Hey Hula! Where Have You Been?

Well, I built a swamp, got a little older and ate my weight in crab legs. In my spare time, I executed a survey, did some research for a project and visited the merry land of odd known as insurance paperwork. I did not float in the pool. I did not make margaritas and I did not take a sunny nap in a lounge chair. Frick. Double frick. Double frick with two snaps and a swirl.

The last couple of weeks have been insane. Work has been unusually busy, and family life has been more hectic than usual. Throw in a little bible school preparation and my birthday, and I managed to create the perfect storm of exhaustion. I was so busy last week that I kept forgetting my birthday was drawing near. When Mama J. handed me her credit card and told me to buy something nice for myself I said, “What on earth for?” “Uh, isn’t Saturday your birthday?” “Great googly moogly, it sure is!” For a brief moment I was giddy. Then the power steering went out on the van.

Thank goodness, Teen Angel’s weekly chores include laundry, otherwise, the Hula-gen’s would all be going commando by now. When a teenager takes it upon herself to wash her own bed sheets because thinks they’re long overdue for a wash, they are looooooong overdue. And we haven’t been to the grocery store in three weeks. For a family who cooks most of their meals at home, that’s a long time. The milk in the fridge has an expiration date of July 14th. Every morning, for about week I have said a little prayer, given it the sniff test and poured it on my cereal. Fortunately, it’s skim so it’s watery and slow to spoil. Any day now it should be turning into cheese. The up side to not going to the grocery store is that we’re doing a fine job of emptying up the cabinets. We’ve managed to eat just about everything but some Lipton onion soup mix, a stray can of beets and an old gingerbread house kit. And frankly, those beets are looking better every day.

In the last five days we have boxed up the remaining contents of Sissy’s house and sent them to the auctioneer, loaded up some of Mama J.’s stuff she wanted sent to the auctioneer, spent about three of those days decorating for bible school and negotiated several standoffs between the cat and the dog. I completed a couple of labor intensive projects at work and started planning for another. I ran a race Saturday morning and had to move up an age category. I was a full two minutes slower than I was the previous Saturday, which I found highly amusing. Saturday evening we took time to eat at my favorite seafood restaurant, where I poked down more crab legs than should be legal and yesterday Mama and Daddy visited with birthday cake in tow. I finally sat down last night at 9:15pm and marveled at how fast the weekend went. When I woke up this morning worrying about the week ahead, I said “Hula, something’s got to give. You need to make some changes, girlfriend”, and I did.

I did some list making and some prioritizing, set a few immediate goals and let go of a couple of items. I worked through my short list today and hope to work a little farther down my long list tomorrow. And while that list looms large and long, I expect this will be a good week, and I will greet Friday renewed. Ya’ know why? It’s bible school week, and I love bible school.

Heading up the decorating committee is usually my job, which I enjoy, even though it’s labor intensive. It’s always the one time of year I can justify to my parents all of those theater classes I took in college. I like to create an atmosphere that wows the kids when they walk in the door and makes them excited to be there. My wonderful, tireless partners in swamp building have prepared a set that I think the kids will like.
And the bayou theme looks like it’s going to be really fun. It’s been a while since I’ve had a little one in bible school, but I love to help because the kiddies make me smile, smile, smile. And somebody with sticky fingers is always trying to give me a hug. And somebody with a peanut butter grin will say something funny and blow milk through his nose. And somebody will wait until the last minute to pee and make me dash with him to the potty. But most of all, they will remind me time and time again how good it is to dance and laugh and sing off key regardless of whose listening or watching. They will teach me how to see wonder in the smallest things, and they will warm my soul for five full days. And that my friends is worth two snaps and a swirl.