2.09.2009

Faithful Hen

Remember Mr. Bill on SNL? He recently appeared in this Master Card Commercial that, after today, I fully identify with. 

Ever had a day that left you wondering why you bothered getting out of bed? 

I awoke to find out that my female cycle is now, oddly, as punctual as I usually prefer to be, in other things anyway; instead of 36 days we have moved to a perfect 28. I might have known this had I had more than one cycle between any of my pregnancies but alas, I did not. BUT had I known this, I might have been more prepared this morning rather than stuck wondering, "Hmmm, now what?" Nothing a quick trip to the store can't remedy, right?

After the rude awakening, I went downstairs thinking maybe I'd get my run in before the kids awoke. I think I might have made it down to the kitchen before Aidan but then, it's hard to tell because my eyes were still a little unfocused from turning the light on and he was already sitting there on the floor at my feet wishing me a good morning. So much for the run. 

No biggie...except the rest of the kids were down in a matter of moments, Kurt narrowly escaping the stampede. I told them they could have anything they wanted for breakfast....as long as I didn't have to make it....and I could pour it out of a box....oh, and they'd have to get their own milk. Lily chose Kix and Lucky Charms, neither of which she ate. Madeline picked at Lucky Charms and reheated pancakes that Aidan ended up eating after he finished his Chex. And Liam enjoyed some Tasteeos (think Cheerios that don't break the bank nor seem to ever go stale.....hmmm....)

When it was time to get Aidan to the bus stop, I hurried him through getting his coat and bag together and we headed out. We quickly found out that the driveway, no longer a hard, asphalt surface but a slick, sheer mountainside, had become something out of an extreme sport! We went slipping and sliding down. I fortunately ended up with my backside on a patch of ice whereas Aidan had the great luck of falling into the only existent puddle within 100 yards in either direction, completely drenching his pants. I grabbed him up, and since we had about 1 minute before the bus was to arrive, we ran (if you can call what penguins do running) back inside to find any other pair of pants in sight and got him changed for school.

After getting Aidan to the bus stop (right in the nick of time), I came back to get the girls ready for my church group and found that Lily had dropped her stuffed kitty into the toilet AFTER ALREADY GOING POTTY! Of course, she didn't mention that until AFTER she had handed it to me, dripping....ick.

I put the kitty in the sink, ran some water on it and made a mental note to deal with it later before hopping onto the treadmill where I realized that running was no longer an option since my back was messed up from the fall outside. With no time to shower if I wanted to get to church on time, I packed the kids in the car, had my daily 10 minute struggle to get the garage door down and drove to church. As we were walking in, Lily fell off the curb and into the only mud in the entire parking lot. Ugh.

At this point I am laughing because, seriously?

Today's discussion in Mom's group was about faith; more specifically, how much of a role God actually plays in all the little details of life. Is God just an everlasting presence, having very little to do with the manipulation of things that happen to us or is God more integral, arranging things to happen in such a way in order to get us to some final destination that we may or may not ever understand anyway? Or is God watching on, making good come out of the things that happen, although not necessarily the cause of those things? And how do we trust God with our lives when we can't even get down our driveways without wrenching our backs out? Where is God when we could use a little divine intervention, like yesterday when Lily happened to walk in front of the sled carrying Madeline and Aidan down a super speedy hill, and she happened to get pummeled, flying into the air, feet over head like a ragdoll, landing on her face??? Or was the divine intervention the fact that she came out of it with no more than some bruises, a scraped up chin and a huge respect (i.e. fear) for sleds?

Anyway, the group is always a highlight of our week: the kids play, I get fed spiritually and we all leave happy. Except of course today when we walked out to the car only to find I had misplaced my car keys. After going through all my pockets, back inside the church to check the floor, the lost and found, under chairs and tables, and then back outside, through the drizzle, to see if somehow they were still in the car and back inside to retrace all my steps, AGAIN, I finally found them in the chair I had already checked twice! 40 minutes after the search began, we were in the car ready to drive home in the mist-like rain, crawl into bed AND DIE!

Actually, we were SUPPOSED to make that quick trip to the store but since we no longer had time, it was back home for lunch and then off to take Madeline to her school at which point I was ready to just come on home and take some time to breathe....deep......breaths....while Lily enjoyed a full hour of Dora. (Sorry Kurt but I so needed that!)

Recharged, we were off to pick up Aidan so that we could get to Madeline's class early to read books. Aidan however, forgetting he wasn't supposed to get on the bus and having to jump off at the last moment, was the very LAST kid out which meant we got to watch the entire fleet of buses exit before us...by now, it was raining and we had to get to the preschool which is 10 minutes away, in 5 minutes. No such luck, but we still had time to read to the class. On the way home I noticed it was warm enough today to rain (woo hoo!) but that meant the snow was now melting  and Aidan's sledding birthday party in 6 days was most likely going to be thawed out. Not woo hoo....

Finally at home, I had one phone call I really needed to make. It was 3:55, the kids were playing nicely downstairs and I had regained some of my sanity, so I called the county office responsible for working with families to get adequate health care for their kids. I sat there for 10 minutes, listening to the pleasant hold music when the recorded voice came on and said:

"If you already have a case number, please hang up and call again. Press the first option and dial your case number so we may serve you faster."

Ok. I hung up the phone, redialed, listened to the ring and then got this:

"The office answers calls Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Our office is now closed." 

Gotta love the Government. I sure hope they get to spend several hundred billion dollars on whatever they want....

At that point, the kids came up screaming so that I had no time to say aloud what my brain was yelling....divine intervention perhaps? Probably not. But this is where faith comes in handy. You see, though God had a good ol' time with us today (I hope you enjoyed it, God!), I am still thankful for His presence in my life. Who knows....I could still be looking for those darn car keys!

(Plus, forget the ponies, there must be a Clydesdale Ranch around here somewhere!)

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