Edging back toward what passes for normalcy...

Whew! The great Vacation Bible School Craft Caper is over!

Due to other responsibilities, I didn't feel that I could take a hands-on, everyday part in VBS this year. So instead, I volunteered to plan and coordinate all of the craft projects for the entire week, including purchasing and preparing the craft components and materials.

I've done this before, but in those years I also taught the craft portion of each day as well. So just the behind-the-scenes stuff would, I thought, be relatively easy. I was wrong.

In other years I've tried to use some recycled materials which people in the church could save for me. I tried that this year -- I asked for baby food jars ( or votive candle holders), 12-oz. juice cans (without the lids), unwanted CDs, and assorted colors of yarn and ribbon. I got no jars (but did eventually get some votive holders)and only one juice can and a few CDs. Over the weekend I received a bunch more CDs, but by then it was nearly too late. (I did scrounge up enough CDs at home to do the project.) I had to scrap the juice can project, but fortunately the Lord pointed me to the materials right in my craft closet for another craft that would be easy and quick to pull together.

What a busy couple of weeks it has been! I've had to do lots of planning and prep work -- since there is only a limited time slot allowed for the craft each day, much of the work for the little kids' crafts has to be done ahead of time. For instance, they are making turtles out of foam bowls turned upside down. I painted the outside of each "turtle shell" green, then when that was dry sponged it with brown. The kids will add pre-cut feet, heads, and tails made from yellow cardstock. They'll also glue on googly eyes and stick a verse sticker on the top of the shell. I was very blessed that another lady in the church, who works full time, volunteered to cut out stuff for me. I may have given her more work than she bargained for, but oh, what a help it was to me!

In addition, I had to figure out and write up directions for each of these crafts!

You should have seen my living room on Saturday night! The coffee table was covered with glued-together CDs laid out to dry, and another table was filled with drying turtle shells. Every other available surface seemed to be laden with some sort of craft component. But I went to bed at a decent hour, and by 8 or so on Sunday morning, it was all sorted into bags, one for each day, to take to the lady who is actually teaching the crafts.

And so -- unless I receive a desperate cry for help! -- the great craft caper is over. I said to Mr. T last night, "Now I can begin to get the house back to normal." But you know what? It's not going to happen in a day. Babysteps! Today so far I've changed the sheets, washed and hung out 2 loads of laundry, put away a sinkful of dishes, planned my menus for the week, put away a few craft items, and made a pitcher of iced tea. I've also ordered the books for the next study our ladies' Sunday School class will do, and made plans to order a few more study books (for my own research) from Amazon or CBD. So I have accomplished a lot, and hope to do a lot more before the sun sets.

But what is normalcy, anyway? This summer, it is not particularly normal around here. I don't see us taking a vacation or getting away for a weekend to go camping, or even going out to breakfast. Mr. T. is heading up a building project at church which takes every Saturday and some evenings as well. He projects that will probably take 2 to 3 months.

In addition, I have some writing tasks (rewriting some of my older devotional books for kids) that will take a lot of my time. We have 3 wedding gifts to think about, and I hope to make a personalized cookbook for each couple. I haven't done a craft or sewing project just for fun in eons. But I'm edging back toward normalcy -- I hope!