So this year I said I'd to kids snacks again as I had an excel spreadsheet and a plan. About a month before VBS my friend who is organizing the whole thing asked if I'd to the adult and youth volunteers snacks instead. My first thought was it would be inside (it was at least 95/30 degrees last year) and I'd have adult converstation, so I agreed. Jaden graduated, swim team started and then I finally got around to calling the lady who did the snacks last year - three weeks before VBS was due to start. She told me in a worried voice that there was no budget for adult snacks, it was all done on donations and that the reason she wasn't doing it this year was because she was so disappointed in peoples donations last year.
As you can imagine I had a couple of sleepless nights, but I put a meal plan together, one for the adults and one for the teenage volunteers. Then I said LOTS of prayers that God would provide. On the Sunday I went around all the Sunday School classes asking for donations. I thought maybe I'd get about $100 and people would volunteer to bring in food. After less than 45 minutes I had $756 in my envelope and promises of food and more money!! That lessened my stress considerably! The photos above are some for the food and drink that filled our house for the week before and week of VBS.
My little babies were angels each day and got up and were ready buy 7:45am. Jaden and Kirsten tried to help and Kirsten did a pretty good job. Jaden mostly got Nicolas all wound up and manic, which didn't help at all! It took me about an hour to set up in the morning and then at 9am I had to take Jaden to a summer camp he was doing at his middle school for the week. That was inconvinient, but he enjoyed it and I had a great lady helping me.
Once all the food was out I could relax and talk a bit with all the volunteers. I got lots of compliments, so I think I did OK. I made a cheese ball and two dips each day, so with the stuff I bought and the things people brought in, it all went very smoothly. The youth had a seperate breakroom and I fed them like big kids, lots of chips and cookies, but actually they wanted the same things as the adults. I'll know for next time but as there was no plan, I did my best.
The lady who helped me all week also had 4 kids so she understood totally that to go home and spend 2-3 hours a day cooking and preparing for the next day was a big commitment and was so supportive of me. I had another lady help me one day and she had the cheek to tell me to my face that this kind of thing was her 'forte' and she kept pointing out what I should have done better (all things that I knew that I would do differently next year). In the end I politely suggested to her that if she wanted to make some changes that she should volunteer to do snacks next year (no one else had volunteered this year which was way I said I'd do it). At that point she told me to my face that maybe she would, but she would "do it very differently and much better"!!! I walked offhad to walk away from her because I was so shocked that anyone could be so arrogant and insensitive that they would say that in front of me when I'd worked so hard for 3 weeks to make it happen! Anyway, it made me realize that if I'm sometime harsh on the kids when they say or do something insensitive, it's worth it if it helps them to grow up with some consideration for other people's feelings.
I fed about 200 people each day for 5 days on $890, so I was please with myself. I also put everything down on paper so the next person (or me if I end up doing it again) can do it much better (unless it's the rude woman, then she of course won't need my help!!). I had so many wonderful compliments that it more than made up for one awful woman!! Adam was an angel as usual and put up with my stress, but he did get some great dips out of it and the kids got to eat the broken cookies.
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