School is starting

Well, the sound of the cicadas lets me know I need to get crackin'! I need to buy school supplies, do all of the fun stuff with my kids I had originally planned to do this summer, but never got around to, kiss my kindergartner more than usual, and get Sunday's rolling!

I still get that anxious feeling in my stomach that I got when I was a kid and saw the back to school commercials on t.v. And then when I was teaching and I had to go back into my classroom to blow the cobwebs off my desk and start getting ready. It's a combination of excitement, sadness, nostalgia, fright, and sickness!

I had a meeting with some small group leaders, coaches, and parents last night. We really hashed out the fall and the set up for the new program. I am so happy to have a group of people who are willing to give up their family evenings to come to church and help me. Thank you to Sharon Gall, Michele Sutton, Jim Martin, Susan Perry, Jennifer Sautbine, and Stacey Huisman. We worked as a team last night and I think made some real headway!

Here is what we decided:
*Instead of small groups of ten kids per adult we are going to keep the classrooms in the traditional way: 20 or so children for one main small group leader (ie. teacher) and two classroom assistants (ie. parent helpers). This is the same as it has been in the past, but different from the way 252 Basics is written and from what I originally proposed.
*Small Group Leaders (teachers) will be on a three or four week rotation, rather than every other week. Did I just hear a huge sigh of relief??

New Painter Pics

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The light at the end of the tunnel

I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel (a.k.a. the Children's Ministry Wings). My artist friend, Angie, and I feel like if we put in one more full day the murals will be finished. We will be there on Tuesday. Stop in to say hello! Then you won't see me for a while (except for VBS). I'm taking some compensation time. You can find me at the Monon Center Pool and workout area-well, maybe.

I want to thank everyone who helped with this major project. If I forget you, don't take it personally, I can't remember my kids names at this point in the game. Thank you to. . .
Mark Perry
Cherie Castle
Jaime Miller
Jeannie Upton
Jamie Weaver
Karyn, Abby, and Molly Dzurisin
Mike Zeller
Julie Stephens
Deb Foster
Laura Nolan
Allison Spillman
Christie Tharp and her small group of girls
Jennifer Phillips (who did the murals in the nursery)
Misty, Kelsey, and David Soderstrom (Kelsey did the waterfall, alligator, turtle and crab)

This project has been an experience! I have learned a lot and made many new friends.

I have sent pictures and measurements in to Jason Brammer (the artist who did the murals at Trader's Point C.C.). Hopefully we will be able to afford him and he can do the preschool wing. If that is the case the preschool wing should be done before Thanksgiving.

I was originally going to be the point person for the classrooms, but I have passed that duty on to Larry LaRue. If any of you want to adopt a classroom, give him a call. The rooms still need to be painted, cleaned, and organized.

Even though I've passed off the last portion of this project, I still desire to be intrumental in the design and layout of the Children's Wings. When I feel like it is all finished, I'd love to have a ribbon cutting ceremony, or a grand reopening party! Anyone want to help plan that???? :o)

Mother-Daughter Tea Party, July 6th

Make a Smilebox photobook

Painting the town

Here are some photos of our painting escapades. 

Happy Independence Day!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

On The Road Again . . .

Okay, here I go again-but not on my own (who sings that?  Bon Jovi??)!  We will be painting the halls in the elementary wing this week (June 16th) on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday night at 6:30.  Bring your paint brush, roller holder-thingy, and your paint tray.  I'll supply the rollers and tray liners.  We'll be painting again next Wednesday, Jun 25th at 6:30 and Monday, June 30th at 6:30.  Please come and bring a friend!  My goal is to have the base coats on the halls done by July!  No pressure or anything!

On the right you can see some of the sketches that will go in the nursery hallway and inside the nursery rooms.  They are black and white, but the finished project will be in color.  The nursery theme is "Baby Beach."  ZPC member, Jennifer Phillips has been volunteering her time and talents for this area of the make-over.

Are you totally pumped up about our beautiful new Children's area?  Get a group together and adopt a classroom!  Call me to get details:  815-8827 or email me:  amyc@zpc.org.  We could use volunteers to paint, or even babysit!

Oh, you're probably wondering, "What is going on with the walls in the nursery?"  or "That lady told us we were doing the Nursery Welcome Center next.  They angled the desk, is that all there is to it?"  No, no, no, silly people.  

First the walls:  We took the wallpaper down and the drywall was not sized or primed so the glue stuck to the walls and where the glue didn't stick to the wall, the wall stuck to the glue!  So we had to mud it all over again.  When that is dry and primed we will start on the nursery hallway.  

