A Professional Acolyte Only Needs to be a Good Listener

We feel very blessed that our children do not give us much grief about going to church; in fact, they really don't rebel at all except for what to wear, but that's minor to attendance! Not only do they willingly attend, but they are involved in various ways. They all acolyte, but Caroline LOVES to acolyte. She wants to be there every week early in case someone doesn't show up (which is usually the case).

Our church has three services a weekend--a high liturgy on Saturday evening, 8 am and 10 am Sunday morning. Due to William's soccer game today, the late night U of L game last night, and the spring forward time, we decided to attend Saturday evening service. Caroline, true to form, raced in to see if they "needed her help" and in fact they did. After getting home last evening, we looked at the schedule and realized that William was on the schedule to acolyte this morning. Caroline readily volunteered to stand in.

I dropped Caroline for the 10 am service. When I picked her up after Sunday school, she got in the car, looked at me with a very serious expression and said, "That was the exact same service as last night." Good to know she listens!

On the flip side, she's not very observant--last night Fr. Charles left after the sermon I believe due to not feeling well. When I asked Caroline today if he was able to stay through the whole service her response was, "He left early last night?"

We Live in a TB War Zone

The problem with not blogging for awhile in our family is that too much happens that is too unbelievable and then I don't know where to start. So I'll start with today. I'll start at 5:00 today. I switched off children with Chris--Christopher has been in the hospital for five days with throwing up, asthma, fever, William and Caroline at home with deep gut wrenching coughs and fevers, and I went to pick up Sarah Katherine from school (carting along the unhospitalized walking wounded). We had to get tights, fake eyelashes (yes they really still sell them), and another leotard for her performance this Thursday night. And did I mention that we also had to stop at Joanne Fabrics so that I could make her a skirt (by tomorrow) for the show. So I get home, start cutting out, make a mistake, back to Joanne's more fabric, and then back. At this point my bridge or more well known as fake tooth comes out for the fourth time in two days--so I fix it with fixodent-no time for the dentist right now. Make the skirt and get the younger two to the doctor. Meanwhile Chris calls me to tell me that Christopher's fever has gone up and he's coughed up a bit more blood, but they're sending us home. The receptionist at the doctor's office warmly greets me (and I do mean warmly becuase I'm certain our co pays are paying her heating bills this year). The doctor from behind the wall calls out, "are there Doyle's out there?" That would be yes and please get us back there asap. Leave the doctors office with 2 prescriptions for z-packs. I love going to the pharmacist where they also warmly greet me with "hello Mrs. Doyle how many are sick today?" (again think paying their bills). So as I sit here tonight all my children are under one roof and they're all coughing--except Sarah Katherine who will probably start on Thursday because that's when we're supposed to go see where our thousands of dollars are paying off. I'm pretty sure they'll all need therapy to recover from their father shouting at them to stop coughing and their mother looking glassy eyed and saying, "not again!"

So what have we learned from this? Well we've learned that had I been blogging in Pittsburgh our first winter you would have been reading the same thing; and we've learned that we have much better friends here than we realized. The move hasn't been easy, but I tell you when push comes to shove you see where you're loved, and we are loved here by some--albeit they may have brain cells missing--they do take our children in coughing, throwing up, fever, whatever, but they show us the love of God--the completely selfless giving at their own expense, at their family's own expense. They barely know us, but last night Chris and Charles were exchanging underwear on our front porch! (and that will be another blog!)

Ginger Jesus

We love baking Christmas cookies as a family. We do it every year, and we try to be more and more creative. Basically, as with most things in our family, it becomes a competition. This year, all the children were talking about (boasting?) the cookies they were cutting out and what they were going to be. "I'm making a star." "I'm making a sparkling star." "I'm making a tree." "I'm making a tree with ornaments." Christopher pipes up, "I'm going to make Jesus." Chris, possibly thinking this would be a good opportunity to bring faith in, says, "I don't think we should make Jesus as a cookie to be eaten." Without missing a beat Christopher responds, "Yes we can. It's Ginger Jesus."

Over the river and through the woods...

We left for Thanksgiving around 9 am. It was going to be a 7 hour drive and we thought we'd get going. Packing the car went smoothly and we went about deciding who was going to sit where. It's funny how the third seat of our station wagon lost it's appeal after the first month. So we decided boys first in the "way back " and then girls. And off we go--everyone fell asleep in the first 30 minutes, we didn't see many police and I settled in thinking how much easier traveling was now that they were older. (BIG MISTAKE!!!)

