Late

Like I say, we were late to church. Really, really late.

My first mistake was letting both honyocks forgo showers Saturday night. They're at that age where they don't fear being the smelly kid, so if I didn't make them groom, well, they'd be the smelly kids.

Em's started digging boys, so I may not have to battle her to maintain minimum hygiene much longer. Not that the battle I'll be trading that in for is an improvement.

So then there's the sleep-in factor. I guess she's growing, but Em could win endurance competitions for sleeping. This would be fine with me if Mo would also sack out, because I could really go for sleeping until ten. But Mo is ecstatically awake at 6:00 most mornings, 7:00 if I really catch a break. 8:00, and I wonder if there's been a medical incident.



On the plus side, Mo loves to snuggle, so there's often a chance I can get her to come snuggle in Daddy's bed while I pretend I can sleep a bit longer. As she giggles, plays with the air coming out of my CPAP and asks to be tickled and kicks me. And tries to rub my scalp stubble around the CPAP straps. And jumps on my gut to get to something. Real restful, dig?

Church doesn't start until 11:00, but I'm only on time once a year or so. My daughters and me are a cocktail of tardiness made with two parts ADD, one part Autism. Garnish with a twist of bad habits. It's a miracle we ever get anywhere at all.

And having to get all three of us through the shower, with two of us resisting like Ghandi, well...

Last time we were so late it was a 'grab a CD of the sermon' situation, we got the shuttle right away, but it turns out that was a bit of a fluke. Sensibly enough, the shuttle runs when people normally show up.

Maybe I should explain: the Love Shuttle (one of its nicknames) is Heartland's answer to an elementary school parking lot (the church is housed in a former grade school). How many kids did you go to grade school with who drove themselves to school? Exactly. So while the building has enough space for a congregation of a couple thousand to hold services and Sunday School and so on, it has the parking for a teacher in each room and maybe a half dozen in the office. The church is trying to buy a defunct furniture store which has, among other virtues, tons of parking. In the meantime, they have a little bus that takes people from a couple of satellite lots. And even if there was parking available at the main lot, I'd use it because Mo is used to the routine: you go to this lot and ride the shuttle in.



This is why I don't just decide not to go when we're a half hour late. Mo craves routine, and being that the school routine, center of her universe, is on unaccountable holiday vacation, I'm not going to take the church routine out on top of it all.

While we waited for the shuttle, the girls had fun pelting me with snowballs. The snow didn't pack well today, but there were good lumps where the snow ploughs had pushed it aside.


Mo, did, by the way have some fun with the camera she got for Christmas.