Vacation Bible School

So I didn't have Vacation Bible School (also known as VBS) growing up. Picture your church decorated in bright colors, with upbeat music playing; kids escaping into a world of snacks and ideas that were all tailored to fit their size. My children LOVE it. While it strikes me as strange and "cheesy", my kids feel so loved. They talk about every craft, every snack (blue jello for water and fruit roll ups for a canoe), and every game they play. Each day there is a lesson of course, a verse, a story to teach them about the attributes of God. I don't know how well all the details of that are soaking in....But, I do know that my kids feel special and so appreciate all the work that many adults have done to make this a church week just for them. In that, I hope they see the details of God's amazing love and provision for them. Even if they don't remember the verse this week: 1 John 3:1, Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called sons of God.....

Belly Bugs

I am more afraid of a "belly bug" than an open wound, stitches, rashes, tick bites...the list goes on. Yesterday at 4:45, Henry said he had a headache (a first for him) and he laid down on our bed (also a first in daylight hours since the age of three). At 5pm, he threw up all over our bed. We cancelled the dinner scheduled for 5:30 last night. So began the first gastrointestinal infection in our home for this year. And now I wait. Dreading what could be days of laundry, getting sick myself, helping several children one at a time through illness....The anticipation of it all is really worse than the thing itself and that is what gets me about a belly bug. You don't stop to anticipate ticks or cuts or other tough kid illnesses (or atleast I don't). But the belly bug usually gives you a chance to ponder, to think ahead and wonder how bad it could all become. Henry slept on our floor last night with surrounding towels, a deep pot and his sleeping bag. One down, five to go?

Swim Team

I love to be at the swimming pool, love to swim. I am so glad I know how to swim, that it will be a life long form of exercise for me. One of my favorite things is swimming laps in an outdoor pool on a warm day. For all those reasons, I think fondly of swim team and summers at the pool while growing up. Today I remembered a few other things from those swim team days. I remembered the hard parts: gasping for breath, feeling as if you would never make it to the other side. I remembered clinging to the ropes, wanting so badly to be done.

Yesterday was the first day of swim team, and Caroline, who has never really swam on her own, suddenly jumped in and "swam" across the pool during her evaluation. Henry, on the other hand, did not even bother with the evaluation and just headed promptly to the beginner section. Caroline was placed in a group where everyone has been swimming much longer than her. Today, they started practice by telling her to swim two laps freestyle. She doesn't even know how to kick her legs and move her arms at the same time! She just went right along with it. I watched in amazement and fear. And this was followed by more laps, and more laps. I watched her growing fatigue from the sidelines and remembered the hard parts of struggling to keep up with better swimmers. As a mother, it was painful. Yet I know she would be bored in the beginner group. So hard to watch her learn to swim on her own, make her own way, struggle with her own limits and rise to her own challenges. I saw a little girl with fierce determination and was amazed. No complaints, no whining. 12 laps when prior to this she had never made it out of the shallow end. Swim team is tough.