Why I LOVE Sundays

Tonight, when we were all enjoying a quite Sunday evening together as a family, I was so overwhelmed with gratitude for the love that I felt in my home, that I had to grab my camera and capture a few bits and pieces of what the Sabbath is at our home.

 In the dining room, Derek is helping Grandpa figure out how to us FamilySearch, the church's wonderful genealogy program on his new computer.  The youth in our stake have been really working a lot lately on learning how to do their family history research, and today at church our 3rd hour combined meeting was all about how the youth are now ready to turn around and help the rest of us learn how to do it.  Derek has really caught on to the whole genealogy thing, having found several names that needed work done in our family - work we had all figured had already been done - and it has been such a blessing to our family to do it.  Now grandpa is eager to start, and Derek is happy to help him!

In the living room, Dylan is blessing our home with some of his beautiful music.  Oh, what a great blessing it is to have live, wonderful must in our home.  Dylan is such a busy kid, and during the week he squeezes in practices where he can between schoolwork, wrestling, water polo, swimming, scouts, young mens, etc.  But on Sunday Dylan really has more time to just play - pick up pieces he hasn't played in a while, try to sight read new music he has found, and do a little experimental and improvisational composing of his own.  The other boys took the time to practice today as well.  What a blessing it is to have music in our home on the Sabbath day!

In the family room, the boys have pulled out a board game for us all to play together after dinner.  The younger boys are huddled over an iPad playing games and watching some church videos on LDS.org.  We love the many New Testament videos about the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, and also the "I am a  Mormon" clips.  We can just watch one after another after another!  It is so fun to get to know our brothers and sisters in Christ all over the world!

 And, no.  In case you were wondering, it is not all peaceful and quiet here on Sundays. Yes, there is a certain amount of fighting and quarreling, and wrestling each other to the ground, and me yelling at everyone to just settle down and quiet down so their father can get his much deserved nap in! (How DOES he sleep with all the ruckus, anyway?) Mostly there is a whole lot of silliness going on.  This kid makes sure of that!

 In the kitchen things are really hopping!  Alex is bustling about making brownies for desert.  His reward for his labors: dibs on licking the beater, of course.  Whether it is brownies or cookies or pies, I simply request dessert, and Alex happily does the rest - just as long as he gets to lick the bowl.

For Nate, Sundays are the time to perfect his bread making skills.  Tonight, he experimented a bit by using the same basic dough to make both a swirled cheesy rosemary cheddar bread, and some ooey gooey chocolate cinnamon rolls.  We love it when Nathan experiments and we are always willing guinea pigs!  They both disappeared quick, and almost didn't make it to suppertime!

(Are you beginning to see why I LOVE Sundays around here?)

And then it is time for Dinner!  Dennis wakes up from his luxurious nap just in time to feast on Dad's wonderfully delicious homemade ham and beans, and a humongous jello, as is tradition every Sunday.   All I had to do was throw together a salad (as is also tradition, much to my children's chagrin), and along with Nate's bread, of course, we had a wonderful meal.

On Sundays with my parents here, dinnertime conversation usually centers around what we learned at church that day, and what is going on in our very busy lives, with a few, "Oh my goodness, this is SO delicious!" thrown in for good measure.

What was NOT on tonight were football games, movies, video games, and no, I didn't even sneak a peak at Downton Abbey (but come Monday morning, baby...).  We decided a long time ago that those things didn't belong in our home on the Sabbath.  I'm so glad we did, because I just don't think night like this would be the same of they were.

So there it is.  With just a few snaps of my camera, I have captured just a bit of why I just LOVE Sundays.  There is just no other day of the week where we all get to do our own things - together - like this. I'm so glad one comes along every week!