I didn’t think I would have time to blog today, which is why I wrote the post I wrote yesterday. But I do have some time before going a friend’s going away party tonight so I thought I would catch you up on last week and why I didn’t blog at all.
Last week was our church’s VBS week, which the kids and I are heavily involved in. My involvement actually started around February or March since I’m involved in the administration aspect of VBS. Lots of early meetings so we know what we are doing. We had over 300 kids come during each day and over 80 come during the evening session. I’m not involved in the evening session, but I know bits and pieces of what goes on. One of our biggest challenges with so many children is making sure they go home with the right person. With so many kids leaving at once, we don’t just let them all run out the door or just let anyone come in and pick them up. All the children have name tags, and all the parents have tags matching their child’s tag and once we make sure they match, we let the children leave. It’s a daunting process but one that needs to be done for security. I make sure that there are people at the doors matching tags, and if a parent forgets a tag they get sent to me so I can verify who they are and that they have the right to take the child. It gets better each year and runs more smoothly, but there are still always bumps in the road. By the end of the week, my stress level gets high and that’s where part of my exhaustion comes from. But like I said, each year gets a bit smoother.
The other part of my job is I’m like a ‘runner’. I’m constantly walking to all the classes and getting a head count, seeing how the teachers are doing, getting them water or snacks if needed and just generally making sure things are running smooth. I think I walked more than 4 miles every day this week, another reason I’m so exhausted. I would come home and just crash on most days, though I did still keep up with the laundry and some dinners. Please don’t think I’m complaining, I’m not. It’s a blessing to serve, and I’m so thankful that so many children want to come and have fun. But because of how busy I am, my blogging time is practically gone during VBS week. 🙂
The kids are involved all week too, and they help out at different stations. Paulie was helping with games this year and loved it. Sarah helped out with snacks and cheer leading, which is getting up on stage and showing the children how to do the moves to the music. She’s been doing that for a couple of years how and loves it. She’s actually thinking of helping to lead the cheer leading next year. That’s how much fun she has.
Paul has been heavily involved too in the past, but this year could only be involved on Friday, but I was completely blessed that he was involved. There was a situation that came up Friday afternoon that I really needed his help with. I am so blessed he was there. The Lord knew the exact day I would need him and gave him that day off. I love when the Lord does that.
On Friday night is the big VBS party. We usually get about 400-500 people showing up for this free party in the evening. We have jumpers, water slides, cotton candy, sno cones, hot dogs and people bring food to share. There is a little program first, so the parents can see all the dancing and singing the kids learned during the week, then we have the party. Paul and I have helped oversee it for about 3 years now, but this year we only helped for a bit then left early. It felt odd to not be there for the party, but we had plans and just didn’t want to change them. I think it was a good break for us, not being at the party. We had a great family time which we all needed after the week.
So what did we do? We went to our first baseball game here in Idaho. We don’t have any major league teams, but we do have a ‘single A short season’ team here. We have been wanting to go for years, but we have just never made it. Well we got free tickets for Friday nights game and we just couldn’t turn them down. We were one of the first 700 people through the gates and we got free gym bags too. The kids have never been to a baseball game, and though Paul and I would have loved to taken them to a major league game, we all had such a blast there. We ate too much, paid way to much for the food and our team lost the game. But we made memories that will last a life time, and that is worth so much to me. The kids kept talking about how much fun they were having, even though neither of them are into baseball. Paul and I watch it all the time, but not the kids. But being there, seeing all the fun things that happen between innings, singing the songs and just enjoying the atmosphere, it was all so much fun for them. And it was so much fun for us to see them there. Now that we know how easy it is to go there, and cheap too (if we eat before we go) we plan on trying to go again, hopefully in August. As much as I missed the party, I’m so glad we went to the baseball game instead. It was so worth it.
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