If I wasn't...

a pastor's wife of a tri-parish in the frozen north, I...

*wouldn't be typing this with purple smashed finger.
*wouldn't have to continually hear "but we've always done it that way"
*wouldn't have to deal with members of one church that forget the pastor has two other churches
*wouldn't have to bundle the boys up and start the car in the cold all by myself.
*wouldn't have to discipline 3 boys all the way to church, during church, and all the way home all by myself.


This was a very bad morning for me. Our garage door won't open automatically when it gets too cold. As I closed it manually, I pinched my finger in it. I panicked because the boys were already all buckled in the car and my finger was stuck in the door. I was able to lift the door with my other hand and get my finger out. It is still extremely painful over 8 hours later.
This morning the one other family with kids at our church was sick with the stomach flu. That meant that my Lambs were without any one or anything to do during Christmas practice. I was without another mom to help watch the Lambs. I almost had a heart attack when I caught all 3 Lambs up in the balcony and Lamb 3 was leaning over it. I had to do my best to listen to the directions for the Christmas program and also watch the Lambs by myself because Ram was leading the 3rd service while we had practice.
This is the 7th Christmas we have been here. During Christmas practice I got in an argument with the few members that actually were there for practice today. The argument boiled down to "that's not the way that we've always done it". Ram is stuck because either the first church or the second church (or both) is going to be upset with him on Christmas Eve. They want the pastor's family involved in their Christmas Eve program but they forget there is another Christmas Eve service. All this means that Ram is going to have lots to bring up at the next voter's meeting and the next tri-parish council meeting.
Winter just began and thankfully we are able to park in our garage again, but I'm already sick of winter and especially times that I have to take the Lambs some where by myself like going to church.
My bad morning was ended with Lamb 1 in tears because we didn't have a dress rehearsal or practice our lines in front of the church this morning like he expected. He doesn't want to wait until next Sunday.

I'm thankful because...
*we did have communion this morning (for the first time since Nov. 22).
*I'm not the pastor (Ram) that has to make the phone calls to try to "fix" the mess that I made this morning.
*there is only one Christmas Eve every year.
*the winter weather doesn't last all year.
*I hurt a finger on my left hand instead of my right.
*they don't ask me to be the chairman of the Christmas Eve program.
*the Lambs all survived the practice this morning and none got hurt.
*the Christmas Eve program isn't the REAL meaning of CHRISTmas.

Hopefully my finger will feel better and I'll be in a better mood to post our school weekly report tomorrow. We did accomplish quite a bit last week.