Ordinary Days: Photo Journey (2)

What an incredible week it has been! VBS is just about to wrap up after MANY months of planning. It has been another fantastic year. Watching well over 400 kids come through our doors each night learning about how God is Wild About Them is priceless. It may be an exhausting week that definitely takes a toll on the body and creates havoc (leaving my house in utter chaos!), but it is absolutely one of our greatest highlights of our entire year. Though I didn't have a real chance to take pictures of Bradlee (especially since our church is so large that we have to divide 3 year olds through Kindergarten from the 1st-5th grade departments and I was involved with the older kids), we did get a few chances to peek in as we were in and out. Here are some of my favorites:

Hopefully, the photographer that took tons of pictures through our week will have snagged some of Bradlee that I can copy and use in his scrapbooks. 

Though VBS has overtaken our home this week and in the weeks prior of prep work, we still managed to have some family time.  We enjoyed meeting up and eating as a family in Oasis (the Jr. high and high school section of our church that is set up like a diner).  It gave us a chance to have a few minutes of reconnection with Kevin before we were all running in different directions. 

We also enjoyed a free outdoor concert hosted by our UNBELIEVABLY amazing Christian radio station WBGL.  Chris August entertained us with his CORNY jokes and BEAUTIFUL music.  He was just named Male Vocalist of the Year and New Artist of the Year at the Dove Awards in April.  It was a super night to just sit back, relax, and listen to fantastic music.  He ended the night with "Starry Night", which is one of our favorites. 

I also was able to turn over my dresses to the sweet lady that is going to Ghana in just over a week.  It felt so strange to hand over something that was such a big part of me for the last months, but it was also an unbelievable feeling as well. 

I've jumped right into another project that is going to keep my busy for the next several weeks.  I'm coordinating 90 Moms (3 groups of 30 ) in busy bag swaps.  We basically make 30 of one activity to keep our children busy and learning (we used to call them centers) and then divide them up so each Mom has 30 different activities.  I only have 5 assignments left to make for this 1st swap and it will be full speed ahead.  I wonder how much our postal carrier is going to like us after delivering 90 large priority boxes over the next month?  OK---so it's only 87 since 3 of those will belong to me.  I also wonder if the post office counter worker will looking at me strange when I come in with the boxes to ship back out!  Hmm.....  So worth the effort and I've already been blessed by meeting some fantastic moms!

B90 Challenge kicked off this week (reading the Bible cover to cover in 90 days with 1200 other women!).  My heart has already been touched by not only what I'm reading, but by the heart of the women in my mentor group.  It's only beginning and I already feel tremendously blessed.  I can only begin to imagine what is going to happen in the coming weeks!

Though I've not had the energy to take the kids to the waterpark and fight the crowds and extreme heat this week, we've had some very much needed downtime at home.  Lots of reading, Wii playing, crafting, and just normal "kid" stuff has been going on.  However, my favorite moment came yesterday when I saw Bradlee playing something unusual.  Peyton helped him turn one of his dump trucks into a "Storm Chasing" vehicle.  They gathered up laptops, old PDAs and cell phones and ALL things technology and ran around the house for a good TWO hours!  It was priceless. 

It's been quite a week, but what a special one it has been!  We have VBS Family Finale tonight, a couple of days of FCA sports camp at the beginning of the week and then "our" official summer begins.  Up until this point it has been focused on VBS and other service projects, now the switch to family time is just ahead.  I haven't set our school start date at this point, but I absolutely plan to make sure we have some good time together reconnecting as a family without the demands of school and everything else before we jump back in.  Even though we are together as a family 24/7, we need the time to just BE US and create bonds and memories that don't center around ministry, school, household responsibilities, or work.  I need the chance to just be a mom and wife for a bit!