Miraculous Sunday

It was a miraculous Sunday:

There were no incidents at church (ref. my earlier post: Poster Child For The Old Country.)
My oldest went to church and sat next to me.
He also came home and mowed the lawn as well as the next door neighbor's and put up the lattice that Casey and I brought home via the trunk last week (ref. post: Yabba, Dabba, Dooo!). I was thrilled!
On our way home from church, he drove and thanked me for the way I handled a discussion we'd had two nights ago on the phone. He appreciated that I hadn't yelled at him regarding the incident in question. He knew it was hard for me not to and he said it made a big difference for him. He also told me about a decision he'd made which was quite mature and thoughtful and he discussed college plans with me. He turned down the opportunity to go to the beach with all of his friends, go to the Honda Classic with his dad, and declined another invitation from a friend who called while he was working. This was a responsibility day and although he knew he was missing out and kept trying to find reasons to run off and have fun, he stuck to it and did what he needed to. Whether he got going on "A Tale of Two Cities" when he went to his dad's house (the tale that's kicking his butt in English right now) remains to be seen.

Other miraculous events: I showed dramatic perserverence in regard to the weed eater, another patience tester that works about as well as my AOL.
I got most of the lawn fertilized despite the difficult spreader wheel that didn't want to turn. I was so winded after the first 10th of the yard, I had to stop, lean on the spreader and catch my breath, for a while. I don't remember spreading being a chore. I thought it was one of those jobs that appears to onlookers to be a serious yard work event, when in reality it's a piece of cake. No. It was harder than pushing a non-self-propelled lawn mower. I shudder to imagine the sight I afforded those driving by as I struggled to push that thing through the thick grass (and yes, occasionally kicking it). It was a worse sight than watching some people running. I also used my patented weed pulling technique for at least an hour; I must really enjoy a good backache once a week or something. Cally came home from babysitting and without being asked, saw the mess on the back porch from my weedeating attempts and swept it up. I yelled, "I love you!", through the window. She yelled back, "Of course you do!" I still have sand in my hair from my diligent work with that ill-designed weedeater that I like to use as an edger. We went to Costco and got Cally's pictures from the party she went to last night at the Player's Club at the top of Espa... I can't remember the name of the building. The one across from Tommy's office there on Okeechobee. Swanky place. In a few minutes the lawn watering will be complete and Cael and Casey will return and I will make tomorrow's school lunches - oh joy, and then maybe this day, miraculous as it was will wind down. And I do believe it was miraculous despite it's not so pretty "poster child" beginning and despite the hard work that simple tasks often end up being. I have to look back and really think about all that happened sometimes to see the miraculous part. But it's in there.