Sunday Specials

Special One: Sunday morning our family woke up bright and early for church.  When the ward boundary changes occurred a few months ago, we were moved to a building that we share with three other wards.  It shifted our church time from the late hour of 1:00pm, to the much too late 2:00pm time slot.  That meant we weren't out of church until 5pm.  It wasn't great.  But we only had to endure it for a few months because with the year change, our start time changed too and we slid around from the last start time in the building to the first, 8:00am.  It was going to be much better than 2:00, but I was a little worried that my sleepy boys, and let's be honest here, my sleepy husband and myself, would have a hard time with the early rise.  We'd have to get up earlier on Sunday to get ready for church than we do on weekdays to get ready for school and work.  And we are folks who love a good sleep.  But the 8am start was actually really great.

We set clothes and scriptures out the night before, all ready to be put on and grabbed to go.  The boys were cooperative and efficient in the morning, getting showered and dressed and all ready to go in a timely, cheerful way.  We were ready with 10 minutes to spare before we had to leave the house.  I can't say that was even true about many of the days we had 2:00 church!  It's actually nice to just get up and get ready to go, because we don't put things off and then end up feeling rushed as we try to get the things done in a pinch, all the while wondering where the time went that we thought we had!  Anyhow, the early morning change was a good thing, indeed.  Hopefully we won't get slack in our Saturday evening pre-Sunday prep so the rest of our sabbath mornings for 2013 go as smoothly as they did this first week of the new year, or at least the majority of them...let's be realistic here.  You go, Conlins!

Special Two: Tommy moved from the nursery to the Primary!  He is now a Sunbeam: the name of the youngest class of kids at church.  Thus, it is now official: We have no children of nursery age left in our home.  It is exciting, even if means that Adam and I are now officially old.  Tommy had a happy day and looked so cute and mature up there in the front row of the Junior Primary (kids 3-8) with his class.  He took his status as a Sunbeam very seriously and paid great attention to all that was going on.  Maybe it was all that singing of his favorite song, Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam, paying off!  His teacher found me in the hall after church to tell me what a great job he did.

Special Three: Luke had been asked to give the first Junior Primary talk of the new year, so I did get to witness a little bit of Tommy's great job with his Sunbeam class for just a bit while I was in there to help Luke.  I am always so proud when I get to see all the boys doing these kinds of things, but there is something extra special when Luke does them.  It is something I know is hard for him, yet he is brave and fights that instinct to flee and comes out a little stronger and more confident for the next time.  He did a wonderful job and although he spoke softly, he gave his entire talk into the microphone and never once did he try to get out of it or to stop and leave.  Go Luke!!

Special Four: Sunday was the first day that Zac drove around with a Deacon companion and collected tithing offerings from members of the ward.  They had our house on their route, so of course I had to catch a picture!