Bright Saturday

Today marks the end of the first week of Pascha. I think in many ways it's been harder than Holy Week. We've been trying to do too many things for too long. The basement has been waterproofed, my computer has been de-virused, we went to speech therapy once and soccer twice. Father's vestments have been dry cleaned (except he forgot the epitrachelion for one set and just realized that today). We went to Des Moines for vespers for St. George, and stayed in Cedar Rapids for services the morning of the feast. There were two swimming excursions, another vespers (with only Father and Teddy attending while the rest of us napped) and Liturgy for the feast of the Theotokos, the Life-giving Spring. Then we got to hang out with friends at a barbecue last night and a liturgical burning this morning. There was a city festival where I thought we could get the two big kids free bike helmets, but that part didn't pan out well. Teddy and I did get cake and ice cream and stickers and coloring books, and he planted some sunflower seeds (which we will try not to kill) and I got sunburned. I thought there was yoga, but there wasn't, so I ended up taking a walk of about half a mile before Father and the kids came back for me, which might not seem like much for people who are not shaped like the letter thorn ( þ ). My left leg was actually falling asleep for the last part. Then we went to vespers and the kids all seemed to have melt-downs, so after some help getting them in the van, we went home and I fed them and did the whole bedroom routine so that the baby laundry was done and they were in bed both before 8:30.

Then I cried because I'm tired and ungainly and useless because I can't move and what am I going to do next week (and probably a bit because I had sunburn) and Father had to go out on another errand after staying for confessions after vespers, but he brought doughnuts and I had a restorative soak and it's all better because I get to go to bed.