I am enjoying some of the freedom that the summer affords me: no youth group on Wednesday nights, no teaching Sunday school, no having to drop the kids off or pick them up at school – well, the kids will be out of school in 2 days, so I haven’t had a taste of that yet, but I’m looking forward to trying for my afternoon nap without time constraints – if only Terrible-Two-Dude will stop yelling my name during these nap attempts.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy all of these activities, but there is something liberating about not being tied down to them for an entire summer. As much as I absolutely loved teaching 1st graders on Sunday mornings, it was really great last Sunday to not have to get up at 8am and get 4 crabby kids ready for what amounted to a double church service for them – one while Mom and Dad teach and one while Mom and Dad go to worship. Our family rolled out of bed by 10, got ready, and left the house around 10:40, getting to church in time to relax with friends before the service with plenty of time to spare. I enjoyed Wednesday nights with my 6th grade girls, but there was a lot of emotionally exhausting drama there at the end, and I so needed a break. Besides, it’s nice to have Wednesdays free. But wait, I don’t have Wednesdays free! Hubby and I signed up to organize and facilitate a class at church called Changing Hearts, Changing Lives – a personal ministry class that utilizes a DVD series by Paul Tripp and small group discussion to lead Christians to be able to effectively counsel others in a God-loving and caring way. We’ve had two weeks of this class so far, and it’s going great! So I can’t really say that I miss my free Wednesday nights. I never got a taste of a free Wednesday night anyway; what’s that like?
I also signed up for a women’s Bible study series (Beth Moore for those of you that know her work) that meets on Monday mornings. I hesitated with this one because it meets ALL summer – beginning today before school is out and going right through to August after the kids go back to school. But there is child care there, so if my 4 kids haven’t killed each other by the time Mondays roll around, this will get us out of the house once a week. Also, my oldest daughter gets to help with the child care with other ‘big kids’ her age, so that will be good for her too. I enjoyed my first class today, but I have to note the intensity of this class – 5 nights of homework per week! Pre-Christian Taylhis 1.0 would have panicked and said ‘I don’t have time for this!!’, but Taylhis 2.0 feels pretty good about it. I’m excited to immerse myself more fully in God’s word, and the structure of the class will have me getting to know better other women at my church. I can find time for my homework; after all, isn’t more butt-time for the pregnant lady just what the doctor ordered? I’m not sure about that, but it’s definitely on MY want-list because these days my feet (legs, thighs, etc) are killing me, and I have a lot more growing to do!! Problem is, I’m going to spend that butt-time in front of my Bible and my class workbook rather than my blog, so there goes my plan of blogging more… oh well, who said blogging more was a good plan for me anyway?
Have fun with all your church activities. I’m sure that all of them will help you and, by extension, others develop your relationship with God even more fully.
You should find something to keep you busy- you have way too much free time. 😉
Well, busy as these summer things will keep you, I second jamiahsh’s comment. 🙂
Thanks for your comments, but optimism on the homework front is more difficult today. I’ve done a few pages as I’ve had time, but I haven’t even finished ‘Day 1’ in the workbook. If each day takes me 45 minutes and I have 5 days per week – ugh. And it’s a lot of reading passages, reflecting, and writing about it, so it’s not the kind of hw I can do while getting interrupted every 10 minutes or so to break up a fight between kids – which is what I’m about to go do now, coincidentally…. Or not so, really, since they are CONSTANTLY fighting!!!