Random Bits of This & That

This week has been an absolute blur.  Time does pass mighty quickly these days, but this was an all new level....and I am not sure why.  It is good to have Katherine back home, if only to help peel potatoes ~ just kidding!  It is amazing how when one cog is missing in our family wheel, things just aren't quite as smooth.

Nickles, happy helping with a "big" job, and he knows the difference!

As soon as Katherine arrived home, she and Michaela were busy arranging a horse ride, as Katherine hasn't went for a trail ride yet.  While they spent the afternoon trail riding the rest of us rode bikes and walked up and down Grandma and Grandpa's road ~ and napped.

One morning this week Joshie and I had to run some errands in town.  We were running into the grocery store when this boy, about 13, asked us for some money so he could get breakfast.  I am a bit jaded to requests for money, and typically I don't even stop walking, don't even look, but this morning I stopped.  We asked him if he'd want to come in and we'd buy something in the store.  He declined, for whatever reason I am not sure.  But, as we were loading up our cart with bricks of cheese and gallons of milk and bags of pears and cereal it haunted me. 

Joshie was asking questions for which I didn't have answers.

"Mom, why does he need breakfast?"

"Where is his Mom?"

"Where is his Dad?"

"Can't he eat food at his own house?"

We picked out a bit of food for the boy, but all the while I was interiorly judging our choice of food and whether he would just throw something healthy in the garbage.  Certainly, this "breakfast" request was a ploy to obtain money for some unhealthy lifestyle he was addicted to. 

We gave the boy his little bag of food.  I could barely look him in the eyes and that is probably what he hungered for most, whether he knew it or not.  

A hunger for dignity, for respect, for love, not just another handout, no matter what our state in life.  

We, alone, cannot feed every homeless person on the street ~ and in Helena it is not many, comparatively ~ but we can give them a bit of dignity with at least a smile and a look into their eyes.  

That scares the heck out of me, I feel vulnerable, but I am going to begin.  

And this Christmas, we are going to do more than buy a few extra toys and dump them off at church.  I am not sure what at the moment, and I still need to run this by Shan, but it must be something more.  We will give of ourselves, give a bit more, because we are all capable of doing just a bit more, right?

I did not mean to dump that little sermon ~ but it feels good to get it all out.

The little boys just got up, so now my day begins in earnest! 

Dom and Annika had to run out and see the snowflakes drifting down right after they jumped out of bed.  

Yay!!!!