Sundays

I love Sundays.  

This hasn’t always been the case, and I can tell you why.

Years ago, when we had all little kids, Sundays were hard.  We would spend the entire week shuffling kids around, going to work, going to basketball practice, going to soccer practice, going to religious education class, going to gymnastics.  Then we would spend all of our Saturdays at basketball games, at soccer games, at kid birthday parties.  If we were lucky, we would try to squeeze in some of our weekly errands to free up a little bit of our time on Sundays.

But Sundays left little time for rest.  Our day started in the early morning just like all of our other days.  It started out waking up kids, looking for dresses and shoes only worn on that one day, looking for khakis and belts, dress shoes and socks.  Most likely one of the girls would remember last minute she had been waiting all week to wear her cross necklace to church.  We would spend the next 15 minutes looking for it.  More than likely we would be too late to eat breakfast, but naturally the kids were hungry.  We would grab a snack on the way out of the door.  That would be the end of it until we got to church, when I would open the back door to find a kid brought a granola bar—the chocolate dipped kind—the kind that gets melty in your hand.  I would discover the baby wipes container was dried out or empty.

Once we were finally in church, we would have to find our seats, assuming Mass hadn’t already started.  This usually meant asking someone already seated if they would let us in…then it was two parents and three kids trying to slide past already seated parishioners…“Excuse me, sorry, excuse me, excuse me, sorry…”

Then one of the kids would need to potty, or need their diaper changed, or need their nose wiped (remember all the wipes were dried out or used up), or would bonk their head on the pew and would need to be taken out, or was misbehaving and needed to be reminded how to act in church.  And here we go again, “Excuse me, sorry, excuse me, excuse me, sorry.”

I spent many a Sunday tired, exhausted, and worn out.  I sometimes left church in a worst mood than when I had arrived.  

Thankfully, this is all much different now.

Yes, we still have little kids, but, my goodness, they are much more self-sufficient than our big kids were at this age.  I know that has mostly to do with our parenting.  We have five kids now; it would literally be impossible to do everything for all five that I tried to do with only three.  And I am good with that.  I love that they are so self-sufficient.  This morning, all I had to say was, “Go get dressed. It’s church day.” And they took care of the rest.

We didn’t have time to put socks and shoes on the four-year-old before we walked out, but that’s no biggie.  There are three big kids in the backseat that can help him. And as for chocolatey granola bars in the car.  We had none of that either.  We had leftover cupcakes from a birthday party, so before I hopped in the shower, I gave one to each of the little kids.  I mean, totally nutritious, right?!?

We still get to Mass barely on time, but when you show up with the size crew we have, people just move down the pew when you walk up. Not to mention we have gotten to know our church well enough to know where there are typically lots of seats still open.

I will tell you, I have really come to love Sundays, and I will tell you it has nothing to do with the getting dressed, getting the kids out of the car, or what happens while we are in Mass.

The reason I love Sundays so much is because it is the one time each week we are all together.  

When the big kids were little, we were always all together.  We had all little kids.  And up until a year ago when our oldest got his drivers license, we still had several opportunities during the week that we were all, or mostly, all together.

But now, our oldest drives.  That not only means he drives himself places, but he can take the other kids places, too.  We have four kids who go to four different schools, so we don’t even have morning or afternoon commutes together.  Everyone is involved and has friends and has commitments, so it is just a lot of coming and going all week long going in all different directions.

But then there are Sundays.  Sundays where kids get up, kids get dressed, and all kids get into the same car.  The past few Sundays we have had the best time, going to and from church, just laughing at whatever it was we were talking about.  Today one of the kids mentioned that the last few times we’ve all been in the car together we have actually laughed so hard we were crying!

The truth is, I love Sundays.  I love all of the seats in the SUV being filled.  I love kids all trying to talk over one another.  I love laughing until we cry.  

The truth is, even these days are numbered.  We have one year until our oldest graduates from high school, our next daughter gets her license, and the second daughter goes to high school.  One year.  

So for now, I am going to cherish Sundays.  I am going to soak up all of the togetherness I can.  I am going to laugh until I cry and I am going to love every minute!