the minsiter's family sunday morning relay

sunday at church, i felt very much like i was running the 400yard church dash. it was crazy and packed, but all managed to be accomplished. the day began with a *few* snooze bars before getting up at 6:25. we get ready for church, get all the necessary church items loaded up and are off by 7:20. we drive to church in the glorious cold rain. it would have been a perfect day to stay in your pajamas all day, sleeping and watching movies. not us-the ministers' family-we make ourselves and our families crazy by being at church before anyone else!! we get to church and have praise team rehearsal. after rehearsal, bret helps me deliver all the preschool supplies to each classroom and i gather a few extra things i realized i had forgotten. then we had about 10 minutes to chill before class began. as we sat downstairs with some of the members of the praise team talking, anna is going from person pretending to be a waitress taking their order. she ask each person, "what can i get ya sweetie?" in her most southern texas draw. when people would ask for something she would tell them, "i don't have any of that." over and over she didn't have anything people asked for. finally one girl finally asked what she did have. she was only serving apple pie that day!!! what a crazy and imaginative kid. she really should be on tv.
anyway, after that, i dropped the kids off to their classes and headed over to the middle school class. it was great and crysty did a great job teaching, however, we have a few--4 or 5--boys that just really have a hard time being respectful in class. she did a great job and she held them afterward. i hope it worked. from there it was time to pick my kids up from class and head back downstairs for worship. now, singing on the praise team while taking care of two children is no easy feat in and of itself, but add to it doing it without the other parent as a bookend and being the ONLY soprano singing while bret's voice is really struggling from a cold. you can't put the mike down for a minute to repremand children. no, you must sing through the repremanding!! it was a challenge, to say the least. normally we don't carry food for the older two to church. they are just too big for that now. however, we happened to have some left over gold fish in a baggie in the church bag and anna (of course) found them. i thought, oh what the heck (as i'm singing "to god be the glory") maybe it will keep her quiet. well it did, right up until i looked down and she dumped the (many) crumbs all over herself and the floor and the seat and.... well she did not like the mess. it was crazy to say the least. this is the kind of morning you really look forward to children's worship, however, it was my turn to be a helper this morning, so i sent the kids on, sang the song beofe the sermon and then rushed to help. i had to return to worship for the last song because i was the ONLY soprano. (did i mention i' m singing soprano and i usually sing alto so that alone is a little stressful for me) we finish out the service after two responses, one of which was a baptism, and then begin the gather up the kids and husband relay. i think i made my worst time yet. we were supposed to meet the praise team for lunch at Celebrations, since our church picnic had been canceled. we were much later than the others getting to the restaurant, but they had not been seated yet, so i guess it was not too terrible. now we are trying to have lunch with a large, diverse group of people while our sleepy children who are tired of waiting manage to do everything from scream out, spill milk, and fall back chairs(anna of course). the wonderful, very much worth waiting for, food arrived, and we all ate to our stomach's fill. finally, lunch was over and the rain was over, and we were on our way home. the day did not end there, but for sake of your sweet hearts for reading this far, i will stop. it was a long yet strangely rewarding day. i'm so glad God meets me in the chaos, otherwise, i might never meet with him at all!!! love you all,
summer