Life at the Chicken Coop

Scrooge McSchuller

I have a confession: the second-to-last thing I said to Travis last night before I went to bed was that it was too hard to help other people while tending my three kids. At church we've been encouraged to do 12 nice things for other people during this holiday season, to perpetuate the spirit of Christmas. When I first heard the challenge during one of our meetings, I thought to myself, "Yeah, right. I can't even do one nice thing for my own kids, let alone TWELVE for people in the community." Then I found myself smack dab in the middle of another long afternoon (when naptime was over almost after it started) and I scrambled for an activity to occupy the better part of 3 hours. It went down like this: two batches of chocolate chip cookies, lots of throwing crayons, two homemade thank-you cards, some marshmallow stick-men thrown in the mix, and a vanload of kids on their way to meet, greet and treat the most famous of public servants. It turns out there weren't any police men available at the station, but we did get a picture with a future policeman, a member of the Police Academy, who was working at the front desk. I admit, despite the wonky stroller-pushing and steering 3 kids in the rain, it was a nice experience. My attitude was thawing out. The fire station was quite a bit more exciting: talking to a real fireman, trying on the boots and hat, seeing an ambulance light up then siren off. It was the perfect remedy for a self-pitiful me. And it was a highlight for Finn. I just "bought" myself hours of conversation about fire trucks, policemen, firemen, ambulances and "really big garage doors" (for the firetrucks).