Christian Momma

2008 has come and gone already.  It sure seemed to go by quickly…sometimes a little too quickly!

January

The year started out with me beginning to work on Power Lab VBS (Ah Ha!).  I was also homeschooling Michael.  We were pretty on top of our schooling and things were going pretty smoothly at the time.  I was also beginning to work in the K-1 Sunday School class room at church.  That, wasn’t going as smoothly as I had wished.

February

VBS started to consume my thoughts.  I was having dreams about not being ready, and just an overwhelming sense that I’ve bitten off more than I could chew.  AKA…I wasn’t relying on God to help me, I was relying on my own strength to do it.

February also brought about Daniel & Andrew’s 3rd birthday as well as my 34th birthday.

Michael entered his first Science Fair and ended up with a Superior rating!  I was proud, but knew full well that if he had applied himself earlier in the month, but he decided to wait until the last minute to do it.  Then we hit a rough patch in our homeschooling…a bad one.  Causing me to question my ability to teach him not to mention my basic parenting skills.  But, through the Grace of God we got through it with help from some friends in our church.

March

March brought in a lot of saddness.  My grandmother’s health begain to fail drastically.  And a friend of mine lost her child in a horrible accident. My heart ached in ways I never knew it would.  Things in me shined trhough as well.  I didn’t realize how “in tune” I was to other’s saddness.  Michael had a meeting with the staff from his online school and things turned out so much better than I had originally anticipated.

April

In April, I took a blogging break…school slipped behind and I had to push Michael to get as much done as possible a day!  Spring seemed to bring out the worst in his schooling abilities and slowly we fell behind.

May

I won this Word Press blog…I’m ever so greatful to Lisa for hosting the giveaway that allowed me to win! The final push to get VBS was upon us.  VBS was scheduled for the 2nd week of June.  My grandmother passed away that month as well.

June

VBS week came and went without too much problems.  Yes, there were a few bumps in the road, but overall things turned out GREAT!  I was elated that things went as well as they did and relieved that it was all over with as well.

July

We celebrated Michael’s 11th birthday in July along with Kevin and I’s 14th wedding anniversary.  In between those 2 events, we threw my mom and dad a 60th Birthday/40th Wedding Anniversary party.  We were very impressed that we were able to pull it off!  Mom and dad had only suspected that we were planning on all going out to eat together, not that we would have all of their friends and family at a hall waiting for their arrival!  We even got one of their friends from High School to travel from Chicago to Ohio to celebrate with them as well!

We also got to see Extreme Makeover Home Edition in our town.  My mother drove down the night before to stay overnight and we headed out to the new house to watch the bus move.  That is a day that was HOT, but I wouldn’t have missed for the world.  To see something like that is a once in a lifetime thing.  Michael still claims to have High-Fived Ty!

August

We went for our 1 and only camping trip of the year.  We had so much fun, and would love to go back to the Michigan Dunes again.  Our church also had a Worship Night.  Something changed in me that night and I have been forever changed!

September

School started right after Labor Day!  We decided to send Michael back to public school since things weren’t working out the best for us at home.  We are happy to report that he is doing wonderful in the public school!

We celebrated Noah’s 8th birthday in September.  We also found out that an eight year old child, when given $20 in cash and not watched very closely at the grocery store (because mom and dad were busy ringing/bagging groceries), will spend the whole $20 on lottery tickets!  And before you ask…YES it’s illegal for him to purchase them, but when they have a “vending machine” of lottery tickets just sitting over by the bubble gum machines, it’s just calling for a child to play with it!  And he only wond $2!

October

In October, Kevin and I started going to a new Bible Study.  I was elated that Kevin wanted to go to one since he has never really showed any interest in going before.

We also walked, for the first time, in the JDRF Walk for a Cure for my Niece.  We were so proud of her, she ended up getting 2 awards…one for the amount of money raised and the other for the T-Shirt design!

November

We celebrated Kevin’s 38th birthday.  How?  Well, I went to a Arbone party and he watched football…now that’s love!

We had our traditional weekend after Thanksgiving shopping adventure.  My parents’ took Michael, Noah, Daniel, & Andrew for the weekend (it ended up my parents had Daniel & Andrew and my sister had Michael & Noah).  We always enjoy that weekend away from the boys.  It’s nice to pretend we are childless…even if it’s just for the weekend!  But we are always so excited when they return.

