Tonight is the night.  The night that VBS at our church begins.  The night that children flock to our small worship place from miles and miles.  The night where we sing, dance, and eat a lot of goldfish crackers.  The night where I ultimately lose my mind, along with all the other adult workers.

I am craft woman.  I have been craft woman for 3 years now.  Craft people generally last about 3-5 years, and then they usually get committed to an institution, so I may be good for another round or two....you never can tell.  I like crafts, which is why I volunteered to head this up a few years ago.  However, I've decided that I like to do crafts by myself.  Leading a cramped room of about 30 hot, sweaty kids in crafts is not something I like afterall.  But someone has to do it....might as well be me.

Actually since I discovered Oriental Trading Company it's not half bad.  This year was especially easy because our theme is "Where the Wild Things Are" with a jungle-type motif, and they had jungle crafts out the wazoo.  They package all their crafts individually with all the pieces included.  Basically all that I and my co-workers have to do is open the package and hand it to a child to assemble.  There are always a few glitches though.  Tonight we are supposed to make these beaded animal necklaces.  I got one out earlier to make a sample and discovered that the jute twine they include doesn't fit through some of the wooden beads.  Brilliant.  So I spent a good part of my morning trimming lengths from some thinner jute that I, by the grace of God, had around the house.

Every year I have at least one person ask me how I go about picking out the crafts.  My guidelines are that I generally avoid anything that involves paint, glue or glitter.  Sounds tricky, doesn't it?  Not with Oriental Trading Company!  They have self-adhesive everything and paint pens at very reasonable prices.  And glitter is just evil and needs to be shot.  We don't do glitter...ever.  Our crafts are very non-shiny.

No matter how much I simplify the craft process, everything I choose still makes Mr. B nervous.  Mr. B is an elderly man who helps out in the craft room every year.  He will come back every night, hover around while I'm getting things ready, and ask, "So Craft Woman, what do you have planned for tonight?"  I will show him the foam door hangers or the string art crosses, and he will inevitably have the exact same reaction.  He shakes his head, sits down, and says, "Oh dear."  (You see why we can't use glitter....it would probably make Mr. B faint.) After he's recovered from the shock, however, he gets up and proceeds to be one of my best helpers, bless his heart. 

Every year we never have any idea how many kids are going to show up.  It could be 15 or it could be 150.  If it's 150, you will find me hiding in the bathroom, sniffing my forbidden glue.

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Posted by Debbles107

I hope your first night went well! I love crafts too, but for VBS, I stick with music. It's safer!

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Posted by Lori

You make me laugh! Your dear helper pops out of the screen into my imagination. (:

Thanks for faithfully stopping by my blog! I did MOTH a number of years ago (Before Kids), and the most useful thing I learned was that if you do the same thing every day for a little bit, the project gets done. The other useful thing is to pray about what needs to get done, and put the "big rocks" (most important things) in the schedule routinely. That is how Miss Random (me) scrapbooked my entire life up until age 25, and the first two years of our marriage. (; My dear oldest child is scrapbooked up to about 35 weeks in utero, and dd is scrapbooked not at all, poor dear! I hope to make amends in the next three weeks! (: Do you have any tips?

I think I will take the scheduling off my blog, since the server can't seem to handle it and keeps erasing my smiley faces (AAARGH!), and my dh gets frustrated when his darling is glued to the screen, the last thing at night, trying to put my happy faces in each block. I think I will have to go with a paper notebook version that requires less start-up (and less tempting diversions, such as e-mail, etc).

Thank you for tagging me! I will try to answer your questions today.

Warmly,
Lori

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Posted by Lori

BTW, I tagged you back...

(:
Lori

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Posted by Anonymous

I love your page! I hope that VBS is going okay.....I know that I still miss those times....Well, I am glad to hear from you. You are always in my mind and I am always talking about you all.

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