Tuesdays- Sleep, Study and Service

It has been awhile.

I just came back from another grace-filled Via De Cristo Weekend, where I had the opportunity to serve on the music team. I try to serve on one weekend a year...and this Spring I will finally get to serve on a Kairos team as well. (Logistics have made this impossible the past few years) This past weekend gave me a much needed recharge in a glimmer of what life in Christ can be.

Now it is Tuesday. We are back to day-to-day reality.

Last night was community dining. So..a few dishes still await. However..it is almost 11a.m. already. Tuesdays are the day Austen, Cody and I sleep late. At 11, I will wake them and we will clean for about 30 minutes. Then? We hit the books.

Cody will start his chemistry study- marathon. He does this almost every Tuesday. He takes his books, my lap-top, and his I-pod and spreads out all over the living room floor. Cody is essentially going to cram a week's worth of Chem. homework from Friday school into one long seesion. He will still be in the same spot when I return from work this evening. Cody will take one break in the early evening to help with the Teen Paper Recycling Program at the Club and hang out for 20 min. at Dairy Queen with the others on the recycling team. Early afternoon Cody will take a few small breaks to feed/water the chickens and collect eggs. Mostly? He will study chemistry until about 1 or 2 in the morning. How do I know this? Because Cody is a creature of habit...Wed. and Thurs. are math and Financial Peace study- days, Fridays are Friday school and fun. Sat. are soccer, fun, work on cars and work with dad around the yard. Sun..work on cars and work with dad around the house. Mon...study auto-mechanics, work on cars and do whatever the rest of us are doing. Tuesdays are his chemistry/recycling days. (Chickens are simply part of the daily routine)

Austen will help clean the dishes this a.m..then he will spend 20 minutes looking for all his c0-0p stuff that he has lost since last Friday. Then? He will play music on his lap-top in his room and start working on a week's worth of math. Around 1, he will bring his math with him to the Club and work on math while preparing snack for at least 55 kids. I think he is making spaghetti today. My co-workers and I will help him whenever he gets stuck on a math problem.
Austen will start serving snack and then leave for recycling with Cody and the other teens. He will return in time to go to the Club's Money Matters program. This is a program run by one of our local banks on money management, investments, etc. After Money Matters, Austen places himself out in the middle of the Club's pavillion and returns to math. His friends help him whenever he gets stuck. Once Civil Air Patrol arrives, Austen sort-of just hangs out with them.
He dropped Civil Air Patrol this year, but the group still likes for him to be there. He sees his friends and helps them whenever they get stuck during a drill. Sometimes they will ask them to try and distract him while they are drilling. Other times they ask him to pretend he is a wall that they must march around. More often than not, he will help the newer element leaders and drill seargents (is that what they are called?) in the order of certain drills, or on choreographing their own. He also helps the color-guard as they prepare for events. I am amazed they let him participate at this level..but they do and seem to welcome his participation.

Me? I study and prepare for the weekend. This morning I read Where God Meets Man by Gerhard O. Forde to prepare for the adult Sunday School. I prepare a homily for nursing home chapel on Sunday afternoon..and practice guitar for a home-gathering Sunday evening. For later today I need to figure out what to blow up for "Back yard Ballistics" Thinking it will be lemon launchers today. I look through Teens Can Do It for discussion ideas for today's Be Great program. I will go to the Club at 1. We have a staff meeting, Power Hour (homework help), snack, and then the Be Great and Backyard Ballistics programs. The Club closes late on Tuesdays because we host a basketball planning meeting, Girl Scouts and Civil Air Patrol. Hopefully someone will start dinner..or we will be fixing scrambled eggs and pancakes at 9o'clock tonight.

Rambled long enough. The boys are hovering and I'm still playing.