was pretty slim as I was fortunate to have enough stuff left from last year and had collected things over the hear. Kids meal toys (unopened) are great and we had a lot of those. Some building things, a ball and cup game, a puzzle. We had some Hot Wheels cars, a notebook, crayons stickers, socks, soap and washcloth, a comb, a small Frisbee, pencils, pencil sharpener, fun shaped erasers. It's fun to find what will fit into a shoe box and over the years I have gotten pretty good at squeezing a lot in.

Ready to pack!

Filled up!

Label printed, ready to go!

I dropped off the box this morning at a neighboring church. This week is national collection week. There was a room off to the side. A long table was FILLED with boxes, and another table was in the process of being filled! Last year and this year we paid our $7 (that's all it takes to ship) online, so we can track our box and see where it goes.

Sweepstakes!

The awesome people over at Purex are hosting an promotion with Isotoner smartouch gloves and Purex detergent! Use this link to enter to win!

http://insiders.purex.com/isotoner?id=56

October Highlights!

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Go Bears!

Mom and Logan visit The Great Pumpkin Patch! We only made it there once this year but we had a great time!

Some nice people offered to take our picture together.

I see a project in the works: all of his pics like this in a frame, to be displayed during the fall.

Happy Halloween from Batman, Robin, and Catwoman

Our jack-o-lantern

Logan's Birthday Weekend

Logan turned 7 last Friday! He had a half day of school on Friday (and no school on Monday) and we thought and thought what he and I could do on his special day. We had a few ideas but nothing was really jumping out at us.

Then in the wee morning hours Friday morning, Logan woke up coughing. He had had a runny nose for the past couple of days but on Thursday afternoon it seemed to have gotten worse. He was still acting fine, eating fine, and was fever free, so I wasn't worried. It's not unusual that when Logan has a cold he has a bad time with phlegm, so when he woke up coughing, he hacked up a bunch of nasty stuff. This always freaks him out. So....after being awake with a whole lot of tears for a couple of hours, I decided the half day of school, and our day of fun, was out of the question.

He was up bright and early on his birthday morning after little sleep the night before. We spent the day watching movies, reading, and playing with his new Beywarrior set. He started running a low-grade fever around dinner time, so we ordered his requested Mexican food :o)

My plans for Saturday were pretty much ruined. I will not go into that now. And if you are dying to know, send me a message.  So let's fast-forward to Sunday, which was the day of the birthday party. Logan had a lot of fun with his friends and got a lot of great presents....mostly new Lego sets! Logan loves Lego sets (not putting them together, but playing with them when they are completed) and Lego people. We had a lot of fun! He wanted a Wreck-It Ralph party. Due to no real Ralph party supplies, we had to make a lot of stuff, and used a lot of candy to keep with the Sugar Rush theme, which worked out great with Halloween being so close. My original plan was to make a cake and cupcakes on Saturday morning, but with Saturday turning into a three ring circus, we went to Hell....I mean Wal-Mart, bought a cake and cupcakes, and threw on the Wreck-It Ralph action figures we already had.  To be perfectly honest, I was not in a "party place" at all this year. I kept it simple and was done.

Logan did not have school on Monday. We had planned a trip to an apple orchard but those plans were ditched. We stayed around home and played with new birthday toys.
Logan had a good birthday. He is going to take treats to his class later this week, to make up for being absent on his birthday.

First Week of School

The first week of first grade is in the books. It has been such an improvement over how the first week of kindergarten started: there's been no tears, and he pretty much dashes out the door to play without giving me a hug. Don't worry, I reel him back in ;o) I was a little worried, though, because the night before school started, he was really nervous. He was up way past bedtime crying and worrying. By morning he was fine. I guess he just needed to get it out of his system. Here's some pics from the first day.

On Friday, he was feeling a little nervous and sad, so he asked to take a dinosaur in his pocket. Last year we discovered that a small item in his pocket helped Logan feel more secure. It started with a small Smurf charm. It was mine when I was little. However, the Smurf must have jumped out of his pocket because it never returned home. Then it was a series of tiny dinosaurs. I had to laugh when he asked about the dinosaur yesterday, because he said, "The dinosaur is my mom when you aren't there." Thanks, kid. We also did the whole "kissing hand" thing. He was fine by the time we got to school. I haven't heard any negative reports from his teacher, so I'm taking that as a good sign ;o) He has brought home several worksheets and I am amazed. His work is so much neater. We practiced over the summer but of course he was messy with me. Coloring could still use a lot of work. I remind him repeatedly to not scribble and he finally told me he just wants to "get it done." He really just doesn't like it! He is loving math (I'm not sure he's mine) and I am certain he can read more than he lets on: last night we browsed books on my Kindle, and he read the title of a book I had never mentioned at all to him. All in his own time, I suppose. And he's still a klutz. He came home with three band-aids: one on each knee and one on the elbow. He told me he fell off the monkey bars. This made no sense. The wounds looked like rug-burn. Finally he told me he fell on the blacktop. Now that makes sense. We had a long talk about being honest when someone asks a question. Next week we will be in more of a normal routine. We start speech therapy again and have our first pack meeting for Cub Scouts. It's going to be a great year!

July Flew By!

It's August. Where in world did July go? That was a super fast, fun month. We celebrated the 4th of July, Logan went roller skating for the first time, we celebrated 50 years of Kraft cheesiness in Champaign, we visited with family and friends. Here's a photo wrap-up.

So now we are gearing up for back-to-school....BOO!

The Winners Are....

The coupon winners are......Bobi Jo and Kristy G! Ladies, I'll be in touch soon! Thanks for entering my first ever giveaway!

Product Review-Purex Fabric Softener Sheets

A few of my friends are members of Purex Insiders, a group of product testers. They have received some awesome products to try out and share. I wanted to get in on this action, and after about a year of looking to see if they were accepting new members, I finally was accepted.

I am happy to say that the first item I "applied" to sample was one that I received. Last week I received a box of Purex Fabric Softener Sheets in the Sweet Lavender scent. I could actually smell the sheets before I opened the delivery box, and my dining room smelled lovely after the package was opened.

I tried out the product yesterday. The scent is much lighter on the clothing, and the clothing did not have a slick feel to it, like I have experienced with other fabric sheets. And most importantly (to me) there was no static. The sheets also repel pet hair and lint.

Interested in trying these for free? You're in luck! The nice people at Purex sent me three coupons for a free box of the sheets. All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog by following the instructions on the Rafflecopter!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Playing in the Rain

Logan has wanted to play in the rain for days now, but it seems like every time he wanted to, we either had to go somewhere or the rain was accompanied by thunder and lightening . Yesterday he finally had his chance. I can think of nothing cuter than a little boy outside running through the rain in his rain boots....and his umbrella.