Jesus is our life! ~ VBS 2006
Yes, I am too tired to search for any other quote so I decided to use one of the phrases I rattled off numerous times during VBS. In reality, I have been thoroughly consumed with Bible School this week. It was bigger than I imagined! Overall we enrolled 91 children as participants. We had over 20 adult volunteers and over 20 "tween" and teen helpers. I am exhausted, but feel good about accomplishing this endeavor. I have plenty left to learn and much room for improvement, but that will come with time. I am dedicated to doing it again next year with some changes. I will ponder them over the course of the next year and see what we can to make VBS 2007 even better. It's late. My words are not coming easily and my fingers are not typing well. I have created a Power Point to show in church on Sunday to thank our congregation for all their love, support, and financial gifts. I think I have been on this computer for at least two hours so I am going to quit and go to bed. Thanks for "listening" to all these posts about VBS and all the votes of confidence. They all helped. By the way, Jazzy, I DID see that son of yours smile at VBS....I did avoid the Chadder room, though. I know that some of you who read this helped in some way and I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH! From set-up, to daily assistance, to clean up...you are amazing!!! I will post a picture when I feel like using Explorer....Netscape won't let me add pictures OR spell check! Now off to bed to drift off to sleep thinking about the "wrapping up of loose ends". Hopefully sleep will rescue me quickly. Good night!
Friday, June 30, 2006
Monday, June 26, 2006
One Down....
It pays to plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark. ~ Unknown
Day one is done. A bounty of children showed up....more than expected, but close to what I had planned (even though most did not believe my estimates). We ran out of crafts for one group. We had only 2 cupcakes left over and I had asked for more than what I really thought we would need. I think everyone had fun. It amazes me to think that the previous director was able to walk in and leave for long periods of time each day. I felt like I was extinguishing small fires all morning. As crazy as it was, I am thankful for the large number of children that came. I hope the week continues to have a large number of attendees. I think I'm gonna take a nap....the filth of my home will still be here later, right?
Day one is done. A bounty of children showed up....more than expected, but close to what I had planned (even though most did not believe my estimates). We ran out of crafts for one group. We had only 2 cupcakes left over and I had asked for more than what I really thought we would need. I think everyone had fun. It amazes me to think that the previous director was able to walk in and leave for long periods of time each day. I felt like I was extinguishing small fires all morning. As crazy as it was, I am thankful for the large number of children that came. I hope the week continues to have a large number of attendees. I think I'm gonna take a nap....the filth of my home will still be here later, right?
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Ready or Not...
He who is well prepared has won half the battle. ~ Unknown
Tomorrow is the day....VBS begins! I have made list after list. Updated each list. Estimated the names and numbers of the children who will attend. Tried to figure out just how many of each snack supply we will need for each day (not knowing the number of kids we are going to have). Shopped. Decorated. Worried. Basically, I have won half the battle because I don't think I could be ANY more prepared. The decorations are done. The sanctuary looks gorgeous...the youth and their leader did a fantastic job. The other rooms look good, too. The story room is not as elaborate as the manual suggests, but that just leaves room for improvement next year OR it challenges the children to use their imaginations (I'll go with the latter). I am so thankful for all the help! Now I am going to bed so I can get enough rest for the other half of the battle. As I told one of the first-time station leaders after she expressed her anxiety about tomorrow, I was/am nervous too...I have never directed the VBS BUT I am positive that once it gets underway, it will all be great and there will be nothing left to worry about. The kids WILL have fun and the week will go well. :0) YAY for tomorrow! Ethel, the photographer, is taking pictures throughout the week so I will be sure to post some. :0)
Tomorrow is the day....VBS begins! I have made list after list. Updated each list. Estimated the names and numbers of the children who will attend. Tried to figure out just how many of each snack supply we will need for each day (not knowing the number of kids we are going to have). Shopped. Decorated. Worried. Basically, I have won half the battle because I don't think I could be ANY more prepared. The decorations are done. The sanctuary looks gorgeous...the youth and their leader did a fantastic job. The other rooms look good, too. The story room is not as elaborate as the manual suggests, but that just leaves room for improvement next year OR it challenges the children to use their imaginations (I'll go with the latter). I am so thankful for all the help! Now I am going to bed so I can get enough rest for the other half of the battle. As I told one of the first-time station leaders after she expressed her anxiety about tomorrow, I was/am nervous too...I have never directed the VBS BUT I am positive that once it gets underway, it will all be great and there will be nothing left to worry about. The kids WILL have fun and the week will go well. :0) YAY for tomorrow! Ethel, the photographer, is taking pictures throughout the week so I will be sure to post some. :0)
Monday, June 19, 2006
Eureka!