Next the welcome center:  I am waiting for a way to pay for some things that we will need that does not involve paying for them with the Crispin family credit card.  My husband is a good sport about this, but the c.c. bills are taking years off of his life.  I am getting reimbursed, but if you're the one who does the bills in your house, you know that the check never arrives before the bill.  Another reason I am putting that off is because Annette is getting a brand new desk.  I want to wait until she gets that before I start barreling my way through.

Change of Plans

Instead of the Nursery Welcome Center, we are going to do the wall across from the Children's Welcome Center.  We're simply going to paint a golden sand color and maybe add some sparkle to it somehow.  We cannot do this on May 28th because of a conference that is going on in the church that week.  I will be out of town the following week, so I am hoping we can do it on the week of June 9th.  Let me know if you can help.

Smokin!

We are on fire!  I had three great volunteers come and help me paint the Children's Welcome Center last night.

Jaime Miller, Cherie Castle, and Mark Perry!

When you see them please thank them and tell them how much you love the work they did.  They spent three hours at church and we got the entire CWC walls painted--three coats, and the desks got their first coat of stain, including a quick run in with the sandpaper!

We had a great time together.  We ate junk food, listen to music and talked about colons, prostates, anesthesia, our mother's, husbands who avoid house work by mowing the lawn (sometimes twice in one day--of course not Mark!) among many other things!  If this sounds like your kind of volunteer opportunity--come help us next time!  We'd love to see you!

The next project is the Nursery Welcome Center.  Annette is getting a shiny new desk and we are going to give her a pretty back drop for it!  I haven't set the date for that, but I'm thinking May 28th.  I don't let the grass grow under my feet.

I don't know if you can tell, but decorating is one of my passions!  This stuff gets me pumped up and excited.  I hope it will do the same for our parents and children.  Here is what I equate a spiffy room/area to. . . 

In third grade all the kids wanted Mrs. Wilson for fourth grade.  (Some of you are saying, "Oh Jeeze--The Mrs. Wilson story again!  Bare with me!)  Was it because she had the ability to make our test scores better?  Nope.  Was it because she didn't give home work?  Definitely not it.  It was because of two reasons:  ONE:  She was pretty!  TWO:  She had a tee-pee in her room.  So, I ask myself, "Are children only interested in what lies on the inside like we teach them?"  Sadly, no.  What matters to a child is their first impression of you.  I want every child's first impression of ZPC to be one of excitement, pride, and love.  Then once we get them hooked we'll slam them with homework, just like Mrs. Wilson!!!

Rockin' and Rollin' along!

I just finished curtains for one of the windows in the Children's Welcome Center.  (They look Mah-vel-ous, if I do say so myself!)  I'll do the other ones, pick up the paint, stain and other stuff tomorrow.  Jaime Miller, Mark Perry and I will be at the church Wednesday night from 6:30 until we are finished painting and hanging the curtains and "other stuff."  

I will be making the Giving Tree on Thursday and putting it up on Sunday for all to see and participate in!  I will need three people to walk around the Gathering Space handing out fliers for the Giving Tree.  Any takers?  See the below posts for things I'll be asking for.  

I'm not sure if it is obvious or not, but I am really excited about our new Children's Wing!

On another note:

I am starting a Praise and Worship dance team for the fall Sunday School and Wednesday Night Kid's program.  I have about 10 young ladies and three adult helpers!  If you know of anyone else who would like to be on this dace team, please let me know and I'll give them a call. We would love some boys on the team!  

The group will practice twice a month at 11 o'clock on Sundays.  They will be responsible for creating easy, but fun movements, as well as learning the words to the worship songs.  These girls will be the leaders.  The adults are just mentors and there to provide guidance and supervision.

Rock on!

We've got the rubber to the road. . .

Well, I had an outstanding meeting with Andy Miller, and I am ready to move forward on this project.  I have lined up an artist.  She is willing to do the art work and walk through the rooms with me to get the vision on the walls.  When I called she was in the middle of something (something no doubt creative and wonderful) and she will call me back later this week with more information (cost, time frame, etc).  

However, I think we will be able to start the Children's Welcome Center before she has the art done.  It will just involve painting the walls, refinishing the desks, and putting up curtains.  I think!  

I am going to create a giving tree for the hallway.  I will put things on there that we need:  trunk/treasure chest, book shelves, gift cards to Lowes, JoAnn Fabrics, Target, etc.  People can take a leaf or coconut-whatever-and purchase/donate those things for us.  If you have any ideas as to what else would be good, please share that with me.

I am soo excited and pumped up about this!  I hope you are too.

Progress!

Well, in one day we already have some progress!  I love it!  Mary Ann Miller has come up with a great idea!  She suggested that 4th and 5th graders have a contest.  Who can bring in the most gently used books for the lower elementary and preschoolers?  You see, the children in Sunday school made a list of what they wished the Children's facilities at ZPC looked like.  One wish was that there would be books in the classrooms to read.  So, there we go!  Solution number one!  I've sicked Mary Ann on to Kim Byrd to help out with this.  If you are interested contact me and I'll get you on board!

