Getting Untangled

Yeah, it's been a couple weeks since I posted here.  Everything's fine but life's been a bit tangled up and busy.  Pretty much every day involves some Operation Christmas Child project or another but many of them are pretty repetitive.

Blogging about sorting and counting stuffed animals every day would be about as exciting as blogging about changing diapers. And describing the fun of restacking the boxes in the storage container that toppled over again last week gets old, too.

Of course, in the middle of the animal and storage chores there's been the excitement of bringing on two new team members and watching the team begin to make some new contacts.

Last weekend brought some new tangles that I haven't blogged about in a while--if ever.  A local discount store named Gabe's had a sidewalk sale last Thursday and when I arrived at the store I saw a dozen beautiful cartons of jewelry sitting there.  This jewelry from Express and New York & Company is either tangled, mismatched, or in need of repair.  You can fill a quart sized bag with all you can stuff in it for $5.00.

I spent a few hours combing through the boxes look for bunches of tangled necklaces that would likely be in perfect shape when untangled.  I left with two bags and spent some fun hours over the weekend beginning the untangling process.  It's kind of like doing a puzzle and surprisingly therapeutic.

I have 155 beautiful pieces already untangled and ready to go and there's plenty still to do.  Not bad for a ten dollar investment.

And, my weekend also included a visit from a blog reader from Canada who visited Erie to shop and to bring me a donation of 200 stuffed animals.  This was exciting and helped make up for my less-than-stellar morning at yard sales.  So encouraging!

And...the other weekend entertainment involved preparing for Monday night's team meeting.  We had 13 team members gather last night and enjoyed getting to know each other a bit better and doing some role playing to help us prepare for sharing the mission of Operation Christmas Child with people we meet in checkout lines, at church rummage sales, at yard sales, and in our churches and neighborhoods.

After all, it's going to take each of us doing our part to meet the goals on our ministry plan.

Meanwhile, I'm beginning those summer rituals of lying awake at night thinking about the packing party that's less than four months away...

But...those tangles are old news.