Sacrament Meeting, aka, the War Zone.

Every Sunday as I dress I put on my battle gear, well at least my mental battle gear, for the weekly war that is Sacrament meeting. Take three small children, a confined space, and the instruction to be quiet, and the war zone is set.

Last Sunday when we arrived a church I spotted the perfect bench for us and proceeded to settle in. We were sitting right in front of the Hopkinson's, which fortunately for us have an good sense of humor. As we sat down I told them to prepare for entrainment in sacrament meeting. They asked if they would be entertained even if the speaker was boring, I promised them we would take care of that. I sat on the end of the bench on the inside, with Katie next to me, then Lauren then Mark. Courtney arrived shortly thereafter and Lauren moved to sit next to Courtney, which resulted in Mark moving toward me. When Mark got within about 8 inches of me, Katie let forth this blood curdling scream, heard throughout the chapel. She was not about to have Mark usurp her Mommy territory. This left the Hopkinson's in a bit of shock that such a small child could produce a very loud noise.

Next it was on to the fruit loops. Katie and Mark each got their own bag of fruit loops to munch on during sacramenting meeting. Only problem, lately fruit loops tend to fly back and forth as they throw them at each other. This left a debris field of fruit loops covering the two benches ahead of us and two benches behind us. Good news for the Hopkinsons, unexpected treats for their teenagers, and they fought over the fruit loops that ended up on their side of the bench. Then Mark decided that every fruit loop on the floor needed to be smashed to smithereens, hence worsening the debris field.

Next Katie decided that Sacrament meeting needed to be a shoe and sock free environment, and proceeded to remove said articles. My attempt to keep them on her was met with much resistance, and high pitched squealing of course. It then became a consistent game of getting toys out of the bag for each child, returning toys to the bag, or settling disputes over toys that one child had and another wanted. I was and always am in consistent motion during sacrament meeting.

Finally with 15 minutes of Sacrament meeting to go, Katie decided she had reached the breaking point and began to cry uncontrollably. I removed her to the hall, where we remained for the duration. After the closing prayer we returned to the chapel to clean up the mess from our battle, only to start anew next week.....