WiP...and thoughts on the "Single Parent"

L-WiP (Life Work in Progress):
Ahh, the single parent. My Hub is out of country for the week and I've been the single parent for the three kids. It hasn't been easy, I'll tell you. Trying to keep up with the house chores, homework, cooking, dropping and picking kids up from two different schools, getting them dressed, getting myself dressed (HA!), cooking, laundry, cleaning, and, oh yeah sleep.   It is nearly impossible!  So, somethings have just kind of piled up....
But, this week has made me think about the real single parent. I mean, I don't have to go to a job outside the home. I don't have to worry alone about food, insurance, other payments. With that added stress and the stress of raising kids, my mind went spinning. How do you do it? I mean seriously, if I hadn't had community this week to help me out I think I would have been pulling my hair out by day 4.  You see, I have a friend making us dinner tonight (yes, a hot nutritious meal) and another that watched the kids so I could go and get a head massage (much needed).
These thoughts about single parents all started a few weeks ago during a Bible study with some ladies. It is on the book The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace.  It is a very conservative book, but one of the things she touches on is the single mom whose husband is ill or has died. She says, "I believe her church has the responsibility to help her be able to stay home with her children."  But, it made me think about all single parents....what do we as a church (universal use here) do to help aide the single parents? Do we provide anything? I didn't know what was out there until I Googled it. I was glad to see something, but not sure how many churches actually have programs. I know ours doesn't, but that is probably due to the fact that 1. We are only a year old and don't have many programs. 2. Haven't thought about it. 3. Haven't come across single parents to make us think about it.  Not an excuse, just you don't usually find single parents living overseas.
But I did find programs to help aide churches with ministries for the single parent family.
Mercy Tree Ministries
Center for Single Parent Family Ministry
Instep Ministries
Hope and Help for Single Moms
And I did find a few church sites that offered some great events (all I looked at was in the US though).

• Family lunch after church. The meal is free!
• Night Out- once a month they have free babysitting so the parent can go out
• Sunday School classes specific to this group's needs

?4U: What does your church do to help single parent families? What do you personally do to help out? (Think about James 1:27)  Or if you are a single parent, what you would like to see? (you are the expert on the matter)

WiP (Work in Progress):
Nothing. I did not edit. I did not write anything new.  I did not complete the picture book challenge, which doesn't end until Feb. 28th. But, I've decided I'm not going to stress out. I am just not going to finish. I learned something about myself through this challenge though. I'm not really a picture book type writer like I thought I was. I have ideas, but my voice seems to come out more like a  MG/YA type of kid.  So, I don't think I failed at this challenge at all, but instead gained some very useful information about myself.  I'll probably still write some picture books as they come to me, but that will not be my focus.

Don't forget to answer the question about the single parent.