Phew! This weekend has been incredibly fun and exhausting. I was too busy to take pictures so I will instead give you a bullet point run-down of our past four days:
- Friday evening, 140 teens and sponsors arrived at our church building for a weekend youth rally. Matt was home working frantically to at least get our new shower in place since we were housing boys all weekend. I stayed at the building and helped organize housing for all the people. THAT is a job.
- 17 teenage boys came home with us to “sleep.” They found our drum set.
- We fed the boys snacks, even though they had just eaten at the building.
- I accidentally said words out loud about the smell of the feet. All of the boys blamed all of the other boys.
- Matt stayed up until 4:30 in the morning trying to understand instructions about installing a shower that read something like, “Put the white thing with the other white thing, then slide it onto the round piece.” There were a lot of white things and different sized round pieces. God bless him. He got it up and running.
- I slept from about midnight to 1:30, then could not go back to sleep until 5. What in the world???
- We delivered the boys back to the church building at 8:30 (it took three trips to get them there). We dropped Malachi off at a friend’s house, then Matt and I headed to the rally to teach classes.
- Matt and I enjoyed teaching four sets of teens throughout the day – Matt with mixed classes and me with roomfuls of girls! It was wonderful and fun. What great youth!
- We finally got back to pick up Malachi at 8:00 pm. He was thrilled that he had been able to play with his friend for “over 10 hours, Mom!”
- We made three trips to get all the boys back to our house.
- We fed the boys snacks, even though they had just eaten at the building.
- Somehow after the full day and lack of sleep, the boys still didn’t want to sleep. They have so much fun together and have limited time together throughout the year so it would seem that sleeping would waste their precious together time.
- We woke up to snow. Lots and lots of snow.
- Matt has a snow removal business. He bundled up and headed out for what would be a very long day.
- We called for help and got all the kids to the building for brunch and worship.
- It became very clear that no one could drive home as had been the plan. Several other moms and I worked frantically to pull out leftovers to warm up to feed everyone. After church, we had a huge spread of random but tasty items for the kids to eat while we visited with sponsors about driving conditions.
- 110 of the youth and sponsors needed to stay an extra night. The kids were thrilled with the extra together time and the fact that they would miss a day of school on Monday. Phone calls were made, youth leaders talked to all the parents.
- Housing arrangements were made yet again for all the youth. We shuffled them around so that entire youth groups could be together, making it easier on the sponsors/drivers to get up and go on Monday.
- We needed more food! And a Super Bowl Party! What to do, what to do? Adults made plans. Kids hung out, fell asleep on church pews, headed across the street to play in the college gym, or played board games. They were loving life.
- A man from church with “connections” came to the building with the hugest TV I’ve ever seen. He set it up in the fellowship hall, and fixed it up to stream the game that night.
- Several adults headed to the store and came back with 48 frozen pizzas, a ton of popcorn, and stuff to make 14 batches of party mix. We got busy in the kitchen.
- We had a fabulous party, the kids loved it, they were very gracious and seriously – I think this turned out to be the kids’ favorite day of the entire rally.
- Matt had been moving snow all day (that continued to fall and blow). I texted him to let him know that we’d be having 12 extras that night and to please put sheets in the washer when he went home. (I hadn’t been able to stop and go home all day.)
Let’s pause now so that I can tell you that Matt called around 6:30 to tell me that:
Our washer had busted. We could do no laundry.
I giggled because I was loopy, exhausted, and giggling sounded like the best response. As I hung up the phone, I looked straight ahead of me and realized there was a washer and dryer right in the kitchen I’d been working in all day. I called him back. He brought the sheets to the building. We washed them while we worked. Perfect.
- At 10:00 we made it back to our house with the 12 extra people.
- You guessed it, we fed them snacks, even though they had just eaten at the building.
- We had a great time getting to know our new guests (a few girls and a mom this time, yay me!).
- We went to bed at a more reasonable hour, like 12:30. It was bliss.
- I made a big breakfast before sending everyone on the road this morning around 10:00. I was so thankful for bags of muffin batter in the freezer!
- We declared the day to be a “snow day” even though as home schoolers, we never take snow days. Most of us stayed in our pj’s all day. Bliss.
- Matt picked up the piece we needed to fix the washer and had it ready for me by early afternoon. Then he went out to do more snow removal. Love him.
- The afternoon and evening has been spent making broth and soup (perfect for a cold day like today!), doing laundry, and reading quietly. I took a really long nap and woke up as a new woman.
