Day 23

This is not about Lent. I don't think. I had my readings and prayer time this morning but my tired brain isn't really thinking about anything deep or spiritual. I'm really tired today and I think it is because we traveled this weekend. It was our second road trip with Everleigh, the baby that hates the car.

We left Friday and didn't make it more than half an hour before Everleigh demanded to stop and nurse. So we stopped. And then drove an hour down the road with on and off fussiness. Kyri had to go to the bathroom so we stopped at our trusty Starbucks stop with the nice bathroom and then Ben realized he needed to go and so we pulled everyone out of the car. Everleigh was very happy. I mentioned to Mike that maybe I should nurse her again. But we opted to keep going. Big mistake. We made it another 10 minutes and she started to scream. We pushed on across the Oregon border and then stopped and nursed again. From there we made it almost to Grandma and Grandpa's house before she started to cry again.

Kyri and I had a quick outing the next morning to purchase ballet shoes, leotard and tights for her in tax-free Oregon. (And my mom had a 20% off coupon.) Why do fathers think ballet clothes are too expensive but a golf game is perfectly reasonable?

And then we drove an hour to the memorial service location. The service was supposed to begin at 2pm but some family didn't make it until 2:45pm so it started late. Dinner was scheduled for afterward and we had barely had lunch. The service went on until after 6pm and the kids were starving and squirrelly. I wanted to talk to Heather, my best friend from grade/high school. So did everyone else. So it was after 8pm when we finally made it back to my parents' exhausted.

Yesterday we left for the return home around 11am. We hadn't gone three miles when Kyri threw up all over the car seat and herself. We found some dirty clothes and put them on her and Mike found a new shirt for himself. The car smelled like...yeah, the whole way home.

We stopped for lunch at friends' in Portland. Everleigh went through two outfits, Kyri went through another pair of pants and then we finally got in the car and made it home by early evening after one stop to nurse Evie. All in all we crashed into bed last night.

And all of that has really no connection to Lent. But at the memorial service I ran into one of my mom's friends whom I haven't seen in at least 20 years. She reads the blog and told me not to be so hard on myself. (THANKS Darlene!) Just hearing her say that made my weekend. That, and she reads my blog.