Mother's Day Observed

Rob will be gone for Mother's Day weekend.  He'll be at a science conference.  (Let's not get started about how bitter I feel towards the mother-and-wife-hating-jerk who planned a national conference on this weekend.)  So since he'll be gone, and since our church was canceled yesterday, I suggested that we could do a Mother's Day Observed.

Great plan, I thought.  We could do a small family-size sacrament meeting at our home, and then the rest of the day could be time where Rob takes care of things:  the kids, the meals, the dishes.  ...  It was a great plan.

With my approval (my encouragement, even), Rob utilized some Sunday morning time to go Home Teaching.  He told me he was going to go visit Sister Tungate (she's actually a relative of mine--my father's cousin), ... and that's about it.  How long should that take?  An hour?

After making pancakes for breakfast, he left around 10 and I sat down on the couch and read The Spiderwick Chronicles while the kids watched some uber-lame Garfield movie that we got from the library.  We hadn't done our sacrament meeting yet, but no problem.  We had time.  I finished one of the Spiderwick books and fell asleep.

I woke up to the phone ringing around 11:45.  It was Rob checking in.  ...  Why wasn't he home yet anyway, that's what I was thinking.  He said he was stopping by his 3rd home teachee, "just to say hi" and that he'd be home "soon."  Riiight.  He was home around 12:30. 

Let's make a note here about how much I've grown as a person:  I didn't cuss Rob out when he called home at 11:45.  I did, however, get unnecessarily snappy with my children, ratcheted up the tension in the house, and sent everyone to their rooms while I took a shower.  Then I cussed Rob out in my head.  (I use "cussed out" loosely.  No swear words were actually involved.)  Like so:

"Right.  'Mother's Day.'  What do I DO all day?  I sit at home with YOUR children while YOU go out and 'serve.'  THAT'S what this church is about.  THAT'S what I'm SUPPOSED to do.  We have church off and WHAT do you do?  You leave.  Because that's what you DO.  You're 'spreading the good news' while I'm sitting on the couch and the kids are watching GARFIELD!!!!  We don't need to celebrate church, we JUST DID!  THAT'S what church is!"

By the time he got home, I didn't need to yell at him any more.  I'd already done the yelling in my head.  I was still angry/sad, though.  So instead of yelling, I was distant, silent in that way that isn't silent at all, and then I cried in his arms.

Our own home teachers came at 1 and shared a message with us.  It always happens, when I'm upset about the time it takes to serve in our church, or when I think that things would just be SO MUCH EASIER if I stopped going to church altogether, that the Spirit touches my heart in a soft, little way.  And I repent, and re-commit to going to church and serving with all I've got, because I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church.  It's God's trump card.

So we ended up having our little family sacrament meeting, and it was beautiful.  I bore my testimony to our children about doing hard things because the Church is true.

And then later Rob did some dishes, made dinner for me, and let me take a nap.  And all ended well on Mother's Day Observed.