Each church schedule comes with its pros and cons. The 9:00 block means that you don't really get to sleep in all that much, but at least you're out before lunchtime.
The Spanish ward has the 9:00 block, so Miriam left for church at 8:30 this morning (with Grandpa), played the organ for sacrament meeting, and then played the piano for primary, and then came back home.
You'll probably be in charge of setting up all the chairs in the overflow, but you won't have to break them down at the end of the day.
The 10:30 to 12:30 block is really pretty nice, but it can be difficult for little ones to feel like they're missing lunch. I dunno. This might be the best block of time because I can't really think of any "cons" for this time. Some people complain about church interrupting this thing called a "nap schedule" but I'm not really sure what a nap schedule is, so I don't really feel like church got in the way of that.
We're currently on the noon to 2:00 church block.
I'll admit—it was nice not to have to rush people out the door. Is it bad that leaving the house by 10:00 in the morning requires us to rush? Leaving by 11:30, though? No rushing required. In fact, we found it a little difficult to fill the time before leaving. It was fast Sunday, so it wasn't even like there were a million people trying to have breakfast or lunch (just a few of the little people).
I did manage to give Alexander a piano lesson. And the girls worked on their crochet projects (Miriam just taught herself how to crochet and Rachel is still working on her temperature blanket from last year (she's still in August)). The kids played downstairs. It was quiet. And still. And...finally...it was ready to go.
Andrew stood in the entryway and called all the kids to come because it was time to go.
One, two, three, four, five children assembled in the entryway—Von Trapp family style (or perhaps a little less organized than that)—all dressed in their Sunday best and ready to pile into the van.
"Okay, let's go!" Andrew said. "We can't be late for 12:00 church!"
Not that we'd ever be late for church. There's a video meme going around right now with the formula "we're x, of course we y" (like this video about millennials, or this one about Greeks, or this one about stay-at-home moms). If we were to make one about our family, it might go, "We're organists. Of course we arrive to church fifteen minutes early and feel like we're fifteen minutes late..."
We have to get there for prelude, so we're always on time.
Anyway, Andrew said, "Okay, let's go! We can't be late...wait... Where's Ben?"
"I dunno," everyone shrugged.
"I assumed he was up," I said.
"He was up..." Andrew said. "Is he still downstairs playing LEGO?"
We've, uh, left him playing LEGO in the basement when we've left for church before (in Spanish Fork; he was so quiet and we just...left without him! Good thing the church was just across the street because he was much younger then. I'll post the link to the story here if I ever find it! (there was also that one time he hid under his bed before school (here in Georgia, in 2019) and wouldn't come out because he thought it was "funny" and everyone else was panicking and Andrew was just pulling out of the driveway to head to campus and I ran outside and chased him down and made him come home to help us find Benjamin...he just goes missing sometimes...).
"Benjamin!" we hollered down the basement stairs.
There was no answer.
"Come on! We've got to go!"
No answer.
"Someone go down and find Benjamin," Andrew sighed.
Turns out Benjamin wasn't in the basement.
"Then where is he?! He couldn't be..." Andrew said, traipsing up the stairs.
But, yes, it was! Benjamin was still in bed!
"Benjamin! We are leaving for church right now! You need to be up and dressed in the next two minutes!"
Benjamin flew out of bed and threw on his church clothes.
"I don't understand," Andrew said. "I woke you up this morning. You got out of bed...you were up and walking around..."
"I didn't mean to sleep so long!" he said. "I just thought going back to bed would be a good way to pass the time!"
And it's not a bad way to pass the time before church (especially on a fast Sunday)...until you sleep right to the time of departure! Other than a bit of bedhead, however, Benjamin wasn't any worse for the wear sitting in our church pew.
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