Language Frustrations

Today, we returned to our more normal gray and rainy skies but the temperatures were quite warm with highs close to 60. After taking my little guys to school this morning, I stood around a chatted with a couple of moms like I usually do. In the course of a conversation, a couple of them asked me if I wanted to go across the street with them to Diane's house for a bit. I missed the rest of what they said but since I know Diane and always like to say "yes" when I am invited to join something, I went along. Next thing I knew, we were all kneeling in Diane's living room and praying the rosary! No big deal, certainly didn't hurt me in anyway but certainly surprised me!!! The rosary is a good way to learn French prayers I discovered, with so much repetition. Since Max is preparing for his First Communion and both Quincy and Tabitha are preparing for their Confirmation, a few French prayers will come in handy. After saying the rosary, everyone disbanded and went their separate ways. Apparently they do this for just 30 minutes every Monday morning. I headed over to my American friend, Suzanne's, house for a cup of coffee and some catching up. I met yet another UK woman who lives in the area. I had no idea that we were so inundated with English speaking people in this part of France! Anyway, Mary was great fun and all 3 of us had a good time. After feeding the kids lunch at home today and walking them back to school along this quiet little street,

I took part in my next "group activity". I had volunteered to help at church by copying and assembling hand-outs for Max's First Communion retreat which is to take place tomorrow. I can honestly say that this is the first time that I was really, really frustrated with my lacking ability to communicate on a grand scale! I thought I was going to pull my hair out!! 6 women and 1 man spent 55 minutes trying to figure out how to copy various songs and pages onto back to back pages to create a book!! I am quite skilled on the copy machine but could not explain myself well enough to them to JUST LET ME DO IT! I wanted to rip the papers out of all of their hands and run screaming from the room. They finally understood that they should just let me at it and I had it put together in less than 5 minutes. We then spent a pleasant hour making multiple copies and stapling them together. Whew!!!!