an ordinary day

Today was just an ordinary Sunday afternoon. And that’s a good thing! I love lazy Sundays. We did have tithing settlement– which is always exciting.

When we said we were headed up to the church for tithing Mary said, “I remember that! That’s when the bishop gives us M&Ms!” He hands them 10 M&Ms and then they hand back one symbolizing the way God gives us everything and we give back 10%. But then the Bishop fills their little cups to the rim showing that God always blesses us with more than we give. It’s a lot of fun and we all laugh and joke the whole time. But we are banned from telling our new bishop the story of when Hans was five and refused to hand over his $2.34 in tithing for the year.

“I wanna keep it.”

“And what are you going to do with it Hans?” asked Grandpa Ken who happened to be our Bishop at the time.

“I’m going to buy some ice cream.” 🙂

And then of course there was the first year that Ben paid tithing. I was surprised at how much money he handed in, and he was surprised to learn later that tithing is only 10%– not 50%!

A few funny pictures today:

Ben and Mary playing the piano.

Mary placing her school-made angel on the nativity.

The death of Xander’s favorite pants. When I told him they were too thrashed to donate to charity he hung them by his window and made a memorial for them.

The day ended with a laundry party and dancing in Ben’s room. Gabriel and Mary placed their music requests and in exchange for a little help folding his clothes Ben invited everyone in for a dance fest.