i'm ready

I'm ready for the lazy, lazy days of summer.

Since we've been out, I don't really feel like I've had much of a break.  I spent 3 mornings in my classroom getting it "decent".  Then I spent 3 more days last week at inservices.  It paid well, was moderately interesting, and not too stressful, but still it was something to occupy most of the day.

This week - for 4 days, I'm participating in a "camp" for educators.  We visit area businesses to get an idea of what's available in the world of employment and what kind of qualifications employers were looking for.  It has been eye-opening.  When an owner of a retail establishment says, "If the kid can say "please", "thank-you", and "yes, sir", we hire them," you know that the pickins are slim.  Today we visited a casino/racetrack, a food seasoning company, and a medical equipment distributor.  All said about the same thing.  It is interesting and we have been fed well, but I'll be glad when the next two days are done! 

Saturday is our great parking lot project!  Be glad when that's done, too.  The stripes on our church parking lot are barely visible to the naked eye.  Many of our Boy Scouts need several  hours of service before they can move to their next rank. Soooo.... we have a little project planned for Saturday.  Someone I know is getting the paint and rollers.  I have to figure out when to meet up with him.  Prior to the parking lot project being on this date, I had arranged for our altar servers to make their annual pilgrimage to a local pizza/acrade place.  Plan were modified to include the  Boy Scouts tagging along with them after the painting of the parking lot.

The two things causing me stress over this are that are that the menfolk (dads) have decided that this would be a good time for them to do some repairs to the troop trailer.  Honey, you're not leaving me with 12 boys and buckets of bright yellow paint!!  Hopefully some of the moms will come through.  The second issue is that the parking lot project ends and the pizza outing begins an hour later.  In that hour, I plan to go home and become human again, but I KNOW that there will be at least one kid that no one picks up at the appointed time.  I told them that unclaimed children will be left in the confessional, but it's an idle threat because the church is locked.

And then there's the whole confession thing.  I usually like to go every month or six weeks, but I've passed that ideal.  And if I was to go right now, I'd just sit there and look dumb, because I wouldn't know what to say.  Not because the last several weeks have been the picture of a saint on earth, but because I haven't really had time to stop and take stock of all the things that haven't been so saintly.   But that needs to happen soon.  I find that I have less time to pray during the summer than doing the school year.  What's up with that?

My boys are enjoying their lazy summer days - staying up late and sleeping until whenever.  Both are going to the National Boy Scout Jamboree in Virginia later this summer.  One is a very motivated worker doing things that have been undone far too long around this house in return for spending money.  The other one has been nursing earaches last week and a toothache this week.  And so that is another thing to do - dentist appointment!

And that is my ordinary, not very exciting, too hot, kind of blah summer so far!