The Little Mermaid

Brogan loves theatre!  And, while she never likes to be the main part, she loves being up on stage and all of the songs and costumes that go with it.  This summer she participated in Huntsville Community Theatre's "The Little Mermaid".  She had a blast throughout the week, loved the productions and was even given one of the overall weekly awards.  Her and a friend even got to share Jesus with some of the other kids there.  Way to go girls!  Here's to a great summer production! 

Neon for Nuerons

We did another color run with some friends just a week after the Austin one.  This time it was local and was a fundraiser at the hospital.  Best of all, it was neon and glow in the dark!  The kids had a blast and took some really cool pictures!!!

 

 

I know I have some more pictures so when I find them I will add them :)

AHG & HH

 

Brogan really wanted to do something for the Hospitality House this year with her American Heritage Girls troop.  Earlier in the year we tried a food drive but very few girls participated.  This time we thought we would help by planting flowers in their flower beds since they took such a beating by the number of freezes we had this winter.  Once again, only a few girls participated.  Even though the participation wasn't what we had hoped for, the girls still did a great job and revitalizing the flower beds.  Their hearts and hands were a huge blessing!

Linus Project

Brogan's AHG group made blankets to be donated to the Linus project.  The Linus project hands out the blankets to children in foster care and to police stations.  They made over 50 blankets!

WCHC September Service Activity

The service activity for WCHC this month was tye-dying pillowcases for MD Anderson Children's Hospital in Houston.  The group had a great time and made 28 pillowcases!!  I was busy helping on this one so these pictures are borrowed from a friend:

 

H2O September Service Activity

 

Our service activity with the H2O group this month was tye-dying pillowcases for MD Anderson Children's Hospital in Houston.  This group dyed 20 pillowcases and had a blast doing it!  Way to go kiddos!!

Pillowcase Dresses

We are making pillowcase dresses to take with us to Rwanda this summer. Want to help? I KNOW YOU DO!!!!



It is sooo simple and doesn't take long at all. Here is a link to show you how to make one. This one calls for an embroirdered pillowcase but we will take any pillowcase. We have just been using plain ones or ones with pretty patterns.  These are great for the little girls!
http://bumblebeelinens.com/pillowcaseDress.php


Here is a link to make a skirt out of a pillowcase. These are great for the older girls!  You could do this too...
http://www.kids-sewing-projects.com/pillowcase-skirt.html

Here is a picture of one that was made and given to us to take...

See, super simple!


The Keepers at Home class at co-op is going to make some. We would love for you to help us by making some and sending them to us too. Of course, any little dress (tshirt dress, sundress, etc.) will work. It doesn't have to be from a pillowcase. You can mail them to:

Winston

PO Box 1781

Huntsville, TX 77342



Thanks so much!

~Brogan

Co-op Week 23

Wow!  Week 23 already? 

In one way that seems so hard to believe.  The school year is well on its way to being over. 

On the other, it is a relief.  I am sooo ready for co-op to be over.  This preparing every. single. week. for multiple classes for multiple children is wearing on me.  I don't know that I will teach a weekly class again.  Every other week is good enough for me!

With all that said, the kids are still having fun and enjoying their classes.  And that my friends, makes it well worth it!

Here are the highlights for this week:

My community service class did a food drive for the Hospitality House inviting all members of the co-op to participate.  We then delivered the supplies and made a visit to the house.  The kids learned about the house and helped to clean it so that it was ready for their visitors the upcoming weekend.

I was able to get the Master Gardeners here in town to come out to the co-op to teach the kids about gardening.  We have a class of 7 students...a great group of kiddos!!  The Master Gardeners are holding 9 classes and touching on composting, butterfly gardening, bugs, propigation and so much more.  It is as intersesting for me as it is for them!  I am so glad that this group has offered their expertese to our kids!

Christmas Outreach

Our co-op group had a Christmas Party to celebrate the end of the semester and the Reason for the Season.  Before the party a group of the kids got together and went over to a local retirement community to sing a few songs and visit with the residents.  Brogan read one of the Bible verses and Christian signed "Silent Night" with a couple of his classmates from his sign language class.  It was a fun time of fellowship and good will for all!

Jean Pillows: Cases of Joy

One of the groups that Brogan went to talk to about her Cases of Joy ministry made these awesome travel pillows while she was there!  They are super cute and comfy and great for car rides.  We took them over to the Hospitality House and put one on each bed for this weekends guests.  Now the kids can have a comfy pillow to take home with them for the long car rides, or the adults that fly in will be able to take one for the plane trip!

Co-op Highlight Week 9

Co-op this week had a lot of things that I wanted to highlight so I just made one collage.

For my Galloping the Globe classes we studied Italy.  The kids did Michelangelo inspired art.  I taped a piece of paper on the under side of the table.  They had to "paint" (though we used markers) upside down like Michelangelo did.

For the Community Service class all of the kids brought items and we packed shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child.  They packed the boxes, wrote cards, prayed over the boxes and for the kids that will be recieving them.

Rylen's class has 12 rambunctious 3-5 year olds.  They are very active say the least.  Stephenie does a great job in their math class!  They are always moving and shaking and she makes numbers so fun.  Whenevr I ask Rylen about his math class he says that he doesn't have math, he just has Mrs. Stephenie.  So cute!

Christian is taking an Introduction to Sign Language class.  He is having so much fun and learning a ton!

