Sunday

The kids ministry at church started up again a few weeks ago, so Katrina and Houston have been going to the Sunday night meetings, and Zane's been going to what we used to call Sunday School. But the church was still totally needing leaders, and so this week, Beth and i started as co-leaders for a group of fifth graders.

It was kind of a weird week to start, because it was a "we're not going to meet at the church like usual! Instead every group will just go off and do their own fun thing!" night. Luckily, all of the fifth graders were doing their fun thing together, rather than in small groups, and so Beth and i were able to just show up and hope to find the girls that will be in our group. The activity was at a farm owned by the parents of the family leaders, so we got to see lots of cows, take a hay ride, and enjoy the beauty.

The sixth graders had a pool party - so they went swimming. Outside. In October. In Michigan. I mean, the pool was heated up to something like 90 degrees, but it's still a good thing that it was not horribly, horribly cold today. When i picked Katrina up, i practically had to drag her out of the pool, and a couple of the leaders told me that she'd been the first one in, and had spent nearly the entire time in the pool. She was happy, but completely exhausted.

Houston was supposed to have a really, really fun activity that he was completely excited about. They were going to play tag in a corn maze. And then carve pumpkins. We showed up at the farm at the appointed time...and there was nobody there. Nobody. Because it's closed on Sundays. I called Juanito and had him double-check the email...and it was yesterday. 

Houston was really, incredibly good-natured and kind about the entire thing, and assured me that it was COMPLETELY fine. No worries at all, Mom. But i feel terrible, because he was really excited about going, and Houston just hasn't been really excited about going to church events ever. Not because he doesn't like church, but because ever since fifth grade, he just doesn't feel like he really fits in. The first two years were terrible - he just hated it, and we basically let him drop out for most of sixth grade. Last year he had totally new leaders and a new group and Katrina and a couple of other friends in the building, and it was much, much better. But he's not been really, truly excited to go to many things. So i feel really, really sad about dropping the ball on this one.