field trip

Today I chaperoned a trip for my youngest's 3rd grade class. It was a riot "supervising" the kids, and constantly counting them, making sure no one got left behind! We toured a zinc mine, so there were plenty of dark, wet places to be lost in. I ate lunch with a little boy who moved here in April from France, and I tried out my French a little bit. He sat alone at a picnic table, probably more because of his severe peanut allergy than his inability to communicate with his classmates -- his English is astonishingly good. He is 8 and he knows he will be moving back to France when he is 11....

Another good deed I did was to remove a lazy wasp from the table of a group of girls. I wrapped the wasp up in my sandwich baggie and then enclosed her in my brown paper bag -- people asked me why I didn't kill it, and I told them I didn't want her sending out a distress pheromone and getting more wasps involved in the action! I was a hero, but a kind and benevolent one at that. (sort of -- I think the wasp was dying anyway....)

The kids enjoyed riding in the coach bus -- everyone had to use the bathroom on board just to check it out. They also enjoyed watching movies -- the original "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (with Gene Wilder) on the way there, and "Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit" on the way back. Television -- truly a panacea for traveling with kids (or at the grocery store check-out line, or at the Dunkin' Donuts, or at Disney World -- anywhere we need people to "behave"!).

School is underway and the 3 of us seem to be in a groove again. I like the structure. Now I need to look for a job and contemplate moving in the next 9 months or so.... Oh! Oldest had an asthmatic bronchitis attack and spent 7 hours at the local ER this past week -- so we manage to stay on our toes around here at all times.... My classes put me on campus after chapel (and only 2 days a week, at that) so I will have to be intentional about chapel worship this year. This past Sunday we went "home" to our congregation in northern NJ. We didn't stay long (oldest had to return home to work) but it is always nice to see everyone again and to feel cared for.

Time to sign off -- hanging with 120 3rd-graders all day (8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) has worn me out! Even though I was only directly responsible for 6 -- still!