You never will be the person you can be if pressure, tension and discipline are taken out of your life. ~James G. Bilkey
Here it is...the quote that defines my life. When I sit down to blog, I always search for the perfect quote to exemplify my feelings, thoughts, rants, etc. Tonight as I sat down to compose, I searched for quotes about slackers. I could find next to nothing and what I did find was junk. Next I moved to the topic of stress. Here is where I hit the motherlode. Most of what I found, though, spoke poorly of stress.....some drivel about there not being stress in nature and stress being some type of defect. Of course I'm not going to stand for THAT! Like I'm going to view stress as something negative when it is part of my essence. On I trudged until I found this gem....my new mantra...my explanation for my type-A personality ("A" standing for anal of course). I have been stressed from the moment my eyes popped open far too early this morning. At 6 AM I awoke having a horrific dream about Vacation Bible School....my new compulsion. I am a co-director this year. It officially begins one week from today. I am having to rely on a number of people with whom I have not worked before. I have not been able to get in touch with some of them. I don't know when we are setting up. What needs to be bought. What decorations are complete. Who is in charge of each crew. With so many unknowns, I am almost in hives and have had a headache ALL day. I am not sure if the headache is hormonal, stress-related, or (even better) related to my wretched ear. I was just noticing the other day that the daily sloshing of fluid was now absent. Guess what?! I "spoke" too soon! All day I've heard it whenever I've bent down to pick something up. YAY! Maybe it will get infected and burst again! JOY! To compensate for the plethora of unknown factors, I have typed informational letters for each station-leader, typed up the schedule, made door hangers/fliers for the children in the village, written lists, tried to hunt down books, delivered a packet, created a certificate, updated the supply list with volunteer suppliers, and made a shopping list in Excel. I came within millimeters of creating a VBS Blog. All these loose ends HAVE to come together soon or I am going to completely freak out. As I sit here griping, and I guess this is how He tends to work, one of the really old VBS songs has popped into my head..."Cast your burdens
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
There Go My Babies
How did it get so late so soon? It's night before it's afternoon. December is here before it is June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon? ~ Dr. Seuss
Just yesterday these children were giggling and sword fighting on a second grade field trip and now they are high school graduates! I am absolutely amazed at how quickly time has passed and how much has changed. Technically, my first class graduated two years ago...but that was from the first school where I taught. I lost touch with all of those children...except for the ones I read about in the court section of the newspaper. This was my first class of students "from home". I have watched these children grow from children into adults. There will always be a connection between this group of children and myself. I don't know if they realize how special they are to me since they are still neophytes when it comes to adult emotion. We spent the first two years of my CHS career learning together. I taught them and they certainly taught me. Daughter was born when I had this group of children. I fielded many a question about pregnancy and breastfeeding. I learned how to deal with children pulling down their pants in class. And those are just two small examples! Before the ceremony on Saturday night I wrote a personal note to all of my graduating "babies" and passed each one a card right before they entered the gym. One hugged me and said, "You were always my favorite!" Wow! What a compliment considering the vast number of excellent teachers that student has encountered in her career. One boy I hadn't seen in forever was amazingly tall! He said, "I haven't seen you in so long!" All I could say was "I remember when I used to look down to talk to you!" I was so proud of each of them. Of course not all of the students in the picture graduated with the class...some have moved or were retained, but that's the way life goes. I was also extremely proud when the salutatorian and valedictorian were both former students. Even in second grade I knew they were going to be at the top of the class. It's amazing how that can be seen so early. I wish all the graduates much success in the future. Congratulations, class of 2006!
