Hello all. It is Saturday afternoon and I feel I got quite a bit accomplished today. Needed to do a good cleaning in my room, so feel much better about that now. I have been working quite long days so haven't been able to keep up with the daily chores as well. Also, just finished baking a few dozen Christmas cutout cookies. I needed to take a treat along for the Christmas distribution on Tuesday and these should do just fine. All the gifts are wrapped and I am feeling pretty prepared for the day. It has been a long haul, but I am very much looking forward to seeing all the families at the church. I think it will be wonderful! I am going to sing "O Beautiful Star of Bethlehem" at the service so I am pretty excited about that. Angela's two children are also singing and I think that will be adorable.
We had a pretty good load of rain the other day. The schools in Clay County were closed on Wednesday because of flooding in the hollers and on the back roads. Also, the wind was unbelievable and that created some problems with trees uprooting and toppling. I made it into work just fine because I take a main road to get there, but there was a huge amount of water along side the roads and the creeks were really swollen. It is kinda neat to see it all but you hate to think of the possible damage for people in their homes.
Soon I will be heading back to Wisconsin for the holidays. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone back home and worshiping at my home church. It will be a treat to see my church family.
Also, a note to Dave and Dori. I have had one beer since September 17th, so I will be stopping in for a few ;) I do want to see you both and the kids so I hope we can find a day to do that.
Blessings to all and I look forward to seeing all the snow that you have had in the last few days.
God Bless
Jane
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Life is Busy
Good Morning from Kentucky on this snowy morning of winter wonderland! Well, it's nothing like a good ol' Wisconsin snow, but it is my first in Kentucky! It is beautiful outside, just a light dusting of snow right now but it is still coming down so we'll see just how much we get. Although I do appreciate the beauty of the snow I am disappointed that I will not be able to drive for a few hours. Here in Kentucky a little snow can put you at a halt real quickly. I guess with all the timber and coal trucks the roads get pretty slick pretty darn quick. The other thing is, slide off the road here and you are probably going down a pretty good size bank, hill or drop off. No thanks to that, I can wait until the sun comes out and dries it up a little.
The reason I need to go is because I need to get into work to catch up on a few things for our Christmas distribution. This has been a crazy week trying to get all the gifts wrapped and making sure that all the families have been taken care of. In some situations there were sponsors who chose a family to adopt but the gifts have not arrived yet. They may still come, but it is a bit stressful trying to figure out at what point do we just take it upon ourselves to fill the Christmas list or give the sponsor just one more day. I know that in the end it will all work out, but the way I am wired makes me a little crazy. Yes Laurie, Joan and Kelly, it is a control thing! Yesterday Angela and I went to WalMart to start on some of the shopping and the girl at the register looked at me and said, "Yeah, I'm a little OCD myself". What? How did she pick up on that in just having me standing in the checkout line? I think Angela must have been signaling her behind my back :)
On Wednesday night all of us were home here and had a really nice dinner together. Then we had a short devotion and started to decorate our Christmas tree. It is so beautiful! It is a sparsely branched tree with many an open space to hang just that right-sized ornament. Judy made some pop corn and we ate and decorated as a family. Then I remembered that Rudolph was on that night so as we finished the tree we were able to begin to watch my favorite Christmas show. Well, kinda favorite. As the tree was completed we all sat down with a cup of hot chocolate with candy canes immersed and watch the end of the show. What a great night! Then, as the show ended we all sang the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer song together. I love my house!!!
I would like to thank Rev. David Albertin and his congregation in Indiana for all the boxes that showed up at my office this week. There were 10 boxes all filled with new underwear, shoes, socks, jammies and more. What a blessing you all are! I have used much of it for Christmas extras and it has been a huge help to me. Some of the articles were just darling and I am sure very hip to some of our toddlers and least'uns. I am so grateful for all my friends and also strangers who have so richly blessed my time of service here in the Appalachians. I wish I could thank all of you in person, but that just isn't possible. Please know that you are all in my prayers.
My brother-in-law, Al, asked me just what fills my day, so let me give you a short explanation of what happens in a day here in Kentucky. I rise about 5:30 AM to make ready for my day. Then I leave the house about 7:00 AM and arrive at my office at about 7:50 or so. My office hours open to the public are 9:00 to 11:00. This is when people know they can call and reach me or stop in and I will be there. The first thing I do is check for messages, return calls and do e-mails. I attend to whomever may come in for assistance. This is either help with a disconnect notice on a utility or some emergency home repairs that we might be able to help with. CAP works with the family to pay the bill, so we discuss how much they have to put toward the bill, add what we can (which is a capped amount) and then if necessary refer them to another agency. Our focus is to make sure that the utilities are not shut off for non-payment.
Another area I cover is emergency home repairs which includes providing underpinning for trailers, insulation, doors, windows and what not. These are donated items so CAP can provide them free of charge, but the owner has to be able to do the labor or have someone do the labor for them. If they cannot work that out then we cannot give them the needed items. We have another program that does provide labor for larger jobs, but that is not my program. Before I would provide any of these items, I do a home visit to see the work and make sure that all are legitimate needs. I will then follow up with more home visits to check on the progress of the work and to make sure that all is done in a timely manner.
