Kid Zone

20 Aug 2010 8 Comments

by danka in Uncategorized Tags: , ,

I’m hiding in my bedroom with my laptop.

But I have the door open so I can hear what’s going on out there. From a distance. Right now they are gathered around the Wii. Mario Kart music. Excited voices. Competition. Encouragement.

I just fed them. Somehow their full bellies have muted the volume. They were getting a little high strung for a few minutes. It’s better now. I made two things for lunch and they consumed enough ketchup on the side to make up a third entree.

Kids.

In the last two hours I’ve been presented with three different toys with the request for new batteries. My Costco-sized pack of AA’s is quickly dwindling. Didn’t I just buy those? Whatever did parents do when they only came in packs of four? I have a zip-lock bag full of dead ones I want to recycle. I don’t even know where to take them to recycle them. Can you recycle them? Help me.

Actually, it’s going pretty well. I’m amazed I can sit here and type at all. They are all content out there. I’ve finished washing the third load of dishes for the day (it’s only 1pm). My friend’s kids are here. Two boys. It goes like this: boy aged 9, girl aged (almost) 8, boy aged 7, girl aged 6. They have known each other since the second one of the four (that would be Adora) was born.

We used to live next door to these boys. It was a sweet set up. Our two families shared a lot of meals, and a lot of evenings, and a lot of FUN. We still do, even though we live on different ends of town now. When their parents, our friends, started a business I provided daycare to the boys for a while. At the time, it went like this: newborn girl, boy aged 1, girl aged 2, boy aged 3. I was breast-feeding the baby. The two oldest were potty-training. In theory it was a great idea. In reality, I just about lost my mind. And the children lived in terror of me (I imagine) because I was an emotional, over-tired, frustrated, disciplinarian wreck with sore nipples who saw far too many pairs of pooed underwear in any given week. In sadness I had to tell my friend only six months in that I just couldn’t do it anymore. She had to put them in a real daycare, which sounded scarier, but was probably a lot better for them. It worked out in the long run and we’re all still friends. It took a while for the boys to come to trust and enjoy my presence in their lives again. That made me really sad because I love them. But now years have passed and it’s all forgotten and we’re good.

Wow, that story came out of nowhere. I was going to tell you about Back Yard Clubs.

We hosted a Backyard club all this week. Luckily (for the children) I did not run the thing, and only had to provide the backyard and the snack and some prayers. Some teenagers from our church did the rest. They played games, sang songs, heard Bible stories, played more games, sang more songs, and so on, repeat, forever, every morning this week.

It was a lot of fun.

Thank-God it’s over.

What is with me? I love kids. Every child that was here I know in real life and I love, love, love them. They were all super-well behaved. I was glad to see their shining faces! I didn’t even have to do anything but enjoy their presence – the teens did all the work (and they were fantastic) and yet, I cheered in my heart when the last parent drove away with their child when it was all said and done. (Except the two boys who are still here – I decided to keep them for a while).

It sort of reminds me of the time I thought I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher when I grew up.

And then I spent a year volunteering in a kindergarten classroom once a week.

And changed my career plans.

I love kids.

And I’m not just saying that.

I have issues. Sigh.

Mission Accomplished

19 Apr 2010 4 Comments

by danka in Uncategorized Tags: ,

This won’t be long because it’s Monday morning and I’ve decided to reinstate “Monday is Housework Day,’ a ritual that I’ve held for years, but have never gotten the swing of since we moved into our new place.

And from the look of things around here, I have a lot of work to do.

But I’ve been mulling an idea all weekend and I wanted to pop in and share it with you in the spirit of having a more upbeat blog.

Last week, in this post, I told you all about my little speaking incident. I told you about my failure, my lack of skill as a speaker and my queasy stomach from nerves. In true Danica style, that’s all I told you. The icky part. Here’s the other half of that story. Only shorter, because, like I said, Monday is housework day and it’s already 8:30. I need to get on with it.

When Leanne asked me on Monday morning if I could speak on Wednesday morning, I decided within an hour what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk to the ladies about reading their Bibles more.

But immediately upon deciding that, I was faced with this conundrum (remember, I am not an experienced speaker): These are church going, praying, volunteering, Christian women. First of all, they already know they need to read their Bibles more and they don’t need me to tell them that. Secondly, these are busy women who, like just about every woman I know are doing a juggling act of parenting, career, being part of a church, volunteering, and any number of other things. They are bombarded daily with voices from ever direction saying ‘you need to exercise more!’ ‘you need to do things with your kids more!’ ‘you need to put more effort into being sexy for your husband!’ ‘you need to put more effort into saving the planet!’ and, of course, ‘you need to read more, especially your Bible!’ I didn’t want to be one more voice laying a guilt trip.

I remember being a young woman, in the first handful of years of my Christian walk. I worked a heck of lot less than I do now. I had plenty of spare time and yet, somehow, I spent more time feeling guilty about not reading my Bible than actually reading it.

Now, a handful of years later, I love it. I can’t get enough. And so I spent some time brainstorming both what kept me from diving into it the first place, and how I got from there to here. I’m not going to bore you with all those details right now. Maybe some other time.

I just came to this blog today to tell you something positive. Before I told you about my churning stomach. Today I want to tell you about my success.

I had no desire to lay a guilt trip on anyone or present them with one more chore to add to their list, one more ‘should’. What I wanted was this: to walk in there, open my mouth and talk for a few minutes, and when I stopped talking someone, anyone, would have a desire inside of them, in their heart more than in their brain, to read their Bible. I wanted to make a little spark, make a little connection maybe between some ideas they already had, and inspire them to enter this world of magic and wonder that I have found myself wandering around in.

So I went there, and I opened my mouth (and fumbled over my words) (sorry, I couldn’t resist) and when I was done, and I sat back down, a lady who I don’t know looked at me from over at another table and said “Oh. I just want to go home right now and read my Bible.”

Awesome.