WFSC: Cases of Joy

Yesterday we made our trip to San Antonio to visit the Warrior Family Support Center. We were even able to take a tour of the Center for the Intrepid. These two buildings are amazing!! I can't put enough exclimations points behind there to explain how amazing the really are!! Both of the buildings and everything in them are from 100% donations. This is truly a place where soldiers and their family members can come to receive treatment and rehabilitation in a place that absolutely does not feel like a hospital.

We took almost 100 items that Brogan made by herself and with her 4H sewing group and kid's group at church.  All of the items will be there for the children of the wounded warriors when they come in to visit their parent.

Thank you to everyone that helped out with this project!

Co-op Week 7 Highlight

Todays co-op was an all day one.  We were supposed to take the community service class over to Carriage Inn to visit with the residents but the staff there forgot to put us on the calendar.  We had come up with some quick ideas to do but decided on splitting the group up.  One group went to help a lady who is moving into an apartment clean up the place.  She has been living at the local shelter and really welcomed the idea of having some help in getting her new place ready.  I took the other group over to the shelter that she has been living in to do some clean up work there.  The Good Shepard Mission just received some money and is remodeling a building next door so that they will be able to house families if needed.  We had a small group but the kids did an awesome job at getting the debris cleaned out of the building.  These are some hard working kids!



Hospitality House with Friends

WCFA Dedication

Back in May Brogan told her 4H Sewing group what she had been working on for the children of the wounded warriors in San Antonio.  She told them how they could help and encouraged them to make some things also over the summer.  Her leader took the ball and set up a couple of work days for the kids to make some things.  In total they made 67 items to be donated to the children.  The items included bags, tshirts, travel pillows, and pillowcases.  Last night the group went to the Board meeting of the Walker County Fair Assoc. to let them know what the group had been doing and to dedicate the items in memory of a supporter of the group that had passed away recently.  I am so proud of her and what she has started!

Xtreme Hospitality

The kids group at church went to visit the Hospitality House this week.  Most of them had never heard about the House or its purpose.  It was great to see them interested in the history of the house and eager to serve...

This picture collage made with Smilebox

DeRidder, LA: Cases of Joy

 We went to DeRidder, Louisiana today...

We were invited to their Vacation Bible School to share what we are doing. There was a group of 5th graders that made travel pillows out of blue jeans. They turned out so cute! We have over 30 to take to San Antonio with us when we go!!

Thanks...Y'all are awesome!!

FOH Kids Xtreme Service: Cases of Joy

Our church has a summer activity called Xtreme Kids. The kids do a Bible study, fellowships and fun activities and service trips throughout the summer. This year their first service activity was to help Cases of Joy make pillowcases and goodie bags for the children of the wounded warriors.

Brogan was really nervous to talk in front of people that she knew so she talked really fast and said a little bit while I explained the rest. They made 25 pillowcases and the boys made 24 gift bags. The children will be able to pick a bag and have some fun things to do and play with while they are in the waiting room and in their rooms.

Thank you soooo much FOH Kids for helping!!

Cases of Joy Update

Well, Brogan's pillowcase ministry has taken off!!

If you haven't become a follower of her blog you may want to.  Especially, since when that gets updated I usually forget to update it on here also.  Go check it out to keep up with her on a regular basis...
http://www.casesofjoy.blogspot.com/

Here is a quick update:

First, our Wal-Mart is cutting back their material and craft section, yet again.  We went over there and they had material on sale for $1/yard.  We got over 50 yards of material and some remnant sections for very cheap.  They had some very cute prints and we are going to be very busy!

Second, Brogan was invited to set up her display and introduce wha she is doing at a Veteran's Conference here in town.  There were some officials coming in from Washington DC to find out how they could better serve and support veterans and soldiers and how the veterans and soldiers could in turn support the community.  It is a good thing she doesn't fully understand rank and titles because she meet with some pretty big people while she was there.  They even gave her donations to go buy material and supplies!  We didn't even ask for them.  Someone just stuck some $$$ in a decorative bucket she had on the table and then more people began to donate.  CrAzY!!!!   She was very nervous but she did a great job!

Third, she has been invited back to the Veteran's Museum to participate in ther Memorial Day Salute & Celebration.  This time she was told to bring a donation jar.  Did I already say....CrAzY!!!!


Fourth, the children's group at church has agreed for Brogan's ministry to be their first service project of the summer.  They decorate pillowcases ad make goodie bags for the kids next week.  She will make a short presentation about what she is doing and why and then the will go to work.


Fifth, a church in Louisiana has agreed to support her ministry as well.  We go there on June 7th to help the kids make travel pillows.  Everything they make will be donated to the family center in San Antonio!


Sixth, we are trying to nail down a date to make our first delivery.  Hopefully, that will be at the beginning of August!

Cases of Joy

I can't believe that I forgot to tell everyone about Brogan's new project that she started.  We have been working on it for awhile but she just started her blog last month.  It is great for her for several reasons 1: She gets her own blog, which she has been wanting, 2: She is serving others, which she loves, and 3: She gets to write, which I love because she can do it and not feel like I am making her.

So, now you are probably wondering WHY she has a blog and WHAT she is going to write about, right?  Well, she picked out the name, really, she did, all. by. her. self!  And, it will hopefully do just what it says...bring Cases of Joy to lots of people, big and small.

So, what exactly is it?  She is sewing pillowcases to be delivered to the Family Center in San Antonio for Wounded Warriors.  We are hoping that by the children being able to pick out a new pillowcase, it will also help them to heal, even if just a little, while they are waiting for their parent to recover.  Maybe it can bring just a little bit of joy in a not so pleasant situation.  And, the great thing is...everyone can help!

Make sure you check it out...

www.casesofjoy.blogspot.com