We had quite a full weekend here in the Smith household! On Saturday morning, Grandma Smith came over to play with Elias while Nathan and I went to volunteer at the Oregon Food Bank. I had put this on our winter bucket list because I felt like it was something I should do. I was curious about how the food bank worked, and thought helping out would be good especially around the holidays. Well…I procrastinated a bit on signing up for a volunteer shift, but we had until March 1st to complete our bucket list so I think I still did fine. I asked Nathan if he wanted to join me, and he said “yes” so we headed off to begin.
Working at the food bank held some surprises, some joy, and some sadness. We ended up working in the perishable repack room. It was 50 degrees in there…but they had warned us so I had a warm coat…it was my hands that got frozen! We (along with all of the other volunteers) repackaged 7980 pounds of frozen green beans. That’s a lot of beans! It felt good to be helping out, but sad that there is so much need. We found out that Oregon is in the top three states for hunger in the country. I knew there was hunger…but in the top three? What is wrong with our society?
Anyway, when we came home, Grandma Smith took us out for a yummy lunch. Elias enjoyed a grilled cheese sandwich. He had stopped eating those…but we figured that he ate the one at Applebee’s because it was cut into two large triangle wedges instead of small strips as we were doing. What do you know…when we tried it at home he eats it again! Who knew that the shape of the sandwich mattered? I guess with picky eaters it could be anything.
Saturday evening was spent in some lovely company! A couple from our church, Hilary and Chuck, came over for dinner. We had fun chatting. Elias eventually warmed up to Chuck enough to climb on his lap! But we figured his uncles haven’t roughed him up enough because when Chuck held him suspended upside down, Elias got a bit upset. Don’t worry…he warmed back up when Chuck played plah-doh with him. Hilary and I got to bake some cookies.
Sunday morning was also busy because I was the lead teacher for Sunday School, and we were in charge of the coffee hour after the service. Both went well. And even better news….Elias is slowly but surely becoming accustomed to the nursery. He barely even cried when Nathan dropped him off…He seems to be warming up to the nursery attendants (two very nice young women) and he is developing an attachment to the nursery toys. That always helps.
Sunday afternoon and evening, Elias got to spend some time with Grandpa and Grandma Bartle and Uncle Greg. Nathan and I got to go on a special Valentine’s date. We went to see a movie, and then out to a quiet dinner where there was no mess or squirmy toddlers to worry about.
We had a lot of fun this weekend, but realized that we spent a lot of time away from our son. Sometimes it’s good to get some personal time…but I think the next chance we get we’ll do something special with just the three of us.