scenes from sabbath

so may is a bit of a busy month around here. it is grand in so many ways and so full of activities and celebrations. one of the scheduling items for us is that it is my man's month to serve as usher. in addition to that, he also has a few violin performances on the calendar for in-service music and for special concerts. fancy stuff. it is wonderful to see him serve the Lord in worship and use his gifts and talents to bless others. plus, we get private practice concerts in the evenings which elinor and i (and baby ridley too) would not complain about. you gotta love some postprandial music.

AND it just so happens that i serve as teacher in the children's ministry during the month of may. that adds an extra layer of complexity to our sunday mornings. i teach during first service and then ben ushers during second service. it is a packed morning indeed. and for the past few weeks, they have had to redistribute the volunteers which has left me flying solo with 30 (THIRTY) first through third graders. no helper for me. i keep having nightmares about a gulliver's travels situation taking place during sunday school... 30-to-1 is a really intense ratio. SOOOO...i somehow managed to rope my man into being my assistant. call it moral support. call it backup. call it my "it" guy or "go-to" guy or even, my I.T. guy (thank goodness for tech support...) but he has been such a help to me.

on sunday, we dropped elinor off at her class and we headed off to "our class". after herding and managing and organizing and calming and teaching and cajoling or whatever we managed with our classroom of kids, i went to grab elinor from her room while ben added his tie to his ensemble and took off for second service duties.

elinor and i decided to enjoy the mid-service time in the family room, snuggling and snacking and sipping water and discussing what elinor did in her class. she told me stories about jesus and sang a song to me and filled me in on her boy friend (boy-space-friend. a friend who is a boy. no boyfriends around here...) owen. she told me about stickers and verses and music and eating goldfish crackers. and i distracted her from the plates of glazed donuts in the fellowship area. darn those donuts. just sitting there, screaming at little children to eat themselves into a sugar-high frenzy. and i'm not gonna lie, after a morning with 30 rambunctious and opinionated and intelligent and challenging and delightful and exhausting children, i was mere moments away from diving face-first into my very own platter of those fried and sugar dipped beauties...

but i digress. darn you, donuts.

we made the decision that after our time at second service, we would treat ourselves to some lunch. i was in the mood for a big bowl of veggie goodness paired with an extra large iced tea. and give me all the ice. they have some great ice there. we split some hummus and pita to start and then swapped stories from our morning and shared what we had learned.

it was the perfect midday moment as a family. and just what we needed before returning home for naps and tasks and bread-baking (yay hubby! yay for sunday bread!). i am so grateful for moments of respite and rejuvenating meals. i am so grateful for sweet times with my family. and i am so grateful to be members of the family of God. we love our church family. i feel so blessed to be part of such a connected and serving body. they always find ways to be a blessing to us and pour into our lives - and i hope that God can use our little crew, in big and small ways, to be a blessing to others.

also, this darling girl. she was rocking the most swoon-worthy flapper hairdo and THAT PROFILE. i am so smitten with that face. i have been pretty much obsessed with her forehead and button nose and pouty lips since she was in the womb. there are times when she looks so incredibly grown up and i have flashes of her heading off to prom or walking down the aisle...but at the same time, that profile takes me back to when she was just a little peanut in my belly. i love her so. my sweet baby girl.