Getting the House Ready for Bible School

With all that is going on at work, my schedule worked out better for me than I ever imagined it could or would.

Why does that matter?

Because it"s Vacation Bible School time and then is when I have Ginger and her kids and nephew and my grandkids come and stay with me for several days. Having company--especially lively kids-- come to stay awhile requires different preparation than having someone over for a few hours for a meal or even keeping Jef and Jeni's kids for the night.

For one thing, Jef and Jeni's kids already have a routine they keep when they come. I pretty much know what's going to be happening. Autumn and Rachel are content to play with dolls and toys in the playroom. Zack and Sam entertain themselves as well and Brad walks around watching and asking questions. The sleeping arrangements are not hard to manage. Kids are not "high maintenance" when it comes to where they sleep.

But, it's not Jef and Jeni's kids I'm having for Bible School. They have their own Bible School at Westlawn the same week we have ours. I'm having Blake, who I rarely get to have with me because of my schedule and the fact that he lives as far north of town as I do south. And because he keeps a pretty busy schedule too with various types of ball playing.

I am also having Caleb, Cathleen, Felisia, and Lexi. Two four years olds and two five year olds.

Hunter and Haley, Ginger's kids, are close to the same age as Blake. Ginger's nephew falls somewhere in between. He's older than Caleb but younger than Hunter. Anyway, it's going to be a different scenario.

Given the fact that I have taken the easy way out with my housekeeping ever since last Bible School and just HID the things that piled up on me, I had quite a mountain of work to do to get bedrooms prepared, make closet and dresser space available, and to move out totes and totes of other people's stuff that they were "storing" in my guest bedroom. (When Jef and Jeni spend one night, I know all they need is a bed and I didn't worry about the fact that my bedroom had become a storage unit for other people's stuff.)

Anyhow, it worked out well because I had given up some vacation days back in March and I had to use them up before June 5 (my hire in date) or lose them. I've been taking them a day here and there. I had one yesterday and my off day today and I have Memorial Day off too, so that is giving me a chance to have time to take on this "mountain".

God has been good to answer my prayer to help me "stay focused" on the important and not get sidetracked into lesser issues. I tend to do that. Anyway, I've really been able to get a lot accomplished: the guest room readied, the yard mowed, and some other needful things as well.


Today we're going to celebrate my older brother's birthday. He will be seventy. I'm not that far behind. On Wednesday I was sixty-four. I told someone at church, "If I died right now, no one would say, 'She died young'" And that's just the way it is. I might live a much longer life, but if I died now, I wouldn't be dying young.

I still have much to do, but I did want to take a break and get this down. Many times this blog is my memory.