Mom's Gone To General Conference: "Dad, What's For Supper?"

I read with great interest those in the United Methodist blog world writing about their preparations for General Conference and their ideas about what will happen out there. They will be determining the course of the denomination for the next four years. That is heady stuff. Yesterday, Mamma Deacon climbed on a plane for the flight to Fort Worth and General Conference. She will be back around May 3^rd. For the past few weeks, I have listened as she mumbled through the Advanced Daily Christian Advocate with all the proposed legislation. She has gone to do her part for the church while the boys and I stay at home. We are very proud of her.

Being the only woman in a house of four males is not easy, I am sure. As my mother (who had her own family of males to contend with) consoled Mamma Deacon long ago, “your home will always smell like dirty gym socks.” She continues to raise these boys through the normal adolescent problems and challenges while enduring the usual sights, sounds, and smells associated with males coming of age (and another one still making his way in the world). We try her patience, but I have also tried to teach the boys the wise motto: “If mamma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.”

As much as I like to joke about it, she does an excellent job of balancing her calling and her family life (a bout with pneumonia not withstanding). She is the glue that holds our family together. She has trained the boys in cooking some meals, which will help us this week and them for a lifetime. She took a great deal of care to make certain we had a meal plan for her time away beyond delivery pizza, cereal, and dinner at the BK Lounge. The boys and I will be consulting it like the King James Bible. As well as remembering to wash everything but yourself in cold water.

Mamma Deacon, have a great time in Texas. We’ll get by here. I’ll take care of these boys we love so much. While you are gone, we may even answer the age old philosophical question:

If a dirty dish is left on the kitchen counter for 10 days and Mamma isn’t here to notice, does it really exist?

Just kidding... no, really…