Note: Monday Morning Quarterback is a weekly post reviewing Sunday, the busiest, most stressful, most gratifying day in the week of a pastor/parent/spouse/citizen.
Song of The Day:
6:21. Eyes open to unfamiliar surroundings. Body aching. Lips chapped. Throat raw. Clarity returning now . . . rock climbing wall . . . wind-blown games of H-O-R-S-E . . . late night convulsions of laughter over The Game of Things . . . All Church Camp.
7:02. Bathroom greeting with church member. Is that ever not weird?
7:35. Daughter and her playmate are up. They’re scaling the bunk beds as Wife groans below.
8:11. Stumble down to join the rest of the church in the camp’s main lodge. Head of Staff’s husband has brought Starbucks travelers for everyone. Ask, “Is it cool if I kiss you right now?”
8:18. Reviewing with students the best Game of Things answers from the night before. Consensus quickly emerges that the best answer came in response to the prompt, “Things you shouldn’t say to a police officer to get out of a speeding ticket.” Answer from 7th grader: “I knew you were trouble when you walked in.” Now lamenting the fact that, for the prompt, “Things you would have said to Eve after she gave you the apple,” I didn’t answer, “We are never ever ever getting back together.”
8:28. Breakfast. Daughter is protesting the apple juice, which, she says, is not as dark as the apple juice her playmate had at lunch the day before.
9:44. Planning worship in teams around the Man of Macedonia story. 5th grader on my team wants only to perform a play where he’s a ghost who emerges from behind a bath towel.
10:34. Daughter’s playmate and her family leave. Prolonged hugs. And kisses. And hugs.
10:43. At the lake with Wife and Daughter. Didn’t pack a jacket, and it’s cold. Wife: “You never pack a jacket. I don’t feel bad for you.” She’s wearing a fleece and a sweater.
10:46. Daughter is machine gunning Cheeze-Its at the ducks.
11:23. Ping pong. For, like, an hour.
1:43. Closing worship service. Somehow, Head of Staff and her team have parlayed the Man of Macedonia into an acapella hip-shaking rendition of Paul Davis’s “Cool Night.” Yeah, okay. I can see that.
2:02. Time to go. Trouble brewing for daughter. She’s demanding more playground time.
2:04. Playground-gate escalates to a full-blown spectacle. Trying to get Daughter in the car before entire camp hears her screams (subsequent text from student asking “What’s wrong with her?” will reveal utter failure).
2:12. Daughter still screeching as we descend the mountain. Church Intern who rode with us getting a valuable lesson in parenting–the what-not-to-do kind.
2:24. Daughter pacified by a pan dulce.
2:25. Daughter slumped over asleep, pan dulce falling from her hand.
2:32. Wife turning green. “I’m trying not to puke,” she says. Foot off the gas.
2:47. Daughter jolts awake. “Are we off the mountain yet?” No. Slumps back over and sleeps.
2:52. “Are we off the mountain yet?”
2:44. “Are we off the mountain yet?
2:45. “Are we off the mountain yet?” Yes. “Oh, that was fast.”
3:01. Home. Dropping bags in the doorway, wife (still green) trudges upstairs and collapses on bed.
3:44. Answering Daughter’s critical questions about “Tinkerbell And The Great Fairy Rescue.” It’s not really that believable.
5:02. Leaving for Youth Sunday Planning Pizza party. Pay for the pizza, set up the room, print off instructions and old worship bulletins . . .
5:12. Arrive at church to discover I’ve left my laptop at home. Doh! Improvising.
6:39. Whirlwind presentation of Presbyterian principles for ordering worship. “The preaching of the Word of God IS the Word of God!” Students leap to their feet with thunderous applause and gasps of “Amazing!”
7:22. Volunteers working with teams of students to plan an entire worship service. Marvelling. Doing nothing but marvelling.
8:01. Youth Sunday planned. Dismiss students with a benediction of “Waving Flag.”
8:12. Stopping at grocery store on the way home to pick up flowers for Wife. Well, not for her. For her nurses. It’s nurses week and she forgot.
8:24. End the day with with the day’s only play of the iPod.
9:01. Contemplating writing Monday Morning Quarterback. Nope. It’ll wait for the morning.
YoRocko! 