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When did it become halfway through October?

So much to be done...and we desperately need to start interviewing for a Christmas Assistant as we need so much more help than last year with all the hub-bub around the corps. We intend on bumping up our Thanksgiving assistance to match last year's Christmas assistance....so we're looking at 1400 total families/cases between the two holidays. Man, that's a lot of turkeys.

Tomorrow's another busy day...food bank truck coming, plus we have to go for a tri-weekly pickup of food donations from a store we have recently partnered with here in town. The first week we picked up just over 2000lbs of food. Last week was over 3000lbs. I'm almost scared to see what this week holds...but praise the Lord for such a blessing of donations. We've had many a grateful teary eye walk out of our office this week with the awe of being able to take fresh bread, eggs, produce, and meat home to their families. A ton of work (literally) for us as we have to process, weigh, and sort everything...but it's priceless in seeing the appreciation that people have for the items that we have not been able to offer in any form of a consistent basis before.

Spent the day doing paperwork and tackling the mountains of stacks on my desk; had a few clients come my way (volunteers run our food pantry most days, I handle the "other" social services that we offer)...but sadly I was only able to offer referral as their needs far outweighed our capabilities. Oh, to have that unlimited bank account...but then again, it's only a bandaid for the immediate emergency. My time is better spent after applying the bandaid to educate in love so that this injury does not become chronic. Unfortunately, so many have already reached that chronic state (and even generational expectation) that it's hard to help others discover a different way to manage life than living in the stress of always trying to find what agency will pay my bills this month. It's not my place to judge why someone has landed across my desk--but it's my calling to give that holistic hand up, not just a handout. I pray some of those seeds fall on fertile ground...because I sure don't get to see the fruit very often!

Getting annoyed by people's assumptions as of late. I do not have any long-sleeve uniform shirts, and have often forgotten to put on my sweater to cover my arms over the last week. I don't appreciate the nosy questions or knowing looks of people "assuming" that I've been abused. Hello? Have you met me? Anyone would know that my tolerance for physical abuse of any form lies right below my serious disdain and lack of compassion for rapists and child molesters.

Last week I had the privilege to visit the ER three times (once wasn't for me!), and the pleasure of being stuck a total of eight times between these two visits to start IVs for bloodwork (the second visit, they ended up getting the IV in my SHOULDER--talk about unpleasant!). Thus, my forearms from bend to wrist and the backs of my hands are covered in giant black bruises....I seriously dislike having a light (essentially glow-in-the-dark white) complexion. No answers though...not due to obscurity, rather a lack of effort--but I'm not going to dwell on that peeve here. Going to a larger town on Wednesday for some definitive tests ordered by my doctor to figure out what's up...at least my doctor has it narrowed down to a 50/50 choice of diagnosis, just need the tests to determine what's up. So....hopefully by the end of the week I'll know if I will be scheduling gallbladder surgery or receiving treatment from a stress-induced ulcer from my last illness. Either way, I'm not amused to be dealing with this right now.

There's good news though on the health front...another 6 pounds lost over the last six weeks, bringing a total close to 40lbs for the year so far. Still not sure how to handle this slow weight loss, definitely don't lose sizes as quickly--I've *barely* eecked down one size. Though, that does make it quite exciting as now I can wear my commissioning tunic again--and it fits better than it did when I was commissioned, and that I had my skirt seriously altered at the waist as it was sitting about halfway down my hips. It's not often that I "feel" good about how I feel in clothes...but I must say, yesterday was a pretty awesome feeling wearing a nicely tailored and well-fitting uniform as I have been very self conscious the last month or so feeling like I was drowning in the uniform I was wearing.

Anyway, I'm babbling...so I'll quit now. Figured I should write, but a solid topic didn't come to mind...so, enjoy my brain dumpings!