Deep Summer

VBS is carrying along beautifully, as far as I can tell. All I have had to do is keep my children out of the church until 5:45 and then wander in behind them to sit at a nice long table and hand out name tags to frantically excited children. Its the dream job, for me. Then I get out all my papers and pretend to work, but really, I talk to people as they happen by, which is lots more interesting.

So it is that I still haven’t written up my school plan, nor my Sunday school plan, nor my plans for the world. Just kidding, I don’t have plans for the world. I mean, not really, unless someone came along and asked my opinion. Then I would quickly throw something together, just like I’m totally going to do with school and church. I am totally going to type them up. I will calmly and methodically think through the year and put it all down on paper. And you can know that I really am going to because I have already done all the ground work. Ground Work is what I call first wandering out into the garden and looking everything over carefully.

And then gathering a lot of it into a vase so that I have something soothing to look at every now and then. I could go for the pinks and purples or the yellows and reds. It’s such a decision.

Then I make as massive a pot of caffeine as I can reasonably carry, and I lug it all over to church.

There, in church, in the atirum, I drag everything off the shelves so I can see what’s what. Well, not everything, but lots of things, especially stuff that needs mending or painting, and lessons that need looking at.

Look at this new lovely city. I’m going to wreck it by painting it. Its going to be awesome and the children are going to love it. But first it’s nice to enjoy its bare wooden beauty.

Once everything is splayed out all over the floor I can sit back and look at it and wonder where on earth I should start. Mostly it’s a matter of dusting and sorting and making schedules. Everything slowly gets put back. Children wander in and out and try to break stuff, or step on the papers, and I wave my arms and tell them to go away and play. Work will be here soon enough for them. They should climb trees and squabble.

So, if you’re looking for me, today, and probably tomorrow, and much of next week, that’s where I’ll be. And if not there, then cutting more flowers. And if not there, then sweeping and sorting through the school room. It’s Deep Summer, as Matt likes to call it, and it is swiftly passing me by.