December

We spent most of the month either running from Christmas Program to Christmas Program or from Christmas to Christmas.  However this year it seemed to be a little less travel than usual.  We only spent 1 night up at my parent’s house and we actually had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at home for the first time in a long time!

For 2009, I’m sure there will be new things that God shows us along the way, new challenges to overcome and new friends to meet, but I trust that God will be joining us along this journey and we will rest in the knowledge of Him.

Last night was our VBS Finale’! It went GREAT! We had those big blow up jumpy things (yeah…I don’t know what they are called), a tent for dinner, and a cotton candy machine!

I didn’t get a chance to eat…I had so much stuff I had to do…so much running from inside and out! When I got inside, they were having trouble with the cotton candy machine and since I was the only sucker one to learn how to run it, I had to go over and actually work the machine! I had cotton candy EVERYWHERE! I went home singing…I’m hot, sticky, sweet, from my head to my feet

Anyway, the children LOVED everything, I only heard good comments from parents and kids were asking where they could go for the next Power Lab!!

My staff…what can I say about a wonderful group of men and women who pour their whole heart and soul into doing God’s work. They were great, I couldn’t have run the week without them!

88 Children in 1 week went through our VBS. Let me just say, if your church is doing Group’s Power Lab, it will be a success! The children were absolutely loving it! I have heard a number of children talking about what other church in the area was doing Power Lab and which church they were going to next!

Last night was the Salvation message. I haven’t heard if any child was saved, however, I know the seed was planted. All the children knew the answers to the questions that our “characters” were asking them! They are getting it!!

I have been truly blessed by the volunteers and helpers! I couldn’t have done this without their help! Not to mention the Children’s Ministry Director…even if she couldn’t make it to Power Lab for more than 30 minutes a couple nights, it was great to have her support over the phone and throughout the process of getting things together!

Tonight is our last night…it’s Family night, so my job is very simple. We will have the normal opening and then have our “closer” come up and do an experiment (or 2) and then send the children outside for food and games. Our church had lined up those big blow-up bouncy things! The kids are going to love it!!

15 more children!! We had 83 children Tuesday night! Not to mention we had quite a few volunteers missing because Tuesday is church softball night and swim meet night! Talk about crazy!!

Things are still going smoothly…I’m so impressed at how my volunteers are not only excited, but getting into character! It’s really great to see! I have only heard wonderful things from the children and from their parents.

Even though I’m thoroughly exhausted, I’m having a great time…don’t tell the Children’s Ministry director, or I might have to do this again! LOL

Last night was so much easier than the 1st night. Things went smoothly…registration didn’t take much time, children knew what to expect, their anticipation was up. I didn’t need to run around as often as I did the 1st night.

We had 68 children last night…I was glad to see it grow!

I feel like there was a life changing moment that happened last night at the registration table.

I just happened to walk up to the registration table to give them more pens. A family with 2 young boys came up to the table to register. Let me remind you that we are running an Elementary only VBS. These 2 young boys were 3 and 5. As they turned away from the table to go back to their car, I had one of the registration people turn to me and ask if it was possible to bring in 2 preschoolers. I said Absolutely! We have a few crew leaders without a crew at the moment. The family was called back to the table, I looked at the mom (who was visibly upset) and said, “We’ll make room for them”. She thanked me over and over. She had told me that her boys were looking forward to this VBS for some time!

After they got the boys settled into the crews we chose for them, I went and pulled the registration papers to see if they had been to our church before. No church was listed on their papers.

I’m so glad we didn’t turn them away…who knows what type of seed had been planted into that family and how the adjustment for their children will affect them.

I talked to our pastor that night and informed him that I went ahead and put the 2 preschoolers in the VBS. He told me…”You saw a need and you filled it.” I just explained to him that I put myself into the mother’s shoes…I would have been heartbroken and bitter had my children been turned away from VBS!!

Ok, so I’m a day late, but wanted to get this down.

Sunday was such a long day! I was at the church by 8:15 am to help the Children’s Ministry Director make sure all the teachers were in place. When I get to church, I usually park far away from the door to allow others to park close, not this week. I parked right in front of the door…I had lots of items to unload from my car.

