More Lucy Than June

Last River Church core team meeting tonight. (We hold our first service on Sunday!!! Soooo, like if you live in Charleston and stuff, click here for details…)

Because it was our last “core” meeting, we had EVERYONE (oh yes. that does mean kiddos…) in one room together.

Now, I KNOW my kids. And I KNOW how they act when they get a little overtired. And I KNEW this was going to be…challenging. To say the least.

I kinda starting sweating just thinking about it.

During the first worship song that Stephen led, they all sat peacefully. Kenni was in a chair next to me, Caia wanted to sit in my lap, and Jack rotated back and forth between my friend Stacey and I.

Caia, whose name means “to rejoice”, tried her best to sweetly sing along. Talk about makin’ her mama’s heart melt!!!

Yes, baby girl, you CAN have a pony tomorrow.

As the evening wore on, the stage beckoned them.

Oh…the stage.

These girls LOVE a stage. They love to dance and sing. Kenni has stipulations to her entertaining. She will only perform if she thinks no one will say anything to her, but Caia would dance and sing as loud as she could whether there were audience or not.

And um, unfortunately, there was an audience.

Who were all trying to worship.

But she kept running across the stage and then finally, she just starts belting out…SOMETHING…while she’s dancing.

Then, the next thing I know, they’re FLYING LIKE AIRPLANES around on the stage.

And the thing is: there’s really nothing I could do. If I go onto the stage to get them off, it will just result in massive amounts of screaming. Plus, I’m trying to deal with Jack who’s toddling around inspecting the Chick Fil A cups that people have brought underneath their chairs.

I have but one choice…to watch and pray that people will still want to be friends with The Girl Who Obviously Has No Parenting Skills once this whole thing is over.

My children are not terribly ill-behaved children. But they are, well…CHILDREN. Children who love life.

Sometimes they love it a little too loudly, but that’s beside the point.

In the back of my mind, I thought…would Jesus be offended that they wanted to zoom around like airplanes while Stephen led the rest of the crowd in worship? Something told me…probably not.

When it was over, Stephen tried to talk to McKenna about the situation and explain that there are times that we need to be quiet.

Her response?

You were singing a song about Jesus, so I was flying. And I did it for you.

Well, well. How do you discipline that?

Now, once the meeting had ended and she was getting just a little too out of control, I did have to go all Jack Bauer on her.

I’m running this operation, and I’m ENDING IT!!!

When she begged for a juice box on the way home, I wanted to tell her that I don’t negotiate with terrorists.