Ready or not, here we go!

Last year, our church did a first-ever all summer VBS, which we call SBV (Summer Bible Vacation.) Twelve weeks, six grades (K-5th grades) and four big lessons taught in six different ways: art, history, games, story, music, and skits/movie clips. It was a hit with the kids, their parents and the volunteer teachers and guides who escorted them each Sunday and Wednesday.

It takes a tremendous amount of creative juice and elbow grease to pull it together and pull it off, but we have a highly dedicated core group of volunteers that I am blessed to work with. Today is the eve of our kickoff weekend. Every spare minute of the past few weeks have been spent running here and there, wrapping up last-minute errands and to-do's for this, along with getting the house ready to paint and of course, making sure I get my real job done.

Ready or not, tomorrow's "sneak preview" day heralds the beginning of an exciting summer for the kids, and the end of the frantic pre-work for those of us that have been working feverishly behind the scenes.

Which is good because every non-essential part of my usual life has been on hold during this time: my hair desperately needs a cut and color, my toenails are chipped beyond belief, my car needs an oil change (and a massive cleaning); the dog looks like a yeti and my muscles are atrophying from lack of exercise.

So after tomorrow's kickoff, my plan is to repeat last year's post-kickoff afternoon with swimmer girl: happy hour at Sonic, then to a pedicure salon, then home - maybe for a nap this time. Then I can let my life start rolling at its normal breakneck pace once again.

Happy Friday!

A perfect Saturday with me, myself and I

I should preface this by saying I L.O.V.E. my family beyond words.  And 51 weekends out of 52, I can't wait to spend time with as many of them as I can.

But occasionally I get an opportunity to enjoy my own company and this is one such weekend. Did I mention that Mr. Official and all our offspring loooove snow skiing?  They do. I, however, do not enjoy cold weather or anything involving staying outdoors for extended periods of time in the winter.  A pesky hiatal hernia  has been fixed once, but threatens to return every time I try certain activities, namely white water rafting and snow tubing.  Those are my excuses and I'm sticking to them.

Friday was taken up with driving the swim taxi to and from our regional swim meet in Nashville, then ferrying swimmer girl and her daddy to meet the church bus headed for Perfect North slopes, rushing back to the 'boro to pick up middle child's prescription and snagging a quick drive-thru meal to eat while figuring out how to manipulate our television and surround sound system.  I figured it out and actually watched a few hours of television before dropping into bed and dreaming of my perfect Saturday.

So what does a perfect Saturday alone consist of?  For starters, it starts late.  Guilt-free sleeping in is practically required.  After a leisurely start to my morning, I took advantage of the springlike temperatures and climbed up in the attic to try to make some sense of the Christmas stuff that got pitched up there.  (And uh, added a few boxes of Christmas stuff that were still hanging out in the dining room.  For shame.)  While the washer and dryer were getting a workout, I decided to get at least one  master bedroom chore done for this week in Flylady's world, and I turned and spun the king-size mattress around after pulling off the bedding and sending it to the laundry.  (At one point, I envisioned a crime scene photo in our local newspaper, with a caption reading "woman found pinned under mattress.  No foul play suspected.")

Today's shade: "O'Hare and Nails Look Great!"

With the morning chores done, I let the pooch out for some afternoon sunbathing.  Meanwhile I dug out a pair of last summer's flipflops and headed to Sonic for a cherry Coke Zero during happy hour, then on to my favorite little in-and-out pedicure place for some long-overdue foot therapy.

God bless pleasant pedicurists who know how to deal with calloused feet.  And O.P.I. nail polish with its amazing array of  colors and whimsical names.  What a difference a shiny coat of Valentine-y red paint can make on a girl's mood!

Next up:  nap time.  Yes, a real, bona fide nap, followed by a call-in pizza order for a pepperoni, mushroom and onion pie.  I'm always outvoted by the naysayers on the 'shrooms so I took full advantage of this opportunity to savor them all over my pizza.  Yumm.  And now I'm settled in for an evening of reading and movie watching with a fire in the fireplace. 

It's not that I did anything special.  But I did exactly what I wanted to do, and that made it a totally perfect day.  For every mom out there who thinks this kind of "me time" will never happen, take heart:  it will.  And if need be, you can speed it along by encouraging your kids and their dad to take up activities that aren't your idea of a good time.  Sooner or later, you can stand back and wave goodbye and assure them you'll be just fine without them.  Try not to smirk as they drive away.

Happy weekend!