VandalEyes = Distraction

Well its been a quiet week here in Lake Wobegon...wait a minute.  That doesn't sound right. Ah yes....now I remember...

Well its been a quiet week here near Lake Wausau.  I say quiet because most of the office is at a meeting or on vacation. That doesn't mean it hasn't been busy though.  I've been working on quite a bit.

Monday was spent organizing and cleaning my desk.  I'm working on trying to at least straighten it up everyday.  It only sometimes happens like that.  Monday was also the day that I made my game plan for re-organizing the craft closet.  I've booked all of next week for working on that. Literally, I've booked one of the conference rooms all week so I can spread out. I'm actually pretty excited to do it.  I don't mind doing work like that. Its pretty relaxing.

Tuesday was spend figuring out what I was going to be doing with my JDC kids on Wednesday.  I did finally come up with something, as well as coming up with something for the next week.  I also started putting together everything the YAC kids need for their Trick-or-Treating event on Halloween.  This meant making copies, cutting out door-hangers, making new copies because I made a mistake on them, and cutting out the new ones.  Its going to take me awhile, but again, its kind of relaxing work sometimes. 

Yesterday was a good day at the JDC.  We made dog toys with jute twine and tennis balls.  These will be donated to the Humane Society, and possibly a food pantry, if I hear back from them soon.  While I was there we were talking about what they wanted to do after high school.  Many of them had no idea what they wanted to do, but they are still young.  They have time to decide.  Perhaps I should find an activity that would start those wheels turning and they can come up with ideas so they have something to work toward.  One kid there has already decided what he wants to do.  I don't think he realizes that he has to start working toward getting out of trouble before he can start doing what he wants to do.  He was talking about how they wanted to put him in the Group Home I have a program with, but he had some very interesting reasons for not wanting to be placed there.  I don't think he put it together that the reasons he doesn't want to be there will keep him from reaching his goal of becoming a mechanic for Mercedes. I hope he does go to the Group Home, I think it will be good for him. He once told me that 4-H was not a necessary thing in his life.  He had gotten along without it.  I resisted the urge to point out to him that maybe if he had had some 4-H in his life, or some other program or sport, maybe he wouldn't have ended up in a shelter home for three weeks with the possibility of going to a group home.  Since I am not trained in anything like this, however, I cannot say for sure.  That is just my opinion. Before I left one of the women who works there gave me some more knitted hats that the youth had made.  One girl can crochet, so she even made some little baby mittens.  I'm excited to deliver those to the Hospital.

Today has been filled with more work cutting out door hangers, planning out JDC, planning logistics for the Trick-or-Treating thing, and getting ready for upcoming events.

One thing that I'm really excited about is the Financial Wellness Conference in January.  VISTA hopes to have many service projects all going on simultaneously for Martin Luther King day.  I had an idea to have a Hands On type day for community members where there would be sessions like meal planning on a budget, re-purposing clothes, fixing holes and others.  When I discussed it with people in the office I discovered that the day I wanted to do it, there is a Financial Wellness Conference going on.  So I've made inquires and I hope to partner with them and find volunteers to teach a few classes.  I have some ideas already as to who to ask.  I'm excited to get going on this project.

As far as my Spanish Reading Program goes, we've made some progress, but are waiting to hear back from a few people to figure out logistics and everything.

I'm also waiting to hear back from people about my After School program.  Hopefully that gets going soon. 

One distraction I found today was at VandalEyes.net  Well to be more specific, as I got on Blogger to write this, I saw that Wil Wheaton had a blog post that I hadn't read yet, so I read it, which lead me to his wife's website with all these adorable pictures of things that have been...well...VandalEyes'd.  Really you should just go to the website.  That would be easiest.  I spent my entire lunch break on it.  It kinda makes me want to find the googly eyes in the closet while I'm cleaning and after work one day VandalEyes things around the office....hmm.....

Until Then!