Ben was snuggled in on one side of me, as he had been all meeting, quietly reading the December 2011 Friend Magazine. I had pulled Josh over to my other side and wrapped my arm around him because he was a little teary-eyed after his first-ever attempt at an origami polyhedron star wasn't as perfect as he wanted it to be. "It takes a long time and SIX pieces of paper, Mom!" Tommy, who declares at least one side of his mother "Private Property" at all times was dismayed to return from his pew wiggling to discover both sides of me were in use and proceeded to use my skirt/shirt to pull himself up onto my lap, not caring at all that my legs were getting more and more exposed because as he climbed, my skirt was climbing with him. Zac, sitting up behind the pulpit after his talk, noticed the commotion in our pew and gave me a huge grin, so I gave him a wink while I tried to smooth my skirt back down my thighs with arms that were wrapped around the two boys on either side of me, reminding me of the Tyrannosaurus in Meet the Robinsons (I have a big head and little arms!). I glanced over to Adam for help, but he was dutifully, obliviously listening to our visiting speaker from the high council. Due to the recent Calvin and Hobbes reading adventures of my boys, the thought popped into my head that maybe he'd put in half ping-pong balls to appear as if he had wide-open-eyes like Calvin does in class but he had really fallen asleep, and, while still trying to get the skirt back down with Tommy happily settled into my lap, softly chuckled at my funniness (I am often the only one laughing at my jokes so this did not feel conciliatory in the least). The only of my six sweet boys missing from the equation was Luke, who was happily, silently playing with one solitary Lego figure, Swamp Creature, on the other side of his dad, as he had been the entire hour (he has the BEST ability to self-entertain!).
This would have been the perfect snapshot of "what I do." I am Momma, Mommy, Mom, Mother, Wife, Colleen. It's what I do.
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