Sunday Bloody Sunday

Sundays can be so crazy. I decided I need to be more organized so we can get to church on-time with as little stress as possible (and hopefully manage to brush Bode's hair and teeth before leaving...). So last night I made sure my CTR 5 lesson was ready and that i had everything packed in my bag (including the SNACK--heaven forbid i forget that!), made sure the diaper bag was loaded with necessities and snacks for sacrament meeting and books for B. Sounds like an obvious thing to do but now that we have 9AM church I'm finally realizing I need to be better prepared. We have to be out the door by 8:40 and that comes up quickly.

Getting out the door went smoothly. Doug actually got Bode into an acceptable, clean, almost matching outfit (go Doug!!). Our ward is getting so big that the seats go all the way to the second section of the cultural hall (of the three sections). We usually end up in the very back but today we were closer to the front of the cultural hall (we choose to sit back there so the kids can eat--it's definitely a noisy bunch so I stress less back there, too).

I got a call last night that the other CTR 5 teacher wouldn't be there again today, so would I mind combining the classes? (again, I did this last week too). I really don't mind. BUT today, I had 19--NINETEEN--kids in the class. NINETEEN just recently potty-trained 4-year olds. There are usually about 8 active kids in each class. Today a less-active girl, a new kid and somebody else made it 19. We ended up doing the class in that 3rd section of the cultural hall because none of the real classrooms would fit us all. It was frustrating to me--I felt like I had almost zero control over them. I mean, how do you keep 19 kids from running like wild animals in the gym? Just before lunch? In the 3rd hour of church? Ugh. I did have a helper but even that didn't seem to help. I tend to do a little bit of the lesson, then a craft/coloring, a little more lesson, maybe walk outside for 5 minutes, and then the snack. With 19 kids, the craft was nearly impossible, the lesson was shaky at best, and it was the worst "I need to go potty" day yet. Doug came to the class in the middle and helped keep kids in their seats and at the end did a wonderful job with Simon Says while we were waiting for parents to find them in the gym. I don't feel like they learned anything. I had to laugh when I overheard one little boy tell his dad what a GREAT class it was today. He is a wild one and i think he was revelling in the chaos!

I had an annoying interaction with a parent at the end. I posted my helper at my usual classroom to redirect parents, and I stuck a note on the other classroom to tell them where we were. I had 3 girls left and decided to take them to find their parents. This particular dad gave me a hard time commenting that his daughter is in a different class every week and this and that. I just said, listen, we had TWENTY kids today and we needed a bigger space. I wanted to say, hey, next time, why don't you roll up YOUR sleeves and slop through this instead of me, ok buddy?? But i digress...

I am surprised that i really do like teaching this class. Honestly, Primary is the LAST place I want to serve. Yes, I would rather be in Relief Society. I would rather be taught something and have my own lamp filled. I don't do enough studying on my own and could use some help and going to class would be nice. But these kids, as hard as they can be, are awesome. They are so cute and so excited to see me when i get to Primary. It amazes me. It makes me feel good! I hope they are taking positive things away from my class, too.