What is God doing in my life? Well, I think He is enabling me to be more aware of things going on in my life. I often find myself contemplating things and roles of myself and other people around me and the impacts they have.
My oldest graduated to the "Junior High" group at church and we've started going to church both on Sundays and on Wednesdays so she can be as involved as she wants to be. The girls are really enjoying going, and I'm struggling to figure out how to do it. I've put the baby into church nursery twice and the longest he lasted was through the beginning worship music before they called me down to get him. He just isn't used to other people caring for him. Sigh. The hazards of being a stay-at-home mom.
He is too loud to stay in the sanctuary. The nursing mom's room is great, except mom's tend to talk and then I can't always hear the message. I've been bringing the stroller and pacing the lower level halls where they have TV's that show the sermon and the message on speakers throughout so I can at least hear it, but it isn't the most enjoyable way to do church. On occasion I have dropped off the older kids and gone home to listen to service online where I can let the baby just play instead of being strapped into his seat for two hours, but I always feel so guilty doing that...our church is only 5 minutes from home, so I'm not far! I know it is just a season of life, so hopefully I'll figure it out soon.
I've volunteered to help in the nursery next week for VBS (Vacation Bible School), so I'm hoping that might help the baby get more comfortable being there on Sundays after spending a whole week in the same room. Or maybe, I should try just volunteering to be in the nursery with him for a few weeks to see if that makes a difference. That might be the key. God knows!
On another note, our summer is going well. We've been on several outings and while I've found many ways to stay cheap and reduce the amount of gas I have to use, I'm finding that less travel and a slower pace at home makes for a happier and more relaxed summer experience for everyone. We had a full two-week break from anything school related and have just started up doing some math work on the days we don't go anywhere. I've also added in audiobooks for when we're in the car, and some read-aloud books at home in addition to the 30-minutes of reading they do for the summer reading program through our library and Barnes and Noble.
Right now, I'm most excited to be starting to plan next year's school year. I have a plan for which subjects we'll do each day of the week, and am narrowing down exactly which levels of each subject to teach. My hubby approved ordering some workbooks of printables so I don't have to print so much at home (it will end up being cheaper than buying printer ink in the long run). So I'm excited for those things. I really want to start writing down plans in my planner, but I'm afraid to get too far ahead of myself. I don't want to have the whole year planned in there, just to decide to change it up once we get there. I think I will do maybe the first few weeks in my planner and then wait to see how it goes. I'd love to have the whole year done and ready to go, but from experience I know that half the fun of doing school is the planning. I need to leave some of the excitement for later!