Friday, June 09, 2006
Crime Does Pay
And whether you're an honest man, or whether you're a thief,
Depends on whose solicitor has given me the brief. ~ Benjamin Franklin
Prior to commencing the wrath, I must warn you that I have had a terribly stressful and exhausting week that does not have an end in sight for many days. I will attempt to focus on the main purpose of ranting, but cannot promise that I will be able to stick to the topic at hand.
Yes, I understand that this is only fourth grade in my rural beach town and that it will probably look as though I am complaining because my kid did not receive the award that I am about to trash and in the grand scheme of things this will not matter to anyone ever. Having said that, I cannot get past it without publicly bitching about the situation. Yesterday was the 3rd-4th grade awards assembly. I was SO proud of Daughter for earning a medal for making Principal's List for the entire year! She missed it by ONE "B" last year! Many months ago Daughter's pencil pouch containing all of her writing and coloring tools was stolen. Daughter saw what resembled the pencil pouch in a friend's cubbie and asked the child (henceforth referred to as Mugsy) where she had gotten the pouch. Mugsy said that she had gotten it at home. My anal tendencies did not pay off in this situation since there was no tag on which to put Daughter's name so I had not placed her name anywhere on the pouch, fearing that the pouch would be ruined. Mugsy then wrote her own name on the pouch. Daughter recognized specific items in the pouch that we had purchased...especially the scented erasers. These were different than most of the other school supplies because we had purchased them the year before and had not used them because they did not match that year's color palette of supplies. We broke them out this year because even though they were "last season", they matched this year's colors. I would not have pursued it, but it was really bothering Daughter to know that someone had her stuff and was getting away with it. I knew that Mugsy's teacher had an obvious "soft spot" for her and a rather strong unfavorable feeling towards me. I knew I could not approach her about the problem. After discussing the situation with a friend, I finally broached the Pencil Pouch Problem with another 4th grade teacher, Secret Agent (she would be ideal for any CIA position or any position that required making people "come clean"). An unsuccessful sting operation was set up. Finally, Mugsy was approached by the Secret Agent and finally confessed to the crime. She crossed her name off the pencil pouch and sloppily wrote Daughter's name at least three times, in my opinion, ruining the pouch as it no longer looked neat...it looked like a piece of used crap. So, Mugsy not only stole...she also lied to a friend, lied to adults, and defaced property. Stellar.
Return now to the semi-present.....Thursday's award ceremony. Mugsy is in the homeroom of that "soft spot" teacher (like I'd give out any of her code names HERE). I see Mugsy's mom and dad (did I mention that Soft Spot had a serious dating relationship with Mugsy's dad?) at school for the awards assembly. As her name is called BY Soft Spot for the freakin' Citizenship Award of all things, all I could do was lean over and whisper, "Pencil pouch!" in Hubby's ear. Soft Spot spoke of her so eloquently...smiling face blah blah blah NEVER CATTY blah blah blah. Puke, wretch, barf, vomit - ugh! Did I expect my kid to get the Citizenship Award? No. Did I expect a thief to get the Citizenship Award? Hell, no! I had absolutely no objections to the other recipients....but c'mon! As I share this tale with others who know the story of the pencil pouch heist, they are astonished....that IS until I mention Mugsy's name. Then they know WHY that kid received the recognition. In fact, one teacher made the comment to another teacher before the assembly that she was willing to bet that Mugsy would get the award....just because of the Soft Spot situation!!!
