Cosmic City

It's that time again...our annual VBS, "Cosmic City" this year. This is my third year working it and each time I tell myself that it's fun and that I enjoy serving the Lord this way. But then something happens and by the second night or so I'm wondering what crazy person took over my body and made me do this!!

I'm trying to figure out why I have such a bad attitude about it, so for my sanity (and probably the INsanity of my few readers) I'm going to be posting about each night. Hopefully by the end of the week, I can look back and have some sort of answer...

For starters, yesterday did not go very well. I spent the day in a "I'm going to take it easy and save my energy for tonight" mindset, but cleaned and cleaned like crazy at the same time. I put dinner in the oven at about noon (which worked out rather well, since we have to leave the house at 5:30), but didn't start getting all of us ready till about 4:00.

That was largely due to the fact that after Ava had been asleep only an hour, she was startled awake by Benji screaming outside her bedroom door. That lead me to a new rule that NO ONE is allowed upstairs while she's asleep, for any reason. That also lead me to an afternoon of frustration and chaos, with a curious and cranky toddler. I can now officially say that Ava's favorite activities are climbing the stairs and playing in the toilet.

I ended up putting Ava in the bathtub while I tried to get ready so that she wouldn't be throwing my lipstick in the toilet or dragging tampons out of the trash. It was going well till I looked over and saw not only bath toys, but POOP floating around in the water with her. Those of you who know me know that I don't at all deal well with poop anywhere it's not supposed to be. I supressed my gagging and cleaned up the mess, drained the tub, cleaned it, filled it, put Ava back in, and finished my makeup.

When I was done, I turned around to see Ava standing up and PEEING in her fresh bath water. In order to prevent myself from screaming, I muttered, "Oh, thanks Ava! I really enjoy the opportunity to do things over and over again. Each time I do it I learn how to do it better and better!" as I drained the tub, cleaned it, filled it, and put Ava back in.

After I washed her and dried her off, I decided to let her go naked for a few minutes to ease the nasty diaper rash she's got. I went to serve dinner but was stopped short by Benji yelling, "MOM, Ava's peeing!!!!". Oh yes, I really enjoyed cleaning up my third potty mess of the hour, I did it with a big smile on my face! (here's sarcasm, people!)

Needless to say, when I got to church with 5 kids in tow and realized that the group of 4 and 5 year olds that I was escorting around all night had grown to 12, my attitude did not improve. All things considered, the night at VBS was not all that bad. But at the end when the MC reminded us that there will be more kids each night I, um, shall we say "grumbled" a bit...

I don't want to have a bad attitude about this, I think the fact that I'm aware of it is a good sign. We'll see by the end of the week if something shows up that will help me figure out the problem.

Has anyone else worked their VBS? Did you enjoy it?