This has been a terribly chaotic week for me. Being a teacher, I have some points where life is really calm, some where it is middle of the road, and some where I drown in responsibilities and tasks. The past two weeks have been a period of drowning, but particularly this week.
On top of it being Halloween, we are in the final tech week of my drama students' show, my English students are in the final week of their biggest project of the year, and I had probably the heaviest load of work for my Master's program so far. Most weeks have been relatively manageable, but this week was intense. Tons of reading and two papers due in one class, presentation due in another class. Yet, I have a pervading sense of peace and calm that is rare in my life, even when it is not quite so chaotic.
Why? Mom.
Having my mom here is amazing. In a week like this, I am normally scrambling to pick up the kids on time or make arrangements for someone else to. I am normally pretending my house is not a disaster and promising myself to clean it over the weekend. I am normally hunting through laundry baskets for things to wear. Not any more.
Mom is here in the morning. Tiana is usually still sleeping in the morning when I leave. Mom does Vinny's homework with him. Mom does my laundry and puts it away. Mom cleans my house. She even scrubbed the fronts of my cabinets and fridge. While I am at work, Mom texts me pictures of Vinny playing in the leaves outside. Mom wraps the present for the birthday party Vinny is attending on Sunday. Mom made dinner so it was ready when we got home last night, and Mom cooked dinner for my family tonight while I was at school until 10. Mom is clearly an angel sent from heaven to keep me from losing my sanity.
There is another new change happening as well. We have a new church home.
We have kept very quiet about this for necessary reasons, but over the past few months (since July), Marc has been interviewing at a Lutheran church here in town. It is for a youth pastor position, which is Marc's passion and gift. It will be so nice for Marc to feel like he is in his element again, but I too am excited to have a church family again.
It is hard to feel like you are part of a family at a large church. Even if you feel like you are comfortable there and like you belong there, it doesn't feel like a family in the way a smaller church does. This isn't a tiny church, but it is small enough and definitely has that family feeling. I especially knew it was a fit because of Vinny. You can tell a lot about people by the type of children they raise. The first time Vinny went to Sunday school, he had a good time. The second time, when he walked in to Sunday school, all the kids cheered, "Vinny!" When they escorted the children back to us at service for the ending, he did the robot down the aisle to where Marc and I were sitting. No... I am not kidding. The next week, when we were not going to that church, Vinny said, "The kids at Sunday school are going to miss me. They'll say, 'Where's Vinny?'" The fact that my son felt he was wanted and was going to be missed solidified my decision about this church. :-)
Although this means our family jumping back into full-time ministry and all of the hours and interesting things that come with it, at this time in my life, I very much welcome it. With Marc's current job, he has little flexibility with his hours and from April to August often works 55-60 hours a week. This creates a lot of stress for us, so a more flexible schedule is going to be nice. It is also going to be nice that Marc will get to put in the hours he longs to put into ministry and it not be in addition to another full-time job. Yea!
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