Bead Soup Party

Twelve girls met tonight in Girl World...girls of all ages, from elementary school to Grandmother...a great group.

We made 60 beaded bracelets in a couple hours.  One more beautiful than the next.  Everyone dug through the bead soup and selected beads before stringing them.

We put each in a small drawstring bag.  They will all be delivered to the missionary cupboard at church.  The missionaries we support shop the cupboard for things they need.  Our bracelets will be used as gifts and our hope is they will encourage someone along the way.

What a great way to spend a Friday night, visiting with friends old and new, creating with our hands, and giving to others.

Normal Girl

Baby Beaders

Look at that face, don't you want to pinch her cheeks??

This afternoon, I took Bead Soup to the Salvation Army Denby Center.  This is the most amazing and huge place that takes in pregnant teen girls, gives them a place to live and teaches them to take care of their babies and how to eventually live on their own.  I had 15 girls and nearly that many babies in the room.  It was loud.  It was crazy.  It was fun.  

I tried to keep reminding myself that even though the girls were Mothers, they were young.  Some of them were the same age as my middle school dancers.  That fact struck me hard.  It was hard for them to be attentive to my instructions.  But, when I realized they were not really interested in learning a skill, but in just a couple hours of something fun, I changed up the plan a little.  I did all of their toggle crimping and just let them pick out and string beads.  That made them happy.  

There is one thing that is universal among all of the groups with whom I have done Bead Soup.  All women love sorting through that bucket of beads....maybe it is the prospect of finding a treasure, I don't know.  I sometimes think that if I let them play in the beads for an hour and they never made a bracelet, they would be just as happy.

All in all, the girls did a great job of minding little hands grabbing beads and actually getting some bracelets made.  And they made me impressed over their abilities to go on even though their families didn't want to help them, to become adults instantly, to love their babies, and to  take it all in stride.

We all have our own normal, don't we?

Normal Girl

Loves Children, Loves Beads

These people have a heart for God's children and they are pretty good jewelry designers too.  Tonight, I spent a couple hours with the adoption specialists at Bethany Christian Services.  It is where Wonder Woman works and she invited me to bring bead soup.  These folks have stressful jobs dealing with people's lives, and tonight was a relaxing time just to visit.  And, they actually were very creative with good design sense.  I don't know if they teach that when you get a degree in social work, but I saw some really good bracelets tonight.  It was fun!

Normal Girl

Hanging with the Girls

I went with a group of women from church to Grace Centers of Hope tonight. Sometimes we go on a Friday night and spend a couple hours with the women residents. They are on lockdown on Friday nights. That is a night that invites trouble for people with addiction issues. So, tonight, we took bead soup. The girls there are like all girls. They love digging through the bead soup and making bracelets

Could you resist homemade chocolate cake? I had a crumb. It was fabulous. Every morsel was gone when we were finished.

While some of us were playing with bead soup and making bracelets, the rest were playing Apples to Apples.

This is Nevaeh (the little one). Spell her name backwards. When we first started going to GCH, she was a newborn. Now she is walking like a pro. She had an ear infection tonight, but showed off her walking skills for us anyway.

Some of the Moms wanted to make bracelets but were having a hard time wrangling kids at the same time. Story time with Miss Kathy kept them occupied.

That is one way to keep a curious baby contained......

We have started to develop relationships with some of the women at GCH. It is great to watch their progression as they get themselves together and come closer to graduation. What do you say to a woman who had her two kids living in a car because she had to leave her husband due to abuse, and was herself drinking and doing drugs....who now is clean, healthy and happy and working to pay for the house they live in???? Praise God!

Normal Girl