I need Jesus to take this wheel!

Okay people, I'm stressed and could use your prayers!

I've mentioned in the past this PTA thing I'm coordinating. Well, it's getting closer. Basically, it's an event where we get different people to come and be presenters for a class. We send home a note telling the parents which classes are available and they rank their top 3 choices. We then will place them in their classes, trying to keep them fairly balanced in size. This program is done in the evening and is designed for the parent & child to participate together.

In the past, it's been called "Spring Enrichment Program" and was held in March. Because of soccer & baseball schedules, they asked that we move it to January when there's less going on. So, I renamed it "Parent Enrichment Program." Now, I think I'm going to call it "Family Enrichment Program." It was mentioned in the December newsletter once but that's it as far as the parents hearing anything about it, so I don't think it will be a big deal that I changed the name. I guess I'll hear about it if it is!

At the beginning of the year, I started trying to get my foot in the 'ole PTA door of the school. It took a little effort, I think, to let them know I was serious about being involved...involved to the point of wanting to do more than just pay my monetary dues once a year and supply a cake for the cake walk at the Fall Festival! Well, the PTA president mentioned that they had this program that they needed someone to coordinate and gave me some information about it....basically notes from years past. Wanting to prove myself to her, I accepted the task. I don't think there's a $150,000 job with Donald Trump waiting at the end, but you never know.

At first, I was okay with this because I knew I still had a long time to prepare. Then, the day I called 5 parents about helping and noone called me back, I started stressing. Then, things started falling into place and I felt better. Now, I have a PTA meeting tonight where I plan to present what I've done (it's mainly just officers who show up to this meeting so it's not like alot of people) and what I still need to do and I'm stressing again.

"What if they tell me I've done it wrong?" "What if they snicker?" "What if they roll their eyes?" "What if they snap at me to make corrections?" (I CANNOT stand it when people "snap" at me. If you want to disagree with me, that's fine. But, please don't snap at me and talk to me like I'm stupid!) These are thoughts going through my head. I'm just going to be honest when I say that I am intimidated by these people. Don't get me wrong. It's not like anyone's been rude to me. I just get the feeling that these people have been together a long time and I'm kind of the "outsider."

The PTA president had said she would get me some help, but she has had a family tragedy and hasn't been around for a few months. Her 2nd grade daughter had major brain surgery after suffering from a brain tumor and strokes. She has her own set of things to deal with right now and I understand that. The PTA secretary has been very helpful and supportive to me and has even relayed things to the president and she (the president) emailed the other day making nice comments.

Still. I'm stressed.

I've got 8 presenters lined up. Well, 7 for sure. I still need to confirm with the 8th. I have a lady coming to do Creative Memories, a gardening lady, a cake decorating lady, maybe a magician, someone from the SPCA with live animals coming to talk about animal care & safety, a gymnastics instructor, a karate instructor and a lady coming to talk about making child identification kits. So that part is pretty well set up.

This morning, I'm going up to the school to make copies of an announcement to go home because for some reason the event didn't make it onto the January calendar that went home Friday. (ugh!) I was going to call about seeing if Katie could go to Mother's Day Out, but she's been coughing this morning and it doesn't sound pretty. So, I may just take her with me. Think she'll be good while I make copies and separate them into the different teachers' boxes? I think there are about 600 students, so it could take awhile! Then there's a whole list of things to still be done. I'm hoping to enlist the help of some people at the meeting. The biggest thing is next week we need to send home the list of classes and have the parents rank their favorites and then fill the classes while trying to honor their requests while not having one class with 70 students and one with 5! Looking at the rosters from years past, it looks like the biggest class has only ever had about 50 people total, including parents.

I'm stressed. Plus, my husband, who NEVER travels, has an out of town business meeting the week of this event! He is going to go down for part of his meeting, then come back home for this event, then maybe drive back down (about 2 1/2 hours) for the rest of the meeting. I just know I'll need him for moral support as well as I want Gracie to be able to participate by going to a class and I may need to be popping in & out of the different classes checking on things. There's also the issue of Katie. She can stay with one of us; I just didn't want to have to be dragging her and Gracie around to all the other classes.

Looking back at last week's post, I need Jesus to "take the wheel." Please pray that I'll let Him!