Gearing Up & Getting Ready

This morning I am sitting in the still of my kitchen while my entire household sleeps.  I found a rare moment that I have not had in almost a month to sit down at the computer and actually read a few blogs.  What shocked me most was seeing the date of my last post….21 days ago.  Oh my, where have the last 21 days gone.  I can’t believe the last time I blogged the cicadas were playing their loud, ear-piecing matting songs.  They are all gone now, thank you Lord!

We have been spending every waking moment these past few weeks getting the women ministry kits together for my mission trip.  I would take a picture of the madness that was once called our home, but my bones are too wearing to actually get up to fetch my camera.  Our kitchen and living room has been transformed into grand central rug making station!  HA!  My husband has been cutting t-shirts and material into small 1 inch strips and then I take them, stretch them out to make them long and slender and package them into 2 gallon bags.  It take around 90 strips that range in varying lengths to make a rug.  So needless to say, there has been a whole lotta cutting going on in this household!  HA!  I also have been dying the white t-shirt strips into colors so the rugs will not be all white. Yep, my hands and fingernails are an awful color!

To go one step further, to explain the enormity of this project, it take about 6 shirts to make a rug.  We are getting together 100 rug kits, so we have cut enough shirts and material to equal 600 large t-shirts.  The fuzz from cutting that much is accumulating like snow on the floors of our house.  No matter how much you sweep, or dust, it’s still there.  We might be living with the fuzz of this project until we retire. 

It’s all worth it though.  It’s worth every blister, sore muscle, discolored hands and disheveled home to be able to teach the women of La Cumbre a skill that will hopefully be with them for the years to come.  I can’t wait to see a rug adoring their small homes and cleaned swept dirt floors that they made using materials that so many donated to us.

I also wanted to thank those who have mailed me so many materials for this project.  I have not forgot about you and from the bottom of my heart, I thank you!  I will properly thank you in a more personal way as soon as I get back from the trip, but know that your generosity has made this project more than possible!

Oh well, that is my life as of late and I wanted to touch base with you before I left in  3 quickly approaching days!