Our Sunday Traditions

I bought my first ever baseball hat. 

Chloe says its adorable and I should wear them more often. I have never worn a hat. 

Update on the kids- apparently I spoke too soon, Gabe and Mia got worse last night. This morning, however, they were back to where they were earlier. We are praying they will be on the up-swing from here on out. The rest of us are still fine though. 

Finally, here is the long promised post- Our Sunday Traditions. 

Thinking about it now, we have maintained almost the exact same routine for the past, I don't know, 8 or 9 years probably. Sure it has adjusted some, but not much. 

For many years, church was early Sunday morning, as in, service at 8:00am. Now we attend a Saturday evening service. When church was on Sunday, the afternoon held naps for everyone, but not so much any more. And in the Summertime we will often go swim at Gramma's. Today, our day usually looks like this:

Normally we all sleep in Sunday morning. This varies depending on the person. For Gabe, Ava, and Mia sleeping in is like until 8:00am. Dad will often get up around the time they do. Chloe and Christian wait until closer to 9:00am, and I delay rising until as late as possible. (I try to be up by 10:00am.) Mom may be up at any time, but she pretty much stays in her room resting, reading, having her quiet time, talking to Dad, etc until 10:30am. 

Dad and I are the resident brunch makers. Others help sometimes, but mostly he and I work in the kitchen together. His specialty is hashbrowns from scratch, as in, shred the potatoes and everything. While he works his miracles in the three skillets it takes to make enough for all of us, I make oatmeal chocolate-chip pancakes, also from scratch (and memory, because I have been making these for the past 6 years at least). To those we add sausage (from a package, we aren't that adventurous), skillet vegetables, and eggs from our chickens. 

Yup, it takes a very large bowl. 

Hash-browns. 

(The day I took these pictures he wasn't making as many.) 

48+ pancakes later...

Brunch takes upwards of an hour to prepare and then we gather at the table to eat together. Conversation topics of course have altered over the years- today we talk of anything from movie quotes, to plans for the week, to things we are grateful for, to the sermon from the pervious night, to things Mom, Dad, or I have noticed in our quiet times, to our all time favorite-how many days are left until we go to Maui again and what we are looking forward to doing there. 

Everyone helps to clean up. Sometimes Mom will read aloud, our we will play games. Often I will slip away to play the piano. 

Early in the afternoon we will all scatter to our respective rooms for at least 2 hours of rest time. For each that has a different meaning. For Mom and Dad it still often means a nap. Or they will talk about the week. Or Mom will read while Dad sleeps. I may be doing any number of things- reading, writing, working on a project of some sort, drawing, or whatever else. Chloe is always reading, 100% of the time. Christian reads or listens to a baseball game. Ava likes to read as well, or listen to a story while knitting, much like I used to when I was her age. Gabe listens to history stories and plays with legos to his heart's content. And our genius, Mia, reads chapter books as of the past 3 months. 

Some will remain in their rooms all afternoon, others will venture out as soon as the minimum time of confinement has passed leave to do other things like play games, talk, etc. Christian will often come and have lengthy conversations about all manner of random things with me. (As he did today.) 

Dinner is much lighter and casual on Sunday evenings. Sometimes we even eat in front of the tv. But either way we all gather in the living room to watch something as a family. Other nights we might split up to watch stuff more tailored to our ages, but Sunday we always stay together. We may not all like the entertainment choice, but we stay together. Truth be told, its is Sunday evening and a movie is on as I write. I wasn't interested in the choice (White-Fang), but I wanted the homemade ice cream and I like being near my family. So I am half-watching while I write (and I eat ice cream). 

We are Grateful

I'm grateful for homemade ice cream. -Dad 

I am grateful for healthy children, that your bodies are able to fight off this infection and we are not sick very often. -Mom

I am grateful for gorgeous sunsets. -Me 

I'm grateful that I am not sick. -Chloe 

I'm grateful that Lydia was able to take us to the thrift store the get the things we need for Montana. -Christian

I am grateful for good food. -Ava 

*Long silence* That I am almost done with my pain. -Gabe

I'm grateful that Gabe and me are getting better. -Mia

The Herd: Quoted

"Do you want to play Apples to Apples the right way or the wrong way?" -Ava 

"Which one is easier?" -Gabe

"Well, probably the wrong way." -Ava

"Which way is the wrong way?" -Mia

"And I got this to put my planner and everything in." -Mom

*I make a aw-man-why-didn't-I-think-of-that-before-you-closed-the-order face* 

"Dad, we found a house!" -Me

"Y'all crack me up." -Dad

"Mom and I are the same, we get an idea and start figuring out how to make it happen right away, we have to jump on that ball and get it rolling!" -Me

"How about you don't hurt yourself." -Christian

"I just pulled my hair, I probably should be used to it." -Me

"Yeah, you probably should." -Christian

"When I go stay at the "blank's" house you don't have a problem." -Me

"Duh! Cause I'm match-making!" -Christian 

* I Facefloor* 

"And by the way, that was mostly in jest." -Christian

"Then you probably shouldn't jest with me because I always believe you." -Me

"It was 27% jest." -Christian 

"That's not mostly!" -Me

"We need to talk about percentages..." -Mom laughing 

"I was up at 6:45 this morning, and out on the porch having coffee by 7:00am. Just so you know. But you are right traditionally..." -Mom reading this post