sundays

we really struggle on sunday mornings. it doesn't make any sense when i have to get isaiah ready for school on weekdays by 8:30am, and makayah ready by 9am. maybe it's the dressing up, or wanting to stay in bed for as long as possible on the weekends. but it has been so difficult for us to get out of the door in time for sacrament. the past two sundays have been an improvement. 

today, i got up quite early. it was 6 or 7 am, and i thought we'd actually be early this time around. i'm not sure what happened, exactly. somehow the clock read 8:30 and i was still trying to feed all the kids. i looked at the clock again, and suddenly it read 8:58am. i looked at mimzy who had been completely overlooked and still needed something to wear besides her pj's. anyhow, we walked into the foyer seconds before sacrament was being passed. we kind of met our goal. kind of not. but, i'm so glad i made it for the sacrament. i feel so much more positive during the week when i do take it.

unfortunately, mims would rather go exploring during sunday school meeting times. she actually does a decent job of staying in our row during sacrament. by the end of it though, she races off. i didn't get to hear the sunday school lessons, but i did have the pleasure of chasing after mims (who thought that was the best game in the world), trying to find her missing shoe, and wondering where in the world she had found slices of bread to stuff her face with. ?? who does this kid think she is? i'm not going to complain much though, because i loved chatting with the other mothers as mimsy roamed around.

sam during this time was substitute teaching isaiah's class, which isaiah was ecstatic about. "c'mon, dad! c'mon!" i think the other kids were pretty excited to have brother crowfoot as their teacher, too. funny little story about primary. sam was sitting in primary sharing time, and the teacher was telling the story of the parable of the ten virgins, and one of the kids asks, "what's a virgin?"

the instructor answered, "they are righteous young women." and sam had said under his breath, "that's it?" then another teacher turned around and said to sam, "don't go there, sam!"

i'm still laughing.

i did get to make it to part of the relief society lesson and i loved it. it was just what i needed to hear. the lesson was a general conference talk, a time to prepare. you can read it HERE. with proper time management being our family's pitfall - or at least mine and sam's, i was grateful for the lesson, the comments, the inspiration to do better and be more productive with my time. 

after church, we gathered up our kids in their picture-taking outfits, took them on a drive around lake mendota (and i mean AROUND, all the way through waunakee, and some other small town - i actually had no idea where we were. i have zero sense of direction here.) - and then forced our sweet and unsuspecting children into the frigid air (it was 30 something degrees) to take family portraits. we had wanted to do them much earlier, but we just never got around to them. for one, i hate taking family portraits. it's all the prep work that i'm just not fond of, the dressing up, the coordinating outfits, the hair fixing, the face painting (that's just me). it is such a chore. but we were coming down to the wire, with very few days left of 30 degree weather. i was actually hoping it would snow, but no such luck. 

when we finally made our way back home, we all jumped into our pj's, had leftover turkey dinners and pie, and continued through the last day of our lord of the rings movie marathon. we even snuck in a lesson on how being obedient makes you have a "strong and good heart" to resist temptation as we explained the difference between gollum and the hobbits.

yes, even mimzy was into it. it was a good evening.

today i am thankful for:

*other mothers at church who also have wiggly kids so i don't have to sit all by my lonesome in silence out in the foyer.

*the lovely sunday exploration drive we had to today...we've got to do more of those.

*the candy i had in my purse to coerce the kids into being happy about taking photos out in the freezing wind.