Ever since we moved Grace has not wanted to go to the nursery at church. She cries and cries and cries and is "that kid" in the nursery. You know what I mean? I hate that she doesn't like going to church. It makes Sundays even more stressful. And can we all just be honest about the fact that going to church is a super stressful thing to do when you have little ones. I love getting to hear the Word and worship and fellowship, but I've got to be honest that it would be SO much easier to stay at home. Jack won't take a nap in a lit room with a bunch of people and babies, so I have to try to tweak his schedule in the morning which never works out well. Grace does fine getting ready to go, but then she doesn't want to go to the nursery and I feel horrible leaving her back there to cry. Then after church everyone always wants to go out to eat... and the kids are always exhausted and impatient. It just makes for a stressful morning.
Jonathan started supply preaching this Sunday, and his parents were out of town, so that meant I was all on my own. I thought that today I would try to see how Grace would do sitting in church with me. In Georgia the kids would sit with their families through most of the music and then go back to children's church during the sermon. So I knew that she would be fine during the first 30 minutes or so. I also knew that she had been able to sit very nicely through all of our Holy Week services during Easter, but they were only 30 minutes. Last week she sat with my mom and dad in church and they said she did great. But their church seems to be a bit more laid back about having kids in the service than ours. SO I asked her if she thought she could do it. She said YES! Actually she said, "Yes, yes! I will sit very still. I will be very quiet, and I will color for a very very long time." Ha! And would you believe it... she did what she said she would do! And while she was coloring for a very very long time she drew this...
She pointed to this little guy, looked up at me, smiled and whispered "That's Jesus, Mom."
Made me smile. What a blessing it is to have children!
Then we collected our things, rescued a very sleepy Jack from the baby room, and headed home... where on the way Jack cried... which made Grace cry and drop her "binoclears" and cry more... because she "was just so hungry and wanted some ice cream"... which made Jack stop crying... but Grace couldn't stop crying... cause she "just wanted to go to eat a quesadilla at a restaurant and get some queso"... and then they both cried for the last ten minutes until Jack fell asleep when we turned onto our street... and then cried when I woke him up... and then cried while I made our sandwiches... while Grace helped make her sandwich... until she licked the peanut butter off the knife and put the knife back in the jar... when I got on to her... which made her cry some more cause she "just likes to lick the peanut butter and always does that"... and because she was crying I put the honey on her sandwich which made her cry more because she "wanted to help do that part"... and of course all of Graces crying made Jack start to laugh... and finally we sat down to eat... and Grace ate an entire sandwich, half a banana and a huge hand full of blueberries... and Jack ate an entire banana and some puffs... and we all ended up singing made up verses to "I'm Popeye The Sailor Man'' and laughing big belly laughs. Ahhh, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday....