We stopped for gas; everyone woke up and switheroo with the children. Still everyone seemed happy. A little bit later-around 11:30 the children start talking about being hungry. Chris whispers to me that he wants to get to Knoxville before we stop (I look up at this time to see the sign Knoxville 83 miles--uh oh!) The children get more and more grumbly so I tell them stories about when I traveled as a child and my dad wouldn't stop. We're all laughing, but we are passing more and more exits with food and the laughing begins to fade. Chris, in a moment of what he considers pure brilliance, tries to convince them how great it will be to get to Knoxville where we can maybe find a Zaxby's-one of our favorites and not available near us. They're not buying it--I think it was the maybe that did them in. I call my niece, have her get online and yes indeed there are 3! Around this time Caroline starts whining more; she is our best whiner, and she shifts from I'm hungry to my stomach hurts, back to I'm hungry, I don't want to sit back here--you get the picture.

I think to myself, "I'm going to use this as a learning moment." Caroline has called me several times over the past 3 weeks to tell me her stomach hurts and she needs to come home. It's a miracle that when she gets home, after a few minutes she's fine. (And yes I have made sure there's nothing going on at school that's causing her distress.) I explain to her that when you cry wolf so much then we never know what's really wrong and we begin not to trust you--etc. you get the picture. I settle back in thinking I have had a Cosby family moment of parenting--no anger just pure learning-YEAH FOR ME! Not more than 3 minutes later we hear a strange sound and then Sarah Katherine says, "Um Mama, she wasn't crying wolf!" I have got to give it to Sarah Katherine she has sick all over her and she's not completely freaking out. I now am as Chris is TOTALLY stressed and there are no exits in sight. We finally see one, get off, but there's no place to stop, back on and 5 miles down the road is another one. Off we go again.

I look ahead to see a walmart. I try to think quickly and calmly, Chris hates walmart, it's the day before Thanksgiving, but we can get wipes for the car and an expensive sweat suit for Caroline. I think it's the way to go, so I quietly and sweetly say, "Maybe you should stop at the walmart. It will be one stop for us to clean up everything and get back on the road quickly." To my surprise he agrees. We pull in and find a parking space fairly easily. It's about this time I realize that we are indeed in Knoxville (Please dear God tell me they have sweatsuits that don't say Tennessee!) But worse than the knowledge that there is a very real chance my daughter might be wearing an orange Volunteer sweatshirt, I see that it is a SUPER walmart! I choose to keep this information to myself. I tell him we need trashbags, wipes and a sweat suit-how hard can it be to find 3 things quickly?

In goes Chris and the boys--low blood sugar for everyone-certainly not good at a super walmart on the day before Thanksgiving. I clean out the car as best I can with the wipes I have, get Caroline's clothes off her and wrap her in Chris' coat to wait and wait and wait. During this time several people stop to offer their assistance. They were all so very nice. I did stand in front of the Georgia bulldog license plate just to make sure they'd stay nice. I tell everyone, it's okay my husband will be right back. That is only true if right back means 45 minutes!!! Finally he comes out, I'm certain he's going to be in the worst mood, but being the brilliant man he is he bought candy to increase his blood sugar. Quickly change Caroline and back on the road--only a little over an hour delay. And no we never did find a Zaxby's!

My children are right

Sometimes children really are right. Recently my children have been saying, "Mama you're losing it." I forget where I put things, call them by random names and lose track of time. If I was older I'd be on my way to the doctor, but seeing as there is very little likelihood I have Alzheimer's I just think the children are right. But I think I have figured out why? It's trying too do to much and be too efficient. Multi-tasking is not all it's cracked up to be. I learned this for sure a little while ago.

This morning it was 13 degrees--far too cold to go running, but I knew I wanted to run today. I certainly didn't want to have to take two showers, so I just put on my running clothes, went to study, lunch with friends, back to study, pick up Sarah Katherine and home to run before the other children get home and I head off to basketball, cheerleading, and a holiday party. I know I only have a window of 30-45 minutes for the run. So, I rush home, sync my ipod throw on my running coat, gloves, and ear muffs. Out the door I go and I felt horrible. My legs and feet hurt terribly. I'm usually a morning runner, so I assume I'm just not used to the time of day. After almost 2/10 of a mile I realize I can't do it--I look down to discover I had not put on my running shoes--I was running in ugg boots. Yes, the children are right, I'm losing it.

Juice box

Last night we took the children out for ice cream to celebrate their very good report cards. The store was brightly lit with music from the 80's playing in the background. Chris, in his typical fashion, began to dance and sing. Of course the children were horrified as he sang Coco Mo. We sat through several songs--Christopher turns around to see where the music was coming from. He turns back to us and says, "I want to change the song, can I have a quarter for the juice box?"

Please Don't Tell

Last February we sent out Valentine cards. Great picture of the children in London with our names printed on the bottom. Sarah Katherine was hleping me stuff the envelopes. In a very quiet voice (thank you for knowing to keep this quiet SK!) she says, "Why isn't William's name on the card?" Out comes the sharpie pen and in his name goes. So fast forward to Halloween this year. We live on the Halloween street which translates to over 200 trick or treaters. I was a little busy and didn't get to take anywhere near the amount of pictures I wanted to. I got up Nov 1 to upload the pictures. Guess who's missing from everyone?