Afternoon Church

In January, our ward changed meeting time schedules from 11am - 2pm to 1pm - 4pm. We are still getting used to it and trying to figure out our Sunday routine. We have determined that it's in our best interests to have dinner basically ready to warm up when we walk in the door at 4:15ish since the kids are starving at this point (except for Tessa, who is still in Nursery and gets a snack) and giving them a snack this late in the day pretty much ruins their appetite for a timely dinner (which, for us, really needs to be by 6 pm since Tessa is in the bathtub at 7 pm these days). Today we made the mistake of not doing that and, well, it wasn't pretty. We offered a minimal snack to get them through the soup cooking and biscuit baking process, but it wasn't enough and there were several meltdowns before dinner; meltdowns that I'm assuming had their orgin in a low blood sugar kind of reaction to the frustraton of not being able to eat dinner Right. Now.

Still, I have to say we are enjoying this schedule more than last year. 11am church starts right about lunchtime and it's just not pleasant for anyone. In the past Jay and I have been huge proponents of the 9am start. Our kids are up early anyway and then we're home at noon with the whole day to hang out together. But we're liking this schedule for several reasons. First, it's nice not to have to be out the door before 9 am. It's totally doable, considering the kids are all up in the 7 o'clock hour anyway, but it's nice to have the extra time. Second, we find that the kids are in better moods in the morning and get along better. They are generally grumpier in the afternoon but by the time we get home from church on our current schedule it's dinner, family movie night, snacktime, bedtime for Tessa, bedtime for William, bedtime for Henry. And third, it's nice for Jay and I to be able to read the paper, prep dinner, and finish our respective lesson preparations without worrying if we're running late.

So there really doesn't seem to be a downside, unless you are a child in Nursery who still takes a nap sometime in the afternoon. Bless their hearts, some of them literally are melting down over little things or seem to move in slow motion by the time 4pm comes. Today during singing time (the last 10 or 15 minutes of class) one of our most active kids quietly walked over to a little chair and watched instead of participating in the songs while another child literally laid down on the floor while they were singing "I Am a Child of God".

So we are enjoying the change in schedule for now, which is weird because Jay and I used to love 9am church. Things change when you have kids, that's for sure!