Katrina

So many lives lost, such devastation. Hard to imagine.

Yesterday, I took all the kids, and we went out went to the grocery store, got a lot of stuff and brought it over to one of the Vermont drop points. I liked doing this as opposed to (or in addition to) sending money, because it was more visable to the kids. They went shopping with me, we talked about what the people would need, we consulted the list we had (from the news paper) and they helped carry the things in and out the van and at the collection point. We also talked about having to evacuate and having to decide what they would bring. And how horrible it would be to know that anything else would be gone.

When dh came home, I left him with the kids, and made another quick grocery run, dropped it off and then stayed for four hours or so, helping to sort and pack stuff. It was amazing how many cars came and dropped off things. This is not a very densely populated area, but it seemed like cars sprouted out of nowhere, and the stacks of donations kept growing.

I wish I could do more.

The rats are doing great, still amazed with how many we ended up. And here I didn't want a litter of baby hamsters...

Yesterday, we saw a bumper sticker on a car saying 'Fat people are harder to kidnap'. The kids and I were talking about it, and wondering why some one would put that on their car, and just having fun discussing it. Till Kate piped in with a 'I think they tried to kidnap a fat person, and it was really hard!'