Palmer Home: Tuesday

First of all: Shout out to the mommas/dads/grandparents of my students who are reading the blog! Y'all have wonderful kids and I love them a lot. Thanks for raising them so well and sending them to Kennesaw. I love being with them! (And to everyone: Please feel free to leave me a note or comment on the blog. They make my day.) Also, all of the students have documented their work today, so please enjoy their photos. (Some are mine, but most belong to them.)

Today's weather was definitely not-so-gorgeous. (It was absolutely wonderful yesterday.) It was cloudy, colder, and windy, and then we got some rain. Hopefully this is all the rain for the week. (Please pray for no rain. It makes working outside not so fun, and some of the work can't be done when it rains.)

Just a little thought for today: Some of us are able to listen to music (thanks, iPhones) as we work. Hannah and I did a lot of talking and a lot of singing/listening today. As we chipped away at stubborn wallpaper, the lyrics from one of the songs and a familiar hymn made my heart sing:

"Hallelujah, He he has found me! / The One my soul so long has craved / Jesus satisfies all my longings / Through His blood I now am saved." 
- Red Mountain Church's "Satisfied" (words by Clara T. Williams in 1875, music by Karl Digerness)

"Watching and waiting, looking above / Filled with His goodness / Lost in His love / This is my story, this is my song / Praising my Savior all the day long / This is my story, this is my song / Praising my Savior all the day long."
- "Blessed Assurance" (words by Fanny Crosby in 1873)

Here's what we were up to today!

Brett, Matt, and Phillip: The guys cut down limbs and brush in the field. After lunch, they helped load up truck fulls of expired foods, including cases of soda. They worked with some of our girls pouring out the soda - sounds silly, but it needed to be done. Palmer Home legally can't serve expired food or beverages. (We recycled over 700 soda cans. KSU RUF is green - as evidenced by the Snapchat photo below. Snapchat is an iPhone app that we've been using all week to show each other what we're doing ... and send funny pictures to each other.)

Brett and Phillip pushing brush out of the truck. This was actually yesterday, but it's such a nice shot 

Brett preparing for battle ... against the limbs and brush 

Lexi, Sarah, & Rebekah being green

Check out this panoramic photo of expired Diet Pepsi cans. The crew did this many, many times today. We'll try to post a really cool video of it tomorrow.

Lexi, Rebekah, and Sarah: These ladies cleaned out a pantry in one of the houses (where the Florida RUF girls are staying this week), then worked on moving school supplies and crafting supplies from several locations into the tutoring center. They organized the supplies and cleaned up the area. They also helped sort other items to send to the thrift store. They also joined in with our guys in pouring out sodas, throwing trash away, and recycling. Note the difference in Kayla (who didn't pour out 100+ Orange Crushes) and Rebekah's hand colors (see the photo below).

Kayla (on the left) and Rebekah (right). Don't worry - it's just Orange Crush! 

Emptying the truck bed into the dumpster

Beautiful ladies - Lexi, Rebekah, and Sarah

Anna, Ansley, Aubri, Kayla, and Nicole: These ladies finished organizing the toy room and it looks awesome. They sorted a bajillion things (no exaggeration), including clothes, more toys, school supplies, and Valentines (80 boxes, to be exact). They folded and sorted new clothes and laid them out in the dining hall for the house moms to come look and take what they need for their kids.  They took the excess toys and clothing to an organization called Operation Ukraine, and unloaded the items for them. (They also got a tour of the place and said it's pretty neat!)

Panoramic of a two-day project: organized toy room!

Carting a load to the warehouse

Cute stuffed animals (and cute ladies!) in the toy room

Hannah and Aubra: Whew man. We stripped wallpaper in a bathroom in the administration building. This was Hannah's second day on it and my first day. (I took Kayla's spot.) To quote Ms. Helen (who leads and organizes our group projects), "This job is a booger." No kidding. We had a great time with good conversation. I'm fairly sure we entertained the office staff as we belted out some Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Red Mountain Church, Dave Barnes ... yeah, it was a good, long day of wallpaper stripping. We'll finish it tomorrow (bound and determined to do it).

Hannah is a PRO at removing wallpaper. She put me to shame. 

After coming back to our housing, most of us crashed for a nap in the den. Thanks to Matt for taking this photo.

Nap time: Anna, Aubri, Kayla, Aubra, Nicole, and Ansley

Tonight, we got to hang out at dinner with the kids and families. The Kennesaw crew got to chill in the gym with the elementary school aged kids ... well, "chill" is definitely the wrong word. We did a lot of running and playing. Florida RUF organized a giant game of rock, paper, scissors - I'd never played it this way before, so that was definitely entertaining!

After the kids went back to their houses, we played Dr. Psychiatrist with our Florida RUF friends. Some of them are downstairs (the Florida boys sleep below our upstairs apartment in the gym building; their girls are next door in a cottage) playing Mafia, and others are out getting froyo. As I write this post, I'm enjoying the company of Anna, Ansley, Aubri, Hannah, and Matt. All of us are looking forward to an earlier bedtime tonight - we have worked HARD today.

Playing Psychiatrist. Our Rebekah was one of the three psychiatrists in the middle 

Thank you for your prayers and support. We are so grateful for y'all and are thankful for your encouraging messages and texts. Good night from Columbus!