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Saturday, June 30, 2007

The Saturday Blogger


Remember the old Primary song “Saturday”? It has a swing that delights young children and goes, “Saturday is a special day, it’s the day we get ready for Sunday…” When I was a child I loved it when we sang that song because our chorister would get out her props—shampoo, nail clippers, and all those other things you’re supposed to use on Saturday—and if I were really lucky, I’d get to go up front and hold one of them up at the appropriate time in the song.

Unfortunately for most of us, Saturdays aren’t so simple anymore. We don’t just have to “brush our clothes and shine our shoes,” we have to do all those loads of laundry and ironing we didn’t get done throughout the week so everyone’s white shirts and dark slacks and pink dresses will be clean and dry and pressed for Sunday morning. We also need to “clean the house and shop at the store”—words that roll off the tongues of singing four-year-olds but somehow cause older children to writhe in pain when their mothers suggest they participate in such activities. (This odd phenomenon can easily stretch tasks that should only take a few minutes into all-day ordeals.)

Then, of course, there are the big projects we couldn’t do the rest of the week, like mowing the lawn, painting the house, and cleaning the septic tank. And there are the fun things we’d love to do with our families that we’ve deemed inappropriate for Sundays, and also don’t fit well into weeknights—visiting amusement parks, going to movies, canoeing, swimming, fishing, building an extension on to the tree house…all these have to be crammed into Saturday as well.

And just when we think we finally have some time to relax, we suddenly remember to prepare the lessons and talks we have to give the next day in church. (Yes, we know we should have been working on them all week. Yes, we really did tell ourselves we’d have more time later. Yes, we really did believe ourselves even though we knew it wasn’t true.)

With all we have on our plates on Saturdays, it’s a wonder that so many of us make it to church the following morning in one piece. Yet there we are, scrubbed and clean and dressed in our beautiful clothes, walking serenely down the aisle of the chapel as the organ plays the prelude music (or, sometimes, the opening hymn…or the sacrament hymn…)

Hi, my name is Katie Parker. I’m the author of the LDS novel Just the Way You Are. And the fact that I have chosen to blog on Saturdays should tell you all you need to know about my current state of mind.

If you never hear from me again, you’ll know I drowned in the Saturday stew.

5 comments:

Marcia Mickelson said...

Thanks for blogging on Saturday, Katie. I know what you mean about Saturdays. My husband's mowing the lawn right now. I would like to be doing laundry right now, but our dryer stopped drying yesterday, so there's another thing to take care of today. Thankfully, our white shirts and black pants are clean, and I don't have to worry about pink dresses since I have 3 boys. I will be shopping at the store later to figure out what to feed the missionaries tonight and also a old missionary companion of my husband and his family who might be stopping by later. And, today was our Saturday with nothing to do.

Tamra Norton said...

Katie--the Ink Lady! YAY!!! I loved your blog. But you forgot the part in the song that talks about Daddy taking the kids to see the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie, so Mommy can write in peace and quiet for TWO WHOLE HOURS! :) Oh wait, I think that's a different song.

Marsha Ward said...

Hi Katie,

Welcome to the Ink Ladies! What a great post! Yes, Saturdays seem to take up all the slack from the other days of the week, plus encompassing the Saturday things, too. Good luck today.

Katie Parker said...

Hmmm..."I'm so glad when Daddy takes the kids to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, glad as I can be..." You can almost get it in there, Tami!

Thanks for the warm welcomes, everyone; I'm glad to be here.

Tristi Pinkston said...

Our Saturdays are different from other people's -- see, my husband has Tuesday and Wednesday off, so Monday is our Friday and Tuesday is our Saturday. :)