Aug. 9, 2006 - I'm too tired to think of a title....
Today is Day 3 of Fiesta VBS. The first two days went very well, but today I am very tired! The kids stayed over at Amy's last night and the night before all four kids were here. We need to get going early this morning because I need to pick up a couple teenagers who are helping out with VBS but don't have a ride today. After that I head to Ruthi's for the afternoon. Did I mention I'm tired?
Doesn't help I haven't had my shower or coffee. I'll be back later....
Aug. 7, 2006 - Am I prepared?
Today is our first day of VBS at CLC. Our family spent the better portion of yesterday afternoon helping set up the church's decorations, stations and supplies. One of my duties was to fill 100+ water balloons. 
J told me that one hard thing about having a mom like me (one who's involved in planning and implementing children's chris ed activities-I think 
) is that she doesn't get the big "aaaahhhhh" moment of walking into an event already prepared. Instead she sees it go up little by little and effort by effort. I pray my example prepares her for servanthood in her life rather than have her have an "entitlement" issue. Most kids wouldn't even give a second thought as to how all that stuff happens.
Our bedrooms are side by side and after she was tucked in last night, apparently the wheels were still in motion in her brain because she yelled out, "Mom, I'm going to have a lot of questions in the morning, so be prepared." DH even heard her and came in and asked if he heard what he thought he heard!
After decorating, I stopped off at Menards because we still need to figure out how to display all the daily challenge flags that the kids will use. I found exactly the hardware that we need for only $1.28 each. They only had 15, but there are other stores and I'm not so sure we are going to get the 225 kids for whom we planned. Then I stopped at Cub to get milk and quick lunches for the week, so I'm not tempted to buy McD's every day. As I was bagging my groceries, I happened to glance two checkouts over and a woman was bagging up her BLUE jello cups! This is the very Jell-o that both Cub and Rainbow told me that they don't carry and they can't order. So J and I trudged back in and bought out the blue Jello inventory and got the GM to order 6 more cases. Thank you Lord for being a God who cares about details.
Went to bed early so I could be well rested for the big day/week. I have my list, I'm rested, I have a God who cares about the details on my side. I'm ready...
Father, I pray today that our VBS will be an experience for all involved that draws them closer to you. Lord help us to show them your infinite love by our example. Help us through the chaos of check-in, keep our volunteers and children safe and focused on the reasons we gather. Lord, we gather to honor, praise, worship and learn about you. In your holy name, Amen.
Aug. 5, 2006 - My true love gave to me....
I worked a couple hours for Ruthi this morning and then headed off to Jennifer's baby shower. On the way I stopped off at the church rummage sale to see if "my" Christmas china had been sold and for my last chance to purchase them since the sale ended today. I'd been obsessing over these dishes since Thursday when I first saw them come in. DH said he wanted to come to the sale too, and then he could look at them with me. When I got there one of the rummage sale organizers said she had just called me because they had just lowered the price. DH thought they were "ok" and said I should do what I thought. So I got them! It has 12 place settings and each salad plate has a different verse featured from the "Twelve days of Christmas" song . The dinner plate, bowl, cup and saucer just have the poinsetta trim around the edges. I just love them. Now I can have my family over for Christmas, as is our tradition, and have enough place settings for everyone.
Tonight we went to "The Great Gatsby" at the new Guthrie Theater. DH had arranged for the tickets and I felt just like we were dating again. He was such a gentleman and looked so sharp in his suit and tie. The Guthrie was just beautiful. We went early enough to look around the building and spend some time on the outdoor veranda overlooking the Mississippi River and the Stone Arch bridge. Since bowling has been over for the summer we just have not taken the time to "date". I didn't even realize how much I've missed it. And this was different from bowling, because it was just "us." I'm feeling convicted that with all the other activities I'm involved in, my marriage falls too low on the priority list. We do much better when we take care of "us."
Aug. 4, 2006 - He's here!
