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no vacation in vbs

the good moms bake cookies and mac n cheese from scratch. they always remember to brush their kids teeth, they rarely drive through, they monitor cartoon time (rather than use it to squeeze in a nap or check facebook), they think their new minivans are cool and most importantly they get really excited about things like volunteering at vacation bible school.

i on the other hand dread it.
it is a misnomer really. their is no vacation about it.
this mom is none of the above and even doesn't answer her phone when she thinks that the church is calling to ask for volunteers for the 3 year old sunday school class. i have nothing against volunteering. really i am all for it. it is just that I'd much rather sort clothes for the mission center, or make food for the homeless, or hey even get a filling than "teach" a roomful of little kids.
little kids scare me. i am not good at that fake happy everything is exciting voice. i can barely discipline my own kids, much less a dozen others. when they cry, i want to join in.

but for vacation bible school i figure it is time to pay my dues. i didn't work one day ( for no good reason, but I didn't stop other people from thinking i had important things to do). i pulled for what i thought would be the easiest job. snacks. i pictured passing out grahm crackers and cups of lemonaide to all the rooms.

not exactly.

think 800+ kids and nothing as brilliantly simple as an oatmeal cream pie or pop ice.
instead i had to count out individual animal crackers and add cool whip and chocolate chips ( who thought of that weird snack?), cooks billions and billions of corndogs. also one of my absolute favorite snacks of all time might be ruined. nachos. you know the fake cheese ballpark kind. counting out 9 chips per bowl and ladle out ( read end up wearing) lots of uncheese.
the food and labor weren't actually so bad, but factor in over 100 degree weather and that we were serving these snacks outside. some of the above mentioned moms who really felt like snack was of super world importance. moms who fought over the best way to distribute the formentioned super fancy snacks. i for once kept my mouth closed, did what i was asked, didn't asked questions, secretly dubbed someone the "snack nazi" (...ok, it slipped and i told a few people but it is a secret to her), and counted out my mini corndogs.

but last night, owen sits down on the couch next to ( well more like on top of) Tess and starts talking to her. Shaun pulls him off her and asks what he was trying to tell Tess.

"I was telling Tessie about Jesus".

then to his sister ever so sweetly, "Tessie, Jesus loves you".

it was a bit more than I could handle, I slipped into the kitchen to pretend to do dishes while i quietly cried.
and I can't wait to volunteer next year.

Comments

Alyssa said…
That's the sweetest thing ever!
June 26, 2009 at 6:48 AM
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