Aaahhhh, Sunday. A day of rest, right? Not so much in my home. Getting the boys up and ready for church can be as stressful as a school day, if not more so. Church involves "church clothes", which Cameron hates, the shoes, the pants (he's an elastic waist kind of kid), the button up shirt, everything. It means getting up, dressing, eating, leaving the house - all of which Aaron hates having to do. They both cry out about not wanting to go to church, and will give me one reason after another why they should be allowed to stay home. Once we get there, they are fine, but the getting there is long and difficult.
We have the 9:00 schedule, and getting there on time usually involves tears (at least one of the boys and sometimes me), begging (Cameron begging to not go, me begging Aaron to get up), negotiating (Cameron) irritation (over Troy thinking that he can get out of bed at 8:40), and yelling (me, because why should I have to put up with this? Just get ready! Heavenly Father wants you to go. You got baptized and promised that you would go. In this house, we go to church. I'll give you a dollar if you just get ready without complaining. Two dollars. If you're too sick to go to church, you're too sick to play computers. Eat!).
Don't you wish you lived here? Sunday mornings are loads of fun.
It's felt like a rough week for everyone. Troy had to make up driving time when his truck broke down, so he'd been gone all week and was unusually sleep deprived. Aaron is still getting in the groove as far as third grade is concerned and we'd had some really bad nights struggling to get his homework done. There was some residual tension and tiredness hanging over our home and I was not looking forward to the Sunday morning mania.
So we stayed home. Skipped. Played hooky. Pretended we were out of town on this holiday weekend. Closed the blinds and let the paper sit on the driveway.
It. Was. Wonderful.
No fighting, crying, begging, yelling or rushing. It's how Sunday mornings should be.
We all slept in and then we all cooked breakfast together. We made cranberry-orange muffins, bacon (mmmmm, bacon), eggs, juice, and we sat together and had an unrushed, happy family meal. We did the dishes together. We watched a movie together. We had a family meeting about when homework would be done and with what attitude (I made charts and contracts - we'll see how this week goes). Troy played some Xbox with the boys. I read to Aaron and both boys did some reading on their own. We had lunch and dinner together. Everyone has gotten along, things have been accomplished, and we've simply had the nicest day.
Why is it, that eliminating church has made this the "best day ever" for my family?
What are Sunday mornings like for you? Do you ever want to take a week off?
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8 comments:
We have 11am start now. Next year when we have 9-12, I will become a part timer. I don't believe in getting up as early on Sun as I have to Mon-Fri.
I am glad to say tears are unusual. Getting the hair done is my biggest problem: 4 girls "do's" is a bummer. Alec needs new pants, his barely button.
Hang in there.
I love and hate sundays equally. I HATE getting ready for church and fighting with everyone to get going! Especially Hillary. Every week it's the same, I tell her she can't go out on saturday night if she can't get ready on time. But, I don't follow through so she doesn't get up on time, then proceeds to slowly do her usual eternal grooming process. Consequently we are ALWAYS late. People tell me to just leave her and tell her she has to walk, however, it would never work. she would be just fine. She is NOT God fearing and wouldn't care if I left her. She would NOT walk, she would say, fine. And make a big breakfast and watch VH1. I have gone so wrong. On the other hand, when church is over and I don't have a damn meeting because my counselors insist on sundays, which is the worst day for me to have a meeting because after church I am exhausted and have NO creativity and our meetings are really useless. But they insist its the only day. But when I am home, we are all together which happens very rarely, we eat lunch, watch movies together, take naps etc., glorious. I never answer the phone on sundays unless it's family. We always have tuna sandwiches, it's great.
