Penny and William dancing in the church vestibule

For the first time in I don't know how long, we spent the weekend as a family. We didn't visit anyone else. We didn't run any errands. We even skipped swimming lessons on Saturday mornings because we realized that they provoke so much stress for Peter as he tries to cajole Penny into a shower that it just isn't worth it. He took them out for pancakes instead. We did have an event, a wedding–yes, all five of us, a first in itself–on Saturday for our beloved babysitter. We didn't make it through the whole mass (see the photo to the left), but we saw enough of it for Penny to want to come back in at the end and reenact. "Let's walk down the aisle," she said to me, as we dodged the stream of guests walking out of the church. When we approached the altar she said, "Let's get married." I refused her request, so she found her brother again and said, "Let's go to the ballroom and dance since now we're married." They had a blast.

We went to church on Sunday, followed by rest/naptime and more family time at the end of the day. As we were walking home, William said, "Here we are! Mom, Dad, Penny, William, and Marilee. Just like a family!"

Earlier in the day, I had been enjoying our time together, but also noticing the signs that our home was bordering on chaos–dirty diapers in three out of five trash cans, socks on the floor in every room in the house, our bed unmade, the pile of laundry climbing higher and higher . . . And then I noticed that all of our kids needed their fingernails cut. So I perched them upon my lap and started the job. Before long, I realized that I am responsible for 80 fingernails and toenails. 80. You've got to be kidding me. (And we don't even have a big family!)

A few hours later, as we drove to the playground together, I heard William in the back seat, talking to himself. Or maybe he was talking to God: "Thank you for my nostrils. Thank you for my elbows. Thank you for my eyelashes. Thank you for my cheeks. Thank you for my shoulders."

And thank you for fingers and toes and the responsibility of taking care of them. And thank you that we could spend the weekend together. Just like a family.