Pilgrims’ Progress

Upon hearing about our upcoming silent auction, a lady who had purchased homemade flower presses from our Entrepreneur Son a couple of years ago, asked if there would be any more at the auction. Ever-the-Entrepreneur readily agreed to make more - not that he’d been planning on it. Word got round and within a few days orders were in for forty presses. Previous production runs have not exceeded a dozen, so this is Serious Business. Everyone big enough to hold a piece of sandpaper is pitching in - and the smaller ones are decorating Thank You Cards for the friends who have lent Proper Tools. If the banks don’t crash, and everyone pays up, these presses will signify two important milestones.

Firstly, the children will have achieved their savings goal to go to Disneyland! Their fund was boosted recently by the somewhat sacrificial decision to forgo Easter eggs (that one took a few days of negotiations amongst the kids to reach a consensus), and a few of them have opted to wear winter PJs that are too short so that they can contribute what we Would Have Spent on new ones to the greater goal. At that point the shortfall was $40.
And with orders for 40 presses, with “wages” being paid at a rate of $1 per press, Disneyland is in their sights.

Secondly, a book party is accomplished. After paying for wages, materials and contracting fees (they bought chocolate bars for the friends who lent them a drop saw and drill press), there ought to be a clear profit of More Than Enough for the book party….the remainder will go into the Book Publishing Fund (see tickers above).

But not wanting to count their chickens before they are hatched, nothing is being added to the tickers until the money actually appears in the bank!

Thanks to everyone who has placed orders:)
Here’s sneak preview of Mark II

She was so impressed at the children’s determination to save up enough money to go to Disneyland that one of Rob’s work colleagues gifted them a handmade-by-her-husband-elephant-bank to keep their savings in. Thanks Mrs S!
We considered saving the elephant for the *raising money for South East Asia volunteer projects* and sticking with their glass jar with Mickey Mouse ears for Disneyland…….but the kiddos decided it would be too hard to know which jar to put their pickings into. They’re honest, our kids. I’ve even overheard them murmuring together about “should we put our Disneyland money into the volunteer fund? but we really want to go to Disneyland…..but what about those kids who have never seen a book?……but Disneyland would be so much fun…..oh it’s so hard……”
So for now the Disneyland fund remains the first goal (so far it’s mostly been the entire contents of their piggy banks supplemented by coins scavenged from Coke machines). When they’ve reached that goal, they’re going to throw their hearts and souls into serious fundraising for the projects we’ll be visiting. You should see the plans they have!

In the meantime, there’s a thank you card with moving trunk and flapping ear to complete.

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