I Am Sabbath-ing Wrong
Mar. 23rd, 2025 08:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mousme Somehow today felt like my busiest day of the week. I got up just in time to fly out the door in order to go to Quaker Meeting for First Day School. Unlike last time the place was full up with children, so I was kept pretty busy. Two Friends took the older pre-teens and teens to the kitchen downstairs for a poetry workshop, and I set up in the "nursery" with a pair of siblings, six-year-old C and her three-year-old brother G.
C is at the exact age when a lot of little girls become "directors," or what is often very uncharitably referred to as being "bossy." I had to very gently redirect her a couple of times when her orders turned rude (mostly just to remind her that saying "please" is important when asking someone to do something for you and not just order them about). While G happily played with a toy cash register and a Fisher Price garage thingie with an elevator, C started with the play kitchen and served me a toy ice cream cup with six scoops of ice cream. I pointed out that it was a lot of ice cream and that I wasn't sure I'd be able to eat all of it, but C wasn't having it. "You can eat it. Just look at your stomach--it's really big!" I mean, true, but also, ouch. Out of the mouths of babes. I'm pretty sure there was no malice behind it, although it's likely she's already unconsciously absorbing some of the fatphobic messaging we have in our society. Anyway, I agreed with her that my stomach *was* big, and then she "helped" me eat the ice cream.
Once the ice cream had been consumed to her satisfaction, she grabbed some paper and colouring pencils, and proceeded to instruct me on how to colour a pattern she'd learned in school. It wasn't my favourite activity, but I've spent time doing way worse things. C and G's grandmother spent a good chunk of time with us too, and helped to wrangle Gabor when he got a little too rambunctious and tried to go get his mother, who was in Meeting for Worship at the time. He fussed a little, but a promise of crackers and cheese got both kids settled pretty well, and eventually the Resident Friend came through with some pre-made Ritz crackers and cheese filling.
After that we had yet another called meeting for the State of Society Report, and it took fully an hour and a half to read through the latest draft and dicker about punctuation and specific word choices and all manner of details. I understand that it's necessary work, but at this point I've been ready to chuck the State of Society Report out the nearest window.
Once the called meeting was over I had barely enough time to run home and turn on my computer to join the first meeting for Nominating Committee. I've agreed to be the co-clerk with one other member of the committee, and we spent the rest of the meeting talking about potential nominees to represent Ottawa Monthly Meeting at Canadian Yearly Meeting. Overall, it was quite productive.
I'd barely finished with Nominating Committee when it was time for a Zoom call with my parents. Luckily my father understands Zoom enough to help my mother log into the calls, and so the only real problem we have now is that my free account only allows us to chat for 40 minutes at a time. We had a really nice conversation, and then it was time to throw dinner together, eat, wrangle the dogs, and watch an episode of The Equalizer.
And then before I knew it, it was time for bed, and here I am. The entire day went by in a blur, and I am exhaustipooped, to quote KK. Time to pass out for the night. Catch you on the flip side, friends!
C is at the exact age when a lot of little girls become "directors," or what is often very uncharitably referred to as being "bossy." I had to very gently redirect her a couple of times when her orders turned rude (mostly just to remind her that saying "please" is important when asking someone to do something for you and not just order them about). While G happily played with a toy cash register and a Fisher Price garage thingie with an elevator, C started with the play kitchen and served me a toy ice cream cup with six scoops of ice cream. I pointed out that it was a lot of ice cream and that I wasn't sure I'd be able to eat all of it, but C wasn't having it. "You can eat it. Just look at your stomach--it's really big!" I mean, true, but also, ouch. Out of the mouths of babes. I'm pretty sure there was no malice behind it, although it's likely she's already unconsciously absorbing some of the fatphobic messaging we have in our society. Anyway, I agreed with her that my stomach *was* big, and then she "helped" me eat the ice cream.
Once the ice cream had been consumed to her satisfaction, she grabbed some paper and colouring pencils, and proceeded to instruct me on how to colour a pattern she'd learned in school. It wasn't my favourite activity, but I've spent time doing way worse things. C and G's grandmother spent a good chunk of time with us too, and helped to wrangle Gabor when he got a little too rambunctious and tried to go get his mother, who was in Meeting for Worship at the time. He fussed a little, but a promise of crackers and cheese got both kids settled pretty well, and eventually the Resident Friend came through with some pre-made Ritz crackers and cheese filling.
After that we had yet another called meeting for the State of Society Report, and it took fully an hour and a half to read through the latest draft and dicker about punctuation and specific word choices and all manner of details. I understand that it's necessary work, but at this point I've been ready to chuck the State of Society Report out the nearest window.
Once the called meeting was over I had barely enough time to run home and turn on my computer to join the first meeting for Nominating Committee. I've agreed to be the co-clerk with one other member of the committee, and we spent the rest of the meeting talking about potential nominees to represent Ottawa Monthly Meeting at Canadian Yearly Meeting. Overall, it was quite productive.
I'd barely finished with Nominating Committee when it was time for a Zoom call with my parents. Luckily my father understands Zoom enough to help my mother log into the calls, and so the only real problem we have now is that my free account only allows us to chat for 40 minutes at a time. We had a really nice conversation, and then it was time to throw dinner together, eat, wrangle the dogs, and watch an episode of The Equalizer.
And then before I knew it, it was time for bed, and here I am. The entire day went by in a blur, and I am exhaustipooped, to quote KK. Time to pass out for the night. Catch you on the flip side, friends!
