Shorty-Short

This week was a busy week. Our church hosted a weeklong Vacation Bible School. My job was to take pictures — but I bet that doesn’t surprise you.

     The first thing you saw when you pulled in the church driveway was a heart.

Our church has some very talented and amazing artists. Out of cardboard they created an octopus, its tentacles wrapped around a bubble sub, as a prop for the kids to have their photos taken in. Then, in a crafting session, they took the pictures and put them in a CD case and the kids decorated them with stickers. It made a standup photo keepsake.

Our church peeps made fish out of empty water bottles! A glow in the dark coral reef out of spray foam.

       Crabs from pipe cleaners and pool noodles!

Jellyfish hung from the ceiling. The whole church was turned into an under the sea world! It was magical!

The kids sang songs, danced, played games, had snacks, did crafts, and memorized Bible verses. 

They could earn pins for their hats by just showing up, bringing a friend, winning a game, and reciting their Bible verse. 

At the end of the five days, they counted their pins and that was how many chances they had to throw a ball and dunk the pastor or one of their teachers.

It was a hectic but rewarding week, even if it didn’t leave time for much else.

We did squeeze in a short golf cart ride. The machine shed has succumbed to the laws of gravity.

This doe just stood and watched as we passed by.

This one had a mouthful and stopped chewing to watch us go by.

Daisies are blooming. I love daisies!

Herb Robert, or Stinky Bob as it’s sometimes called, is blooming, too. If you crush a leaf, it smells kinda like burnt rubber.

Catalpa trees are also blooming.

The tree by the end of the driveway, the one that gives me “snow” on an eighty-degree day? I think it’s a cottonwood and it’s dropping big tufts all over the place now!

Look what I found in my bathroom sink! Isn’t that a sight to wake up to first thing in the morning?! Isn’t this a beautiful spider?!

“You can’t use spider and beautiful in the same sentence,” Momma used to tell me.

“Spiders don’t bother me,” one gal told me when I showed her the picture. “I just don’t want them in my house.”

“I don’t either, that’s why I took him outside!”

I carefully urged Mr. Fishing Spider to climb onto my hand. He wasn’t panicked, so he crept slowly and didn’t go far. I hoped he’d stay right there until I got him outside.

“Did he?” you ask.

NO! Halfway through the dark dining room, he jumped. I was afraid to move! I didn’t want to step on him! Once my eyes adjusted and I was fairly certain I wouldn’t step on him, I turned the light on. He hadn’t gone far, thank goodness. I didn’t relish the thought of searching for him under the furniture. I got him back onto my hand and headed for the kitchen door. I’d only gone a few steps before he jumped ship again. 

“Why didn’t you cup him in your hands?” you ask.

He’s too big to cup in one hand. If he feels pinched, he might bite. And if I used both hands I wouldn’t be able to open the door. 

This was becoming too much for him and he was more active. He started to run up my arm! Talk about panic! The last thing I needed was a spider on my face! I got him brushed off onto my oversized nightshirt, pulled it up over him like a farm wife collecting eggs, and got him outside. I turned him loose on the feral cat house. There would be plenty of dark spaces for him to hide in or catch bugs. 

 

I sold more books this week. Fifteen boxes, 438 books, twenty bucks. 

“You sold them too cheap,” my handsome mountain man says.

“I don’t care. I want them gone and I was going to throw them away.”

The gal who bought them was so appreciative of the deal I gave her. She thanked me at least a million times!

Okay! Okay! Hyperbole again! Exaggeration for the sake of emphasis. But she thanked me a couple of times while she was here and sent me a text thanking me again. She said she was a huge reader and reads a lot.

“This’ll keep you busy for a week or two,” I joked.

That’s 538 books gone from my library. I have a gal coming later today or tomorrow for the last 162 romance novels.

I’ll probably sell a bunch more of my books but I’ll ask a little more for them. 

And that’s it for this edition of Peggy’s Jibber-Jabber.

Now you know why I called it Shorty-Short!