June in Fast Forward

It has been a crazy month so far between balancing the girls’ summer schedules, work, and church activities. So far, there has been very little time to just relax and enjoy the summer vacation.

So what has been going on?

The month started in a very tense/sad way with my nieces and nephew having to spend two weeks away from home. My sister is in the final stages of her divorce and her ex-husband had the children for two weeks. He drove them all the way to Montana. It is the first time the children are away from their mom so they were very tense in the weeks coming up to it, and there were many tears shed. They just got back this morning and we are so thankful to have them back. They had an OK time; it was just a big change for them. Divorce has such a profound effect in the family. It is a very sad thing. All the members in our family are struggling to find our new "normal."

The girls also did some soccer and Natalie is doing T-Ball. She loves it but to tell you the truth, I find it excruciating to watch. Actually, I can deal with the kids running around not knowing what they are doing. My problem is with the parents. Some are very competitive and keep yelling at their kids when they do something wrong and others that are just showering them with praise for any little thing they do. Then there is me just sitting there in silence, trying to smile anytime Natalie looks my way, wondering what on earth possessed me to sign her up.







Another thing that has consumed this month is Kaitlin's drama group at church. They were preparing a program to take to two different churches around the area. We had several out of the ordinary practices that lasted several hours. However, the kids really enjoy participating even under this grueling schedule. This is a neat type of drama where the kids perform using just sticks, their hands or their bodies. It takes a lot of commitment on their part, but the result is always powerful.



Last Saturday evening they presented in Grand Rapids, and this coming weekend they are going to be presenting at a church in Chicago. I would love to post some pictures or video of the performance, but besides seeing most of it from behind stage, the directors of the group forbade us under penalty of death kindly asked us that we do not post anything on a public forum until after the kids present their last program.

Finally, our church's VBS program, which I direct, started last night. I love preparing these programs, but it entitles an incredible amount of work. I have had a few meltdowns in the weeks coming up to it but at the end, I always find it worth the effort. This year's theme is Avalanche Ranch. The whole setting is a Ranch in the mountains. The decorating crew, directed by my wonderful brother-in-law ;) did a marvelous job transforming our church's stage into a ranch scene.


Meet Rowdy and Stash our very famous cowboys wanna-be.






As you can see, our lives are lacking balance right at this point but we are looking forward to July, which seems to be promising a slower pace.