At Home Church

We've been doing home church for about a month now because of Covid-19 with some mixed results.  The Asia area was the first to get church cancelled, and when we got the email I was pretty shocked.  Aside from a snow day I've never had church cancelled so for me this was pretty unprecedented.  The whole idea of it was pretty exciting. 

As Sunday approached we all prepared.  I talked with Bob a few times about how we wanted to do things and decided that we needed to make it similar to actually going to church.  I still wanted the Sabbath to feel like a special day and I wanted taking the sacrament to really be meaningful and not just seem like a family sharing a piece of bread.

We decided to continue getting dressed nicely for church and also to set up chairs in our family room just for the "church" part of the day.  I've learned from homeschooling the kids that using the couch leads to a lot of laying down and also kids fighting about touching each other and being in one another's space.  After about a month of doing it I really think we made the right call on getting dressed up and also the chairs.

Bob wrote a program on the window behind the small table so everyone was clear on the order and Bob also conducted the meeting.  We've been mainly following the regular church format. Song, prayer, song, sacrament.  After the sacrament we each took turns sharing.  

On fast Sunday that meant bearing testimonies.  On the other weeks each of the kids had something prepared to share before Sunday.  That ranged from a short talk to teaching from the come follow me manual to reading a story from the friend and talking about it.  I also like how this is going because everyone is teaching something more at their level.  Tucker is using the YM lessons more and the younger kids are learning and planning at a younger level.  Bob and I are mostly using the Come Follow Me lessons and trying to teach everyone.

 These next couple pictures are of church leaders.

While I feel like we have been trying our hardest to create a good church experience where everyone learns and also feels the spirit.  I really feel like we are falling short.  I honestly have been just getting mad at the kids all through it because they are being disruptive and misbehaving.  Bob and I work so hard on it but we both just end up in a bad mood because it partially feels like a waste of time.  I really want to have the spirit in our home and am struggling to have these "church meetings" feel like anything other than work.  We come out of the whole thing exhausted and drained instead of uplifted.  

Calista is honestly a big part of the issue.  She is two and runs around like crazy the whole time being a distraction to everyone.  Last week she literally peed on the floor and took all her clothes off and was running around during the closing talk/song/prayer.  Then before I fully knew what was going on Beatrix was playing in the pee puddle near the toilet and also putting things in the toilet.  While she makes it more difficult I know that she is acting developmentally for her age and there is nothing I can really do about it.

Next week we are going to try to do everything first thing in the morning and see if that changes anything.  

There is a lot that I really like about doing this we just need a little bit of time to find our groove as a family.