Cleaning our neighborhood median/island

Growing up, we celebrated Jesus' birthday every year. Sometimes we'd even have a cake and light candles and sing Happy Birthday. But even if we did not do that, we always did a family service project. Our family was big - with anywhere from 5-9+ kids, so sometimes we could fit in a soup kitchen, but sometimes we did not. Or we were too busy to coordinate joining up with another group. Now my kids are too young to join another group. And I'm not that organized so we didn't really plan anything this year. Oh, I forgot to mention, that we of course celebrate at Christmas time, but we believe that his actual birthday was on April 6th. 

Anyway, before that was Easter, and we were getting our house and yard in order but the entrance to our neighborhood was getting pretty bad. One palm tree died and others were dropping their frawns. There was trash so nobody could mow it. So, in getting ready for the high holiday (I don't really call it that but it sounds good here), I took my little guys, some trash bags and rubber gloves and we jogged to the end of our street to do something about it. 

 We found a cool bamboo stick there. We were quite the sight walking back I'm sure.

 Tyler: "How embarrassing."

 I have the brilliant idea of writing a letter and hand delivering it to people in our neighborhood who take care of their lawns. The letter will mention how I have an idea and since I noticed that they have a beautiful lawn, I would like their help in beautifying the entrance to our neighborhood. I would say that I'm taking nominations for lawn companies or for individuals who would like to place a bid on cleaning the island. I would also be taking nominations on people who would like to be involved in the voting process. I do not want it to be called a board since that sounds like a lot of commitment. I would also be asking for donations in the amt of a one time donation or a monthly donation etc.
Then we'd give all of that money to the lowest bidder/lawn company or the one who has the best idea of what to do with it since it could be beautiful.
BUT I know that's a lot of busywork and headache for me. And a lot of people like being able to park their RV right up on their lawn or being able to keep junk in their front yards and do not want some HOA fees.
So every once in a while we'll go and clean that island, luckily other good Samaritains mow it when the trash is gone. We have mowed and edged it before. But burning the palm franwns was a big step in the right direction.

And it's fun!

 We made S'mores of course.

My Birthday (even though it was last month)

Steven woke me up with french toast from Perkins:)  Also with scrambled eggs and OJ. My mom came over to bring me my present, another external hard drive (that I needed!!)  Steven had to go to work, but that's OK. Later, Jonathan and Don came over to bring me my birthday crown and another batch of home-made (by JT) french toast:)

He spelled my name with the french toast, and included fruit!  Quite the presentation.

 I thought about all of the places we could go, just the 3 of us, but Dylan picked our own pool, and I was content with that too.  No stress:)

Steven came home early and brought us lunch!  I love the Close Talker from Moe's.

I love Isaac's laugh from the card from Sarah that sings. 

(Here's a picture from the next day - another cake from Dr. Brayer!  And her kids and husband were there for cake too - which makes it a fun 5 min lunch-break-party:))

For my birthday, since it was a big one, I had initially wanted to do something significant.  I didn't necessarily want to spend money, but rather time with close friends and family.  My idea was to all work on a Habitat for Humanity house together.  My brother tagged along when my school did it once, and it was so fun doing things "the Gille way" and being efficient and making it fun. 

I knew that July would be too hot, so I brought it up before, in the colder months, but I decided against the idea after just one friend thought aloud, "well YOU can do that . . ." I didn't want to pout my friends through something that they wouldn't think was fun, so I dropped it. 

Then, on my birthday, there was already a service project on the Young Women calendar.  We were going to clean an apartment for a family who had moved and didn't have time to clean up after the movers so they could get their deposit back.  It was actually for my friend, and I decided not to let her know that it was my birthday.  She paid the Young Women organization what she would have paid a professional cleaning service. 

Anyway, I wasn't excited for spending my thirtieth birthday cleaning at first, but as we were there, the girls brought me a balloon, M&Ms, and cupcakes for us all!  And they were good workers.  I mean, 3 girls took the third floor, 3 took the 2nd floor, and the other leader and I took the first floor and garage.  They did it all in an hour, even cleaning out the fridge.  They were happy to work.  That's exactly what I needed.  What a blessing in disguise:)

Here's the elegant cake that Steven and my boys got for me for after our Young Women (YW) service project activity.

We set the camera on self-timer to take 10 pictures in a row just for fun.

Here are some of them.

and again when my mom got there after a meeting.

but didn't after Don got there again after his meeting.  Busy people.  I feel loved:)

Operation Christmas Child

I really want to get my kids into understanding the "reason for the season." I want to find some service that they can do. We're celebrating Jesus' birthday, but we can't physically give him a present. It's like giving him a present every time we give one to somebody else, so that's why we do it. Our church has done this "Operation Christmas Child" service project before and did it again this year. www.samaritanspurse.org We packed shoe boxes with school supplies, hygiene items, toys, and even hard candies then wrapped them. They're sent to children who have never celebrated Christmas. This is possibly their first encounter with something Christian. It's something tangible that shows God's love for them even when they are living in poverty, war, or disaster. We went to our old congregation's get toether to donate and help.

These are some of the finnished shoe boxes, and Dylan's apple cider and a cookie. We get rewarded too!