Sunday we tried something new and very different.
For the last 4 years we have been sitting near the back of the church due to a plethora of unruly behaviors that have been known to spring up and cause a ruckus. It just seemed the kindest thing to do to keep the distraction that is us as far to the back as possible, so as to allow more parishioners a chance to worship undisturbed.
Well, after a series of unfortunate events the previous Sunday, I made the executive decision yesterday that we would be sitting up front. Way up front. Like, sixth row on the left side up-front! I gave the kids fair warning that their behavior would be under the scrutiny not only of the priest and the Bishop, but because it’s the TV mass, their every twitch would be on every screen from here to wherever the furthest reach of the Phoenix Diocese youtube channel streams!
It was enough. Their behavior was golden. All except for Ellie, who made like a writhing, moaning noodle from the time we sat down until Dad gave up and took her (and Ruben, who was actually doing pretty well) out.
Still, I count it a minor miracle how brilliantly everyone else behaved, and am delighted to have graduated to the front! Hopefully there will be more attention paid to what’s actually happening in mass now that they can see everything up close.
After mass we celebrated by getting fizzies at QT for the ride to Grandma’s. This was our last visit to her Sun Lakes residence, where we’ve been visiting for many years now. She will be moving to a beautiful new home in another suburb which will be closer to Jon’s house, but a bit further from us.
Since it was the last chance we would have to take the kids to the greenway and run around the lake, we bopped over there and I finally was able to “force” Natalie into a birthday photo shoot, overdue since her November birthday.
Although she fussed mightily and rolled her eyes a bit, she was a good sport in the end and I think we got a very decent representation of who Natalie is as a rambunctious and sassy 13 year-old.
I’m so thankful for all the great memories we’ve made in Sun Lakes over the years, and look forward to making lots of happy new ones in Grandma’s new house!
