Recent Ponderings

Most of my week so far has been consumed with doing things for this year's vacation bible school.  In just a month VBS will be here.  It's amazing how quickly time flies when you're up to your eyeballs in things that need to be done.

My house is a big mess.  Spending lots of time working on paperwork and taking care of a baby who I suspect is teething will do that to a house.  I managed to get the house looking presentable enough on Monday only to see it descend into the type of mess that looks like a clothing and paper bomb went off.

I thought I was doing pretty well today.  The house was slowly getting put in order and I was tackling the pile of laundry that needed to be done.  Of course, I can only do so much with Katie on my hip and only one arm free.

I decided to take a break from VBS and house straightening to visit the hand me down mess in the basement.  I don't know if it's been three or four weeks now, but I'm beginning to wonder why I've purchased so much clothing for the kids.  Am I insane?  Possibly.

While I was in the basement, the doorbell rang.  VBS is full, so I naively thought that the person at the door is someone I was hoping not to have to talk to.  The person is nice, but I knew I wouldn't have the patience to deal with who I thought it might be.  I sent Bryan upstairs to answer the door and it turned out that the person at the door wasn't who I thought it was, instead it was someone looking to register for VBS.  And, the best part was he invited this woman into my VERY. MESSY. house.

Two things came of this.  First, I didn't have the heart to tell this woman that VBS was full and so I accepted another registration putting the total up to 110 children for a program that maxes out at 100.  Then, I'm pretty sure I was insulted [but didn't realize it right away] when the woman insisted that I give her a receipt for the VBS payment when I have no system for issuing receipts.  After she left it dawned on me that she didn't necessarily trust that her cash payment was going to make it to where it belonged.  I have to say that I've never run across this situation.  I guess I just assumed that since the parish trusts me to voluntarily run this program and handle the money that I was considered trustworthy.

On my way back from the front door utter mortification began to sink in.  My living room was covered in laundry that I had sorted into piles to be folded this morning.  The landing of my steps had packages that arrived today.  My kitchen was just a mess.  Pots and pans on the stove, mail and school papers on the countertop, dishes on the table, and boxes from a delivery containing VBS stuff was on the kitchen floor.  And, the dining room table had lots of VBS paperwork piled up.

Directing VBS seems to be one of the ways in which I get to cultivate patience and grow in humility.  I really could do without the little mortifications that come along with this job.  There's a small handful of people out there who have seen my incredibly messy house.  I suppose I should just offer it up and keep focus on the good I am trying to accomplish while my house falls into a state of disarray.  Tomorrow I'll be trying to get the house back into order.