Doozy of a Day

Sunday was one difficult day.  I felt Rich's absence keenly.   It started out okay. The kids and I even got to church early, and then the wheels fell off.  First there was the gold fish cracker incident.  My older two got into it over who got the crackers during the opening hymn, and the crackers went flying.  Next, Mackenzie chucked the "quiet book" two rows back to her friend, Luke.  Then there was the screaming Connor.  During the sacrament prayer, Mackenzie pulled out the container of cocoa puffs and Aiden tried to stop her by pounding on her arm, causing the coco puffs to go flying and land on the floor next to the gold fish cracker crumbs.  Mackenzie's reaction was to start pounding on Aiden.


I escaped to the foyer with my children in tow and was followed out by a sweet friend who offered to let the older ones sit by her, but since they were all being naughty, I told her I thought I'd better keep them out of the chapel for everyone else's sake.  After retrieving the stroller from the car and buckling the baby in, I took each of my kiddos on my lap and had a long talk with them.  Aiden was very repentant and sweet as usual.  Mackenzie punched me in the face.  She has a hard time with correction.  I'm grateful she does not hit hard.

I felt like crying for the rest of church and had to battle not to.  When we got home, they kids went straight to their rooms for an hour, and then were grounded the next day, and Mackenzie got a spank for hitting.  Sigh.  Some days...

I'm really grateful that I won't have to face church alone again tomorrow.  Rich gets home today (Saturday) and, and I am counting down the minutes.