Gotta love the 25 hour day!

I woke up this morning when Sam crawled into bed and thought, I have to get up soon. Then I thought, no I don't, it's the end of daylight saving today! and so I have a whole extra hour in my day. What shall I do with it, I wonder?

Well, I did do some nice things with my bonus hour, you will be delighted to know.

When Anna asked me if she could read her Bible to me, I said, "Sure sweetheart, come and lie next to Mummy on the bed and you can read it to me right now". I didn't say, "Not now, honey, I'm too busy getting ready for church." Duh. I think I should have more of these "end of daylight saving" days if it can help me re-prioritise like that. I mean, what's the point of going to church to listen to the Bible being read and expounded upon with other Christians if I won't even commit time to listening to my own darling daughter read from the Bible to me? That was a really good start to my day.

It was also encouraging to me that when Joshua asked if I could help him with his uniform socks and shoes, I had enough time not to do it just to get it over and done, but to ask him to have a try himself. And, of course, with a little extra time, he did manage wonderfully, even though his socks are really quite long and stiff.

Not only that, but because Joshua was upset at the prospect of missing Sunday School at our church, because I was taking the kids to another church for their Brigades' service, I didn't tell him just to get over it (as I probably would usually have done, if I was in a hurry). Rather, I took the time to find out what exactly was bothering him. Then I rang his Sunday School teacher so that she could reassure him over the phone that missing one day of Sunday School in order to attend church with a different congregation would not take him out of the running for the end of year perfect attendance reward, which is what was concerning him about the whole thing. And so the problem was dealt with and resolved, rather than being ignored and left to fester (the biblical term is to become a "bitter root", I think).

And having that extra hour up my sleeve meant that I was able to be very gracious and think of Jeff's needs, rather than my own, and let him know that I would take Sam with the rest of the kids so that he didn't have to come back from church to take Sam with him, and foist him onto another family there, just so I didn't have to deal with getting all four children into and out of the car what seemed like a dozen times. Jeff was preaching this morning and after my somewhat critical critique (?!) last night he went in to church early today so that he could tweak the sermon before the service. (Happily, he thinks it went well, by the way.) And I got all four kids ready, including two into uniforms and two into plaits, without feeling put-upon [favourite Thomas phrase] once. Hooray! Unfortunately I must admit that this wonderful exhibition of emotional self-control was entirely to blame on the clock and not on my own response to the Holy Spirit's counsel.

Much of the extra hour did get eaten up by the extra travel to a different church site (40km round trip), leaving me feeling very blessed by the fact that we now live so close to the place where we gather for public worship. We got there on time, hooray.

Not only that but I was in time to get a seat up the front where I could watch my beautiful little Anna's face when she decided she was brave enough to hold her Captain's hand and walk up to stand with all the other new girls out the front and agree with them to "obey my leader and always try my hardest" (and a few other things), when she said proudly right into the mike, "I do!" Whoo-hoo! There were more than 300 people in that church auditorium. Anna stood straight and tall and didn't wriggle or fidgit one bit up there, didn't even let her eyes wander. She was very very brave for such a little, shy girl. I was so proud of her!

When I got home from church I wasn't as exhausted as I normally am - all this extra time made me feel quite relaxed all day - and instead of sending Abi down cold to her nap, I lay with her and read aloud a few stories from her story Bible (she picked stories of Moses and Joseph from her little kid's message).

Later, when Sam woke up from his nap in a clingy mood, I used a snippet of my extra time to take him for a horsey ride around the play room as I did a bit of a tidy up of the spreading morass of toys in there.

I used another moment of extra time to think before I automatically said "no" to Joshua's request to play out in the front yard, and instead said, "Sure, honey, and ask Anna if she'd like to play out there with you as well. Have a great time."

I took another, slightly larger portion of the extra time to check on the kdis later and gently ask Joshua to ensure that when they were finished with the makeshift cubby of outdoor chairs that they had built on the next-door neighbour's front lawn, that they picked up every single one of the little twigs they were using for "firewood" and didn't leave them strewn all over J and T's immaculately manicured greenery.

When Anna came running in from the front yard itching all over, I didn't get all fussed over the time, and hastily put on some Stingose just to deal with the symptom of the problem but not the root cause. Instead, I used a bit of my extra time to wash her off carefully and then to explain that it seemed that she was allergic to the grass, just like Mummy was as a child, and that she could only play on the swing and climb the tree, not crawl and roll around on the grass under their cubby as she had been doing or she would just get itchy again.

And I took a few minutes to make sure that Joshua had done as I asked and cleaned up all those twigs. (He had, I am happy to report.)

One final thing helped to use up the last bit of my bonus time. Jeff hadn't set the clock on his phone back, so he came home early from church this arvo (having gone in for some peace and quiet while he finalised the lecture he is doing for the Faith and Science cafe-church-thingy tonight), thinking it was later than it was. So even though Jeff was very busy today, preaching/teaching on two different topics, we still were able to eat dinner as a family and chat about our day as a family. We do normally eat dinner as a family. But it is always extra special to be able to do it without rushing, even though Jeff is going to be out for the evening.

Now I come to think of it, it seemed like there was a whole lot more than one extra hour in my day today. But maybe that was because it was my attitude to the time that had changed.

I think I am going to vote for Daylight Saving in the referendum, just so I can have another unrushed day like this again, even if it's only once a year!