Many of you are familiar with the brilliant blog-series by Rocky Supinger called Monday Morning Quarterback. They are a brilliant look into the life of a pastor on a Sunday. This past Saturday, Sarah was approved for ordination to serve as an Acting Associate Pastor at the Winnetka Congregational Church (pictured on the right). And we are now living into the reality that we knew would happen when we started dating during seminary: the reality of being a clergy couple.
And so today, as I was driving Caleb around Winnetka, I thought I might want to do a clergy couple edition of the Monday Morning Quarterback. So, here we go (with photos along the way):
6:35. Alarm goes off. Way too early. But I have a lot of stuff going on at church in the morning, and I need to get Caleb to church earlier than normal.
7:04. Dressed and time to get Caleb up. Thankfully, he was more pleasant than usual this morning, and was excited to pick out his sweater for church.
7:20. Downstairs for breakfast. Green pancakes from a Friday is what he wants. Everything going smoothly so far, which is a good thing on days when I need to get to church earlier.
7:55. Caleb and I leave for church. He normally comes with me. It snowed last night, so he thinks he’s going to get to play in the snow when we walk out to the car. Yah, that’s a no. But he still looks pretty cool in his new consignment shop clothes.
8:10. Caleb is in his chair in my office with the iPad. Totally happy kid – no worries. Now I can run around and get things ready for worship, and be ready to meet with our new prospective members at the Special Session Meeting.
8:55. Special Session Meeting starts – really excited for these four new members joining today – great people, including a former professional baseball player who taught Michael Jordan how to play baseball.
9:20. Meeting done, and I get Caleb to go to his classroom.
9:45. Worship: For the most part it goes smoothly. Colleague and I bust up laughing right before he has to get up and greet people. We forgot to ask someone to do the prayer – I step in like a champ and lead it. Disaster averted.
11:05. Worship done – time for cake and to get Caleb. He loves the time after worship, and so he runs around and plays with all his friends (who are mainly little girls…who love him). Had to change his diaper – his teacher told me she had to change his diaper and she said she put a pull-up on him, probably backwards. I checked. Backwards indeed. And a few sizes too small. But I took care of it.
11:40. Just taking care of a few loose ends in my office, and then Caleb starts pushing the button to talk to Siri on my iPad. He’s saying something that I can’t quite make out. And then I realize what he’s saying. He’s saying a sentence and then saying “PERIOD.” The dude is using punctuation. Hilarious.
11:45. I get a text from Sarah, and she says that Caleb and I should come over to her church, because there’s a free lunch. That’s all she had to say to get me to come, so I quickly get Caleb ready and we head to the Winnetka Congregational Church for lunch.
12:00. I get to meet people who know Sarah – and I get to be the clergy spouse for a chance. It’s fun. People rave about how cool Sarah is, how amazing she is with the confirmation kids. That’s super fun for me. I assure them that I taught her all that she knows…they look at me skeptically.
12:30. Caleb decides he doesn’t want to eat, but wanders around for awhile while I make small-talk with folks. All of a sudden, I realize that he’s over sitting at the piano, singing. It’s hilarious. And impressive.
1:00. I leave Caleb with Sarah and head back to church to do a few things in preparation for youth group tonight, and then I head home.
1:30. Had to clean up the house a bit because Sarah’s colleague was coming over with her two-year-old in a bit.
2:00. Tried to put Caleb down for a nap…yah…he wasn’t going to have any of that. Stayed in his crib…yapping to himself. I love that and think it’s funny – except he really needs to nap or else he’s gonna be nuts tonight.
3:00. Sarah’s colleague and daughter come over. We get Caleb up (he hasn’t slept) and they play for a couple hours in the basement. A good time is had by all.
4:45. I leave for a concert that’s happening at my church – got there – said hi to a few folks – you know, a little pastor schmoozing, heard some amazing music, and then Sarah texted and wondered if she could drop Caleb off with me so she could get a bit done at church.
5:15. Caleb and I sit in the narthex and listen to the concert. He watched PBS Kids with no volume. Doesn’t seem bothered at all by that. I draw this.
5:55. Caleb and I now head back to the Winnetka Congregational Church. They were having Family Night tonight (which means free dinner too!), so we join Sarah. Caleb and I play a little bit in the gym with the other kids. I think we might have a soccer player on our hands. He’s pretty good at dribbling the ball. Really. Like a prodigy. USMNT. Well, we’ll see.
6:15. We eat dinner. Caleb fell backwards off his chair. I think I was supposed to be watching him. Huh.
6:30. I head back to my church. See some more folks leaving the concert.
7:00. Youth Group! We had a pretty good turnout tonight. 2 Truths and a Lie. Nooma video. Discussion on prayer. And Scatterball. I’m not normally super competitive, but I am with Scatterball. I always want to win. I had a few really good shots – nailed a few youth with some impressive throws. Felt good about that. NAILED one of our adult volunteers on her backside. Felt bad about that – but I still got her out.
8:35. Check my phone and there’s a voicemail from Sarah. She and Caleb are just leaving the other church, Caleb is a bit crazy, he’s super over-tired, and he’s asking for daddy. I throw my stuff in my office, and head for home.
8:40. I pull in about a minute or two after they did. He seems happy to see me.
9:00. Go potty (Caleb, not me), wash hands, brush teeth, walk around without pants on for a bit (Caleb, not me), pick out jammies, read two books, hug, kiss, Caleb in bed.
9:30. Phew. Watching Newsroom. Whoa. Intense! RUN!
10:59. Finish up last bit of this blog post. I think we realized that when we both have Sunday night things at church – we may need to be getting a babysitter. 9:30pm is too late for Caleb to get to bed.
11:00. Time to draw. Need to sketch someone tonight…sifting through my Facebook Newsfeed…who is it going to be…and it turns out it’s going to be the Very Rev. John Vest. Peace out.