The Week that Was - March 14, 2009

Wow.

And what a week it was!

A little background first.

As you may or may not be aware, since Kate has started school full-time, I’ve been giving more time to the church. Two of the major things that I’m involved in are:

The Seasoning: Which is a publication that comes out 3 times a year (harvest, Christmas, and Easter) and is distributed to every home in the Parish. I help to organize it and do some writing for it.

WOW!: This stands for Worship on Wednesday and is an after school initiative that we’ve developed for children (age 5- 11) and their parents or carers. The program is about an hour long (it starts right after school and lasts until 4:30pm.) and is designed as a community outreach (which is a rather big theme in our church mission). Basically, the kids come in and have a snack and a bit of time to play and unwind then we get them settled, give them a taster of what the theme for the day is (known as God Slot 1) then there is a fun activity (dance, art, drama, circus skills, etc) and then they come back together for a more worshipful time (God Slot 2). Within God Slot 2, is a “music” slot and somehow, I managed to get put in the lead position there.

It’s a lot of work and a lot of fun, but it is very time consuming at times. The response has been tremendous. Most weeks we’ve have between 50 and 70 children attending. (Though this week was only…. 33-ish. To be fair, this was the first REALLY nice day we’ve had on a Wednesday and if I was just a parent (as opposed to a dedicated volunteer), I probably would have taken Kate to the park.) Needless to say, it’s been a bit overwhelming.

Anyhow… this past week.

Usually the articles for The Seasoning are decided and assigned with plenty of advance notice. Somehow, I looked at my calendar and was looking ahead (believe me, this doesn’t happen often…. My calendar is usually a freight train that I am just barely keeping ahead of.) and noticed that… oh, look! The Seasoning deadlines are… NEXT WEEK!

Cue the Vicar and a conversation.

So, the deadline WAS Monday the 9th. I had two article to write, one of which was an interview with a very busy gentleman. Article One (which was about WOW!) was written by Monday, but the interview didn’t happen until Tuesday. So, now I’m already late and stressed.

This normally wouldn’t be a big deal. My college career was littered with deadlines that I just barely made (or in some cases, didn’t make). What was further complicating my life was the addition of WOW!

A normal week, it wouldn’t have been a problem. (But when is my life really normal?) This particular week the Vicar and the other gentleman who spends a lot of time in the spotlight was gone…. And I was running a creative drama session for the main activity. (Very abbreviated, of course.) There had been some discrepancy of what the theme for the week REALLY was. So, it’s Monday and though in my head I know what I’m doing…. On paper I’m nowhere.

Monday. WOW! Meeting in the morning. Afternoon, write article one.

Tuesday. Interview in the morning. Afternoon: Hmmmm….. do I work on the article… or work on WOW!?

Well, WOW! It was. I had to write a short, age appropriate script regarding Jesus calming the storm and do the cue cards and group notes. (6 groups). So, that took the rest of the afternoon. (Once Kate is home, I don’t stand a chance of getting anything done.)

Wednesday: Went to my Wednesday morning Women’s Group. (9:30am – 11:30am) It’s a group of women from not only St Luke’s (my church) but a few other churches. It’s a nice morning. Coffee, tea, baked goods. We do some bible study or prayer, but the biggest benefit I get out of it is that we’re all women, all mothers, and all seem to have the same stresses and problems. We’re there to build each other up and support each other and it is just a really NICE time. Though I considered skipping it in order to get my WOW! work done, I’m glad I didn’t.

Wednesday is always a wash out for me. Between Women’s Group and WOW! nothing else gets done. I have to throw dinner in the slow cooker so the family has something to eat. I get a whole two hour window between Women’s Group and WOW! set up.

Long story short. I got the script and the various other tasks done just in time for WOW! and it all went just fine.

Thursday was spent writing up the interview. It was very interesting! Pete Winmill works for Prospects (http://www.prospects.org.uk/) which is a Christian voluntary organisation which values and supports people with learning disabilities so that they live their lives to the full. The main part that he works with is in helping churches to set up programs for these people to have access to church groups in a way that is comfortable and comprehensive to them.

Now, the woman who does the layout for The Seasoning is also on the WOW! team and her children go to the same school that Kate is at, so it is convenient that I did see her earlier in the week, we discussed the problems with the current issue of The Seasoning, and she concluded that with her time schedule, she would be doing the layout on Friday morning. So, I did have some breathing room.

No blog post would be complete without at least a mention of Kate. (I’m sure she’ll get more screen time further down… if there is a further down.) Thursday was also Kate’s first day of “Mini-Strikers.” It meets after school for a half-hour. (Thursday only, term time only) I hadn’t signed her up for it earlier in the year because Thursday is usually Gran-Day. (But Gran isn’t coming up at the moment because she has a Thursday night commitment.) Also, going to school full-time has been a big adjustment for her and she has been just so tired after school.

