Our overnight friend needed to catch a morning train. It was my husband’s morning to preach, so he left early to take him to the station. I was in charge of getting everyone to church. Over the years as I have carried this out, it is the norm for us to arrive a few minutes late. When the kids were smaller, the lateness seemed excusable. Obviously I had my hands full and just getting there and staying was an enormous accomplishment.

I’ve kind of just about had it with being the one who determines our arrival time. As your kids get older, you can’t hide your flaws anymore, or at least you can’t carry on in the same ways you have for years and years and expect the flaws to go unnoticed. So this morning, I was proud of myself for getting out the door by 8:45 to get there by 9 after I made sure the cats were fed. Cat chores and dishes are the parents’ job on Sundays.

On the 12 minute drive to church, a minor quarrel erupted. I didn’t help matters at all, at least I had no present or immediate evidence that anything I said in the car this morning registered, when I interjected my matronly wisdom, “Yeah, well, this is why God says to have a Sabbath day, because when you don’t, this is what happens.” I said it without malice, that hint of the old fading Sunday morning bitterness, but with a patience tried.

I cried after church when I couldn’t write. After lunch with my in-laws at the Pizza Ranch buffet, we had to get ready for the church trunk-or-treat. It reminded me of the mom in the memoir The Glass Castle, where all she wants to do is paint and be an artist but life requires her to do normal things like get a job. Instead I had to edit and make copies of a flyer for the upcoming Breakfast in Bethlehem that hardly anyone came to last year.

It’s been another busy weekend here. The kids had their regional cross country meet yesterday morning. Yesterday afternoon we had a lovely wedding at camp that lasted into the evening. I kept thinking that surely somebody’s prayers had been answered for the day, as the weather couldn’t have been more perfect for a fall outside wedding. The temperatures were in the high 70’s and low 80’s, with a light breeze and warm sun.