Wow! Yet another busy day. Today, instead of playing hard, we worked hard. The kids and I headed to the Downtown Soup Kitchen. Last time we were there, it was a fairly slow day -- it was early in the month, and many of the clientele get checks from disability or social security early in the month and don't require as many services. Today, it was not only the end of the month, but Bean's Cafe, the other major provider of meals to the homeless in the city, is in the midst of a kitchen remodel and not able to serve the same number of clients they normally can. That meant that the Downtown Soup Kitchen was providing a large amount of overflow. I think we served up to 400 people today. I'll tell you, our juice and muffin window didn't have even a small breather in the hour and a half that the window was open for service. Plus, we helped in the morning with food prep -- bagging popcorn, cookies, and other munchies that people can take away and eat at a later time.

I'm always so proud of Christopher when we go help out. He serves with enthusiasm and a caring heart. Cate was a little more difficult to handle today than normally -- she's a bit on the tired side, I think. Apparently, they get free cable and younger siblings are allowed to watch PBS cartoons upstairs -- might do that next time during the serving time.

The Soup Kitchen just got $1.5 million towards a new remodel and they're just starting a campaign to complete raising funds for the remainder of the capital project. Somehow, I found myself offering my grant writing services for free. We'll see if they contact me -- who knows, maybe they have lots of people with those skills? It's just hard to be there without wanting to help out -- they provide such an amazing service day after day. I'm exhausted after one day -- and they do it 5 days a week!