Small Successes-July 15th

Celebrating the little things in life that add up.

It's been a busy week here and it's still not over.  We're in the throes of VBS week and birthday party planning for Ellie's 5th birthday.  As I sit here typing I'm reminded of all the ways in which I wasn't successful in the past week.  The house is messier than I'd care to see it, but still amid the mess there are some successes to be found.

1. Despite a yucky stomach bug that left me unable to eat much from Friday until late Monday, I managed to make it to confession (Second time in a two week period--wasn't expecting to wind up there so soon, but Madeline needed to go.  As a general rule, I go anytime she goes as a sign of support, but often I need it just as much as she does.), Mass and VBS.  I'm still amazed that I was able to pull off teaching the first day of VBS considering I went home and spent several hours hugging a vomit bucket on Sunday after I finished decorating my classroom.  Thank God for the wonderful people I had assisting me for the classroom set up and of course the several assistants I have in the classroom each day.

2. My first year of teaching VBS is turing out to be a great experience for me and the 26, yes 26, students I have in my class.  We're all having lots of fun.  I've even learned the names of some of the nice people that I see at Mass week after week.  I love how this parish feels more and more like home to me as I become more involved.  It's a great feeling.

3. Despite being sick and working through all the craziness of VBS I have actually managed to wash all of the laundry.  I even got the brown fabric paint off of Ellie's dress that she wore to VBS today.  The laundry is sitting in a mountainous heap in my living room at the moment.  Ordinarily I'd freak out about that, but I'm taking it in stride and I think that's a success, too.  I even learned an important lesson about dressing for VBS: Don't dress the kids in nice clothes (Especially things you'd have them ordinarily wear to Mass.) for VBS.  Tomorrow we're going there with play clothes.  Another laundry and VBS related success would be my ability to stay in a room for 25 minutes with 26 five and six year old children who are using fabric paints while wearing white capris and leave the room with unstained pants.  That, my friends, took some serious skill as I dodged happy children eager to show me their paint covered hands.

4. I managed to successfully execute a recipe for zucchini bread that my friend's mother gave me for my wedding using the zucchinis that Madeline's VBS teacher gave us.  I made muffins instead of a loaf of bread and it was a hit.  Even the family who grew the zucchinis liked the muffins.  They liked them so much that they gave me two more and requested more (Jokingly, I assume.).  I will happily oblige them before the week is over.