Last Sunday, it was the 5th day of no Q-dawg.
Not normally a time when anyone would want to be around me :).
However, I had several miracles that really helped out!
First, the kids all worked together to get out the door. Now, we always have at least one thing missing. We take turns. One week it is scriptures; another, it is something for our "lunch" after church (since we always seem to have one thing or another keeping us longer than our 1 o'clock ending time and the kiddos get hungry!). More frequently it is shoes and pants, particularly one of the many sets of black pants in our house. I know, if it is frequent, we should take time earlier in the week to find and organize them.
Noted. We will see. However, in the reality of the present, it is a common problem :).
This week, it was the Goob's pants. He expeditiously borrowed Q-dawg's and just cinched his belt up. Done. We were only about 10 minutes later, so good to go, right?
Well, we showed up and there we were, at the church 30 minutes away without a tie for the Goob to perform his priesthood ordinances in. Scavenger hunt time.
Bishop, no.
Uncle, no.
Random man walking by, no.
None of them had an extra tie.
I saw a young man running by with a fabulous bowtie. Bingo! The charming youngster gallantly lent us the bowtie!
As I went back to the Goob, victorious, there he was talking to the missionaries. "Heard you needed a tie....we have plenty in our car." Silly me! Ask the missionaries, right?
So, tie crisis=averted.
Next crisis: facing Sacrament Meeting with no one older that Liliputian there to help and five little kids eight and younger who had just sat through three meetings the day before. Spooner took one look at the chapel and ran in terror. Not a good start.
We made it through the Sacrament with me discretely nursing Zsa-man in my bench. Believe me, the alternate option of going out would have been much more disruptive! The Goob descends from his passing of the sacrament as an angel of mercy and takes the tired Zsa-man and holds him for the duration of the meeting, putting him to sleep. Glory be!
While we were sitting there, Papaya makes a bid to go and sit by the glorious Sister Pace, friend extraordinaire! (This woman brings yummy deliciousness to entice the good-will of my children, giving Spooner white chocolate chips all the while saying, "Sister Pace is your friend." Love it.)
One more child nurtured...yay!
Spooner sat quietly on my lap. Chugger-dude kept trying to sprawl all over the bench next to me and then nestled up to me for snuggles when Spooner made his way under the benches, playing with the delightful couple in front of us, the Horners, who welcomed his antics with smiles, making him giggle as they reached down and tickled his feet.
Liliputian and Pipalicious traced each other's backs, giggled and squirmed at the opposite end of the bench. Normally, our family fills the middle pew bench to capacity, even to overflowing, but today there was really no reason for us to sit across an entire bench. They were capitalizing on the distance to have a little more fun than was probably reverent. Sigh. I just had to pick my battles at that moment and they were happy. I contented myself with looks and gestures to try and remind them from a distance to be reverent :).
One of my favorite parts of sacrament meeting was little Hava, sitting by me, trying to put her feelings down onto paper. She knows how to spell some words and sound out others, but her thoughts were a little too complex for her this time. "Mom, could you spell..." was a frequent question as I tried to absorb the speaker's remarks. After about six to seven words, she came up with a great solution, having to wait for a pause in the remarks each time. "How about you just write down all the rest of the words and I will trace them?" (I like to have them trace over my letters if I "write for them" so that they are getting better at it...maximize the moment!)
Not normally a time when anyone would want to be around me :).
However, I had several miracles that really helped out!
First, the kids all worked together to get out the door. Now, we always have at least one thing missing. We take turns. One week it is scriptures; another, it is something for our "lunch" after church (since we always seem to have one thing or another keeping us longer than our 1 o'clock ending time and the kiddos get hungry!). More frequently it is shoes and pants, particularly one of the many sets of black pants in our house. I know, if it is frequent, we should take time earlier in the week to find and organize them.
Noted. We will see. However, in the reality of the present, it is a common problem :).
This week, it was the Goob's pants. He expeditiously borrowed Q-dawg's and just cinched his belt up. Done. We were only about 10 minutes later, so good to go, right?
Well, we showed up and there we were, at the church 30 minutes away without a tie for the Goob to perform his priesthood ordinances in. Scavenger hunt time.
Bishop, no.
Uncle, no.
Random man walking by, no.
None of them had an extra tie.
I saw a young man running by with a fabulous bowtie. Bingo! The charming youngster gallantly lent us the bowtie!
As I went back to the Goob, victorious, there he was talking to the missionaries. "Heard you needed a tie....we have plenty in our car." Silly me! Ask the missionaries, right?
So, tie crisis=averted.
Next crisis: facing Sacrament Meeting with no one older that Liliputian there to help and five little kids eight and younger who had just sat through three meetings the day before. Spooner took one look at the chapel and ran in terror. Not a good start.
We made it through the Sacrament with me discretely nursing Zsa-man in my bench. Believe me, the alternate option of going out would have been much more disruptive! The Goob descends from his passing of the sacrament as an angel of mercy and takes the tired Zsa-man and holds him for the duration of the meeting, putting him to sleep. Glory be!
While we were sitting there, Papaya makes a bid to go and sit by the glorious Sister Pace, friend extraordinaire! (This woman brings yummy deliciousness to entice the good-will of my children, giving Spooner white chocolate chips all the while saying, "Sister Pace is your friend." Love it.)
One more child nurtured...yay!
Spooner sat quietly on my lap. Chugger-dude kept trying to sprawl all over the bench next to me and then nestled up to me for snuggles when Spooner made his way under the benches, playing with the delightful couple in front of us, the Horners, who welcomed his antics with smiles, making him giggle as they reached down and tickled his feet.
Liliputian and Pipalicious traced each other's backs, giggled and squirmed at the opposite end of the bench. Normally, our family fills the middle pew bench to capacity, even to overflowing, but today there was really no reason for us to sit across an entire bench. They were capitalizing on the distance to have a little more fun than was probably reverent. Sigh. I just had to pick my battles at that moment and they were happy. I contented myself with looks and gestures to try and remind them from a distance to be reverent :).
One of my favorite parts of sacrament meeting was little Hava, sitting by me, trying to put her feelings down onto paper. She knows how to spell some words and sound out others, but her thoughts were a little too complex for her this time. "Mom, could you spell..." was a frequent question as I tried to absorb the speaker's remarks. After about six to seven words, she came up with a great solution, having to wait for a pause in the remarks each time. "How about you just write down all the rest of the words and I will trace them?" (I like to have them trace over my letters if I "write for them" so that they are getting better at it...maximize the moment!)
When I feel the Holy Ghost it feels like there is a warm blanket wrapping around my body. I love my body!!
