What I Learned in June

I’m linking up with Emily Freeman over at Chatting at the Sky for:

WHAT I LEARNED IN JUNE

1.  I need summer to be hot and sunny.

No offense New England, the Great Lakes or the Pacific Northwest,

but this girl wants some humidity and sunshine 

to make her summer count. 

No jackets and umbrellas. 

No “getting used to the water” because the temperatures dip so low in the evening that it remains an unbearable 58 degrees. 

NOPE. 

If I’m going to endure the Midwest weather for the remaining 9 months of the year, 

I need me some hot and sun for June, July and August.

I’m giving you the side eye, 

Summer.

It’s time to step up.

2.  I’m easily fascinated.

A few weeks ago, I discovered that I had stepped in something.

I used a stick to scrape it off.

Look at all that crud! How long was it on my flip flop??

Ellie was horrified that Monte and I were not only discussing it but photographing it as well.

If you look at it just so 

(with maybe one eye closed) 

it looks like a flower.

A junky trash flower.

Slap that in a modern art exhibit and SOMEONE would be pointing out it’s representation of man’s inhumanity to man. 

You KNOW they would.

3. I was not in the right shape for VBS.

I taught the crafts class at our church’s Vacation Bible School last week. It exhausted me in a way that was total body.

Mind, body and soul.

I taught four different classes each morning and sometimes the preschoolers as well.

It was mentally exhausting to be “on” for three solid hours. 

I don’t know how you do it, teachers!

My back and knees hurt from standing and bending over to help the kids with their crafts.

Some of the kids were so insanely precious that it actually hurt my heart.

One little tiny girl was filled with affirmations everyday.

“I can’t wait to make this!"

“This is great!”

“I love being here!”

One little boy sat in my lap. 

It’s been a long time since someone sat in my lap.

I teach Sunday school all the time but this was different. 

I will try to prepare accordingly for next year.

4.  Things Aren’t Always What They Seem

McDaniel volunteered her and Ellie to teach the preschool class at VBS. Ellie spent a week preparing the lesson plans for each day while McDaniel was at camp. 

They weren’t quite prepared for how exhausting teaching was going to be either.

Especially McDaniel who was working on little sleep from camp.

Double especially that some of the kids were 

in the midst of being potty trained.

I stuck my head in their classroom on the first day to check on everyone.

Once I left, Ellie said one of the little girls pointed at the doorway where I’d just been and said,

“Satan.”

When they were headed outside to play, Ellie told me what happened.

I’m not sure how you’d react after being told that a preschooler called you Satan, 

but it did not feel one ounce of good.

As I was processing what I’d just heard,

another teacher walked by with his class and I made 

THE GRAVE ERROR 

of telling him what happened.

I received texts later of the little girl’s “prophetic statement” and if he should call me Lucifer or Lucy for short from then on.

It was two days later when we all heard the same little girl call out to her friend “Kaitlyn” that we realized it sounded A LOT like “Satan".

And Kaitlyn didn’t seem the least bit offended 

by how her name was pronounced. 

So I decided not to be either.

5. Glitter Glue is Evil

We’d had a pretty successful run of craft successes when Day 4 rolled around involving the use of glitter glue on a dragonfly clip craft.

I had purchased tubes of glitter glue at Dollar Tree that had pointy caps on them very similar to the caps on Elmer’s glue bottles.

You know, the kind you twist up, but not off, to open.

I did not realize that the boys on one end of the room were making this “must be just like Elmer’s glue” cap assumption until it was WAY too late.

I was in the slow motion mid-run, hand outstretched in the universal “NOOOOOOO!” position when the force of three boys squeezing the tube AS HARD AS THEY POSSIBLY COULD

shot the cap right off.

Along with ALL THE GLITTER GLUE.

I looked around to see who’d been hit.

The two girls ON THE OPPOSITE END of the nearly 12 feet of tables looked at me besparkled.

It was in their hair, on their arms, on the upholstered chairs and on their clothes.

We did our best to clean them up but glitter was everywhere.

As I hugged one boy goodbye, I saw glitter all over his scalp.

As in, SO DEEPLY EMBEDDED INTO HIS HAIR 

THAT IT MADE IT TO HIS HEAD.

Before the day was over, we wiped glitter glue off the walls, chairs, tables and ourselves. I have a pair of shorts that will now sparkle forever.

By the 4th class, we hid the glitter glue. 

But I’m pretty sure the kids saw the mess. 

They knew what they were missing.

The next day, we checked on the dragonfly clips and some of the glitter glue STILL wasn’t dry.

Learn from me, people, glitter glue is evil!

Don’t be fooled by it’s sparkle combined with adhesive claims.

It’s explosive and begs to be abused. 

And kids will always, ALWAYS agree to that request.

THE END