Two busy days
Yesterday was the Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt. Got the kids to church, attempted a few places to sit with the kids, but had to keep taking them out for one reason (screaming) or another (screaming). Eventually we relocated to the other side of the church, two pews back (which meant they couldn't really see much of what was going on). I remembered to give them a quarter each for the collection basket at the children's sermon (Timmo tried to eat his; we left for the narthex), and record it. I am quite far behind on transcribing those...
We stayed for the coffee hour, and basically had a baby table. (One parishioner remarked on it and asked whether he needed to have a baby to sit there. I offered him Lucia's baby doll, and he said, "My favorite kind.") Stayed long enough at the general assembly meeting to determine that my warm body wasn't needed, so I took all three kids home and we had a nap. Teddy survived trying to wake me up, and then it was time to get up and go to Waterloo for the pan-Orthodox vespers at St. Elias. Their parishioners are so welcoming. We raided their little library for children's books for Teddy. Lucia followed me around with her baby doll and had baby kiss all the icons she could reach, as I was having Timmo kiss all the icons I could reach for him. He also charmed everyone with his little spool-necklace/censer. The food afterwards was marvelous, although Lucia's direct application of chocolate cake left much to be desired. (Someone unknown gave it to her, not Mommy or Daddy, and she wouldn't eat more than a few bites of dinner after that; Timmo made up for this lack by eating about three grown-up sized dinners, it seemed.) Like last year, we closed out the place, with wonderfully patient people waiting for us to finish changing our extraordinarily messy little ones.
This morning I called to get a three-year-old appointment for Lucia (we'd been putting off something or other and I kept referring to her appointment "next month" and then realized I didn't actually have an appointment), which we had in the afternoon, 15 minutes after her speech therapy. So that was exciting. In the morning, I did a little bit more for Fr. Seraphim, and then spent a bit more than half an hour in the yard, raking. It was fun to go outside as a family and do things.
This afternoon got us a little bit of rest after the doctor's appointment, but not much, because Teddy's spring soccer (with Daddy coaching) started today. Fortunately, the site is between home and church, so we were only halfway through compline (Daddy left early, of course—I'm grateful he's not the only coach) when we got there. It was okay, especially since the last half is more heavily weighted with prostrations and easy responses, but we were still camping out in the narthex due to just... I don't know. But we had lots of it.
Then I took all three kids home so Fr. Peter could do his Orthodox spirituality class in peace. (It's the last week! I might see my husband again!) I decided Lucia was done eating when she started wiping her hair with hands covered in mashed potato (earlier I'd gotten leaves out of her hair from a confusedly described game of "birthday"). Kids were in bed before eight; although there may have been some screaming, none of it came from the boys. Had to get Teddy out of bed when I remembered his antibiotics, but at least it was a good four hours earlier than midnight (when I woke him up last night, poor thing). When he and I were closing the bedroom door (so Timmo stays in), he peeked out at me and reminded me, "Think of all the things we'll do tomorrow!" So I guess he had fun today.
I started this section of the blog because I really liked Fr. Aidan's calm and relatively short reflections about the priesthood. These are more a testimony of banal, quotidian survival. I mean, there's a beauty in that, but it feels more... with fingernails, or something, than anything to do with calm. And there's still Holy Week to go. (I have nightmarish memories of last year when I was carrying the two little ones up the stairs at the same time. Now they're bigger... and so am I.)
We stayed for the coffee hour, and basically had a baby table. (One parishioner remarked on it and asked whether he needed to have a baby to sit there. I offered him Lucia's baby doll, and he said, "My favorite kind.") Stayed long enough at the general assembly meeting to determine that my warm body wasn't needed, so I took all three kids home and we had a nap. Teddy survived trying to wake me up, and then it was time to get up and go to Waterloo for the pan-Orthodox vespers at St. Elias. Their parishioners are so welcoming. We raided their little library for children's books for Teddy. Lucia followed me around with her baby doll and had baby kiss all the icons she could reach, as I was having Timmo kiss all the icons I could reach for him. He also charmed everyone with his little spool-necklace/censer. The food afterwards was marvelous, although Lucia's direct application of chocolate cake left much to be desired. (Someone unknown gave it to her, not Mommy or Daddy, and she wouldn't eat more than a few bites of dinner after that; Timmo made up for this lack by eating about three grown-up sized dinners, it seemed.) Like last year, we closed out the place, with wonderfully patient people waiting for us to finish changing our extraordinarily messy little ones.
This morning I called to get a three-year-old appointment for Lucia (we'd been putting off something or other and I kept referring to her appointment "next month" and then realized I didn't actually have an appointment), which we had in the afternoon, 15 minutes after her speech therapy. So that was exciting. In the morning, I did a little bit more for Fr. Seraphim, and then spent a bit more than half an hour in the yard, raking. It was fun to go outside as a family and do things.
This afternoon got us a little bit of rest after the doctor's appointment, but not much, because Teddy's spring soccer (with Daddy coaching) started today. Fortunately, the site is between home and church, so we were only halfway through compline (Daddy left early, of course—I'm grateful he's not the only coach) when we got there. It was okay, especially since the last half is more heavily weighted with prostrations and easy responses, but we were still camping out in the narthex due to just... I don't know. But we had lots of it.
Then I took all three kids home so Fr. Peter could do his Orthodox spirituality class in peace. (It's the last week! I might see my husband again!) I decided Lucia was done eating when she started wiping her hair with hands covered in mashed potato (earlier I'd gotten leaves out of her hair from a confusedly described game of "birthday"). Kids were in bed before eight; although there may have been some screaming, none of it came from the boys. Had to get Teddy out of bed when I remembered his antibiotics, but at least it was a good four hours earlier than midnight (when I woke him up last night, poor thing). When he and I were closing the bedroom door (so Timmo stays in), he peeked out at me and reminded me, "Think of all the things we'll do tomorrow!" So I guess he had fun today.
I started this section of the blog because I really liked Fr. Aidan's calm and relatively short reflections about the priesthood. These are more a testimony of banal, quotidian survival. I mean, there's a beauty in that, but it feels more... with fingernails, or something, than anything to do with calm. And there's still Holy Week to go. (I have nightmarish memories of last year when I was carrying the two little ones up the stairs at the same time. Now they're bigger... and so am I.)
posted by magda at 10:34 PM
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