Mom called this morning to let me know that my nephew William Roman 
was born today around 8 am via scheduled c-section. R was excited and was running around singing, "I'm a cousin, I'm a cousin!" which was pretty funny because he already has 5 cousins on my side alone. I called J at her sleepover to tell her the news and she thought William is a very nice name, but didn't know anyone else named Roman. Mike called later in the day to say that everyone was doing fine and that Baby has lots of hair.
Brady left today around noon after spending the last 4 days and 3 nights here. Then I went to work at Ruthi's for a couple hours. When I got home, I got working on putting together the kids' notebooks for the year. I was just going to do one notebook per kid, but I really like the idea of having a seperate history notebook that they can use for the next 4 years. I am feeling more organized than usual and being ready earlier than usual. Just need the rest of my books to get here.
For the history notebook, I used four different colors (earthtones) of cardstock, one for each school year and time period. R selected which color to start with for this Creation to Greeks year. Then I went through and drew a black horizontal line down the center of the cardstock, leaving the other side blank and put the sheets in the notebook, so as to make a two page spread. When you turn the page, the next two page spread is blank. That way I can file away any work pertaining to that period behind the timeline without interfering with the view of the timeline itself. Voila! Now I just have to figure out how many years to put on a page, so that it makes sense and I don't have too much blank space or have it too crowded. J did a timeline last year which included many of the same timeline figures that we'll use this year, so she can either color a new one and put it in the book or use what she already has. Either way, the good news is that her timeline will be in a nice book and off my kitchen wall! 
I am not feeling well tonight and got a little snippy at the family. Nothing that a little Midol and some rest and some humble pie can't fix.
Aug. 3, 2006 - I finally got it done!
I finally made the time to order all of the last books that I need for the school year. I purchased a portion of this year's MFW curriculum package used, so I needed to round that out, plus get the next level of math and some other odds and ends that we "needed."
So here's the rundown for R (5th grade) and J (2nd grade.)
Bible: Victor Journey through the Bible (new to us this year)
Bible NIV
Celebrating Biblical Feasts
Language Arts: Igniting your Writing (new this year)
Spelling Power (R)
Spelling by Sound and Structure (J) (new this year)
Intermediate Language Lessons (R)
Primary Language Lessons (J)
English from the Roots Up (new this year)
Math: Primary Mathmatics (Singapore)
History: MFW Creation to Greeks
Streams of Civilization (new this year)
Dinosaurs of Eden (new this year)
Notebooking (new) and timelines
Science: Genesis for Kids (new)
Art: God and the History of Art (new-Help me Lord Jesus!)
Music: Intro to Vivaldi
I really wasn't planning on starting school until after Labor Day, but I had some time over last weekend to plan for school and rest while the kids were swimming at Jeanne's. After that, I was just so excited to get going (even though I didn't have everything) that on Monday I just asked J if she wanted to look at her new spelling lessons. I was astonished at myself that I was willing to start without having to have everything perfect and she was interested in the lesson and excited to finally be a 2nd grader. That night, we were doing the Bible reading -starting with Creation-and the kids just wanted to keep going. When Dh got home, we reread the scripture for him and showed him how the kids could read in unison the words God spoke. I told them we could do more in the morning and sure enough it was the first thing J asked for. R asked how if we believe the earth is only 4,000 years old, how can they have dinosaur fossils that are millions of years old. I was so excited to be able to offer him the Dinosaurs of Eden book that we will be reading together. It was just the perfect lead in to introducing that book to the kids. It's very interesting so far.
Our Bible verse for the week is from 2 Timothy, 3:16. "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." J had just told me that she is going to be a Kindergarten math teacher, so I told her that she can use scripture in her "teaching" just like the verse says.
J stayed over at Ellen's for a last sleepover before they move to AZ. R had his last night of football camp. He told me that he was going to help his team win the competition so he could give me the bumper sticker prize. Thanks, Buddy!
Aug. 3, 2006 - I will do a new thing...
Every day something happens with the kids and I say, I want to/will remember this forever. Now you get to share in those moments! I've never been a diary keeper, so let's see how I do!
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