Ash Wednesday is not an HDO, but we like to go to Mass anyhow. Typically my Patient Husband takes the school-bound Kiddos to the 6:45AM Mass and then I go at 9 after dropping off Kiddo4. This year, the new priest decided to discontinue the 6:45AM and add a 3pm.
Okay, so I can take the school-bound Kiddos at 3pm, and my Patient Husband…hmm. Fortunately he found a parish closer to work that has a 6:30. Back on track.
Kiddo2 decided to walk to the 3pm from school. Why? Something about not wanting to eat when she got home from school. Okay. I’m not going to stop her.
Then I remembered the gas company is supposed to be hooking us up between noon and 4pm. Rearrange the schedule: I’ll go at 9 as planned and some of the Kiddos won’t go. No, Kiddo2 still wants to walk to the 3pm Mass, and then she’ll walk home. (I gave her my cell phone. That’s nonsense. She’ll call and I’ll pick up.)
At 7:15 there’s a knock on the door. Workmen. Oh, right — they had to come in the morning before the gas company! So (still in my PJs) I let them in and then get everyone dressed.
7:45: Kiddo3’s bus comes and then I have to drive Kiddo2 and a Huge Untransportable Homework Project to her school. I come home and wait for 9AM so I can drop off K4 and go to the 9AM.
8:10: K3’s bus driver calls: he puked on the bus, so he’s bringing him back home. This means no 9AM school drop-off for K4, and it also means no 9AM Mass for me.
8:30: the workmen shut off the heat and the water. This is exactly what you want with a puking child.
Fortunately, God does look out for fools, drunks, the United States of America, and me. We still have about 25 gallons of water in various containers. We saved them before the blizzard because we’re on a well and want to be able to flush toilets if we lose power for three days again, and I hadn’t gotten around to using them up. Ta-dah! Now if only I could fill the washing machine…
9AM: my Patient Husband starts rearranging the afternoon in order to accommodate my going to the 7PM. And my thought? I fully intended to go to 9AM, then the 3PM, then the 9AM again, and it’s not an HDO. So I’d rather go, but at this point, if I don’t, I think it’s fine. Fine. Fine.
For Lent, I have given up any illusions that I’m in control around here.
Probably the best Lenten resolution you can make is to give up control. Happy Lent!
That would imply I had some to begin with. 😉
Yeah. Control? The only thing I imagined having control of was my writing. But that looks like an illusion too!
Yeah, the first time the characters take over, that goes out the window. 🙂