Now for my secret confession I've told no one. Now that I'm primary pres i don't have the luxury of sluffing anymore, however, one sunday, i was done. I needed a break, an evil break. It was a weekend we were supposed to go to bear lake but tom was a poo and said we were poor so we didn't go. I was disappointed and wanted to get away somehow. I had told my presidency I wouldn't be there. I had planned to go to church but suddenly I felt like eating really good food and dusting tom who can be a big party pooper most of the time. So I secretly made my plans. I told my presidency I was going to bear lake, but made them think I was so benevolent by "coming back" from bear lake to go to ward council, then I would be leaving immediately after to head back so I would not be a church. I told Tom that he could stay home from church because Cayden needed to sleep in and "might" be coming down with something. He was secretly thrilled. However, Hillary had to get up and get dressed and make sure she looked good (I can't remember what I told her why she needed to look good, but I knew she'd have a fit if she didn't then found out we were going out). I got out my "secret" credi card to further hide my evilness, secretly made reservations to coincide with church, Then I rushed Hillary out the door to go to church then we drove past the church and headed to the freeway. She was perplexed. Where are we going? We're going to Grand America for brunch? No seriously. Yes, seriously, tell no one or you die, and we have to be back reasonably after church would end. She was SO excited she could hardly stand it. She and I LOVE fancy restaurants more than anything. We had a wonderful time sluffing and enjoying each others company without anyone else around. I knew it would be one of our last before college. It was worth going to hell.
I think every single one of us has wanted to "play hookey." I was just released from the nursery, which is 2 hours of wrestling everyone elses kids to sit in sacrament and wrestle your own.
Just remember, it's worth the work for experiences like these.
Kristine - the girl hair would do me in! I can barely do boy hair!
Lisa, Oh my gosh, I loved your story!!! Call me next time and I will meet you! Leaving my kids would have no effect either.
Ashley...thank you for the encouragement. Aaron does have such a sweet testimony - just not of actually going to church. Oh well. The last time I worked in nursery, Aaron was a baby, Cam was a toddler, and I was also doing in-home daycare. I did it for about a month and then kindly explained that I needed some adults in my life. Reality check - probably not so kindly. I'm pretty sure there was crying, threats of inactivity, and some good old fashioned depression going on. I was released and sent to Relief Society.
Church wasn't meant to be easy everytime. I did the "church thing" for EIGHT LONG YEARS alone. My honey was in the Bishopric a long time and I did it with toddlers and pre-teens and teenagers. You just do it. We had a few rough times but it wasn't so bad and I had four kids 2 girls 2 boys. We did a lot of getting ready the night before. I usually had to even go pick up my girls at their mothers house. 15 minutes away. I learned to ignore the bad and enjoy the good!! Hang in there you can do it. I also did nursery for 2 wonderful years. That is the most important time for these little people. I love Church...
We haven't been to sacrament meeting for three weeks. Crazy! The first week we were in Bear Lake. Really. Not like Lisa. The next week all of our kids were sick. I mean, really sick. They even missed Ryan & Holly's reception. So sad. Usually Mike stays with them (such a devoted dad) and I go to church, but this time I had too much to do. Since I was in charge of the Sunday meal, I needed to spend my Sunday going to Harmons for groceries and Golden Corral for their awesome rolls. Oops. Haven't done that since Mike & I got married. I was afraid the whole time that I would get hit by a bus.
Last week my kids were still sick and so we left them home and Mike and I went to teach the Sunday school class we were substituting. Mike left after that to be with the kids (once again, such a devoted father) and I stayed for Relief Society.
It's funny, but the older I get, the more I enjoy church. I really miss it when I don't attend, but there is also nothing nicer than General Conference.
Wahwee, I know of several people that had that horrible flu - down for 10-11 days. It was bad. Hope you're all feeling better.
Don't you love when the weather starts to turn and you can just feel that General Conference Sunday is almost here...
I have to admit that the older I get, the harder it is for me to go to church. When I had just returned home from my mission and was in my twenties, I had more "enthusiasm" for it. Now I just want to come in the back door and do my calling and make sure my kids are there and leave out the back door. I try to be nice to everyone.
I know that church is important and I really don't need anyone to tell me that. I go on my own because I know it's right. But, it doesn't make it any easier. Today I had my son in tears for some cruel comments that some boy made to him. I listen and tell him all the things that have helped me when someone is being cruel. Sometimes I feel that my life would be so much easier for me to not go. But, I still go and will always go.
I have loved the comments! Thanks for keeping it real.
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