Eye of the Storm

Friday was an interesting day.  I was trying to prepare for a quiet, nice family dinner because I was preparing to go to the women's retreat all day on Saturday and Mark was leaving for Denver on Sunday.  I decided at about 4:00 that it was a good time to venture to the grocery store with the boys to get what I needed for dinner and get them things to have for lunch the next day.  The store is still a most "ungraceful" outing for me and I pretty much dread it.  The routine I have been working on is to unpack Grayson first and put him in the sling, then get a cart to put Davis in the back of the shopping cart and finally put Parker in the front seat of the grocery cart.  This seems simple enough but for some reason it takes me ten minutes and I feel like other shoppers look at me like I never should have left the house.  Even though Parker is usually the last one I get out of the car, God graciously allowed me to open his door early to reach Davis' shoes.  This was by God's grace because when I shut Parker's door I realized that Davis had locked the doors when I was unloading Grayson leaving my keys, wallet and cell phone locked in the car.  After checking all the doors and trunk twice just to be sure I really was locked out of my car with the three boys and no phone, I walked into Basha's to call Mark.  I didn't need any help feeling extremely flustered, but Davis accentuated the situation in true Davis-drama-fashion by bursting into tears in Basha's customer service saying things like "We are going to be stuck here FOREVER!", "We will NEVER get home" ect . . ect.  Mark said he would be there in about 30 minutes.  While we waited outside in the heat, I tried to get the boys to sit nicely on a bench.  In only about 30 seconds of sitting on the bench, Parker managed to face-plant straight forward cutting/bruising his forehead, nose and lip.  Again . . . more looks from shoppers wondering why I had left the house with three small children to sit on a bench in the AZ heat.  Mark showed up and took us home.  I made a partial dinner while we waited for the locksmith to call.  Mark had to go back to Basha's to pay the man $75 to break into my car.  Then Mark brought the Civic home, walked back to Basha's and finally drove the Acura home.  Needless to say - we did not eat together and Mark's steak dinner was most likely cold and gross by the time he got to it.  I was feeling disappointed and defeated by the events of the three crazy hours.  While I was starting the bedtime routine by bathing Grayson, I came out of the bathroom to find the boys doing this . . . sitting in a chair together . . . Davis reading to Parker (one of Parker's FAVORITE activities.  Seems average enough but it was calm, sweet and so precious to me.  This was the atmosphere I was hoping to create at dinner that I thought had failed miserably.  I was very grateful.  From there we ventured into the busy bedtime routine and the events of Saturday, but this was a quiet, very sweet, unexpected couple of moments.  I actually video taped him reading one story to Parker because it was just so precious - I will try to post it later.  I chose this picture of Parker because I think you can see the bruise that remained across his forehead from the fall.