{This picture was surreptitiously taken during our very last "practice" before the real thing.}
By Saturday night, we had worked our way up to 15 minutes of sitting and being still. We continued to play Conference talks for each of our practice sessions, and made sure the kids had notebooks, The Friend magazines, pens, pencils, etc. to help keep them quiet and occupied. As you can see from the picture above, everyone was in a MUCH better place by the end of the week than they were at the start. Wonders never cease, and GRACE was easily the most cooperative and reverent child throughout the week. What can I say? She's our ever-surprising surprise. Hahaha.
Unfortunately, we had a few things stacked against us as we arrived at church yesterday. First of all, the only pew we could get was a lot closer to the front than I would have liked. Second of all, Ethan refused to bring anything with him to help him stay reverent. And finally -- and MOST unfortunately -- Grace had been up since 3 o'clock that morning thanks to some growing pains in her legs. DOH! She gets them every now and then, but this is the second time it's happened in the last week and a half and it was just really bad timing. I stumbled into her room and rubbed them for a bit before going back to bed, but there wasn't any ibuprofen left upstairs (which is what I usually give her when this happens), and the end result was that she woke me back up around 4 saying she couldn't fall asleep and could she please just go downstairs and watch something on TV. Well, folks -- I'm only human, and I was REALLY tired {and slightly out of it} so I told her to do whatever she needed to do because I needed to sleep. It wasn't until we were sitting down at church that I realized that she had NEVER fallen back asleep even after she came down.
As sacrament meeting started, I had already had to switch places 2 different times with different children, and as Grace started insistently demanding to go home because she felt sick, I was seriously about to cry because nothing was going according to plan! Then, Sophie started freaking out because she didn't want to sit next to Jane, Alex kept asking to go and get some water, and Grace ended up laying down in my lap and taking up half the bench. Things were definitely not off to the greatest start.
THANKFULLY, things finally settled down -- after playing musical chairs once more to move Sophie to the opposite end of the pew -- and, overall, the kids did a heck of a lot better than their historical record has shown. Over the course of the meeting: I managed to distract Grace and snap her out of her "sickness" using a notebook, a pen, and my Grace-whispering skills; Ethan minded his own business rather than everyone else's {for the majority of the time}; Alex only need to be taken out twice; and Jane managed to make it through almost the whole thing before being hauled outside and into a Primary room! A trip to the "boring" room helped to convince both of the little ones that the chapel was the place to be, and in the end I'd like to think that we have made a giant step forward in our ongoing quest for reverent behavior.
And that is that. Our attempt at reverence practice for Family Home Evening tonight was quickly abandoned after a kerfuffle amongst the kids -- Ethan kicked Grace causing her to crash into Sophie, conking both their heads in the process -- and basically it was just a rough FHE. Oh well, you can't win them all! Reverence practice will resume tomorrow. Let's hope that next Sunday will bring us one step closer to perfection. :)
1 comment:
phew! hope is not lost! :)
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