pickles

Correction to yesterday: the sacristan was not mad at me for getting wax all over the floor, she was mad at me for inappropriately setting up for our service before our service, and also for taking responsibility for getting wax on the floor and for trying to clean it up. I should have just left it, and when she found the mess on Monday she would have assumed it was just "die Albaner" again (the Albanian mission has Mass in our church twice a month on Sunday evenings) and everything would have been fine. Because blaming the foreigners for anything that goes wrong is TOTALLY ABOVE BOARD. Ugh. I don't see how I'm going to last much longer here. I know I keep saying that and no, I still don't have a better plan.

In other unpleasant news, I told Christopher I'd pick him up at gym class tonight - he usually walks to and from the gym with a friend, but his friend was sick - and then I completely forgot about it and he had to walk home in the dark. Hashtag #terriblemother

So I'm feeling kinda crappy. But yes, there are also good things going on. Starting with the food-related...
(1) the aforementioned Trader Joe's peanut butter cups. are so good.
(2) I made some sour cream and onion dip for the Super Bowl. We did not watch the Super Bowl, but we did eat chips and dip and watch YouTube videos of Super Bowl ads, which is almost the same thing.
(3) I used this recipe to transform a turnip and a rutabaga from the veg box into some Japanese pickles and even though I didn't have any yuzu (I used some lime zest and some clementine zest) they came out very yummy, and now I have something new to do with turnips and/or rutabagas.
(4) My friend Mike and I have been meeting weekly at the excellently named Not Guilty for chai tea lattes, and though 95% of what we do is bitch about our respective jobs-at-churches, this is an island of sanity in the craziness of trying to make a life here.
(5) We got a letter today saying that Caroline has officially survived the probationary period at gymnasium. Yay Caroline!

Although the service on Sunday and its aftermath were somewhat scarring, I'm very taken by the story of Simeon and Hanna meeting Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus at the temple (Luke 2:22-40). In the sense of: raising kids isn't easy. Raising special kids is especially not easy. Trying to raise the Savior of the World might just do you in (see the Infancy Gospel of Thomas). And so how much would it mean for two elders to take the time to see your kid; to say, "This kid is going to be something special. You're part of an important project. Hang in there." I know it would have meant a lot to me...it would still mean a lot to me. How/could we make that happen more often?