Through EHI (emergency home repairs) I can also purchase certain things for the home; such as small heaters, fans, etc. Again, would be the same process of making a home visit and then following up to make sure all is working well. There is a small amount I can use per month. Sometimes I use up the funds and then I need to put people on a waiting list. There is not a large amount of money to work with so I need to make my decisions wisely.
After office hours have closed, I can do what needs to be done. Could be a run to Operation Sharing in Corbin, where I pick up the underpinning or insulation or other donated items. I may schedule home visits and get as many in as I need. I may have paperwork to attend to and just stay at the office. If that is the case then I can still take care of whomever may show up at the office with a need. I also have monthly meetings for CAP and some other committees I serve on in Manchester. So, some days are busy and others not much. Pretty much the same as any other job I have held. Then as a volunteer I have a commitment to be home every evening for dinner and devotion. If there is a good reason I cannot make it that is OK but we are required to be home Monday thru Thursday to share in community.
Well, we'll see what happens today. As soon as I can I will head out to Clay County and see what I can get done today. I hope you are all doing well.
God Bless
Jane
The reason I need to go is because I need to get into work to catch up on a few things for our Christmas distribution. This has been a crazy week trying to get all the gifts wrapped and making sure that all the families have been taken care of. In some situations there were sponsors who chose a family to adopt but the gifts have not arrived yet. They may still come, but it is a bit stressful trying to figure out at what point do we just take it upon ourselves to fill the Christmas list or give the sponsor just one more day. I know that in the end it will all work out, but the way I am wired makes me a little crazy. Yes Laurie, Joan and Kelly, it is a control thing! Yesterday Angela and I went to WalMart to start on some of the shopping and the girl at the register looked at me and said, "Yeah, I'm a little OCD myself". What? How did she pick up on that in just having me standing in the checkout line? I think Angela must have been signaling her behind my back :)
On Wednesday night all of us were home here and had a really nice dinner together. Then we had a short devotion and started to decorate our Christmas tree. It is so beautiful! It is a sparsely branched tree with many an open space to hang just that right-sized ornament. Judy made some pop corn and we ate and decorated as a family. Then I remembered that Rudolph was on that night so as we finished the tree we were able to begin to watch my favorite Christmas show. Well, kinda favorite. As the tree was completed we all sat down with a cup of hot chocolate with candy canes immersed and watch the end of the show. What a great night! Then, as the show ended we all sang the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer song together. I love my house!!!
I would like to thank Rev. David Albertin and his congregation in Indiana for all the boxes that showed up at my office this week. There were 10 boxes all filled with new underwear, shoes, socks, jammies and more. What a blessing you all are! I have used much of it for Christmas extras and it has been a huge help to me. Some of the articles were just darling and I am sure very hip to some of our toddlers and least'uns. I am so grateful for all my friends and also strangers who have so richly blessed my time of service here in the Appalachians. I wish I could thank all of you in person, but that just isn't possible. Please know that you are all in my prayers.
My brother-in-law, Al, asked me just what fills my day, so let me give you a short explanation of what happens in a day here in Kentucky. I rise about 5:30 AM to make ready for my day. Then I leave the house about 7:00 AM and arrive at my office at about 7:50 or so. My office hours open to the public are 9:00 to 11:00. This is when people know they can call and reach me or stop in and I will be there. The first thing I do is check for messages, return calls and do e-mails. I attend to whomever may come in for assistance. This is either help with a disconnect notice on a utility or some emergency home repairs that we might be able to help with. CAP works with the family to pay the bill, so we discuss how much they have to put toward the bill, add what we can (which is a capped amount) and then if necessary refer them to another agency. Our focus is to make sure that the utilities are not shut off for non-payment.
Another area I cover is emergency home repairs which includes providing underpinning for trailers, insulation, doors, windows and what not. These are donated items so CAP can provide them free of charge, but the owner has to be able to do the labor or have someone do the labor for them. If they cannot work that out then we cannot give them the needed items. We have another program that does provide labor for larger jobs, but that is not my program. Before I would provide any of these items, I do a home visit to see the work and make sure that all are legitimate needs. I will then follow up with more home visits to check on the progress of the work and to make sure that all is done in a timely manner.
Through EHI (emergency home repairs) I can also purchase certain things for the home; such as small heaters, fans, etc. Again, would be the same process of making a home visit and then following up to make sure all is working well. There is a small amount I can use per month. Sometimes I use up the funds and then I need to put people on a waiting list. There is not a large amount of money to work with so I need to make my decisions wisely.
After office hours have closed, I can do what needs to be done. Could be a run to Operation Sharing in Corbin, where I pick up the underpinning or insulation or other donated items. I may schedule home visits and get as many in as I need. I may have paperwork to attend to and just stay at the office. If that is the case then I can still take care of whomever may show up at the office with a need. I also have monthly meetings for CAP and some other committees I serve on in Manchester. So, some days are busy and others not much. Pretty much the same as any other job I have held. Then as a volunteer I have a commitment to be home every evening for dinner and devotion. If there is a good reason I cannot make it that is OK but we are required to be home Monday thru Thursday to share in community.
Well, we'll see what happens today. As soon as I can I will head out to Clay County and see what I can get done today. I hope you are all doing well.
God Bless
Jane
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