Next year we are going to steal all of our school supplies from other students, deface them, and lie about where we got them. I want to guarantee that Daughter gets that award. But will that be good enough? Should we resort to physical violence? Should she bring a weapon to school and actually have a hold up? Please devise the perfect crime she could commit to bring home a gold in Citizenship. I guess we could always go and steal Mugsy's medal...we could always say that Daughter GOT the Citizenship Award, couldn't we?!
Depends on whose solicitor has given me the brief. ~ Benjamin Franklin
Prior to commencing the wrath, I must warn you that I have had a terribly stressful and exhausting week that does not have an end in sight for many days. I will attempt to focus on the main purpose of ranting, but cannot promise that I will be able to stick to the topic at hand.
Yes, I understand that this is only fourth grade in my rural beach town and that it will probably look as though I am complaining because my kid did not receive the award that I am about to trash and in the grand scheme of things this will not matter to anyone ever. Having said that, I cannot get past it without publicly bitching about the situation. Yesterday was the 3rd-4th grade awards assembly. I was SO proud of Daughter for earning a medal for making Principal's List for the entire year! She missed it by ONE "B" last year! Many months ago Daughter's pencil pouch containing all of her writing and coloring tools was stolen. Daughter saw what resembled the pencil pouch in a friend's cubbie and asked the child (henceforth referred to as Mugsy) where she had gotten the pouch. Mugsy said that she had gotten it at home. My anal tendencies did not pay off in this situation since there was no tag on which to put Daughter's name so I had not placed her name anywhere on the pouch, fearing that the pouch would be ruined. Mugsy then wrote her own name on the pouch. Daughter recognized specific items in the pouch that we had purchased...especially the scented erasers. These were different than most of the other school supplies because we had purchased them the year before and had not used them because they did not match that year's color palette of supplies. We broke them out this year because even though they were "last season", they matched this year's colors. I would not have pursued it, but it was really bothering Daughter to know that someone had her stuff and was getting away with it. I knew that Mugsy's teacher had an obvious "soft spot" for her and a rather strong unfavorable feeling towards me. I knew I could not approach her about the problem. After discussing the situation with a friend, I finally broached the Pencil Pouch Problem with another 4th grade teacher, Secret Agent (she would be ideal for any CIA position or any position that required making people "come clean"). An unsuccessful sting operation was set up. Finally, Mugsy was approached by the Secret Agent and finally confessed to the crime. She crossed her name off the pencil pouch and sloppily wrote Daughter's name at least three times, in my opinion, ruining the pouch as it no longer looked neat...it looked like a piece of used crap. So, Mugsy not only stole...she also lied to a friend, lied to adults, and defaced property. Stellar.
Return now to the semi-present.....Thursday's award ceremony. Mugsy is in the homeroom of that "soft spot" teacher (like I'd give out any of her code names HERE). I see Mugsy's mom and dad (did I mention that Soft Spot had a serious dating relationship with Mugsy's dad?) at school for the awards assembly. As her name is called BY Soft Spot for the freakin' Citizenship Award of all things, all I could do was lean over and whisper, "Pencil pouch!" in Hubby's ear. Soft Spot spoke of her so eloquently...smiling face blah blah blah NEVER CATTY blah blah blah. Puke, wretch, barf, vomit - ugh! Did I expect my kid to get the Citizenship Award? No. Did I expect a thief to get the Citizenship Award? Hell, no! I had absolutely no objections to the other recipients....but c'mon! As I share this tale with others who know the story of the pencil pouch heist, they are astonished....that IS until I mention Mugsy's name. Then they know WHY that kid received the recognition. In fact, one teacher made the comment to another teacher before the assembly that she was willing to bet that Mugsy would get the award....just because of the Soft Spot situation!!!
Next year we are going to steal all of our school supplies from other students, deface them, and lie about where we got them. I want to guarantee that Daughter gets that award. But will that be good enough? Should we resort to physical violence? Should she bring a weapon to school and actually have a hold up? Please devise the perfect crime she could commit to bring home a gold in Citizenship. I guess we could always go and steal Mugsy's medal...we could always say that Daughter GOT the Citizenship Award, couldn't we?!
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