Bins!!!

Today Matthew researched dimensions, cost, availability, sturdiness and we all took a family trip to The Home Depot, where the bins that won Best in all of the above categories were waiting for us.  We bought eight of them – two allowed per ticket – and brought them home.  Immediately Matthew began pulling stuff we had stuffed into every stuffable spot, weighed it, put it in his fancy packing spreadsheet, and stuck it in a bin.  We’ll pack the bins properly later, but for now, it is important to note how much each item weighs (and put it in that fancy spreadsheet to keep track).  We put our water filter (yay Berkey!) and books into one bin and we still have nearly 20 pounds left!  We both pulled most of our clothes, and some shoes, and tah-dah, only one more bin filled.  It sorta feels like the opposite of Jesus feeding the crowd with only five loaves and two fish – like Mary Poppins’ purse – endless space.  We still want to pack according to our philosophy, and there is still a lot left to find, but for now, we love that we don’t feel cramped and that the kids can still come (ha ha – just kidding…)!

Today we also went to lunch at Olive Garden, one of my (Lisa’s) weaknesses.  I did ok in Alaska without it, but I had it each time I came back to Washington.  Going without it for a year or longer will be fine, but I asked Matthew if we could go a few times before we leave.  There and Panera.  Mmmmm…  Thankfully, we rarely go out to eat, so it won’t be much of a depature from our normal lives.  While it is very expensive, it is an option in Kinshasa on occasion, too.

Levi, too, has had a great day and we are so pleased.  He was excellent company today while I took advantage of a sale to stock up on a few clothing items at the mall.  He did fine while we stopped at a church where we’ll present our mission work next week.  He was pleasant at the restaraunt.  He even schooled his dad today: while asking about different letters, Matthew was joking around and asked “Where’s the letter Levi?”  Levi replied quite frankly, “Levi is not a letter, it’s a word!”  Good work, son.