Sundays

It's 8:15 p.m. and everyone is asleep except Benji and me. The kids go to bed around 7:00, but Benjamin usually stays up to read for a while. Maybe it's his whirring brain, maybe it's just that he's older; he often has trouble falling asleep.

I stay up to finish washing dishes, to fold some clothes, to write a blog post or send an overdue email. I don't stay up because I'm a night owl anymore. I'm not a night owl anymore, nor am I an early bird. I never was an early bird. But the alarm does go off at 5:30 now, every morning, so that I have time to get in a workout before the day flies past me. In light of that, I don't stay up very late these days.

Sundays are lazy days, really the only lazy day a family of our size can take. We've started going to the later service at church so that we can take it easy in the morning. We come home, eat lunch, and everybody naps. Today I lay on the floor by the fire with my little dog. The Papa snoozed in his reclining chair, a pillow over his eyes. The kids were in their rooms playing quietly or sleeping. We have to recuperate for the hectic week ahead.

And yet even as this was a lazy day, there were still two trips to the grocery store, making three meals from scratch along with extra to be consumed in tomorrow's lunch, and moving several loads of laundry along. I gave Benjamin a haircut, and he finished a book report. The dog was brushed, firewood was carried up the stairs and stacked, a new jar of Laura Scudder's peanut butter was stirred in preparation for the morning.

Now it is quiet, so very quiet, and I need to work on some tasks for my church. I've volunteered to coordinate service and outreach efforts in the community, and I'm laying some groundwork for an event in April. An adoption and fostering event...so, you know, right up my alley.

This Sunday, lazy Sunday, is coming to a close.