I hesitate to share this blog post with you, friends. I would hate for you to think for even a moment that I am bragging, boasting or soliciting your sympathies. Now that we have that disclaimer out of the way, I wanted to give you a one-week glance into the Copelands' life. Strap on your seat belt; it'sa do-sey.
Sunday - awesome worship service...I think. I was in Children's Church delighting those sweet souls with my presence and charming state of being. You know in a small church there is a whole lot of that; everyone chipping in and helping out. Translation: the Pastor's wife was working Children's Church. Do I need to remind you of my disclaimer above? During my stint (relax, I'm kidding!) I did make a mental reminder to myself that I want to get a tambourine for those Sundays when I am in worship service. Make a joyful noise, right? I'm putting it on my Christmas list. Our small little piece of heaven-on-earth has not yet been graced with live singers and musicians. So, the more noise I can make "joyfully" the better and trust me, no one there wants me to sing. They ought to be lining up to buy me that tambourine.
Monday - naturally, a work day for both The Hub and me. Both full-time employees, we're up early, the kids are bustling about. Let me just say The Hub has recently graduated to an office manager, meaning office hours for him. As a realtor, he's reveled over the years in his ability to work from home, sleep-in if he wants, and flexibility. Let's just say a morning person he is not. I'm proud of him, friends. He's done a great job getting out of the door on time. Don't be mistaken, we are still all sittng at the table with breakfast done when he is getting into the shower, but still...we leave the house on time. So Monday brings, getting dressed, brush teeth, put your shoes on, you know how that goes. Thankfully I got smart awhile ago and braid my two girls' hair so that it lasts for about two weeks at a time. I can't tell you how intense it was trying to do two heads of hair EACH morning. Can you say "crazy?" By the time we get out the door each day we are thinking we should declare the army's slogan, having done more by 6am then some folks do all day. After a full day of work, Soccer Chick has soccer practice. Then there's dinner, homework, showers, oh my.
Tuesday - repeat of our first workday of the week, and substitute Soccer Chick for Bball Girl and her baseball practice that evening. Same dinner routine, some more homework (have you a child in Fairfax County? You feel my pain), and definitely showers, oh my.
Wednesday - we do it again, only this time, to spice things up, we add some Bible Study in the mix. This is hosted by us, in our home. There's dinner and somewhere previous to this night a lesson was planned for the adults and one for the kids. It's a joy and a pleasure, but definitely hosting is a lot of work, week after week. And we still have the same routine of homework, showers and more, oh my.
Thursday - Soccer Chick is at it again. Repeat of her evening practice and repeat of our workdays and evening routines. And sometimes, just for fun, Bball Girl might have a makeup baseball game to keep us on our toes.
Friday - My God. We've made it to Friday. Usually this is a relaxing evening. Maybe some Chantilly Charger football, maybe not. Usually the girls have some sort of friend-action in the works. This always seems to feel like my time to exhale.
And then there's Saturdays. Those are chock-full of sports games and kid activities. This week we added even more to our weekly festivities. We added a teacher conference to resolve a mini-crisis (Go Copelands!), and to support our little man in his adjustment to kindergarten. This also happened to be a week that my daytime job required me to travel one hour in classic Northern VA traffic for a 20-mile distance to a satellite office. Let me not forget to factor in the remote assistance and checking-up-on of our Oldest as he's 3 hours away at college. Somewhere in there The Hub prepares for a Sunday sermon, and also somewhere in there we all manage to keep everything flowing. It's a busy life, but we wouldn't have it any other way. That's the truth.
Why is it so? For one thing, we get these unexpected little gifts from God, called "rain." Rain means, practice cancelled, game is a n0-go. Those are what I like to call mini-breathers. I'll also tell you that our life works because of God as the center and love as the binding agent. To use the recent words of Jennifer Lopez, as she recovered from her recent emotional breakdown on stage, I'll state "there's love...and then there's love." The latter being in reference to her connection with her children. God's gift to us; they love us "more than the sky," according to Youngest. Who couldn't overflow with love for a kid who suffers a bump after horseplaying with his overgrown sister, and says "I need an ice pack for the ramp on the back of my head."
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