Friday . . . .

. . . . looks better than I imagined . Driving home from the neighbor's Thanksgiving dinner last night in the freezing rain, I dreaded what we'd wake up to, but it's not too bad outside. The roads will be manageable. Wyatt celebrates his 13th birthday this weekend, so I'll be running around, collecting kids, having them burn energy at the swimming pool, and then gleefully bringing them home the next morning.

Because Bryant is out of state for two weeks enjoying the sunny southwest, the cabin project has come to a complete halt. The timing turned out to be perfect, because that has freed up some time to work on another side project.

About a month ago, Gus asked about ways to earn money. Well, there aren't many entrepreneurial opportunities for a 10 year old who lives 15 miles from town, so at first I didn't have any solutions. Then, I remembered the Annual Butte Elementary Christmas Bazaar was a few weeks away, and the idea of tie dye shirts started taking hold.

As part of an Africa Unit, the 2nd grade class makes tie dye shirts. Although I didn't organize this for our three 2nd grade classes, I worked with my class swirling shirts and preparing them for the soda ash soak. Then I watched their excitement while slopping in dye and wearing their shirts the following Monday. Between this experience and my sister and I's decision to tie dye this coming summer with all of our kids and the nieces and nephews, I opted to invest in tie dying materials and have a booth at the bazaar. Hopefully, Gus is on the road to potentially earning some money. For the past week, the tie dye obsession has taken hold. The learning curve has been quite steep, but I think I'm figuring out what works. Whether it will pay off, who knows, but if nothing else, we have a stockpile of gifts to give away!