After I make sure everyone is in their class, I make my way to the sanctuary for 1st service. I’m tired already, but know that I have a long day ahead of me. Since my wonderful husband was running the sound board today, I had to find a place to sit by myself, so I see Dennis (a wonderful man who had at one time been a minister and has this gifting of knowing what to say when you need to hear it…and seeing past your front). Little did I know at the point I sat next to him that he was giving the message. He looked at me and asked how I was doing (which was a familiar question that day). I didn’t hesitate and looked straight at him and said “I’m scared to death”…when I realized that had come from my mouth, I was shocked! I was telling everyone who asked me that day that I was fine. He looked at me and said it would work out fine, and to catch him between services so we could chat.

Wouldn’t you know it, his sermon was on David and Gollith and how David faced his giant and how David was someone else’s Hero. He reminded everyone that we are someone else’s Hero, you may not know who, but you are. That hit me. Something I needed that day at that moment in time.

I did catch him after service and told him that I was going to be ok…and VBS as going to be fine!

After making sure all the teachers were in 2nd service, I sat in the cafe and talked to a few people who needed me to answer questions for VBS. I felt like I was the interviewer who was giving lots of interviews for a position.

After church, I had to deal with a HUGE set issue. I hate confrontation, my stomach was churning, I had a huge headache. I talked to the decorating crew, I talked to the VBS Worship team. A decision was made…people were upset.

I then took my children to the grocery store (my husband rode his motorcycle to church, so he followed). We got our groceries and came home so I could get some other things done for VBS. Grab lunch and head back to church.

At around 2:30 pm, I showed back up at church to finish getting things set up and ready to go. Can I say, I was in the ZONE! I was belting out orders and giving directions to people like it was second nature. I know it was God working through me because I’ve never considered myself a leader…I’m a follower!

VBS started and my main focus was getting the registration set up properly so we didn’t have children just entering the sanctuary without registering.

I missed the opening, I was bummed about that, but I know she’ll do the same thing on Thursday night (Family night). I ran around the sanctuary talking to the crew leaders who didn’t have a crew and instructed them to team up with a bigger crew to help them out.

Things ran smoothly Sunday night…we had 60 children (Elementary only)…with only a couple bumps in the road, but the only ones who noticed the bumps were the ones I had been working with.

We left the church a little after 9:30 pm. I was exhausted. I got home and went to bed right away!

I am up to my eyeballs in VBS stuff! I’m swamped with all the little tasks and trying to pick up those dropped balls get last minute things all cleared up.

I’m so happy to say, I’m not really stressed…I may change my mind when all the children show up on Sunday, but right now I’m not.

I am co-directing this year (my 1st time doing that) and the person I co-direct with just had a baby 2 weeks ago, so I’m not sure how much she will be doing.

I keep telling myself it’s only 1 week of my life how much this will mean to all those children. I know I was chosen for “such a time as this.” Everything will fall into place, I have no doubt about that!

This past week, we went and got a new dog! My boys were so excited about that too…she’s an AKC German Shepherd! She’s so pretty…and the last one left of her litter! We’ve been looking for dogs for quite some time…but weren’t looking all that hard. When we saw the ad in the paper for her, we called. Next thing I knew, we were driving down to KY to pick her up!!

So, without further ado…I’d like you to meet Sierra

The boys absolutely adore her! Michael always asks to take her out to “potty”.

As far as the new “do”, well, last Thursday, I decided to run to get my hair trimmed before I went to my Zumba class. Notice, I said trimmed? Well, after getting in there and talking with the lady, I decided to get it cut.

Kevin took my picture before church…

So, yesterday at church, we had our Ministry Fair. Since I’m the Director for this summer’s VBS, I got to run the booth…of course since I have been taking pictures for the church and all the booths, my wonderful husband took my picture! What do you think? Can I pull off the “Science” look?

Have a wonderful day!

I have never been hit so hard by Satan’s attempts to drag me down as I have these past couple of days! I know it has to do with my involvement in what God wants me to do…Praise & Worship, Teaching Sunday School, & VBS…and with Kevin getting involved…Sound team.

Michael is showing signs of rebellion and it came to a head today. I don’t want to go into it right now, I just am asking for prayer.

5 of the 6 of us are sick! And get this…I was supposed to sing this weekend and Kevin was supposed to run sound. Not to mention that Saturday is Daniel & Andrew’s birthday. Do you see how Satan is trying to drag us down! Please pray for us. I need a Spiritual covering and am in dire need of getting immersed in His word!

Thanks!

I’m starting to feel a bit overwhelmed with VBS! I think I’m thinking too much…trying to figure out too much detail right now. I’ll be having another meeting here in the next week or so. Hopefully, things aren’t so confusing to me by then!