Pet research

This morning the kids and I returned to the site of the Missions Expo. We helped with packing more meals. There were only 5,000 left to do this morning as the other 95,000 had been completed the past three days. We also helped with the seed packing project (a total of 50,000 packets of collared greens seeds were packed this week). The whole project cost $48,000 as far as what was spent to buy all the rice, lentils, beans, seeds, items that VOM requested, shipping, etc. Six large Gaylord boxes were filled with Christian literature and packed to ship to a ministry in Illinois that will distribute them around the world, and another Gaylord was filled with Bibles to send to a ministry in Georgia. Since today was the last day of the project, they ended the session with a lunch. No, we didn't eat the lentils/rice/vegetable meals that we packed for the Haitians. We had pizza, salad, chips, desserts, etc. The meal packets did not look big enough to feed six people, especially since the people who are eating those meals are often only eating one meal a day. I had planned to make Swedish meatballs and egg noodles for dinner tonight, but the kids and I only want a light meal in light of how much we ate at lunch today. Since we were out and about the last several days I would have liked to just stay at home all day today, but I am thankful we helped at the service project again today. It's not often that we can participate in a project of this magnitude this close to our home. 

It's just two months until Christmas, which means it's time to start thinking about Christmas gifts. I don't like doing it at the last minute. Today I ordered four Christmas ornaments on Shutterfly and had them shipped to family members. I also started buying things to fill our five Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. I bought one Christmas gift for a nephew from an Amazon wish list. It's a start. Nadia wants another pet for Christmas. At first she asked for a turtle. After I did more research about reptiles that like to be handled, I discovered that the top two choices would probably be either a bearded dragon or leopard gecko. Susie has a corn snake, and those were also high on that list, but neither Nadia or I are interested in having a snake in our house. Bearded dragons are evidently very friendly, but the thought of keeping crickets alive just so we can feed them to the bearded dragon is rather unappealing for one thing. There are other drawbacks. I think the bottom line is that the kids REALLY want a cat or a dog. Cats are out of the question due to Paul's allergies. So I find myself trying to contemplate how we could care for a dog. This year we have been home more than usual - so this year it wouldn't have been as challenging, but even this year we went skiing twice, spent a day at Refreshing Mountain, went to Six Flags five times, spent a week at Aunt Janet's, took field trips to Hershey, Gettysburg, and Scranton, and took a vacation for a week. Who would take the dog for walks on those days like that? I know the kids would really enjoy a dog, but I don't think they want to give up field trips, skiing, amusement parks, and vacations just so we can have a dog. I think for now the kids need to be content with two fish and three guinea pigs. I'd like to see Nadia and Ian take over responsibility of cleaning the guinea pig cage. 

P.S. I actually was yellow and won the Connect Four game. Nadia wanted it to seem like she had won, so she held a yellow checker when I got out my camera, ha ha! On the other hand, although we didn't finish the game, Ian was beating me at "billiards."