Blessed Sabbath Lightshow

When I was in high school, I noticed something interesting about days on which I overslept. Because early morning seminary started at 6:15 am, and it took about 25 minutes to get from our house to the church, I would usually wake up around 5:00 am. Every so often, however, I would oversleep, and wake up at 5:30, or 5:40, or even (gasp) almost 6:00. Obviously, this would make for a frantic five or ten minutes. But then, magically, once I was in the car headed for seminary, the day was usually an amazing day. Maybe it was because the day didn't have anywhere to go but up.

This is all a round-about way of saying I woke up late this morning. Bradley has early morning meetings, and we generally meet him at the church. So when I woke up at 8:00 am, and had five children to feed and dress (not to mention getting myself ready) by 8:30--well, there was some serious frantic scrambling. But we did it, and made it up to the church by 8:40. Not bad, and there was no maternal yelling, either. Score!

And it was an amazing day.

Church was fantastic: My children were (relatively) well behaved, the lessons and talks were marvelous, and choir practice was great. Zee gave a wonderful (and funny) talk about Joseph Smith in Senior Primary. The afternoon was relaxing (no nap, though), the children adorable and fun. Bradley read church books to me while I lounged on the couch. Dinner was simple and yummy, and the kids actually ate and appreciated it (for once).

But I think my favorite part was right before bedtime.

We got ready for bed about fifteen minutes early. I pulled out my old laser pointer, put in batteries in it, and gave the kids each a little flashlight of their own. Then we went into the boys' room, turned off the light, and laid down on the floor.

The kids were entranced with the laser pointer. I made the light fixture glow an eerie red, I "drew" letters and shapes on the ceiling, and I pointed in different corners and had them follow me with their flashlights. We sang songs ("Teach Me to Walk in the Light", "Twinkle, Twinkle", "I am Like a Star", and "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam") and kept the beat with our lights. Everyone got a (careful) turn playing with the laser on the ceiling. We ended by shoving the flashlights into our mouths and lighting up our faces. (And then looking in the mirror and giggling madly.)

"Light Camp" was what Gee decided our adventure was called, and it was so much fun. Seriously. The kids were involved and engaged the whole time (even Yum-Yum, who laid on her back next to me the whole time and barely made a peep, so fascinated was she), and nobody fought or annoyed one another. (That's a rare enough occurrence that it bears mentioning!)

What a marvelous day!