When God Gave Us the Sabbath, I Don't Think This Is What He Meant

Ok, so here was my schedule today:


6:00 Up, shower, dress.

6:30 Breakfast, greet kids for morning.

7:00 I drive in to Church by myself.

7:30 Start practicing to sing at Church. We sing through entire service.

8:30 First Service starts at Church. Of course, we sing through entire service again.

9:45 Take two girls to class. (Mommy takes the boy).

9:55 Go to my Adult Bible Class.

10:40 Go collect my two girls, hand them off to Mommy.

10:50 Head back to auditorium, get miked-up again.

11:00 Second Service starts at Church. We sing through entire service again.

12:15 Go find what has happened to my family, head over to the multi-purpose room.

12:20 Start of "Deacon's Appreciation Luncheon." Mainly, formalities begin at this point. Meanwhile, girls are dying of hunger, as it's an hour after their normal lunchtime.

12:40 Actual lunch starts. Most of the food--although pretty good by adult standards--is considered inedible by the girls.

1:15 Our three kids, and all the other kids , head off to the child care. (Without having had dessert, which hasn't yet been served; they are quite upset.) Now the "Deacon Appreciation" part of the luncheon starts. There's a whole lot of talking. I realize they're there to appreciate me, so I do my best to appear engaged, but (as my wife could tell easily) fail miserably.

2:15 It ends. I pilfer two pieces of German Chocolate Cake and go find my kids. The girls happily tuck into the cake. I walk the now ironically-named Happy Boy around in his stroller to help his mood.

2:30 The girls have eaten the cake, so we all go pile in the cars to head home. It's way past everyone's naptimes, and now they're hopped up on sugar.

2:50 We get home and start up naptimes. The Adrenaline Junkie (who, incidentally, fell asleep on the way home) goes down for her nap, and the Happy Boy is only too happy to be back in his crib. The Pillowfight Fairy doesn't often take naps these days (though she should get back in the habit, in her daddy's humble opinion); but she is nevertheless usually able to keep things toned down for the remainder of the quiet time.

3:00 Finally! I get to lie down. I set an alarm clock--just to be safe--and fall fast asleep. Complete bliss! Mommy isn't so lucky, though; when the Adrenaline Junkie fell asleep in the van on the way home, she spoiled her nap, in the same way that eating food between meals can spoil your dinner. She keeps getting up and waking Mommy up.

4:30 My alarm goes off. I slowly, groggily make myself presentable. I find I can easily sing the third A below middle C.

4:40 I get in the car and head back to Church.

5:00 I meet with several people who are picking out songs for this year's Christmas musical production. We look through lots of songs. I'm still a bit groggy; and as a result, my ability to make artistic and intellectual evaluations is a wee bit impaired; I have difficulty approaching the task with anything more than a blanket sense of apathy.

6:00 The evening services start in the auditorium. Aparently, the Pillowfight Fairy--who hadn't taken a nap yet, like Daddy thinks she should--fell asleep in the van on the way to Church.

6:25 I escort the Adrenaline Junky to class. Mommy takes Happy Boy to the Nursery, and the Pillowfight Fairy and all the other grade-schoolers follow the Childrens' Minister (as though he were the Pied Piper) out to their classes.

6:30 I go back to the Auditorium, where I'm the one now running things. I start teaching two new songs to about 20-30 adults. One of these songs will be used in upcoming worship services; the other will be part of the Christmas program. At one point in the latter song, it splits into seven parts; I have to teach each of these parts, one part at a time, to the appropriate singers.

7:25 We actually did a good job learning the music! The singers have got the notes, and are starting to work on dynamics and phrasing. But time's up, so everyone is dismissed, and I go get the two girls from their widely-separated classrooms. Mommy goes to get the Happy Boy.

7:35 After schmoozing for a few minutes with family and friends, we pile back into the cars and head home.

8:00 I help glue back together a craft project that the Pillowfight Fairy brought home from church, that was already falling apart thus breaking the Fairy's heart. Apparently the glue they used doesn't stick spongy foam to aluminum foil very well. So we get out the same craft glue we used on Uncalibur-ated and Årþørsgrößtetüðpik and redo the thing. The Fairy now wants to wear it, but the glue is still wet.

8:05 I start making popcorn, which is a multi-generation Sunday-night tradition in my family. Mommy starts feeding the Happy Boy his last bottle of the day.

8:20 We start eating the popcorn. Happy Boy shows great interest. So, because he doesn't have molars yet, we start picking off bits of popcorn pieces that are just the white stuff, with no kernel shell. He decides he wants more. We've never seen him eat so much solid food before....

8:50 We put the Happy boy down to sleep and start getting the girls ready for bed--changed, teeth brushed, etc....

9:05 We say the prayers and put the girls to bed.

9:15 I start writing this blog post.

Now I ask you: Is this what God had in mind when he prescribed that we should have one day a week as rest? Hmmmm?

Obviously, I've got to cut back on the blogging. ;-)


P.S. 10:10 Finished writing this blog post checked emails, and started submitting things to the upcoming Carnival of Homeschooling.