Three Things on Thursday... one day late

#1- This week has been crazy busy (which is why this blog is coming to you a day late). I volunteered to help with VBS at my parent's church (and sort of my church... I am a church hopper right now). Anyways. I had intended to sign up doing something low key like snacks/refreshments. By the time I got around to signing up though, the "easy" jobs were gone. I asked about being a preschool assistant. I was told they really needed teachers. I am a sucker- and a people pleaser. Thus, I was a preschool teacher this week. The bonus was that I had Silas in my group, so it was a fun thing for us to do together. I had 2 helpers and 8 kids- not bad at all. And our kids were really well behaved (at least compared to some of the kids in other groups!) The thing that killed me this week was getting up early. We really needed to be leaving the house by 7:30AM. (Notice I said "needed to"- that is also code for, it never actually happened). Normally my early riser is Silas at around 8:30AM- and I often try to convince him to go back to sleep for a little bit longer. So getting up early was a huge challenge. Thursday morning I overslept. I work up at 7:30AM (remember, the time I am supposed to be leaving). You know how normally when you oversleep, you fly out of bed and the adrenaline starts pumping? This did not happen for me. I was out of adrenaline apparently- I was that tired. I just started getting ready, got the kids ready, and left late. Thankfully there was no traffic. I only arrived about 10 minutes late- not bad at all. Then I opened the van door. Levi had projectile spit up all over himself- even getting some on the seat of the car. Awesome. (Side note: Levi has never done this- so of course it happens in the car and when we are running late). So I had to clean him up and change him, and then clean up his car seat. Needless to say, the day continued to have other "bumps"- like forgetting some important VBS stuff and breaking my new sunglasses. Oy!

#2- Working at VBS has really opened my eyes to ministry. Ministry is great- and God calls us to serve. But I have realized that my first ministry is my family- Luke and my children. If I can't do that well, I shouldn't be doing anything else. I think it's so easy to fall into a trap, especially for Christians when it comes to church, of trying to do a lot and help with everything. Serving others is a good thing- but serving my family is a better thing. I don't regret working in VBS this week- despite being tired it was a lot of fun. And it worked for the kids. We got up earlier but took earlier and longer naps. (Note, I said "we." I think I took a nap every day this week too.) But this week was a good reminder to me that I need to be careful about how much I commit myself to- because everything I do effects my family- especially my children. I love being a mom. And I don't want to be so busy doing things, that my children (and Luke) get only my leftovers. I want to give them my best.

#3- We have lots of exciting stuff coming up- I can hardly wait! My sister and her family arrive on Monday to visit for about 10 days. My sister is one of my best friends- and I haven't seen her since November. I haven't seen my nieces and nephews since October. So we are all really excited for lots of days of summer fun. Silas is already thinking up a long list of things to do with his cousins while they are here. The day after my sister leaves, we leave for our Tour de California. We will be spending time in San Diego, San Jose, and Redding. We cannot wait! Luke and I started making a list of things we wanted to do in San Jose while we were there. We realized pretty quickly that most of our list revolved around eating and coffee. Sad, but true. We are really excited to see family and friends while we are there too. We love Colorado and are really happy we live here, but there is much we miss about California too... Though one of those things, IKEA, is coming to Denver soon! We will be hitting that up once we return from our trip.

I hope you enjoy your weekend. I am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow- and *hoping* that our waking up early this week does not carry over to tomorrow and become the norm for my kids. :)