A Different Sunday

Today I just couldn't do it all.  Although I've been super proud of Penn on his new routine and very proud of us all as a family as Doug's been super busy this week, I just had to give myself a break today and not "do it all."  Now, this is hard for me to admit.  I love seizing the day, conquering the difficult and cramming it all in.  But after weeks of battling this stupid cold (seriously, it's not gone yet and today has taken a new turn) and about ten other good reasons, I decided that I wouldn't worry about getting us all out the door to church today.  Doug had the car for work, so we were going to have to walk to the East End again.  It was a gorgeous day for the walk, but with the service time now being smack dab in the middle of Penn's nap, I just wasn't sure how it would work and my motivation for being brave and trying something new was just plain low.  So, we had home church today.  Now, please let me state (especially since well, you know, I'm a pastor's wife) that meeting with the believers is extremely important to me and we will continue getting out on a weekly basis, this was just a  random scenario where there were too many factors and I decided it would be OK to have home church today.  Koen was so excited about this idea that he woke up early and was dressed in his button down and ready to go when I got him up at 8am.  So cute!  He also picked out a button down for Tav to wear.  Last night he had told me that I needed to dress nicely and look pretty (then he looked at me and said, "well, you look pretty now, but you know, Mommy.").  We had a nice start to the day with breakfast and playtime and I finally gave Penn a bath (he had been wearing the same fuzzy sleeper for a day and a half).  After laying Penn down a little after 9am and then blow drying my hair (see, trying to look presentable for my 5 year old), we started our home church service.  Koen played guitar and I led worship.  We sang some familiar favorites of the boys.  Tavin kept looking at us like, "what exactly are we doing?"  Then the boys watched a 30 minute Chuck Swindoll Paws & Tales DVD story on our theme of "Giving Thanks."  Then we did our memory verse during a brief snack time.  And finally, craft time.  Here are the boys working on their turkeys.  Koen cut out all the feathers by himself yesterday in preparation.  

After "church" the boys played in the backyard for about 40 minutes.  I was really impressed at how well they played together today.  Here they are having truck races.

It was my plan to take them to the playground after feeding Penn around 11:15am, but my friend Megan offered to hang out with the big boys if I needed it too.  I decided it would be fun if she could take them a little earlier and keep them in the gorgeous Fall air rather than bringing them back in the house to bounce off the walls.   It worked out perfectly and Megan picked them up to walk to the playground right as I was about to feed Penn.  Penn and I met up with them about 40 minutes later.  Here are a few pictures Megan sent me from their playground fun.

We stayed at the playground until about 12:30pm or so and then headed home for lunch.  After lunch was a brief playtime and then Penn went down for his nap, then Tav for his.  That left Koen and I to work on our name/place card craft for Thanksgiving.  Here's the outcome.  I had never done the classic wax paper leaf thing before.  I liked the way it turned out, but I was hoping for a little bolder of an outcome.  It was a fun activity with Koen though and he's very proud of our creations.

Well, it's 4pm and Penn Rye is waking up.  Gotta run.  Hopefully the rest of the afternoon/evening goes well too!