On Thursday morning, A left early to go to the viewing. I had planned to bring the two older kids later with me, after first dropping off the babies and T at a friend's house. The day before, both babies had woken up with goopy eyes. I hoped whatever it was would quickly find its way out of the house, but when N woke up Thursday morning with both eyes glued shut, I knew I couldn't subject my friend to double eye infections. (I wasn't about to miss the funeral, though, so I just warned everyone in A's family before they went anywhere near the babies. "Hold them at your own risk!")
So, this meant I had to take all five kids to the funeral. Knowing that the twins would be fantastic distractions in the actual funeral, I opted to sit in the Relief Society room the whole time with them. The three older kids went into the funeral with their dad and other family members and did mostly ok by all reports. I felt rather pathetic, all alone in the room with two babies, but all things considered, it was the best scenario possible. I was able to listen to the meeting (including a truly phenomenal talk by my husband and a solo by S), while letting the babies run around, sift things out of the trash, and play the piano.
Two hours earlier, before I ever left for the funeral, I had a really sweet spiritual teaching moment from S. It was a particularly horrendous morning, made worse by the fact that I was so upset about having to take all of them with me (and I'm sure my general emotional state about the events of the day couldn't have helped much.) If you think that getting five children ready by yourself sounds like an exhausting task, it's probably worse than you think. And I didn't handle it well that day. At all.
When I finally got in the car, we were 30 minutes behind schedule (although still in plenty of time for the actual funeral). I heard S saying something under her breath and I caught the word, "frustrated." "Are you upset because I was frustrated?" "No." I paused. "Are you worried about singing your solo?" "Yes. " (Tears ensued.)
I took a deep breath and announced that I would say a prayer to help us all. It did. I think that small moment of clarity on my part helped both of us calm down. I know it helped me realize that although taking five children to a funeral (including two goopy-eyed babies) was not ideal, it would be ok. And it turned out to be a wonderfully spiritual day.
More on the weekend later...
3 comments:
In spite of it all it really was a wonderful day and both A and S did fantastic jobs. I don't know how you cope, I would have lost my mind ages ago!
Oh I wish I could have been there! I would have taken your goopy babies, no problem! Hope things with eyes are better now. I'm so glad Dave and Bianca were able to make it. I read the obituary in Des News last night and learned a few things. I'm curious to know which of Aunt Minerva's paintings in BYU's collection got there by way of Boppa.
I love the leaf walking picture of the twins.
It all sounds very exhausting. Who knew we would both be "listening" to a funeral on the same day while tending babies in another room so others could listen, all while being on completely different sides of the country! Small world!
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