With these books, we'll need gently used book cases.  Nice enough to be repainted or refinished in order to look brand new.  Not anything that is one day away from the dump.  If you have or know someone who has something that fits this qualification-LET ME KNOW!!  :o)  

Wa-hoo!  We're on our way!

Children's Facility Meeting

Last night Andy Miller, Scott Ridgeway, Deb Foster, and I had the chance to sit down with a group of 14 people to discuss our concerns for the Children's Ministry Facility.  Here are the top five things the group wanted to take care (these were not the ONLY things to take care, just the five most important to do NOW.)

1.  Find a place for Jr./Sr. High kids to worship

a.  Can we fix up the little house next to the cabin??

b.  Would Chris and Joy even be accepting of this idea?

2.  Create cabinets with doors that are child proof to store the toys in the room

a.  The current shelves are unsafe

b.  Does anyone know someone who would be able to built something like this?

3.  Create a storage place for the food in the food pantry room.

a.  The boxes are taking up valuable space

b.  Does anyone know someone who would be able to build a shelving unit?

The other items, bathrooms, carpet/tile, walls, etc.  will be taken care of as well.  However, they would need a contractor's help (Scott Ridgeway) and the above three items can easily be taken care of by us regular folk!  

The underlying theme of the night was:  What can WE do?  Who do WE know that can help?

So after we talked about maintenance I shared my vision for the Children's MInistry wings.  I spent a few days at Willow Creek Christian Church at a Children's Ministry conference.  One of the break out sessions I attended was, "How to create a Children's MInistry on a Budget!"  How perfect!  Here were the key points.

1.  Create a theme

-Did you know our Children's Ministry already has a theme?  Treasure Island!

-Go with what is there.  Don't reinvent the wheel

**Theme. . . . . .  TREASURE ISLAND!!  (And the crowd goes wild!)

Logo:  Treasure Island

Where your treasure is, there also will be your heart.

Nursery:  Baby Beach

Preschool:  Pre-K Hideaway

Kind. - 3rd:  Captain Kid's Cove

4th/5th:  Pier 45

2.  Find the traffic flow.

-Gathering Space to Nursery Check in

-South doors to Nursery check in

-East doors to Nursery check in

*  Do that space first.

*So in my mind we will concentrate on the hallways and the check in desks

3.  Take it outside

-Do visitors know where to go to take their children?

-Do visitors walk in our church and say, "This place is all about kids!"

-Do motorists cut through our church parking lot and think there must be a great children's program here?

*Here we create something that can be taken outside on Sun. morning and then brought in at the end of the services.

As with anything there were concerns:  How do we do this in a professional way?  How do we keep this looking clean and beautiful for years to come?  How do we do this with volunteer help without over taxing them?  This is all wonderful, but if we don't get a leader for this ministry none of it will matter-we'll fall apart at the seams.  These are questions that I urge you to respond to in the comments section below. 

Here is what I asked of the people at the meeting:

1.  Who do you know?  Artists, cartoonist, muralists,Carpenters, painters, airbrush artists, sculptors, wallpaper hangers, handy people of all kinds, etc.

2.  What can you do?  Offer child care while people volunteer their time, paint, wallpaper, create a schedule, run a phone tree, run a book drive,  organize volunteers, man a table in the gathering space looking for the above things???   

Please take the time to sit back and see where your passions lie and go with that.  Take a look at yourself and discover the gifts God has given you and how you can use those gifts for our children.

My First Day on the Blog!

Hi Everyone!

This is so exciting to me.  If you have ever received an email from me, you know that I love to ramble on and on and share my inner most thoughts (most of which are completely meaningless).  I will try my hardest not to do that on my blog-not promising anything!

The purpose of this blog is for ZPC families and volunteers to get the information that they need to help them get plugged in and turned on!  You can respond with your questions and comments.  My goal is for this to be a beginning place to build a community of ZPC families.

So, let me get down to business!

1. Strategic Planning Meeting

-Wednesday, April 3o (Time TBD)

-Child care available

-Everyone welcome

-Discuss changes to the facility that Children's Ministry currently uses

-Discuss fundraising ideas

2. Squares due May 4 to Lisa Price

-Don't know what I'm talking about?  Ask me Deb Foster or Lisa

3.  No Sunday School on Sunday, May 25  

--  Vrooom!  Say, "Hay, to Gomer for me!"

4.  Summer Sunday School starts June 1st

-We'll be having a fun kick-off event. 

*Stay connected for more information

**Don't forget to read the comments posted below (just click on "comments").  Annette and Deb may have important information for you!!