Lent Begins

Ash Wednesday.

I am having trouble figuring out what I’m going to give up for Lent.

It will come to me.

But first I have to get to mass.  Get the kids to school, get back home, change Tevye, get out the door, etc. We are in the alley with the stroller and at the end of the alley is a garbage truck. We go down a way, duck into one of the side driveways, wait for the garbage truck to pass, then finish going down the alley to ….

Wait a minute, Tevye is missing one of his shoes.

At this point we have about 3 minutes to make it to mass on time.

Fortunately I had spoken to August’s teacher at drop-off. I asked if she would make sure August was sitting at the end of the pew because we would be attending Ash Wednesday mass along with the rest of the school, and since I would have to get up with Tevye and go to the vestibule off and on, it would be easier for me to have Xavier sit  with August while I am not directly there.

“No problem.”

Great, only now I’m in danger of not even showing up for mass. WHERE IS THE SHOE!?

We scour the alley. We trace back our steps only hampered by the fact the garbage truck is still in the alley so we can not fully trace back our steps until it is further down the alley than our house. Finally it moves on and we find Tevye’s shoe at the back door.

We are running to church. As we get there the front door is closed. And locked. Thankfully the vice principal is there as well. And he is locked out as well. Apparently he was trying to keep the door open as he  looked out for on-comers, parishioners who wished to attend mass, and the door closed behind him. I was going to ask for help carrying the stroller up the steps into the church and put the stroller in the vestibule, but instead followed the vice principal back the way we came, around to the side entrance which was unlocked.

I figured if we were going to walk in to a school mass after service had begun doing so right behind the vice principal would make it a little less disruptive.

Depositing the stroller in the side alcove I realized we were not that late. I could have sat where we were but August was expecting us, and I did want easy access to the vestibule. Waiting for a couple of moments I made my move as the congregation sat down.

Finding August was the easy part. Scooting in was a different matter.

Whatever. It worked out. I was able to sit for most of the service. We all got our ashes.Tevye did good, spent some time in the vestibule, some time in the pew, acted like a toddler, tried to sing, and generally acted cute. August’s classmates were all smiles around him. A little disruptive, but nothing too bad. At least, I hope not. The teacher I was sitting in front of also has a toddler so she understand my pain most directly.

After mass I’m going through emails and whatnot. That’s when I came across Dawn’s blog post about what she is giving up for Lent. While I am usually loathe to be a copycat, giving up alcohol for lent was the right thing for me to do as well.

It wasn’t until several hours later that I realized St. Patrick’s Day falls within Lent.

Damn.