April has been a good month so far, full of ups and downs as always!
I had a birthday on the 9th, the big 2-3. Despite being sad about not being able to sing TSwift's 22 about myself, 23 is good too. I mean it was Michael Jordan's number so that's cool. Anyway, my birthday was pretty fun. We had a board meeting for Grace Seeds at TGI Friday's, which was pretty good. I think most people don't like board meetings, but I really like our meetings because they're small and intimate and everyone is friends! So that took most of the day, and then I was able to meet up with Chelsea! We had dinner and dessert (of course) at a cool place in Lincoln Park. It was a nice surprise to get to see her and share some good food, fellowship, and laughter with one of my dearest friends :) After that, I headed over to my small group gathering, which was nice too. Megan made me a cake and we shared it with the groupies which was another special memory.
Sorry I don't have any photos to share from my birthday! But anyway, I wanted to thank all of you for the birthday love too. Whether you wrote to me on Facebook, sent a letter, a text message, or said a prayer for me- I want you to know that I appreciate all of it. It was good to still feel the love up in Chicago :)
Also, It's SPRINGTIME! I planted some daffodil bulbs this fall (embarrassing to admit but I had never planted anything myself before!) and THEY CAME UP! Well, some of them. Ha. I planted some in pots that got knocked over by neighborhood hooligans, but oh well. Look at these little beauties! They even survived some snow we got last week!
 | ||
| I also planted some in front of the house, which haven't come up yet. I looked a little closer today and saw this, so maybe there's hope! Any bets? |
Ok, so I was also a little sad to begin with on Tuesday. I've never been away from my family on Easter before, which was a little sad but not terrible. It only made me really sad because my dad was singing in the Messiah at Bethany College this year. (It's a big choral performance of Handel's Messiah, attracts well over 1,000 people each year. It's a big deal.) I was sad that I couldn't be there to watch him and support him after all of my performances that he's been to. It was also kind of a rough week for my family due to other things that I won't share with the world. I was just sad not to be with people that I care about when I know they're feeling blue.
Wednesday served as a good refuel day for me. Linda needed a day with her new computer, so I just did my own work from home which was great. I did my own thing for the day, met Megan at IHOP for dinner (yay birthday coupons!) and then went to small group. Then I came home and realized that Thursday was only a few hours away. I was totally dreading work. I don't know that I've ever dreaded a day at work more. Thankfully, Thursday was a lot better than I anticipated. Thanks to all of you who knew about it and prayed for me. Yeesh, I really needed an attitude adjustment going into that day. Anyway, we took the kids to a carnival (kind of like a conference too though with workshops and stuff). Everything went surprisingly well! I even had some happy moments and feel like I gained some ground with one of our Spencer kids, Ronald.
Ronald is 10 years old, and a pretty good kid most of the time. He's got a little brother in first grade, and Ronald takes really good care of him. It's precious. Anyway, Ronald and I were in the same group so we spent a good amount of time together that day. He laughed at one of my comments when I wasn't even trying to be funny! It sounds stupid but it made me feel really good. During the morning workshop, the kids had a chance to talk about peer pressure. Ronald shared that he'd experienced that when someone wanted him to set a car on fire. He did the right thing and stood up to that person, who ultimately did the deed and was caught by the police. I was pretty proud of him for that!
Later, Ronald asked me to help him look for his little brother's glove. He'd lost it somewhere outside/in one of the giant inflatable bounce house things. Everybody else headed in for the talent show, so it was just me and Ronald looking for the silly glove. We found it in the grass, and then I challenged him to a race through the inflatable obstacle course because I hadn't got to go through it yet. I may be an "adult" but I still got game, ya'll. (DISCLAIMER: I realized that there was probably supposed to be a trained person supervising us buuut I was feeling rebellious. And I thought it would be a special secret for me and Ronald. Hear that? A SECRET! Shhhh! Don't tell anyone at Build!) We counted off, and dove into the thing, crawling over and under all sorts of things, running into stuff, and ultimately went down the slide into victory. At one point, we ran into each other and had a good laugh. Then, after I KICKED HIS BUTT, we joined everyone else at the talent show, grinning at our ornery awesomeness.
 |
| This is kind of like the obstacle course we did. (found on Google) |
That was just what I needed. I shared a special memory with Ronald, laughed with him, bonded with him. It reminded me of being at camp again, which is kind of how I started loving kids in the first place. It's amazing what an attitude adjustment, prayers, and a big inflatable obstacle course can do!
That sums up last week, next post will be up soon, about my Easter weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment