Sundays aren’t always good days at our house.  We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, LDS or Mormon church, and one thing we are working on as a church collectively and also as an individual family is keeping the Sabbath holy.  Basically this means recommitting to worship, family, service, and rest on Sunday.  It can be very hard to resist the urge to clean, catch up on book-keeping, work in the yard, or various other chores that need to be done.  Also, our cows and farm ground always seems to need extra attention on Sundays, something we are working on with more pro-active planning.  Our kids also tend to turn into emotional monsters on Sunday.  It’s also tremendously and ridiculously difficult to take a 3 1/2 year old and a 10 month old to THREE hours of church.

However, as we’ve tried (and failed oh so many times) to improve our Sundays, little by little we have made some progress.  And I think I’m starting to look forward to Sundays rather than dread them…

Sometimes we fail at Sabbath day observance, but sometimes we build tents out of sheets and pretend we’re camping on a beach before getting dressed for church.

Sometimes we take mommy-daughter selfies to document the real changes that are happening to make at least one of my kids look a little more like me!

Sometimes we all work together to have a fun and relaxing imaginary experience.

Sometimes we practice including others in the game, even little babies who don’t know how to play “right.”

Sometimes Mr. Rancher and I take some time to snuggle on a twin-size bed, tormenting and teasing our daughter that we’re stealing her room, blankets and all.  Sometimes we even plan our week in advance while pretending to be blanket pirates.

Sometimes we all cram onto a twin-size bed to take a family selfie.

Sometimes we build kites out of trash bags, sticks, ribbon, and tape and fly a kite before church.

Sometimes we enjoy the many hours we have before going to church at 1 PM.  I wish most of our Sundays were this fun-filled and rejuvenating.  I tend to whine and complain about the awful church schedule we have right now–1 PM to 4PM, which really means 12:30 to 4:30, which is so so awful for kids who usually sleep from noon to 3–rather than appreciate the time we have to playing, connecting, resting, and serving before church worship.  I can honestly say we are doing better with Sundays, but we still have a long ways to go.  I appreciate the lesson of resting and changing our focus for one day each week.  I know that when I’ve done Sunday right and tried to serve others, spend unconditional and unscheduled time with my family, worship and meditate and study, and simply rest from life’s daily demands, I am more effective during the upcoming week and the people around me feel loved and fulfilled.

Sundays are a gift.  A gift we really have to unwrap and dive into before we can appreciate its true worth.  In fact, if we don’t really dive into it, we can view this gift as more of a curse than a blessing (i.e. more to add to the to-do list, more requirements to be met) but that’s our own fault for only partially opening the gift the Lord has given us.