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An Unexpected Vacation
Bella reading after Mass on Sunday.
Bella reading after Mass on Sunday.

Last Monday night Dom came home with a wild proposal: The parishes he works for were having Vacation Bible School this week. What if he took the kids in with him, dropped them off at VBS for the morning and then let them hang out in his office in the afternoon so they could come home with him at his usual time. No effort required on my part and I would only have Lucy to look after for four days.

On Tuesday they got up and went with Dom, all four of them eager and excited. And when they got there the girls took to it like fish to water. Anthony was ready to run in and join the crowd, Dom said. But Ben, as much as he’d insisted that he was excited and “might make a new friend,” when it came to it, hung back and wouldn’t let Dom leave. (I was not surprised, even a little bit. What had shocked me was that he was so eager to go int he first place.) And Anthony followed Ben’s lead. So both boys went to Dom’s office and stayed there all day. Bella and Sophie talked up what a good time they’d had, though. And they had cupcakes and everything. And Ben and Anthony felt acutely that they’d missed out. Plus they found Dom’s office pretty boring. So on Wednesday they tried again. And succeeded. And loved it. Really really loved it. Wednesday and Thursday and Friday were pronounced the best days ever.

Ben was in love with Vacation Bible School. In love. He wanted to go back next week. On Friday night he started crying because it was over. He was miserable and couldn’t stop talking about it. And thinking about all the other lovely things in life he’d enjoyed and wanted to do again but couldn’t. Poor guy feel so very intensely.

What’s more, Bella and Sophie did school work every afternoon in Dom’s office. So the math and copywork weren’t neglected. And Bella picked up Peter Duck, which we’d read the first chapter of on Monday, and plowed through more than 300 pages in the first two days.

Anthony fell asleep in the car on the way home every day. I think he was perhaps getting sick. On Friday night I took him out of the car and put him into his bed and he didn’t wake up until Saturday morning. Poor little guy.

Meanwhile with everyone out of the house, I was pretty productive. Lucy and I cleaned house on Tuesday and Thursday. I vacuumed and tidied the girls’ room and my room and the laundry room and office and living room and dining room. I cleaned out my linen/supply closet. I tidied the laundry room a bit. I put the boxes of Christmas things away on the proper shelves. I even cleaned out some old clothes to donate. On Wednesday we did the grocery shopping. On Friday we went visiting and took some baby blankets and a bassinet to a friend who then went and had her baby the next day. Lucy had a great time having a playdate with her friend Emma who is the same age. It took them a couple hours to really warm up and then Emma passed out. But Lucy and she were both thrilled, really.

Having fun at Vacation Bible School.
Having fun at Vacation Bible School.
Anthony at Vacation Bible School.
Anthony at Vacation Bible School.
Ben at Vacation Bible School.
Ben at Vacation Bible School.
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3 comments
  • That’s great for everyone. Glad they had a good time. Joseph will be going to a VBS here at St. James next month. This will be his 4th year and he LOVES it. Glad you got a little vacation, too 🙂

  • I hope VBS will become a tradition in your house.

    At a certain point, I considered it my vacation for the year, since family vacations usually involve a certain amount of relocating normal family life to a less convenient location – not that I’d give up family vacation, but my work more or less continued.

    Here’s to VBS!

    • Oh I hope so. Getting it for free and not having to do the driving made it irresistible, I must say. But they love it so much, I’d be trying to scrape together the money if we didn’t get it for free. And yes to the vacation for me.

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