WHATTA WEEK!

Stella here:  We had the very best time this week that anybody could imagine.  A local agency was offering help with yard work, house work  or painting your home, so my Mom applied since our yard has turned into kind of a forest.  My Mom just asked for help to clear away overgrowth of plants and bird-planted trees.  So the lady at the agency told us we would have some helpers starting Monday.

(Click on any picture to enlarge it)

This is what we got:  Two adults and four teenager kids.  The adults helped them to figure out what to do and the kids went right to it (along with the adults!)  They went all around our house, cutting trees, digging up roots, clearing up the mess and hauling it away.  Then they decided they had to paint the garage, which hadn't been painted for a long time.  They all scraped off the old bad stuff and it took about a day and a half, then they started painting:

One important guy was missing from this picture because he (Ben)

was painting on the other side of the garage. 

You can't imagine what a huge and beautiful change this was.  They put on two coats of paint and it just shines!

This group came from Wisconsin and Illinois, being part of the Catholic Heart Work Group, and sponsored by the Mahube agency.

The weather was hot and pretty miserable for this kind of hard work but you would never know it from this group.  Smiles all day, and simply the nicest people I have met in a long while.  Lots of teenagers have reputations as being lazy, but these kids worked harder than you could imagine, for four days, kept smiling and even seemed to be having fun at it.  Then they would take a little time, come in the back yard and play with me, Stella!  I did get into some paint though, and it went on my chin:

My Mom said it could have been way worse!

This is the front before they hauled the cuttings away.  We have an

Amur Maple which are the leaves and branches you see and they cut it so perfectly.  We all love that tree.  The curtain you see open is Zkhat's look-out.  She checked out what they did but was scared to get close to the workers.  Such a wuss!  She will never know how good they were to me!

It is so hard to find people these days who will do this kind of work for pay, and to find these willing workers in my yard who thanked me for letting them help me! (at no cost) It was just the most wonderful four days I can imagine, seeing good people putting their faith to work.

So, Roger, Mary Ann, Shannon, Morgan, Ben and Mike, if you are reading this, know that we will love you forever for your good nature, kindness and hard work!

If you would like to learn a little more about Catholic Heart just click and read!

Love and hugs,

Jo, Stella and Zkhat