Celebrate Monday | Celebrate Memories - Sundays

I get a weekly email from Simple Scrapper called Celebrate Monday. It is a "weekly journaling exercise designed to help us get back to the basics and find more joy in our memory keeping." Me? I just like the push to get some journaling and memory keeping down - if not scrapbooked, at least on to the blog and down on paper so-to-speak.


Today's prompt is about Sundays...


Sundays in our family has always been about church. Rest. Family. When I was little, my dad was the minister at our church so the mornings started early with him out the door to the church behind our house. We followed down the lane in our Sunday best (not really that fancy but church clothes none-the-less). We had our set spot to sit as a family in the sanctuary. We tended to be among the last to leave the church, staying for coffee hour and clean up.

After lunch I do remember lots of family times - walks in the woods, board games, outside time.

As I entered highschool and our family was going through some career changes, I found that I tended to work more on Sundays. I worked at a group home for individuals with special needs. Sunday shopping had just been introduced which we felt (as a church and as a family) wasn't necessary or good for the family unit. The group homes still needed to be staffed though and that worked for me. I think it actually turned out to be an escape for me, as well as a welcome way to save money for school - both during highschool and university. Church was still a given if I was able to attend but the afternoons fluctuated between meeting with friends, doing things at home and still the odd family activity. It has since become a favourite nap time for my mom!


Now that we have our own young family, Sundays continue to evolve for us. Church is a given (unless I have to attend by myself - which with Mitchell's schedule means I am in the nursery with him for the time being - not much point for the other kids since I can't be with them). We are still usually one of the last families to leave the church - for reasons I can't quite figure out. It really just boils down to us being slow I guess. Talking. Taking our time. Putting things away. You name it. All of a sudden everyone is gone but us.

Afternoons may involve the library as a family since we pass it on the way home from church. A few times I've taken Marlee to the art museum for a family art class. It is one of the things that seems to truly interest her and is something we can do together or with Cierra. Then I hate to admit it but quite often we get chores done during the remainder of the afternoon. It is a time when Drew is home and the time is not taken up by hockey or other extra-curricular activities. We try to do something outside or perhaps watch a movie together. At least we are together. In the winter time we head out as a family to go skiing - lessons for the kids and free ski for Drew and I and a family friend. We all go out for a few runs together after the lessons.

The evening closes with dinner with my family. Usually they come over to our house, taking turns bringing or having dinner. On skiing days we go there. We usually go late into the evening, catching up on family news and then rush to get the kids in bed.

After the kids are all in bed, ideally I like Sundays to plan the upcoming week and to wind down. Extra-curricular activities, work schedules, meal planning and to do lists. Get the week off to a good start and finish off the last week by filing what we did. Then we collapse to watch some TV before bed.

That, in a nutshell (a long one at that), is how we spend our Sundays - past and present.