Sunday Journal

This is my first (hopefully not also my last) "Sunday Journal" post. In my attempts to make Sundays sacred, I thought it might help to keep a record of our family's attempts for a few weeks.

My day began at 5:15. I showered and attempted to finish my Gospel Doctrine (Sunday School) lesson before the children awoke. I ate a bowl of cereal with my husband before he left for his early meetings. 

I delay-started dinner roll dough in my bread machine to finish around when we got home.

We went to church.

During church, it started to snow. After delivering a Gospel Doctrine lesson from 1 Nephi 1-7, I spent  the Relief Society hour wandering the halls with Baby Q, who couldn't quite fall asleep for his nap. About ten minutes before the end of church, I decided we might as well go warm up the van and text daddy to send the older children out at the end of their meetings.

Baby Q fell asleep on the way home (hurray!) and Cory stayed for choir. The older children changed and were allowed to investigate the snow (a short-lived endeavor, as only a little was sticking), except for one child who was serving a time-out for the length of time he disappeared during Sacrament Meeting for.

While the children were occupied, I formed dinner rolls and started a meat loaf. 

Cory got home.

Lunch occurred around 1:30 (they were all starving!). We had French Green Beans with freshly grated Parmesan, meat loaf, macaroni and cheese (several children had asked for it) and mini-rolls with fig preserves.

While I was finishing some crepes (for later) and straightening the kitchen, Cory got the children playing a variation on the Animal Game in the living room (everyone had to choose an animal whose name started with an "R"). Then we all tried to play Chinese Checkers, which K had brought home from the free shelf at church. It was fun for a while, but the game took a lot longer to finish than any of us expected, and we had a number of deserters.

For afternoon snack, we had hot cocoa (which I had denied requests for right after church because I was afraid of spoiling appetites).

By then it was after 5, and Daddy-Cory pulled the Sunday nap card. Thankfully I didn't need one, because Baby Q obviously wasn't going to let both of us get one. The children were told they could either be quiet downstairs (where Curious George episodes would be allowed) or in their rooms. 

During nap time, I typed a lot of this post, played with Baby Q, listened to the first chapter in the new Howard W. Hunter manual (our family night lesson) while continuing to play with Baby Q, and played a game with S when he brought one in. Yes, it was a long nap.

Around 7 I preheated the oven and we began Family Home Evening, which consisted of a song, prayer, going over the calendar, and a very brief "lecture" about Howard W. Hunter and the basic gist of the chapter. A couple of the children were being grouchy, so I decided to change tactics.
"What can we do to make our home more Christ-centered?" I asked the two children who looked most cooperative. S suggested putting up word strips all over the house saying, "I Believe in Christ." K suggest putting up pictures of Jesus. That led to a discussion of whether people had favorite pictures of Jesus we might like to put up. K mentioned the "Second Coming" painting, which is also a favorite of mine, T went into the office and found a tiny "O Jerusalem" print that never got hung (well, at this house), S mentioned a print of Jesus with children that he had gotten from primary that we never hung, and I thumbed through our illustrated LDS hymnbook, hoping to find some other favorites (I love the one of Christ with the sparrows). Later in the evening, my husband and I had a brief discussion about budgeting for some large gospel art sometime soon.

We knelt for prayer, which closed that portion of Family Home Evening, doubled as dinner prayer, and tripled as bedtime prayer (it was a good prayer).

Dinner was mostly leftovers, followed by absolutely amazing banana chocolate crepes.

I dictated a 5-minute chore to each child (S picked up the baby toys, K and T each unloaded one rack of the dishwasher, and M cleared what was left on the table).

With the table clean, we sat down for our family scriptures (1 Nephi chapter 7).

As we were about to put the kids to bed (it was late for us--9), Cory's mom called, so I tried to send them upstairs and get them to brush their teeth (we had a couple ornery children last night).

Once he got off the phone, Cory turned on the audiobook in the hallway and took care of Baby Q while I did the dishes.