Congested

My head and sinuses feel about as congested as our front porch right now. That is to say, crowded to the point of bursting. The pressure, it's next-to-unbearable. I'm not sure if I'm just suffering from a nasty head-cold, or maybe allergies or something, but I'll just go ahead and tell you that I feel Terrible. Yup, with a capital T.

Technically, this is our first summer HERE at our house in the hood. The first summer we lived here, I was super-duper preggo with Caden, and we spent most of the time at camp. Then last summer we were at camp all summer. This summer, however, we are splitting our time between camp and home. And y'all, somehow I was completely unprepared for the complete chaos that is summer in our home.

 

Statistics say that many kids in “at-risk” and poor communities will go hungry during the summer months, without the breakfast and lunch they are usually provided in their schools. Now, to be fair, these statistics can never be as nuanced and complex as the reality of the kiddos’ lives entails. I don’t know how many kids would actually be hungry/not-hungry etc, or how accurate all of those statistics really are. But let me tell you, we've been feeding some kiddos. Some kiddos who can straight-put-down the food. And most of them are here from sun-up til sun-down, and would stay past then if we let them. 

Sometimes lunch is peanut butter sandwiches and dinner is ramen noodles. The kiddos usually make me noodles, careful not to put in too much hot-sauce since, admittedly, I'm a little bit of a wimp. But somehow in the making and serving and sitting down around the table together, our communion over even a meal of noodles leads to deeper community, and finds us staring into the heart of Jesus. 

So as busy as we are, as tired and congested as I feel in this moment, I am grateful. And also looking forward to being at camp next week. That way, you know, we can keep things a bit more low-key. Ha.

Have I mentioned we are bringing 65 kids from the neighborhood to camp this summer? Don't worry, it's spread out over four weeks. And I'm pretty sure we've collected permission slips for five of those kids so far, despite handing out at least four forms (to replace lost ones) to each kid who wants to come. Hmm, that reminds me - I should go try and collect more forms right now. Pray for me?

I know I'm a little sporadic around here, and I almost didn't post today until I decided not to put too much pressure on myself to write something GOOD and DEEP, and instead just give myself permission to write ANYTHING. So here I am, thanks for joining me.