Oct 12 2014

We don’t normally farm on Sundays, but once in a while there comes a time (thanks to the weather) that we have to.  This Sunday they were trying to harvest soybeans down south.  To harvest soybeans they have to be extremely dry, no rain, no dew, and nice and sunny out.  They are a fickle crop.  Since it rained for a couple days in the week and it was perfect conditions to combine them on Saturday and Sunday they guys worked Sunday.  I totally understand it but I don’t really like it.  I spend 6 days a week as a single parent and I really look forward to sharing kid duty on Sunday.

So Sunday amid a little bit of yelling I manage to get all 4 kids out the door and to church on time.  The first time I have attempt such a task.  The 3 oldest were holding hands to walk in and I told them to go sit in our normal spot, the back pew.  They got there before I did and didn’t know what to do when there were already people sitting there.  I told them it would be fine and we sat 3 rows up.  Joel is a creature of habit and thrives on routine.  He had no intention of sitting somewhere else.  We barely got him to sit up front when Dean was baptized.  That day as we sat up front he said to me “but we sit in the back!”  So Joel sat in the pew with the family that was already there.  After we sat down John, who is Cecilia’s age, came and sat with us for a while.  He was talking with Vincent and even put his arm around Vincent.  He sat with us for probably 5 or 6 minutes before he decided to go back by his mom.  His mom, Jessica, was helping me by reminding Joel (who was sitting behind her) to be quiet.  Then we all went up for children’s time and left Dean in his carrier sleeping.  The nice lady behind me was kind enough to rock him when he started waking up.  All I can say is it is so very nice to be part of such a wonderful church family.  I am thrilled my kids feel comfortable enough to sit with other families and that other kids are happy to come sit by us.  I am also thankful that other parents don’t mind stepping in to remind my kids of proper behavior to help them out when they need it.  We love our church family!

After church the kids and I headed to Jonamac Orchard to meet up with Heather and her kids.  The kids were so very excited to see each other.  The orchard was a little crowded but not as bad as I thought it would be.  It was overcast and drizzled a bit, but we enjoyed the live band.  The kids had fun playing and we all pouted a little bit about the line for donuts being too long to wait in.  When we had enough kids whining about how cold they were we decided to head to the Crawford’s house.  According to my kids that was the most fun part of our outing.  I would have to agree.  I love sitting and talking to Heather as the kids play.  Most of the conversations are interrupted by little voices, but we still enjoy ourselves and have perfected the art of picking up the same conversation mid sentence 5-10 minutes later.  The whole day was a reminder of how blessed we are by good friends and church family!  This fall will mark 15 years of Heather and I being friends.  Hard to believe we are getting old!