Getting ready, clinging tightly, money questions

Getting all of us ready for church last night took some coordinating. Mama had taken care of most of the feeding before I got home. She had gone out to gather eggs and feed the pigs. All I needed to do was feed the sheep and remove the snake that had caught itself in the ventilation holes in the side of one of the nesting boxes. It was too large to get its body all the way through the hole and was unable to go backward because its scales would now allow that kind of reverse motion. I ended up having to cut it in half where it was stuck – which proved a bit more difficult than I had anticipated. Oddly enough, bisecting its body did not immediately kill it. The front half, the one with the head, slithered out of the coop while I disposed of the non-animated half. I tried to pick up the headed portion but was bitten several times for that effort. So, I let it go. It will die somewhere of its own choosing.  Hopefully, it will not smell too strongly while decomposing. If it does live, which I strongly doubt, it will be easily recognizable.

Anyway, back to preparing for church. The girls were not too interested in eating dinner, so I fixed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They enjoyed that. I tended to them while Mama took a shower. I added pineapple, graham crackers and watered-down green tea to the dinner offerings. We played while they ate. They called my name and I called theirs. We played with the word, banana. They giggled when I said it different ways in different voices – which they tried to imitate. When dinner was done and Grammy was out of the shower, I took my shower. But not before we did several Hokey Pokey’s and turned ourselves about. By the time we had the girls dressed and ready to go Mama and I were ready to sit down for a few minutes. On the bright side, Mama was ready for church almost an hour early. When we did leave – still in plenty of time – the girls were ready to go. They were not nearly so excited once we got to church.

The girls were their normal selves when we unloaded them in the parking lot but once inside the church building, they refused to be set down or parted from us in any way. Sophia was my little clinger. Zoe was with Grammy. I had to do all the normal things I do in preparation for the service, but I did it one handed. Sophia was so determined to stay in my arms that it was a challenge to switch her from side to side as my arms tired. By the time I set her down, amid much protest, in the nursery, my tie liked like it had been knotted over and over. I just had to go with the crumpled look for the service. Everyone who knew the circumstances understood. For those who saw the frumpy looking tie and did not know my granddaughter had gifted that to me, I am not sure what they thought.

Mama sat in the nursery with the two attached to her lap for about an hour before she decided to put them down and let them fuss out their frustration and fear. According to Mama, that did not take long. They sere soon playing. One eye always on Mama. By the time church was over, they were pretty relaxed, but they still wanted to keep me and Mama in their direct line of sight. We have two small steps in the front of the church that are a magnet to little ones. Zoe and Sophia were soon engaged in playing on those steps with Aliza. When we left church, I helped Sophia down the stairs in the back of the church. Aliza and Alissa helped Zoe. Mama had her hands full with newly purchased wreaths she bought from one of the young ladies in our church.

I was not pleased with the purchase. I reminded Mama that we had just spent money equal to two tanks of gas. Plus, I asked if we had been at Hobby Lobby or Buckee’s, would she have paid as much for either of the wreaths as she had just paid? She was taken aback by the questions and realized she would not have paid that much anywhere else. I do not resent helping someone out, but I am not in a position to do so at the rate Mama is promising those purchases. I am struggling to understand how money spent on LuLaRoe, hand-made earrings and these types of trinkets is somehow not accounted as using up money we need for food, for gas, for personal items. All of which I will still have to provide money to purchase for our needs after the money I could have used to make those purchases has already been spent.

Oh, well. Somewhere along the way we will find a balance. I will be broke, but we will have lots of pretty, albeit generally useless, things. And Mama will be happy. That is a big part of balance in my life. It just does not translate will financially.