Hallelujah!

This made my "Gratitude List" for the week on the sidebar, but I think this deserves it's own post, as well...

Sunday marked THE VERY LAST DAY of our wretched church schedule this year!!

The time I am talking about is 2:00 - 5:00 p.m.

No - that is NOT a typo. That is the REAL time.

That church block time does not even exist in most stakes in the church, so others frequently question me or try to correct me when I tell them what time our church is.

As if they think I don't know what time my own church is!

Even our extended families keep "forgetting" about our time (since, obviously, it's so unheard of, not to mention despicable) and try to plan activities on Sundays that would overlap or cut it too close to our church time.

We have been counting down from 48 weeks left (taking into account 2 General Conferences during the year and 2 Stake Conferences - although as luck would have it, we got assigned the 2:00PM time for Stake Conference, too! But, at least it was done by 4:00PM!)

Back before I ever experienced the 2:00 - 5:00 p.m. block, I thought the 9-12 block was the one to dread. Now, I ask myself, "WHY?!?" Anything is better than what we "took our turn" with in 2009 and what we've endured every 3 years before that. Well, at least, starting in 2001 when we arrived here. Hmmmm, maybe we need to move before 2012 when the rotation will come around again! ;) I'm serious. And, just in case there are any out there who would argue that any other time is "the worst" - believe me, THEY'RE NOT! You don't have a case. (I don't have strong feelings about this, at all, do I?!!)

Here's my "case" against the 2-5 block:

• It feels like you don't even have a Sunday - it's over by the time church is out.

(You may ask "What about the time between when you wake up and 2:00p.m.?" Well, just because our church worship services don't start until 2:00, anywhere between 1 to 3 of us have church meetings starting at 9:00a.m. and and go until the block start time.)

• The baby's afternoon nap is RUINED!

(Of course, we had to be on this schedule during the time Miss B was 12 to 18 months old!)

• It's getting dark by the time we come out of church!

(And we rarely actually leave at 5:00p.m. since we stay after to do "stuff," so daylight is definitely gone.)

• Dinner is an absolute JOKE! There's no way we can eat at a decent hour when I start making it at dinnertime! I guess we could have cold cereal, but it's "against my religion."
• The Primary Children are on their "best behavior" during that last hour for my Sharing Time -- NOT!!
• Our kids have ample time to ruin their church clothes and hair before we ever make it there!
• We can't ever do anything that our family normally would like to do together on Sundays.

So, what church schedule do we have coming up in 2010, you ask?!?

9:00a.m. - 12:00p.m.

And I am sooo looking forward to it:

• All meetings happen before church, so once the worship services are done, it's DONE!
• The whole afternoon is ours!
• Maybe a chance of a Sunday nap for us?
• But, definitely, the baby gets her nap.
• Sunday Dinner - normal time & adequate prep time - it'll be possible to make rolls again (without sending someone home from church.)
• Family game night
• Our family can go on Sunday afternoon/evening walks
• We can go visiting - even if they live far(ther) away
• We can get back to making our "Sunday Night Treat"
• We can be better prepared for Monday? (No more Monday morning, "Ohhh, I was suppose to bring a 4-foot Castle clay model to school today!") ???Maybe???
• We can have good feelings on (& about) the Sabbath!

Oh! I just remembered something. I'll retract one little thing I said earlier. I was living away at college up until the time I went on my mission, so my family's home ward was not really "my ward." Thankfully, I only experienced this once, but when I had my Missionary Farewell at my parents' ward back in 1991, their church time was 3:00 - 6:00p.m.

That time would most positively qualify as being "the worse."