Days 12-13: On Wisconsin

Planning this trip was a logistical puzzle, which wasn't helped by my overall reluctance (some might say severe procrastination) in regards to planning these five weeks. The two weeks at the end of the trip were set a year in advance, but other than that, we needed to plot our own course. Where would we go?  What would we do?  How long would we stay in one place?  What would we see?  How would we get from here to there and everywhere?  Here's what we did know:

1. We wanted to do a few things, slowly. 

2. We wanted time to just be together in a relaxed way. 

3. We wanted to have an element of the trip be about serving others. 

Enter Youthworks service project in Madson, Wisconsin. 

I stumbled upon Youthworks (founded by the authors of the Sticky Faith books, which I love), and happily discovered that they organize service trips for families. Their aim is to draw families closer together through faith and service. The days are spent in Bible study, family meetings, socializing with all the other participants, preparing, serving, and cleaning up from group meals, and serving out in the community. These trips allow families of all sizes and ages the opportunity to serve the community together.  We are all size and ages. For sure. 

As soon as we arrived?  Screeching and howling and wailing because of the BEE!

It got him right under the eye, poor baby. Hi, all you new people!  We are such a lovely family. Truly. Just please pay no attention to the fact that our five-year old looks like a PRIZEFIGHTER. Our first project: sorting and hanging donated clothes for the Community Action Coalition's thrift shop. 

Here's a few things we learned:

Winter in Madison is serious business.  Spencer got an education in sorting women's clothing. He had no IDEA what things were.  Jammies?  Pants?  Shirt?  Skirt?  He just had no idea. Owen perfected the art of retail display:  short sleeves and long. Pants and skirts. This took lots of thinking. Landon and Carter brought us piles of  clothes to hang.   And provided artistic renderings of our progress.  And played hide and seek in the piles of clothes.   And look closely....we also found Nemo!

 And Grenouille!  #oddmomout

This requires strategy. 

We discovered that there's a specific thrift shop way to hang pants. Who knew? 

And, lastly, we learned that collecting crabapples can keep energetic children very well occupied during lunch. 

Carter and several kids found $10 in a pair of pants, which we told them to donate at the front desk. When they returned to sorting, here's what went down:

Quote of the Day:

Me to all the kids:  Doesn't it feel good to do the right thing?

Chorus of angelic children:  YES! Yes. Yes! YES!!!

Carter Pett:  NO. 

Grrrr.

And later on, I learned that I am really bad at this game. 

The next day, we hit the service project JACKPOT and got to go to Miss Penny's house. Miss Penny is a disabled adult that lives in senior living apartments. She needed handyman work done, a thorough cleaning, and, as she put it, "The MOST important job of all...I need people to eat this cake."  We are ON it, Miss Penny. 

Spencer and I tackled cleaning the place while Jason and the rest of the boys headed to the hardware store for supplies. When they returned, Carter made friends with a woman sitting in the lobby. Her name is Miss Millie. They sat and chatted for an hour and a half. We would periodically check on them, and she would shoo us away, saying she was having a great time. When I asked them what they were talking about, Carter responded, "You know, birds, feathers, the regular stuff."

Many thanks to Miss Millie for occupying Carter, because with him out of our hair, (and Landon happily playing with Miss Penny's cat toys), we were able to scour the kitchen and the bathroom, vacuum the apartment, disassemble a chair, put together and clean her china cabinet,  and hang curtains. 

Oh. And also break her scentsy pot. AND I DID IT!  I couldn't even blame the CHILDREN!

Fortunately, she was very gracious about it. 

Now. I'm going to be straight with you. This project was hard on each of us for different reasons.  We had extremely tired little kids who were again acting feral. Which makes me so on edge I can't even tell you. The bigs and Jason slept (poorly) in a hot church basement each night, so they were also quite tired. We were one of two families that came on our own...the rest were from the same church.  This is a new organization, so there are lots of things yet to streamline in the way they run their trips.  If we were to structure our trip again, we probably would have done this first when we were all still fresh (and did not still have lingering after-effects of eau du RV).  BUT. That being said...

We met very, very nice families. So sweet. After a day, all of the boys had made fast friends. There were even two other Carter's there!

 We learned the kinds of projects that we can persue together as a family when looking to serve at home.  

Our kids got to hear and practice what it means to see, listen, love, and serve in ways that Jesus asks his believers to do. Sometimes that means washing windows. Or wiping tables. Or preparing meals. Or playing with little kids. Or sticking your hand inside a stranger's toilet to clean it thoroughly, because she can't do it herself, and it's the loving thing to do. 

AND, Carter got to use his big, friendly, gregarious, curious personality in a BIG WAY with Miss Millie. And if our time in Madison, with all its highs and lows, with its irritations and feral children and exhaustion, happened JUST for this moment when Miss Millie came to her balcony to see Carter off, well, then that is just more than enough for me.   

Love God. Love others. The end. 

PS. Trust me. He's loving people ON THE INSIDE. 

