Sunday

Today has been a very long day. I was going to address Haiti this morning, so when I got up I revised the sermon with information from a wonderful news article. Then I realized I hadn't written the cover letter for the annual report, so I did that. I printed everything out and headed over to the church, where I put the copier to work printing 50 copies of the 18 page annual report for distribution today. It wasn't done until yesterday evening, so I couldn't do it earlier.

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Daughter came to find me to tell me the women who were doing special music had arrived. I thought we were supposed to do a hymn today, so I hadn't put special music in the service. I went out and apologized, and then helped them with the sound system, since none of our sound system gurus had arrived. Daughter began complaining about not feeling good. I told her quite firmly that she wasn't going to have any more seizures.

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The woman she sits with began to get concerned about her shakiness. So I went over and explained, in front of Daughter, that these were psychogenic and she wasn't going to have any more. I explained that she hadn't had any more at home, and that she wasn't going to have any at church. I told her that Daughter knew to relax and shift her focus when the shaking starts.

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Of course there were all the various other people needing information from me. After worship I went downstairs, and we discovered there was no Sunday School teacher for the young children. So, I went in and reined them in. The curriculum wasn't anywhere to be found, so I pulled a story out of the Bible and then had them draw pictures from it. I was asked what had happened to the Sunday School report, which wasn't in the reports I had copied. I went and found it and made copies of it.

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I got home in time to fix lunch and do my final preparations for our January board meeting-- a four hour marathon in which we set priorities and the calendar for the coming year. There were some challenging issues we needed to deal with from a congregational life survey we'd done. Almost as soon as the meeting was over, one of the saints called me. He's a reference for me, and he has a conference call appointment tomorrow with the committee I've been talking to. He wanted to make sure he had all the details right on the list of my accomplishments here. He wondered aloud if Daughter is trying to make me look bad. It's a possibility.

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Both Sisters had called during the meeting, so I called them back. Sister thinks she can tell the bank she's done with her house and they need to do a short sale and then go out and buy something else. Far Away Sister and I are trying to get her to slow down and get some legal advice. She was out looking at condos yesterday, and is ready to buy. She hasn't even talked to the bank or her divorce lawyer (she's still living with her ex).

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To say that I am exhausted would be an understatement. I've had a headache for the last two days. I'm too tired to eat. This week they are going to begin replacing all 29 windows in my home. The current windows are original to the house, which was built in 1900. I'm sure the house will be much more energy efficient once the new windows are installed. I'm not looking forward to the disruption the work will create in our lives. Daughter will be home tomorrow, and she is making big plans with Nice Guy. They wanted to go to a movie and bowling. I suggested that one activity would be enough. It sounds like she wants to go to the movie. After her attempts to get attention at church through seizure activity, she settled down and was very cooperative this afternoon. She just informed me that NG has asked her to move out of state with him. She told him she wasn't ready. At least she recognized her limitations.