Since Thursdays are her “early day” anyway (2:30 dismissal) she’s still getting home before she normally would.

What are Mini-Strikers? Oh, sorry. Mini-Strikers is for Nursery to Year 1 (4-6 yr olds) and is a half hour session where they learn the basics of football. (Soccer for all my American friends and family.)

She also didn’t want to go earlier in the year because it was ALL BOYS. No girls. Well, a few other mothers were talking about their girls wanting to go, but were put off by the boys. This, combined with my desire to help Kate learn to relate to the boys (or more like the boys learn to relate to Kate), prompted me to get the Girl involved.

Like I said, she had her first session last week and she really seemed to like it. Coach Chris is young and very good with them. (I, being the overly paranoid and protective mother I am, arrived early to see how she was making out. The verdict: Very well.)

Now, I forgot to mention in the Wednesday section that when I dropped Kate off at school, she went into the classroom and then came TEARING back out yelling, “MOM! MOM! I need MONEY!” (Oh, it’s begun already….)

It was the big Comic Relief drive here in the UK on Friday. It only happens every two years and is just a HUGE fund raising event which benefits various charities and volunteer organizations both here and internationally. Like it’s US counterpart, it’s filled with stars, comics, and celebrities and takes over the TV for an evening. (In this case, Friday night.)

Back to the money. Kate needed money to buy a red nose for Friday. They were selling them at the school and then they could take them home and decorate them for Friday.

Lucky for the Kid, I had my wallet with me. Gave her money and off she went. Red nose was procured and brought home Wednesday night.

Now… let’s see…. Wednesday…. Thursday mini-strikers…. Oh yes, red nose and Thursday night.

So, it’s Thursday and we have to decorate her red nose for the next day. I’m thinking…. Clown. Just some silly stuff.

“Kate, how should we decorate your red nose?”

“I want it to be a vulture.”

A vulture.

A vulture.

She seriously thought I could turn a foam rubber nose into a vulture in an evening.

Do I have to tell you that did NOT happen? With a little more forethought, I could have swung it… even now I still mentally work it out as to what materials I would have needed.

But back to reality….

Kate and Daddy have been playing a pirate game on the Playstation 2 and she’s been very into the whole pirate theme of late….

So, I said, “Kate…why don’t we make it a pirate?”

So, a pirate it was.



No, she can’t see, but I didn’t expect her to keep it on very long anyway… her wittle nose just wasn’t big enough to hold it on even without the decorations.

Friday was a riot. Got Kate to school. Dad was going on a Men’s weekend with the men from church and Gran was coming up to have dinner and stay the night. (We were having a girls’ night in since Dad was gone.)

As per usual, he left most if not all his packing and organizing until that day and was in a mad rush most of the day. (He’s old enough to pack for himself. I’m not his mom, I shouldn’t have to do it…. I just made sure he had clean clothes.)

Finally, he was gone. Gran was here and the rest of the weekend was much calmer.

We watched Memoirs of a Geisha (finally… had the movie for over a year waiting for a girls’ night.). I’ve also hesitated watching it because I had read and absolutely ADORED the book. Though fiction, it was one of those books that had such brilliantly painted characters, I forgot they weren’t real. I practically mourned the end of the book when I remembered that this woman was not real. I was really afraid that the movie just wouldn’t do it justice.

Luckily, enough time had passed since I had last read it and watching the film. I thought it was VERY well done and even if they may have missed some of the finer nuances to the world and the people, it was a beautiful film in many ways.

If you watch it, the scene of the Geisha drama is just breathtakingly filmed. It has some of the lovely artistic features that I’ve only been able to find in movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the films of Yimou Zhang such as House of Flying Daggers and Hero without the violence and blood shed. (Though to be fair, it is so stylized that it is not as repulsive as I usually find it. No, I don’t particularly care for most of the Tarantino films, though Kill Bill was mostly palatable.)

Saturday it was off to gymnastics, then Kate and Gran and I had lunch in town at Wagamama’s. (Japanese style noodle bar-ish place… Kate LOVES it.) Then back home and Gran left for her place after dinner. Me? After the kid was securely in bed… I stayed up until almost midnight quickly cooking a take along dish for the shared lunch (translation: Pot Luck.) which was after the service on Sunday.

Sunday, Kate and I toddled off to church. I had to do a short drama on prayer with another woman for the opening liturgy and then it was the shared lunch. (Very nice. Kate was brilliant as usual.) Home around 2pm.

Daddy came home around 5pm and then life returned to normal.

And now we’re all recovering.

And that was the week that was… ending March 14, 2009. (Though technically… it is the 15th since I took it through to Sunday.)

Until next time!

Oh.... and in the end... the interview article came out very well and was sent to the graphic artist at 12:29am on Friday. Plenty of time.