The Holiday Spirit is in the air!! Time to open our GPC online cookbook to four of Francie Whitlock’s favorite holiday recipes. As she says, paraphrasing the words of a famous doughboy: “Nothin’ says lovin’ like somethin’ from the oven and GPC says it best!” Enjoy a new featured recipe each week!    Scottish Shortbread […]

 Forgiveness has, so far, been my favorite of the Follow Me series, I think because it has all pointed to this week’s lesson – that forgiveness is not about what has happened, but what you make of it, forgiveness is about building bridges into the future.    The picture of the arched bridge is a […]

We are so fortunate that Traci Smith shares some of her work through one of her blogs. Though this is a little early, I agree with her that if you decide as a family to set an Advent Intention, you should give yourself time to think and pray about it together. If you would like […]

We started the day knowing that this was it, our final full day of work. We arrived on site ready to go on our remaining punch list items. We have reluctantly accepted the fact that we are not going to be able to finish everything. Our most patient and skilled workers busied themselves with kitchen countertop cutting and installing; kitchen sink and faucet installing; and more trim […]

Today was a great day for us! First, we got a whole lot accomplished at the worksite. Saws were buzzing as long lengths of baseboard trim were being cut after much meticulous measuring; paint brushes were swishing as doors were painted and walls touched up; caulk guns were firing on all cylinders as the seemingly […]

Most of us stretched out our newly sore muscles last night and started out in pretty good shape today. But…after working really hard, our muscles are sore all over again! No pain, no gain, right?     And we did really gain in making a dent in our punch list today…from the gals with guns […]

Some of us got up easily this morning, but for some of us it took a little extra effort. It was great though to wake up to daylight instead of darkness. Everyone enjoyed breakfast followed by being brought up to speed by our Craven County Disaster Recovery Alliance leaders on what types of work we […]

It was almost too easy to get to New Bern…if you left at 8:00 or 9:00 a.m. However, if you left as late as 10:30 a.m. like Fletcher Tukes, it was a longer tripcaused by a couple of different construction work delays. But for everyone, the early light rain in Gaithersburg let up as we […]

I was walking along thinking about how to tie Traci Smith’s beautiful Gratitude calendar to Forgiveness. It made me think about all the jokes about the tension around an increasing number of Thanksgiving tables. That, in turn, made me think about the reason people gather at Thanksgiving. Those thoughts brought me back to – it’s […]

Grateful Calendar by Traci Smith from her Treasure Box Tuesday.     Simple things done with great love,  Carolyn Hayes Director of Children and Young Families