Closing the janitor's closet

Ethan helped with the song books...Trey and Avery were each assigned a side that they always took care of

bathrooms, always my job though Johnny did a lot of the vacumming !

Raegan just always found something to get into...today i knew she was being too quiet somewhere and then i heard the bigger kids giggling and giggling "come look at raegan mommy" she had raided the bus kids donuts and found the largest one in the bunch!

Trey's chore that he disliked very much!

Avery's job was to stock the stalls with toilet paper

i didn't get any pictures of johnny vacuuming because he was busy finishing the granite in the new church bathrooms

For the past 10 1/2 years we have been the janitors for Elm Grove. We started when Trey was 4 months old...it made it possible for me to drop from full-time working at the time to very part time status. And through the years has helped make it possible for me to stay home with the kids during the day and work part-time.

We have cleaned with babies in the bouncy seat, dragging the swing from the nursery to soothe a fussy baby, and actually carried a fussy baby in a carrier on my tummy while sweeping. Then we went through 4 times the phase of a toddling little one and the stairs and worrying about them falling down them while i was trying to clean ( a gate was not an option, and by far one of the most frustrating stages). We slowly moved into the phase of our kids helping us clean...each having their particular chores that they were responsible for. They have become great helpers! Raegan did not quite reach that phase, she is getting out easy...she is still in the stage of making messes for mommy to clean up after i'm done cleaning!

Many weeks you might have found the kids singing on the stage, writing on white boards, playing swords with mop handles, pounding on the piano and somedays each sitting in a different pew in time out. You might hear me scream when i run into a mouse, a large spider or slip and fall on my own freshly mopped floor.

I honestly don't know what i will do with myself next Saturday...my van might just automatically drive by itself out to the church...but i'm sure we will find lot's to fill our Saturday's with, it will be nice not having such a hectic schedule on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

We are thankful for the time that we were able to have this extra income and that it provided me more time with the kids!