i heart 9 am church

Okay, so for all of you who switched to 9am church today and hated it, please don't continue with my exuberant discourse on the glory that is 9am church.

My children get up between 6:15 and 6:30 - ON A GOOD DAY. On a bad day, five is the first number on the clock. For those of you who know me (at all) you will know that I am not now nor have I ever been a morning person. For example, when I was a teenager early morning seminary was taught at my house. AT MY HOUSE. I struggled to be showered and on-time. We will not at this time comment upon my consciousness state during the hour-long class, but suffice it to say I probably looked like a seated version of the self that five minutes earlier had been snuggled in my bed.

And speaking of snuggled, that is why I hate morning. You're all warm and snuggled and asleep in your happy place and then somewhere in the freezing cold darkness all that is jerked away by a small mostly naked person who tells you he's stinky. Stinky diapers at 5:15 in the blessed AM are worse than alarm clocks - and that's saying a lot.

So, back to 9am church.

Before this week we had church 1-4. What this meant is that the kids (Abby excepted) really didn't have time for a nap before church. They consistenly did have time to completely thrash the house and frequently cause me to draw errantly with eyeliner on my face. No, that's really not funny...it's horrible. Stop laughing.

Then, we get home from church and I'm making dinner in my church clothes as fast as I can so we can feed the masses and send them to bed before the atomic bomb that is overtired children goes off. So I'm stirring, I'm yelling no, take your church clothes off, I'm cooking, and yelling no fighting or hitting or even acting like you might fight or hit and PLEASE TAKE YOUR CHURCH CLOTHES OFF until the kids go to bed at like 5:30 or 6:00 and I collapse in a heap.

But not today. (She types with a supremely triumphant smile).

Today, because the children got up in the 6:00 hour, I had time to get everyone fed and dressed for church (including me) and we were early. During sacrament, only 1 out of 3 boys complained he was hungry and bored and could he please have a snack. And Abby fell asleep. It was like bliss. Plus, since we were the first ward in, the chapel was not yet 1000 degrees, so we sat comfortably in our church clothes instead of peeling them all off and sitting red faced and sweating in our back row pew.

Today, we got home from church before 12:30 and before 1:30 everyone was fed and in bed for naps. Everyone - Daddy and Sam included. And, as I post this, I'm sitting in a house that is as quiet as a tomb - except for the click clicking of the laptop keyboard.

Now, once everyone wakes up we can do happy family things. Eat dinner calmly and rationally and go to bed without tears or bloodshed.

I am in bliss.

I LOVE 9am church!