My {not-so-typical} Typical Sunday

7:00- Wake up, feed Ella, put her back down for another 30 minutes or so, make cereal for Grant for breakfast.
7:30- Shower and get dressed.
8:00- Make sure everyone is fed and start getting everyone dressed.
8:30- Start loading everyone up and getting our bags together.
8:45- Get to church. Take kids to the bathroom, to get a drink, and all settled down on the pew.
9:00- Church starts.
9:10- Go out with Ella, before the opening hymn, prayer, or before the announcements are even done! Walk with her, feed her, change her diaper, rock her, let her sit on the floor, feed her some more, rock her some more trying to get her to sleep. Walk around the halls some more.
10:20- Sunday school. Let Ella sit on the floor, play with toys and EVERYTHING else I can find in my bag that she could chew on. Feel SO thankful that we have two Sunday School classes. One for people with small babies, and one for people without, so I don't have to worry about Ella disrupting anyone.
11:00- Relief Society (my favorite hour of the week!). Get Ella to sleep by standing in the hall with her for the first 10 minutes. Sit and enjoy a wonderful lesson on Families and the importance of families in our church.
12:05- Walk down the all, find that all my kids are already out of their classes, see Steven, give him the three bags I was carrying (along with Ella) so I can take Ella and the other kids to the car.
12:15- Get the kids loaded and buckled in the car. Go back inside to get my bag with the keys in it from Steven.
12:18- Ask someone if they've seen my husband. They say he already left to give the missionaries a ride home (we have to drive separate cars because Steven has meetings before church).
12:19- Go get the kid out of the car, look in the coat closets for my bag (just in case he left it) call Steven on his cell phone. No answer.
12:25- Try Steven's cell again. No answer. Call the home phone, leave a message telling him to bring my keys when he gets the message.
12:30- Check the car, JUST IN CASE the keys were left in there. Nope.
12:35- Call the home phone again. HE ANSWERS! He's on his way.
12:45- Get the kids loaded up and FINALLY we're one our way home.

The afternoon was normal. Lunch, quiet time (where I tried to nap, and COULDN'T because my kids weren't super 'quiet' during quiet time, and my legs were super restless!). We made cookies, delivered them to some friends. Read to the kids while Steven did some Home Teaching. Normal, stuff.

On the way home from church, however, I started to wonder. Why do I do this every week? Seriously. I spend a good part of the time at church in the hall with Ella. Wouldn't it just make sense to just stay home with her and avoid all the headache? But of course, I remembered (and knew all along) WHY I do this. It's because I LOVE Jesus Christ. I LOVE my Heavenly Father. I LOVE my children and want them to develop a love and respect for their Heavenly Father and their Savior Jesus Christ. I want them to know that this is important to me. SO important that I go, even when it's A LOT more work and kind of inconvenient. I go because it's worth it. In the halls, with a squealing baby, I can still feel the Spirit. I can still receive peace and comfort that I need to get through the week ahead (and be revived after the week behind me). I go because I need a weekly reminder to remind me why I'm on this earth and where I'm heading. I need to remember that my ultimate goal isn't a life of ease, but and ETERNAL life with my family and my Heavenly Father. Going to that three hour block of church meetings helps me remember what my ultimate goal is. Where I want to direct my life, and my family. THAT is why I go!