I am finding out lately that there is some profound wisdom in that primary song we all learned growing up. Why does Sunday end up being one of the most hectic days of the week for me? I guess it's because I am not prepared. Yesterday was a bad Sunday for me. I literally did not sit down the entire day except for the few minutes in Sacrament that I wasn't taking Abby out to put her on a chair in a classroom. (By the way that is working out well-now if I could just teach her to whisper! I kept telling her.."whisper Abby!" and after about 10 min of me doing it..she said "what's whisper mom?") Anyway, It seems no matter how picked up my house is Saturday night, by the time we leave for church it looks like a bomb went off. Then we walk back into it..this time with crying children who are hungry and tired. The older kids are raiding the pantry before I can even get my pantyhose off. So I start in on them telling them to hold their horses until I can get something out that's semi nutritional. And from that point on..the chaos begins. I end up being in the kitchen most of the day making a meal that by the time I sit down to doesn't even taste good to me. Then afterwards, of course, I have to start thinking about dessert. So, once the dishes are done..I start in on something yummy to make.(Usually brownies and icecream..the old standby) Then everyone is off doing their own thing..napping, watching movies, pulling out every toy we own and I get in a bad mood because I am NOT able to relax until the house is picked up and nobody else seems to care. We sometimes manage to do something productive like get in a game of Settlers but soon everyone is hungry and out comes the food again which means more kitchen mess for me to clean up.
So, is this keeping the Sabbath day holy? NO! Some people have told me not to fix a big meal on Sunday..keeping things simple. I have a hard time doing that. Growing up we always had a nice Sunday meal..china out-goblets and all. Tara and Amy, do you guys remember how we would rub our fingers along the rim of the goblets until they made that whistling sound that drove mom really crazy.
So am I alone in this frustration? or do the rest of you sit around in your church clothes all day reading scriptures, singing at the piano, reading stories, and planning your next family service project? (Tara, you are not allowed to comment because I have a feeling your family does!)
9 comments:
I agree.. I feel like I am in the kitchen the whole day.. and it is a pain! Josh and I tag team and he is in charge of getting the boys dressed and ready and then when we come home- taking their clothes off and putting them away... then I go in the kitchen... I know a family in our ward that has toast and milk on sundays so she doesn't have to cook... when we grew up it was the same way as you, a big meal that I always looked forward to... good luck and I will be checking back with some tips- because I need help too!
A. I don't do hair. P's too young and all I have to do is put a pink dress on her and go.
B. The big trade off - My house is a mess...otherwise I might be more stressed out about it, thus leading to frustrating Sundays (and the rest of the week) (which of course would totally stress you out, so that doesn't help).
C. We have church at 1 now, so now I can be lazy, blog, read, not clean my house all morning and stroll into the shower at 11 or so and eventually get a dress and do the face.
D. I don't iron either. AK does it if the kids are lucky, but mostly we go for wrinkly linen shirts or sweaters.
I know you are totally disgusted.
I know sundays can be so hard. One thing that helps my sundays go smoother is laying out everyone's clothes, even belts bows, socks, etc. I also prepare the diaper bag on saturday night. I was just saying to a friend that song we learned on getting ready for sunday sure helps for 9:oo church. I also put something in the crockpot and put it in the fridge. Then sunday morning I just plug it in. I have five favorite recipes I use. I do try to simplify my sundays or I fell frazzled after wrestling the kids thru church. We bribe our kids with one treat[a couple starbursts if they can tell me one thing each speaker said. After church we have nachos to tide us over til the crockpot is ready and I thow together a salad. It's a nice sunday when we have rhodes rolls otherwise they are out of the bag. Much love, Heather
You know me. I come home, read my scriptures for two hours then we sing hymns and tell eachother how much we love one another! I wish! My Sundays are pretty much like yours. CHAOS! I feel like our house is a disaster and I'm in the kitchen all afternoon. I do have to admit that it has been a little better with early church. I need to get over having a big meal on Sunday, or else do crock pot. I do find that if I get up on time and have the kid's clothes layed out Sat night that it helps.
I feel the same way too. By the time we get to church, we're all flustered because we're late and it's hard to feel the Spirit. I've found if we talk the night before about how we want our day to go, it works out much better. We even talk about who's going to fill the diaper bag, who's going to dress which kid, etc. Good luck!
I would echo some of the other ideas. Do as much as you can on Saturday, but have the kids help. Have them lay out clothes, set the table for Sunday dinner, yada yada. I love the idea of a crock pot dinner... a meal that cooks itself! As far as the messy aftermath, maybe you could assign each kid an area to be in charge of. They need to clean it before relaxing. I myself am still figuring it all out. Good Luck!
okay i am inspired! i am going to make this sunday a good one. i know that saturday night is the key. that is one reason i dont LOVE going out on sat night but sometimes it's the only night that works.
I don't know if I should be flattered or offended that you have me on such a pedestal, but I will choose to be flattered. The biggest inspiration that I can give you is that it gets better! My sundays were very much like that when my kids were younger, but as they get older, it does get way easier. You can all feel sorry for me because we have 8:00am church!! The good side of that is that there is really no time for arguing in the morning...we just have to bust and move to get there on time. Lane and the boys have to leave the house by 7:00am to set up chairs for Sac. Mtg and have some sort of meeting since Lane is YM Pres. So it is the girls and I. I am lucky to have Mariah who helps me get the little girls ready. We only have 2 1/2 hour block out here in Gilbert, so we are done by 10:30am and we come in the door and have our standard snack of chili queso dip with chips and then me and Emma usually take a nap. The other kids do whatever but they know not to bug me! I have given in to the fact that the house will be a little messy on Sundays, but then when they all get out the door to school on MOnday, I can go at it! Today has been an out of body experience as we pulled in from CA at 4:00 am and the alarm went off at 5:55am to get the family up for church!! I would have sluffed but on Fast Sundays, they give me the whole time in Primary for singing time and I knew I couldn't leave them hanging! It was a surreal experience trying to be "ON" when I had less than two hours of sleep! I actually don't even remember much of singing time. That is scary. I will probably be released next week!
Don't be hard on yourself. You are doing an awesome job and cooking a wonderful meal each Sunday is something your family will always remember, just like we remember it. Yes, I do remember the thing with the goblets....that was fun.
I love you!!!
definitely feel flattered tara! By the way...my dress up thing went great today in singing time. the kids sang so loud i almost cried!
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