- OH! And our internet has been out since last night and none of us had the energy to do anything about it until this afternoon. It was a wireless router issue, and at this point, everything is working except for my work computer. Oh well. :) We’ll get it figured out when our brains work again.
So there you have it. It was truly a wonderful weekend. We love these kids!!! I’m pretty sure they will remember this youth rally for a very long time – hopefully the spiritual parts too. :)
What did you do this weekend, and what are you thankful for? You must leave a comment to share! (I’ve missed hanging out here the past few days.)
Lisa @LisaAppelo.com says
Wow! I’m a Florida girl so I can’t even imagine dealing with all the snow! I’m intrigued by the frozen muffin batter . . . and putting that on my list to try as well. Lol, I’m tired just reading your post!
This week, I’m grateful for a sure hope after some dark days. God is good and so faithful. http://lisaappelo.com/sun-will-come-tomorrow/
michelle says
Wow, what a weekend! Mine was quiet. My son is sick so he and I skipped the superbowl party. He enjoyed watching cartoons on his DS and i streamed the game on the computer. I am grateful for homeopathic remedies and essential oils because they are helping my son heal!
Lisa says
I’m super thankful for our newest addition, a little girl who arrived safely last week. And that my husband was able to take time off to help so I can rest and recover.
And…I’m thankful for good blog posts to read. Thanks Laura!
Leigh says
Congratulations! God bless all of you!
Rene' Giles says
Wow! What a weekend but it was fruitful and what great teamwork from family and friends. Those were the days when my son was in youth. We had loads of fun.
My daughter was in a soccer game on Friday and we had one of her friends over for the weekend. My husband and I went to a Leadership meeting at church on Saturday morning – while we were gone the girls made our cookies for the super bowl party. My husband stayed and did some yard work at the church. I came home and made homemade pimento cheese and tuna mix which is my grandmothers recipe for the super bowl party. We relaxed the rest of the day on Saturday.
We went to church and had some missionary friends over for lunch and we had chili in the crockpot so it was ready. Our friends talked with us about youth camp this weekend (which my daughter was already going). He spoke into my daughters friend and asked her if she would like to go to camp – she said she would love to if her Mom would let her. You see, her parents are divorced and her mother has not remarried and her dad has. One week the children go to their Moms and the other week they go their dads. This week she is at her Moms and I spoke with her mother yesterday to share with her about camp and to ask her if her daughter could go. They are going to talk about it and get back with me. Our missionary friends pulled me to the side and said they want to pay her way.
God is so cool.
ms.p says
Glad you had a great weekend.This weekend my famly went out of town shopping and I met my grandson. God is faithful and he knows what he is doing and I going to trust himwith the situation with my grandson.My grandson was born wednesday. Sunday at church we had missionarys and potluck and then afernoon service. It was nice not having to go back to church at night.
Jen says
We took our youth group skiing in Winter Park, CO. We had a wonderful time playing and being challenged spiritually. We got to drive home through all that snow. :) we were unable to pick up our girls from their housing due to snow drifts. So the hubby and I had a nice quiet evening just the two of us after a fun long weekend.
Charlotte Moore says
WOW!!! What a weekend you had. My head is spinning. HAHAHA!!!
So grateful our 2 great granddaughters are better. They have been sick all last week. Almost over it I PRAY.
Denise says
WE too had snow in Iowa this weekend. So I spent my time knitting, sewing on a ribbon quilt block and of course baking. And visiting with my husband it was the first snow day being empty nesters It was kinda nice. But do miss all of our kids being home to play games and help eat what I baked.
Sherri says
Laura, I love your site and have been following you for years. I must tell you though–the ads on your site are annoying and make the site look cluttered. Ads are popping up all over the page. Keep up the good work of fixing good food. I do enjoy the articles.
Laura says
Agreed! My ad people were experimenting with new things, but it is a little much. So we’re taking what we’re learning and making adaptions. :)
Shelli says
Wow oh wow oh wow! What an exhausting fun time! I love teens & big get togethers, but I especially love those women who are gifted with organization, planning, preparedness, & flexibility. As one who can be very flexible & loves hospitality but struggles in the other areas I really need women in my life to “bail” me out. lol I would love to live near you & be able to soak in & learn all those little tips that come naturally to you & others on how to be prepared for the expected & unexpected. I’m sure every one of those teens went home with many fun memories & many spiritual truths planted in their hearts. Thank you for sharing you & your family’s lives & encouraging us to be all God has called us to be. Just where we are.