In a Pickle--Time is Running Out

It is almost time for the annual visit of grandkids during Vacation Bible School at Center. I hope that I am almost ready.

We got a late start on VBS preparation this year because so much was going on with our congregation--still is for that matter. To try and alleviate stress, it was decided to repeat a week of Veggietown lessons from many years ago. Our pastor had our lessons saved for us, and while the material is vaguely familiar, I still have a great deal of study to do before now and Monday morning. Seems like it was just last year that I got rid of some of the materials I had used the first time way back then.

What I did not count on was having someone accidentally jump a curb and run into our back passenger car door while I was inside the mall last week the very afternoon before we were to leave at 5 a.m. next day for Springfield doctor appointment. And that “quick trip” to Springfield was supposed to just be for a second opinion to back up the first. We probably broke records in recent years for a slow trip home from Springfield because of all the storm-caused delays. And unexpectedly, we have to go back again this Friday for follow-up. So for those and other reasons, an over-full schedule was expanded considerably this past week.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed telling the Heartland Rotary Club about Southern Illinois Writers Guild on Tuesday morning. If we are not detained in Springfield, I will be able to read from Down on the Farm as planned for the reception for showings of the Historic Structures and Farm Machinery in Art at the newly refurbished Little Egypt Art Association building on the Marion Square on Saturday afternoon. As I searched the book for appropriate readings about old farm houses and machinery, I was somewhat surprised to find much more than I needed for the 15-minute reading.

Our Guild is also planning a third Southern Illinois Writer’s Conference on Saturday, September 9, at John A. Logan College, so part of my brain is working on that. SIWG is pretty excited that we have two Illinois publishers coming: Doris Wenzel from Mayhaven Publishing in Mahomet and Ray Elliott from Tales Press in Urbana. This will be an incredible day for anyone interested in writing. And this year because of gas prices, we are making the registration fee just $l0 instead of $35 and hoping we will have enough extra people attending to make up the difference. People can go off campus to local cafes to eat, so the conference will be affordable for students and those on fixed incomes. This is going to be a great bargain and I hope a productive day for writers in this region.

I will be taking my Bible and lesson plans along to Springfield for more study and prep. I have the new pickle pot ready for the kids to use to determine what to do in some of the pickles they may find themselves in. I am just hoping I will be ready and not in a pickle myself on Monday morning.