Exhaustion

“I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom.”~ Thomas Carlyle

I wasn't born with that ambition, and I don't actively seek it out, but it seems to me that every day is so utterly full that I can scarcely breath before bedtime.

Today was spent shopping (for us and for the HUGS project), the kids LOVE picking out snacks for the soldiers (Dan especially says loudly, "Well, it's not like they have SAMS club in the war) We also worked several hours at the mall for the HUGS. Kids were frustrated with me because usually everyone gets there at 10am, I aim for 11am and today it was after Noon before we got there. And they didn't want to leave. We bagged up about three hundred snack bags of holiday marshmallows, about twenty of oreo cookies, the kids sorted about nine ginormous boxes of donated candy, assorted toiletries, etc. Last time we bagged up five hundred bags of what we called 'BTMRE pudding mix', (or better than meals ready to eat) pudding mix. Three sandwich cookies, 1/3 cup of mini mallows, a tablespoon of creamer and a note with instructions to add water and stir until done. Presumably after microwaving. My fingertips are as sore now as they were then...as the kids LOVE to pack them but not one is coordinated enough to get all the air out while zipping it shut.

The kids love it soooo much that they want to go every Wednesday (I don't think they know that they meet on three other days of the week, and I'd like to keep it that way) So far we've been four times, and I've said only every other Wednesday. I'm rethinking it now that I know the boxes will be shipped December 10th or 11th, so only three more weeks. Of course, we're trying to throw together a Christmas parade float and I somehow got in charge of that. Etc etc etc. But on the HUGS project, I love that we have a place where the kids are 1) taken seriously, 2) allowed to work to the best of their abilities and 3) they are making good friends of all ages. One of the ladies is 93! Anyway, consider donating if you are in the area, either stuff or time.