why 830 church is my favorite

one of the absolute highlights of this year has been having church at 830am. i truly love it. i'll be sad when we switch to 1030 church in january. even though it takes 30 minutes to drive across town to our chapel, we are still home by 12 and have the entire afternoon ahead of us! i feel our family time is very scarce during the week and i love that we get to optimize sunday afternoons together. we read scriptures with lunch and then we all do dinner preparations as a family. as much as i loathe cooking and messy kitchens, working as a family makes it less interminable and shambolic. 

true, i'm exhausted without having a single sleep in day. but what is sleeping in with children anyway? 7am? 715? what's an extra 45 minutes of sleep anywhoo? that's what sunday school is for!

we have family home evening and play lots of uno and definitely watch plenty of movies. occasionally i can sneak a cat nap in during some of the more insipid and child friendly cinematic selections. also, my calling often requires me to go to various other wards(congreations) in our stake(region). i can still attend our services and other meetings and still have family time. however, i struggle with my desire to attend choir. i love to sing but i do not love ward choir. based on dismal attendance, i'm not the only person who struggles with choir. i feel like every choir i've ever been in has sung "our savior's love", truly a wonderful, inspired and sacred song, into a funeral dirge. oftentimes i'll hear the gaither vocal band on the gospel radio station and i know i've missed my true vocal styling genre.

this was last sunday:

we set up a bunch of our holiday decorations and started the harry potter movies over again. then i folded laundry, because despite all my best planning, laundry is always calling.  it's my neediest child. i may even include a laundry basket update in our christmas letter this year because it is such a intrinsic portion of my life. in case the baskets don't make the cut, here's what i would say, "i switched out a few of the old baskets for some tall, rubbermaid baskets with large handles and it's made all the difference in enabling the kids to more easily deliver and retrieve their baskets and put their laundry away. i'll probably switch out the remaining baskets in the new year when all the organizational products go on sale. onward and upward on the children self-sufficiency front." 

after the kids are in bed, sunday evening is like a stay-cation date for thomas and i. we watch bob's burgers and the walking dead and then we have in depth conversations about how much i do not enjoy jeffery dean morgan and how much thomas enjoys jeffery dean morgan. we are a match based on many similar interests and commonalities. 

happy sabbath on a thursday.