ALL IN A DAY'S WORK FOR A MOM

It's been a little crazy the past couple of days. All five of us are either helping with or attending VBS at our church this week. As usual, I am the kitchen staff (I have three good Middle School/High School helpers this year), Keith is a group guide for the first time (he has done games in the past), Caitlyn is a group guide for the 4th year and the two younger ones are, of course, attending.

This is an interesting year for Keith. Since it is Garrett's first year of being in an actual group rather than the Toddler Room, Shelly put him in Keith's group along with about 15 other 4-year-old boys. Hehe! Serves him right for always saying how "easy" my job is. He has been more exhausted than me chasing those little boys around, taking someone to the potty every 10 minutes, TRYING to get them to walk in a line (yeah, whatever), and not all want the same songbook. Which is actually quite amusing since none of them CAN READ! ; ) I am loving every minute of his experience.

So in God's great way of reminding us not to take pleasure in the trials of others, He put the idea into Shelly's head that I should make Rice Krispie treats for snack one day this year. Ha! I love eating Rice Krispie treats, but seriously dislike making them. If you've ever made them you know how much trouble it is to stir that sticky, messy mixture and then scrape it into a pan. Well, picture trying to make enough for 170 kids + 35 helpers. For obvious reasons I did not want to make these one batch at a time. I mean, I'd have been there for, I don't know, two days or something. So I decide to alter the recipe and make enough to use 3 family size boxes of Rice Krispies at a time. We have an industrial kitchen in our church with industrial-sized pots and pans so I think to myself how great it will be to make a lot of them at one time and only have to make a few batches. Mmmm-hmmmm. Not the best idea I've ever had. Let's just say that today I found out what it would be like to have to mix fast-hardening concrete by hand. NEVER TRY TO MAKE AN "INDUSTRIAL-SIZED" AMOUNT OF RICE KRISPIE TREATS. Seriously, it's a bad idea. Oh, and did I mention I still had to make 8 pans to have enough? And clean-up was loads of fun. Yeah. We aren't having Rice Krispie treats next year unless someone else is in charge of the kitchen and I'm in Maui. Like I said, God has His way of keeping us humble. (Thanks to all the men who stopped by the kitchen to help me mix, lift those ginormous pots and scrape today! You all have Servants' hearts and I appreciate you!)

So after VBS every single one of my kids wanted to bring a friend home. I couldn't take kids home with us today but I offered to pick them all up and take them to the park since Caitlyn and Luke had made plans to play tennis. I was going there anyway so I figured why not kill two birds with one stone so to speak. As it turned out I had to drive all over the county to pick up these kids. None of them, except Garrett's friend Wesley, lived anywhere near us or each other.

Now here's where it gets fun. We left Luke and Caitlyn at the tennis courts and the younger kids and I made our way to the playground. This park has one slide and it is an old metal one that barely has any sides on it at all. The steps are metal and steep and when you slide down it's like a rocket ship launch - it's FAST! There were 6 swings, a bouncy bench-type thing, and lots of climbing things (not one of our best parks, but it had tennis courts). So guess which thing the kids wanted play on. Yep, that's right, the old metal slide. I wasn't too concerned about the 2 girls, but Garrett and Wes scared me. Those two boys are peas in a pod. Neither one of them has any fear and they are typical rowdy, energetic, stunt-loving boys. Not a good combination. Both of them nearly fell over the side a couple of times and they both catapulted off the end of the slide several times landing flat on their backs or their bellies even though they went down on their bottoms (my rule).

As if that weren't enough my son, who has been the single most stubborn kid to potty train, finally started peeing in a toilet on Saturday. Well, he gets almost to the top of the slide, looks at me and starts to wiggle. I said, "Garrett, do you need to potty?" Of course he did, so I told him to come back down the steps and I'd take help him. The bathroom was clear up by the tennis courts which was a good three minute walk. I knew we didn't have that kind of time so I told him he'd have to pee on a tree. He's never done that and neither have I so it was quite an experience. Needless to say, I learned a lesson today which is: a little boy absolutely cannot pee on a tree without pulling his pants all the way down. I know this because I didn't want to expose Garrett's whole hiney in the middle of downtown Kokomo so I tried to help him pee while just pulling the top of his waistband and the top of his pull-up down just enough to get... well, you know. He peed on his shirt, his shorts, his shoes, my bag, my sleeve, and my feet (which were in flip-flops). I kept trying to get his you-know-what back in his pull-up but couldn't quite do that because he wasn't finished so I wasn't really sure what to do. I just knew I didn't want him to pee on me anymore. I'm sure if it were video-taped it would be hilarious, but at the time it wasn't all that funny. Thankfully there was no one else on the playground. I had put some diaper wipes in my bag though so that was a bonus.

After I got Garrett cleaned up and back over to where Wesley was playing I noticed Wes grabbing himself and I thought, "Oh, no! This isn't even my own child. What will I do?" Wes assured me he did not need to pee, but after about 20 minutes of him walking funny and grabbing himself I told the kids it was time to pack it in for the day. I took all the friends home, took my kids to McDonald's and came home and just sat on my bed for a while to reflect on my day.

It has been exhausting to say the least, but it has also been filled with joy and laughter and beautiful weather. I couldn't ask for a better day than this.