Wow. Now that ministry is more than just something casual for us, we are really starting to feel it on Mondays.
When I say “we” I really mean “me”. Because Cheryl had extenuating circumstances – namely 36 hours of nausaea and vomiting. Then again, covering all the parental bases for her while she’s been sick may explain my exhaustion.
I can’t really call it exhaustion though. Actually I feel relatively well rested. I’ve been making a point of getting 9 hours a night on Friday and Saturday nights, which has been wonderful to get me energized for the week. For some reason weeknights I rarely manage more than 7 hours which does catch up.
But man, was the weekend busy! Saturday I was cleaning all morning, then afternoon spent trying to get a start on my paper (again) but sidetracked with a long phone call with Mom. Saturday night was the annual hockey pool draft, which was a good time.
Sunday it was get the kids ready for church, rush over to the church offices for some tables and chairs for the membership class I kicked off that morning, panic about whether or not the booklets had been printed out, then rush over to the church, check in the kids, set up my table, teach the class, tear it down, attend the 10am service, meet a brand new Awana leader (thank you, God!), take the kids grocery shopping (you try shopping Safeway without a cart, with a 7, 5 and 4 year old in tow!), pack the groceries away, prepare a spaghetti sauce (my finest in years), then sit down and try to churn out the October newsletter for Awana (which I failed).
Pant pant.
THEN…
I had to pack the van full of Awana gear, talk my wife into driving the kids to club (even though she could barely sit up), take off to pick up one of our leaders, get to the church, walk the new leader through a little handbooky thing we have prepared to help onboard new leaders, introduce her to the team, and then all the ordinary duties of clubs, complicated by a number of concerned parents that their child should be moved up a level because of their maturity/peer group.
Then of course packing up ASAP, rounding up my kids, and getting home before a truly obscene hour.
Looking back on the weekend now, I am impressed with all that I did do, and can’t be that displeased that there were several things that didn’t get done. Still, things aren’t slowing down. While there is no Awana this weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving), I need to prepare a message for the large group time next weekend, and Phil has asked me to prepare a sermon on Daniel and the Lion’s Den for the 26th.
So much for my plan to finish a draft of my grad essay this month.
Well, maybe I can do it.
I’m going to try.
Tags: awana, leadership, scheduling, sermon, weekends
