Garden of Thought

Carpet! What a nice morning, hot tea in a cup and the rhythmic banging and shuffling of workmen downstairs finishing up with the new carpet there. I'm delighted to have that done, though it does mean lots of crawling around on the floor for me later as I have to reattach all the baseboards once they're finished and then get all the furniture back in place. It really makes me realize how bad the old carpet was, that's for sure! Aaaaaah.

Church! My goodbye party at my "old" church went well (so weird to think of it as the "old" church now), only half as many people as said they would come actually showed up so we had WAY too much food but otherwise a good time had by all. Lots of dancing and dress-up and eating too much. Thankfully you can freeze both hummus and curry perfectly well, no need to make dinners for a while. I'm really enjoying being able to use my Sundays to visit other churches, it's been a lot of fun and there's so many great people out there in the world.

Costumes! I finished working on a set of hair falls to go with my purple and coral costume and just in time as my first performance for this piece is tomorrow. I'm in with a troupe that dances at rest-homes, it'll be a good dry-run for an actual dance show coming up in April that I'm signed up for. I got a gorgeous skirt to go with it that has yellow chiffon panels over a tropical orange underlayer so the result is coral but it flares out if I spin. Goes well with the coral-and-purple hydrangea hip-scarf. Yay. Just have to go find coral nail-polish for my toes this afternoon.

Crocuses! Looking forward to spring already, they have arrived along with the snowdrops, so pretty.

Sure been a busy year thus far and here we are only getting going! House repairs are continuing as I have new carpet coming in this week (the last bit of the damage from last years flooding) - it's meant a lot of furniture moving on my part but it will be SO nice to have it done as it will essentially complete that level of the house. I've started looking at real estate listings in the area we are targeting to move to just to get a feel for what is out there.

I got to dance again for a friend's church for New Years services which was grand fun, and now I'm signed up to dance at an event in April as well. I was once told that if you can just start dancing onstage it won't seem so fearsome and I think I'm getting there. It's still kind of nerve-wracking but at least I'm not legitimately terrified anymore.

I've just finished up my official time at my church, all I have left is handing off the library things to a lady taking it on (so weird to give up my rubber stamp with the church library info on it), singing up front one more time and throwing my peacock-themed 'farewell' party in a couple of weeks. I'm pulling out all the stops for the party, it's a ton of work but I'm loving it, wish I could invite my online ladies to come if y'all were just closer.

Also survived my first performance using dance wings without setting them on fire with the altar candles or knocking any of the poinsettias flying! A friend took a pic, it's blurry but gives a general idea at least.



I had my wings hidden behind me for the first half of the song (looks like a cape when down) so it was fun having everyone's eyes bug out when I opened them up. X-D They are very dramatic!

My eldest came by to pick up her official papers we keep in our safe because she needs to expedite her passport renewal all of the sudden - she's going to Cambodia on a missions trip in June!

She's always had a heart for the people of Asia so she's excited at the opportunity. Says "I've been studying their history and language, it has a lot of the same sounds that Japanese uses so I'm picking it up." Now I get to be the gathering point for whatever monetary support she can wrangle on short notice to cover the passport, shots, plane ticket etc. She needs 3k, we'll see how it goes.

Life is never boring, is it?

One problem with my upcoming dance class at the church is we have no mirrors in our hall, and anyone who has learned any kind of dance will understand the value of mirrors!  I'd been hunting around and found those full-length type mirrors you hang on a closet door were my best bet, but even those often ran $20 and up each - some were over $40.  BUT - God is good.  Went to K-mart today (of all places...I never go to K-mart...) and found they not only had those $20 mirrors, they were on sale - and then there was an additional discount this weekend on top of it.

I got SIXTEEN mirrors - blitzed their supply - for only $5.99 each!  *balloons and confetti*  I have moveable dividers I can hang four mirrors each on so I am SET!  ^_^  I am so relieved! 

Back in the 50s my church apparently went through a legalistic phase, the 'no smoking, no dancing, no makeup' kind of thing and of all of that only a lingering whiff of 'no dancing' was left by the time we came around to it.   For the past 20 years every time dancing came around (even the chicken dance at a party) there were always a few older people who had that 'I feel like I should feel guilty for dancing, but I don't, but what if there's an even OLDER person here who still thinks it is wrong?' reaction. 

Well, we have officially jumped the shark on that topic now - with the approval of my teaching bellydance to the ladies this coming January.  Talk about casting aside the old garment with flair!  Haha!  It's on a freewill donation basis to fund-raise for building updates, I'm quite curious to see how many actually sign up.  :-D  I'm actually quite astonished that they let it go through.

Hm - while watering plants outside this morning something stung my foot and now my little toe looks like a sausage... little toes are strange enough as it is, hopefully won't last long.

Time for the Washington County Fair once again, which in my case means working my tail off at the beverage booths there, it's one of our main fundraisers for our preschool - last year it was SO HOT and the lady who sells those little neck things full of water beads so you can soak them in water and tie them around your neck was doing hopping business - I still have mine from last year but I expect she'll be doing well again.  Supposed to be around 90, bleah...!  I'm sure we'll be selling a lot of water.   Took my feet forever to recover after last year so I didn't sign up for quite as much this round - trick is to not give in when the inevitable "but we NEED you" comes by, will see how I do, I'm a softie.

Hope I get either the food court (it has shade!) or the barn one (it has nice farm people and animals!). 

The church parking lot sale I'm organizing is this Saturday, so I'm slowly migrating my massive mound of whatnot to the church building as I come and go, mostly squirreling it into my library so it isn't too visible beforehand.  Looks like I'll have maybe 7 people selling which isn't as many as I hoped for but at least I'm not out there by myself.

Just have to do the craigslist ads and finish up the signs... I taped old christmas tinsel to them so they sparkle in the sun to catch people's eyes, maybe I'll toss in some cheap happy face balloons as well to add some motion and color.  It's a bit of work, but it will be SO nice to have it done!    Also if we do end up moving because of the whole jobs thing I've gotten to do the first round of junk-removal with good weather.

I find a vast amount of the things I am involved in have my faith and/or my church and its various activities, needs and ongoing whatnot as a part of them - goodness knows there's always something to do, especially in a smaller one where everyone has to wear more than one hat.  Since my earliest "church days" as a teen, I've been drawn to take care of the building, furnishings and bulletin boards, etc. - i.e. one of my first actions as a new Christian was to take the welcome mats home and scrub them, hee hee....  I still update bulletin boards, polish the wood in the sanctuary, make sure the kids have scribbling paper so they don't scribble in the hymnals, pressure-wash the moss off the sidewalk and paint the lines on the parking lot, for instance.  And I love it.

Out of curiosity, for those of you who have a church or other group that meets on a regular basis, what 'slot' of duties do you find yourself falling into the most naturally?  What jazzes you that you get to be a part of it?

Just an update on an event, so I can look back on it later I guess.

Still working on the two Afternoon Tea events I'm organizing for later this month, I've managed to accumulate about 30 cup and saucer sets from assorted garage sales and thrift stores over the summer, some tiered racks for serving, lots of assorted china salad plates, etc. etc. - and 15 teapots thus far. My house looks like a china shop, minus the bull.

Ticket sales have been anemic, everyone is interested in coming and gets excited but when it comes to coughing up some dough to purchase tickets they're a bit more reluctant apparently. Nevertheless, I have 30 for the first one (the one with kids) and 14 for the nicer adult's tea which is better than nothing - though 44 is long way from my max. number of 128. We're making some scones this afternoon as you can make the dough and freeze them unbaked ahead of time.