First day of school

Waking up in the morning, dragging your feet to the bathroom, and having ammonia be the first scent that tickles your nose, is not getting easier. "If it's yellow, let it mellow" is the saying around these parts on the Earth. Happily, Ashleigh and I bought air freshener yesterday. Sadly, it has no effect on the odor that we produce. We proceeded to breakfast to enjoy a meal provided by "Stop Hunger Now." Not exactly rice, but the same consistency, texture, and under the food group of starch. I did find little bits of carrots and some celery. We finished up and went on to the the task of feeding the kids. I fed Kelly, which I was pleased with his method of eating. He ate like a McKeeman, done with his meal in less than 2 minutes. I also fed Lazar. I am getting mighty good at meal time service. After breakfast, we had a little worship and then it was on to the activities. Ashleigh and I had the kids who like to wonder (4 boys), so our task was to keep them entertained, engaged, and work up an appetite for lunch, no problem. We barracked the exits with chairs, pulled out all the toys and arts possible, and we were set (or so we thought). Ashleigh and I pulled out every trick in the book: Play-Do, balls, skip-it, Legos, and gluing pom-poms to Crosses. We tried it all! They stared at us like the idiots we are! I resorted to making a face made out of Play-Do. Ashleigh started to teach herself how to juggle. While we tried to entertain, the boys only had food on their minds, one ate some pom-poms and another other helped himself to Play-do. After our failed attempts to engage in a group fashion, we took the approach of one-on-ones. They took to that better. All these children wanted was a little TLC. They get plenty here at Wings, don't get me wrong, but new people means new hugs, new holds, and back scratches.  Who doesn't like a good back scratch. So we squeezed like we never squeezed before, until lunch. We ate good old rice and beans and fish nibblets. Physical Education time: Basketball. We played basketball with our friends. Peterson, a boy who wears a hockey helmet, fannie pack, and backpack... always, is the most joyful kid I know. He cheered, "GOAL!!!" every time someone made it or looked like they made it, the hockey helmet has a mask on it too so it is hard to see. It was so encouraging. Just as much fun as we were having, things changed swiftly to frightening. Peter wears that helmet because he has grand mal seizures. Bless his heart, he fell like a ton of bricks. We rushed over to him and thankfully plenty of workers were with us and knew exactly what to do, which is turn them onto their side with their arm under their head supporting it. If you haven't ever seen this happen it is like someone gets stiff as a board and falls over flat, and shakes uncontrollably. He came out of it quickly and no harm done. He just wanted to nap, and I would too. After that sobering experience, Ash and I went to the room and sat in silence, while eating Cheez-its. Still a little shook-up, we walked downstairs for dinner time to be greeted by Peter's big smile and even bigger hug! It was reassuring, refreshing, and gave us relief. We served dinner and it was a rematch between Teddy and Lazar... Lazar pulled ahead at the end and came out with a big win. Better luck next time, Teddy. It was time to socialize and bringing some smiles. Ashleigh got a boy to laugh so hard it brought a tear to his right eye! We tossed dolls around until we thought we should settle down for bedtime. That brings us here... about 18 or 19 dum dums in, Ashleigh had one. A shout out to Doris for providing the dum dums and mints. That was a good dinner. I am now going to attempt to shower again because I can officially smell myself, and Porky says "Goodnight."

Everybody needs a little lovin' sometimes

GOAL!

Dinner