Day 10 and 11: The Wednesday Sabbath and The Pilgrimage, part deux

We happily awoke on Wednesday at Jill and Michael's to a day of rest. We were looking forward to a day of relaxation, with no driving and no real labor.  Just play.  You know, we were gonna have a day Hank and Ruth style. (Like Gangnam Style. Without the dancing. And without the bling).  We were gonna Just. Be.  But then, we opened our bags. 

The stench that emitted from the bowels of the bags was, ahem, distinct and pungent. And to think that we thought the skunk was bad. 

Which, good reader, leads us to...

THE FINAL RV OBSERVATION:

You can take the bags out of the RV, but you can't take the RV STENCH out of the bags. 

It was the gift that kept on giving. 

After showers for all, the bags were emptied (and mightily doused with FEBREEZE) and the washing machine was loaded with the first of 70 million loads. Which Jason did. Without complaint. And he folded, too!  I think professional, commercial-grade stench removal might be a second career option for him. 

He disagrees. 

We had a mighty fine time, laundry notwithstanding. Jill and I indulged in a very relaxing, restorative morning yoga class while the kids played at the house. Uncle Mike was ready with a workshop project for the littles, and when we arrived home, race cars had been made!

The carpenters before....   

     ...and after. 

       We had a quick lunch and suited up for the pool. 

Big fun. Big big big big fun.  The daddies even spend a great deal of time on the high dive. But the resident photojournalist had her head in a book and did not capture the action. Photojournalist FAIL. 

And then, the babysitter arrived and DOUBLE DATE! 

I'm so CLEAN!  And smell like soap!  Not like RV!!!!

  We laughed and laughed and laughed, ate the most delicious food, enjoyed these lovely, creative margaritas, hit not ONE, but TWO! ice cream places on the way home, and ended the evening snuggled on the couch laughing our heads off at NFL Lipsyncing videos. We are so mature. 

The next morning, Jill and I took my monkeys to Blackberry Market downtown, which makes THE BEST CINNAMON ROLLS IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD.  

 And, Carter made a friend.  Of course he did. He's Joe Moore, Jr.  His friend's name is Neil. He is 83. He has a sweet wife. He's wearing spandex bike shorts. We love Neil. 

Afterwards, we tortured the kids with sidewalk sales, but made it up to them by going to the bookstore. Which, happily, is called The Bookstore.     Finally, we said our goodbyes, hit the road with the windows down, and headed toward our next stop, Madison, Wisconsin. 

But FIRST!  The Pilgrimage, part deux!

Shout out to all my Kinnikinnick and Hononegah friends!  

From 5th-10th grade, I lived in teeny-tiny Roscoe, Illinois, a town so tiny, that if, PERHAPS, you held hands with a boy on the way to Sam's Pizza after the Friday night football game, your parents knew about it BEFORE you arrived home. And this was before cell phones, people. So, we opted to do a slight detour down memory lane on the way to our family service project in Madison.  

The most important first stop?  

Dairyhaus. 

Homemade chocolate and strawberry for the win. ❤️

Best job I ever had. Sweetest benefits, for sure. 

Kinnikinnick Middle School

I have fond memories of running the relay, with Amy tossing her inhaler behind her because it was holding her BACK and we would not, could not be beaten, and freezing people's gym shirts (aided and abetted by Mrs. Hausvick, the gym teacher...kind of nutty when you think about it) and hours spent working on the yearbook. 

Hononegah High School

 I really did not want to leave this place. Aside from having one of the best names ever, this place makes me feel all warm and squishy and happy, and there is definitely a John Hughes movie soundtrack playing in my head when I think of these years.  But, had my parents accepted Sherry Greenfield's offer to let me live with her family until I finished high school, I never would have met Jason Pett. 

  And that would have been a travesty. I mean, who could resist this handsome devil?

AND this blog would have never been born. Along with other things. 😉

But still. I really loved this place. You rah rah rah Hononegah....

My house. 

I loved this house. I loved the field in the back and the wood stove in the basement. I loved having waterfights on the deck and baking on the butcher block counter in the kitchen. 

Here's where I had mono. Here's where my grandmother came to stay with us for six weeks after my grandfather died.  Here's where I got teepee'd and my sweet friend and neighbor Bobby helped me clean it up. Here's where I logged endless hours on the phone, had my first (and last) sneak-out-of-the-house experience (we frolicked in the field behind my house AT NIGHT...so rebellious, I know)

...and my first (and last) having a "party" (which in middle school, meant whoever lived in walking distance came over) when I was supposed to be babysitting my sister.* 

*NOTE:   Jill TOTALLY busted me. But, I forgive her, because I am open-hearted and magnanimous AND because she takes me to places that have the best cinnamon rolls on Earth. 

This house held a lot of life. As Marie Kondo would say in The Magical Art of Tidying Up, 

Thank you, house. 😉

And speaking of Marie Kondo, I mentioned that book to my sister. Her response?

Quote of the Day:

No, thanks. I think I've got the tidy thing under control. 

And boy, does she ever. Check out this crazy organization!  And it's like this EVERYWHERE YOU GO IN HER HOUSE!!!  I have tidiness envy!

  A good rest and sweet reminiscing. Next stop...Madison and the family service project. Stay tuned. 😊