Thursday with my girls.

Thursdays are my days off. When I was single, I would usually read, sew or embroider; I had not been bit by the knit and crochet bug yet and I'd often draw or pull out my guitar and rehearse for Mass. Then I was married, and thursday mornings I'd do the housework (we live in a tiny house) and on the afternoons we'd take blissful bike rides through the countryside and sometimes even picnics. Oh, but they were not leisure bike rides! My hubbie is a fan of extreme sports, so it meant we would go uphill or through dirt roads that only goats enjoy, or we would go for a picnic on a dam that was about an hour bike ride... through the "cerro" (crosscountry).

And then the girls came, and nothing was the same! LOL! Thursdays now are a marathon, days when anything can happen. All morning I'm owned by LH, and we both love it! she's getting so big that I cannot carry her for long stretches of time, so now she walks almost wherever we go running errands. Then we go pick up her big sister from school, come back home and cook, then after eating with Dad they usually have a nap, we go for another walk in the afternoon and then it is time for supper, then their bath and off to sleep... well, for LH at least, cause BH usually decides that she wants to stay up till midnight, decision that crumbles the moment that all lights are off. Then she usually protests that "-yawn-she is not-yawn- tired yet"...snore...

Yesterday was a bit different, because LH was a bit fussy. They stay indoors almost all week, poor things, so I try to be outside in the sunlight and air as much as I can on Thursdays (there went my intent of crocheting the potholder... but I WILL finish it before Sunday, fret you not!) and we went shopping for groceries. We then stopped by Church, and paid a visit to the Holy Sacrament -(the "Santísimo Sacramento", or just "Santísimo") at the Santa María Church. And LH decided she did not want to leave...

...but she also wanted to run, yell and play! The acoustics on that Church are awesome, so imagine what racket the tiny tot made! She would not let others concentrate on prayer, so I whisked her off- not before the Vicar stopped us on our- shamefaced on my part, delighted on LH's -way out. Uh-oh. That's it. We are done here, I thought.

The Vicar asked if LH was the responsible... shoot! he WAS going to reprimand us!
-Responsible? - I pretended not to understand
-Yes, the responsible for you not coming to sing anymore-

Phew! I had been singing in 6:00 am Mass when hubbie and I started dating, and then again after I was married and after BH was born, with the help of a friend who played too. Even when LH was on her way I still managed to play the guitar and keep singing. Then I got so big that I could no longer reach comfortably around to play the guitar! lol! and it is also a Country stile guitar, so it is even wider than say a Flamenco guitar, or a Classic guitar. So I stopped playing and only attended Mass.

-Oh, yes, she's the one!
- When are you coming back?
- uh... whenever you want me back?
- Next Sunday
- ahem.. sure! - I was relieved that it was so simple as that
- You are playing at Sacred Heart, right?

Shoot! Blast! he heard about it!!! A friend of my Dad's is Leader of a Team of Ministry at Sacred Heart Church- one of the other two Parroquias in town- and they help during noon Mass, and he invited me to go sing during that Mass. I've only been there like TWICE and Father Artemio already knew about it?!?!?!?! shoot! News travel fast in a small town.

-Yeees....
-Ok, then we split Sundays?
-Yeees....

We made some arrangements for the mics so I would not have to drag all my equipment at 5 in the morning, talked about what songs were going to be neded (Pentecostés is next Sunday) and then we left. It was time to go for BH at her school, and on the way back, BH wanted to stop at the Santisimo... at Sacred Heart Church (it is two blocks from her kindergarden) ...

... And we run into my dad's friend, who wants to know if I'm gonna play in Mass NEXT SUNDAY... Sometimes, I really think I'm the Holy Father's personal cartoon! lol! So I had to tell Don Ricardo that I would be playing at Santa María next Sunday, and after some more small talk, we left, while I silently prayed not to run into Father Ernesto, the Cura of San José -the other Parroquia- lest he ask me if I would go play there next Sunday!


This was going to be a post about Thursday with my girls and the events of the morning have made me run off with it! LOL! Well, all events -almost - were Church oriented, now that I think of it. On the afternoon, Mom and my brother Alex invited us to my Mom's hometown, where the day before the Lord Christ of Mercy image had been crowned by the Nuncio -huge event! So we went to see how the Christ looked with his new crown.

LH fell asleep while on our way, and we had only about half an hour to make our visit - my brother had to be back soon. So when we got there and saw they were begining Mass we stayed at the last bench, which proved a clever choice, because BH kept trying to "wake up" a statue of some girl saint, we could not find out who was she supposed to be, in one of the chapels. And then at Communion, when I returned, she wanted to ask the man "to give me bread like you had!" and asked if it was vanilla bread- we almost laughed out loud!


After Mass, the monks started streaming into the Holy Sacrament Chapel for their evening prayers... Their voices sounded so beautifully in the big old Church...


We went out, bought some pastries for my Hubbie and my own Dad and Brother, and we were off to our homes. It was an eventful day, and I think that if I had planned to visit THREE Holy Sacrament shrines, I'd not have done it... if it hadn't been for my girls!