Saturday I helped out my friend and neighbor, Nikki, who hosted a free clothing and food day at her church. And when I say free, I mean free! She organized this fantastic day that included a brown bag for each family member to fill, as well as a bag of groceries for anyone who showed up. There were so many families there who needed help, and so much stuff for them! I helped a woman who was pregnant by going through clothes and finding some cute things she could wear as maternity clothes, as well as help a little boy find a transformers sweatshirt that he loved! I know I am helping people when I do stuff like this, but I really do it for selfish reasons. I love what it feels like to help people get the things they need. I guess there really is no selfless good deed.
The weather this weekend was unseasonably mild, which was great for us! Saturday evening we went to my cousin's little boy's birthday party and then to visit my friend, Laura. She just wrote this blog, which is a tribute to me as her BFF! It was so sweet and thoughtful and I really got teary reminiscing about our many adventures. Our visit on Saturday just wasn't long enough, so I hope to plan another one very, very soon!
We are planning a garage sale with the in laws next weekend, so I really needed to go through stuff to get ready for that, but the beautiful weather could not keep us away! We packed up and headed to a festival in a nearby town that my family took me to every summer of my life for as long as I can remember. My parents always bought my sister and I a Christmas ornament at this festival, which was usually at the booth that makes dough ornaments. When grew up and got married, my mom gave me the shoebox with all of the ornaments, which now pretty much covers our tree. Besides a few handmade others by our niece and nephew, they are pretty much the only ones we have! The first one I have is a little cabbage patch kid from 1984. Wow, I really am old!
My mother-in-law bought BBZ a dough ornament last year at a different festival she and I always go to in November. This year I bought him this one...
I'm not a huge fan of the "I Love Soccer", which I actually didn't see until I got it out to take this picture. It was hidden under the price tag, oh well...it's still pretty good! I didn't really know what I was looking for. He is a little too young to be into anything, so I looked at the soccer player, but he's not quite there yet. I couldn't let him see it because he would say "bawl, bawl, bawl" over and over again if he even caught a glimpse!
After the festival we just couldn't stay inside! We took BBZ and Delilah for a walk and ran into the 3,704th reason I absolutely love my neighborhood. Every Sunday in a nearby park, a group of people, mostly strangers, gather into a drum circle. There were about 20 people there when we walked up and they were all playing together as usual. They came to a stopping point and took a short breather. It made me realize that of all the times I have ever seen them play, I have never seen them start. Every time we come across this group they are in the middle of the jam and just keep going, but this time we got to see the end of one jam, and the beginning of another. Slowly, one by one, or perhaps two by two, each player began to join the group. I can't quite put the rhythm into words, which I guess is often true of instrumental music. I could feel it in my heart; each person brought their own beat, their own piece of this perfect musical puzzle. One man walked up with his chair and and his drum and just sat, just listening with his eyes closed, waiting until he found the part he was to play in this jam. Another man began playing the flute, which was so unexpected and beautiful. Everyone found how they belonged in this group and fell right into place...into perfect rhythm. If only this could be as easy in other walks of life. If only we could all find our perfect place and our perfect rhythm. What a beautiful place this would be!
