Ripples

When it comes to thinking back over the events of the day, with a day like this one it's hard to remember anything prior to the latest meal. Fortunately I took a few pictures to jog my memory.

I finished a long transcript (still have two in the queue, with plenty of work and volunteer needs after that).

Made myself go outside, remembering Kh. Nicole's "all children should go outside for at least half an hour a day." I tried to take Lucia with me, and told her she could take her "babies" with her. Eventually she interested herself enough to put on socks and shoes. She found a baby doll in the garage and was supremely happy the rest of the day. (She is sleeping with the baby doll now.)

Lucia's "babies." According to her: "Hands! La-la-la."

There was a bit of miscommunication about how much math Teddy needed to do to go outside and/or get crayons. I had given him a sheet of copywork and a sheet of skip counting. He finished the copywork and I flipped it over and found a picture of an ornate chalice on the back with the words, "The Chalice of Holy Comunion." He asked for crayons, and I told him he needed to finish his math first. Evidently he had a prior deal with Daddy to only do half a page of math, so the next time I saw him he had crayons and wasn't interested in going outside.

So I picked up sticks and leaves for fifteen minutes and exhausted myself. Then Teddy came outside, so I stuck it out for another fifteen and actually filled the giant "Yardy" with debris. (Not much of a difference from the sidewalk and driveway in the back of the house, which is all I did, so I'll have plenty to do in coming days...) I turned around and found a beautiful chalk drawing. I asked Teddy about it and why he drew it, and he said that's what they talked about at St. Emmelia's with the story of the red egg, because we're preparing for Pascha! Then he drew a church for Daddy, and got in the picture as I asked (but not really what I was thinking of when I asked him).

I got to thinking about the St. Emmelia conference. It was a lot more hard work than I had anticipated, but the kids are simply blooming from the workshops they attended as well as the twice-a-day chapel services (especially Timmo on the latter, although I'm so frazzled I couldn't say why I think that). I started getting excited and wary about asking my husband for more services at the parish or at home.

Husband was gone for an appointment before office hours and didn't come back before Presanctified, so I had the kids again. Even though we were late (as usual *sigh*), I did get them dressed and fed. Although they were rather wiggly, and the only children in church, I thought they did really well, but had had enough for the day, so after the shared meal I was going to take them home and ask Father to record his talk. That plan seemed to work, and I had put the kids to bed, taken out the trash and recycling, and was starting the baby laundry, when Father came home, having forgotten to record his talk, with a third-hand "they say" that the children were "distracting." I'm beat.