I'm in my pajamas, happy in bed...and hoping to stay here for a long time!
I spent today trying to recover from Sunday, but I think I'll need tomorrow to do that too.
Here's the update from this weekend, it was a big one, hence, long post.
Friday was a fun day! Ric and I went to Home depot (we got new windows for the baby's room--we'll be doing some minor construction in a couple weeks) and Panera for lunch and to the lake to walk 3ish miles while Ricardo ran his 5.
Saturday: housecleaning and getting ready for Sunday since I was assigned to do the Children's Sermon, and preach at the Ekklesia service at 6pm, plus the high school Sunday school class I teach. I was really happy to have it all done early, but Ricardo and I ended up a little bored! So surprised to not have anything urgent and pressing that needed to happen, we didn't know what to do with ourselves.
Then, while munching on my apple slices (I think baby girl likes fruit...a lot) I got a phone call a little after 7pm. The sr. pastor's wife called to tell me that he was sick. The associate pastor was out of town for the weekend already, doing prison ministry. That left me. At 7pm on Saturday evening, I started writing a sermon for Sunday morning services.
So, yesterday, my day was just a little insane. Here's how it went.
8:10 am: arrive at church, meet the lay leader I called the evening before to go over the order of service and his parts (Scripture reading, prayers, etc).
8:30am: Early Service, preach sermon #1
9:30am: Teach high school Sunday school
10:45am: Second Service, preach sermon #2 (same sermon, second time around)
11:55am: Finish shaking people's hands, dump my robe in my office and load up all the youth to go to Church League Youth Basketball.
12:30pm: Yell my head off at youth basketball game (unfortunately, we lost, but they played well, had fun, and it was a very close game!)
2:00pm: Back from the basketball game and LUNCH! Yum. I was hungry.
2:30pm: Back at the church, print out order of worship for ekklesia service, make copies of music, start setting up stations in chapel.
4:30pm: Worship practice with Ekklesia band.
6:00pm: Ekklesia Service. Preach Sermon #3 (different sermon).
7:00pm: Serve Communion, end the service, and start putting the chapel back together.
7:40pm: Finally done...time to go home!
8:45pm: Finally home, ready for bed.
It was such a fun day, it all went well and the congregation was so gracious and encouraging, so I enjoyed it a lot. And I felt pretty good about my sermon, despite it being last minute. I still find it amazing that I was at the point of actually being BORED on Saturday night when I got the phone call that changed my evening and gave me more than enough work to do.
However, I was beat by the time it was over. Sundays are always long for me, since the church is 37.5 miles away from home (45-50 minutes if there's no traffic), so I don't come home between morning services and ekklesia. Usually there are other things to fill the afternoon hours (youth basketball, meetings, worship band practice, etc) and so by the time I'm done with a normal Sunday, I'm more than ready to be done!
So, after this super-charged Sunday, I was completely wiped! Today too...but, I had a lovely surprise when I went into my office this evening. Flowers on my desk! Every Sunday a group takes apart the sanctuary flowers and delivers them to people who've been sick, in the hospital, or recovering, etc. They left an arrangement in my office with their note, which was just a nice surprise and so encouraging. Sighs of contentment....
Note from the altar flower deliverers.
My flower arrangement! So pretty!
Just in case anyone wants another bellyshot--here it is! Just starting my 7th month at this point! Quick question for all of you (leave answers/opinions as comments)?
Mom and I were talking and she doesn't think that Boo-Rod (her name for our baby girl) will arrive before Mother's Day. I don't know if she will or not (her due date is May 14), but I am wondering if I still get to celebrate Mother's Day this year, since I have at that point carried her for 9 months, done my best to be a good mother to a developing baby (ie: taking vitamins, staying healthy, resting, exercising, etc).
What do you think? Mother's Day this year? Or only if she's already born? Deep questions now that I'm not in school I know...but I'm curious to what you all think!
