sunday afternoon

Only 4 more Sundays left.

4 more Sundays of 9:00 church.

Now, I know most people like 9:00 church, Trevor being one of them, but I do not like it. And I will tell you why.

First of all, I kind of like to sleep in. But more importantly, my teenagers like to sleep in. And they need to. They work hard all week, burn the candle on both ends, stay up late far too often and they need some time to catch up on that missed sleep. More often than not, we have something going on early Saturday morning and then with early church there goes their sleep in days. They desperately need some sleeping in time, and most weekends they just don't get it.

Another reason is that getting home at noon makes for kind of a long day. A long day for 9 of us to be all together without TV or friends or outside play. We seem to get on each others nerves a lot on Sunday. I wish it were different, but it's not. By about 4:00 every Sunday Trevor and I leave for a walk, rain or shine. We just need a little break. We need to escape.

Occasionally, we have a decent Sunday afternoon. These pictures are from one of those rare days.

The mess from lunch. We get home, loosen some ties and dive in. It is kind of a free for all. There are usually corn dogs and quesadillas flying around the kitchen. The Sunday paper is strewn everywhere and it is crazy, but we can usually get it cleaned up by 1:00. And then the games begin. Sunday games, that is.

This is Alyssa's game. She plays church. Almost every Sunday. I love watching her. She gets her microphone, her props and then she gives talks. Talk after talk after talk. It is darling. And on rare but precious occasions she will throw in a prayer and song too. If only they all would join in this game with her.


The whole gang will usually break out the Legos on Sunday. This particular Sunday they made a whole town. It took them all afternoon. It was perfect. They were all together in their rooms playing quietly. It was heaven.

On Sundays, rarely played board games are pulled out of the closet and dusted off for a few good rounds of play. Just like the olden days, the days before video games and all that crazy stuff. I love watching them play together like this.

Yes, this particular Sunday was a good one and so I wanted to document it. It was relatively quiet, we had only a few squabbles, the kids got along, and Trevor and I didn't even need to go on a walk.

That is one for the books.

1:00 church here we come.

A little more time to sleep in and a 3 hour block of church to break up the day.

Most of us can't wait.