Sunday, March 30

Surviving Sunday...

With the birth of our second child, I have begun to realize that some of the things that worked for us in the past are not cutting it anymore. I have really begun to struggle with what I do and what I don't do on Sundays. For example, the early morning hours on Sunday are a big rush to get to church and so we typically run around like madmen trying to get ourselves ready, the children dressed, prayers said, and bags packed before we run out the door. Because of the fact that everything is a big rush, we usually come home to a disaster in the upstairs part of our house. Then, because we're all tired from church, we usually eat a hurried lunch and just try to relax downstairs the rest of the day. This usually ensures that the downstairs is trashed by dinner-time.

I find this all very frustrating because all this mess and lack of routine makes things very hard on Monday because it becomes a huge clean-up from the weekend day. However, I would like a day to relax and enjoy the day without a routine hanging over my head.

How do I balance the need for a day of rest with the desire to make our home look tidy and have a pleasant beginning to our week?

8 comments:

Dianna said...

I think the key to a restful Sunday is to prepare on Saturday. Pack the diaper bag, plan the menu and do as much prep as possible, pick up the house, have a clean kitchen, lay out clothes the night before.

I won't pretend that I always do all of this, but when I do, my Sabbath is so much more relaxing and I am able to focus on what is really important.

One thing that my mom does is have spaghetti every Sunday. It's easy and fast, and everyone knows how to make it. The stuff is always in the house, and Sunday dinner is easy and relaxed.

Monica Wilkinson said...

I agree that planning ahead is a key thing in our home.

We do a simple breakfast and get ready for church. I have just started preparing a big Sunday dinner when we get home because I was tired of leftovers after church - it just didn't feel reverent enough. I didn't even realize this until I started making the big dinner. I prep everything I can the night before down to setting out the dishes, serving pieces, doing all food prep, etc...

Then, on Sunday night I don't have to cook - we can pull out leftovers from dinner!

I do like to have a tidy home before we go to bed, we have our girls help as much as they can and then we pick up the rest ensuring we start the day with toys put away and as much order as possible.

Anonymous said...

We are also a new two-child family and what has worked best for us is the following:
First, I go to bed with a clean house.
I lay everyone's clothes out the night before and pack the diaper bag; I even have a sippy cup filled and ready to go the night before.
I get up a little bit earlier than normal so that I can be sure that I am ready. My husband follows suit. My husband dresses our son; I dress/nurse our daughter. While our 2-year old son is eating a light breakfast (something easy- yesterday was toast with jam and some fruit) and our 8 month old is crawling around, we say our prayers. Then as soon as the prayers are done, we are ready to head out the door.

This has been working for us. I hope it helps!! I know only too well how stressful trying to get two littles ones out the door is!

Jamie Carin and Claudio Romano said...

Great topic. I only have one baby (2 months old) and I came to the same realization yesterday. By the time we got home from church I was exhausted and there was NOOO question that I had to take a nap..the house was a mess and now I will spend a good part of my Monday cleaning up the disaster!

Courtney said...

Definitely do as much as possible the night before. You might even want to put things in the car ahead of time (diaper bags, etc.)

Sundays I usually do a crockpot meal. If your slow cooker has a lift-out insert, you could even do any prep Saturday and throw the whole thing in the fridge overnight. Sunday morning plug it in, and voila! When you get home, a house that smells great and the meal's all ready whenever you want it!

Once you get home from church and unpack everyone, maybe do a five-minute pickup upstairs before lunch? If you're changing clothes and diapers anyway, it wouldn't take much extra effort/time.

I don't have much other advice since it's usually only DH who's rushing like crazy on Sunday mornings (just like he does M-F) since we attend as a family Saturday evenings.

Everly Pleasant said...

It may seem a bit odd to have someone who isn't a wife or mother comment on this, but in my family of ten, the older kids (including myself) are expected to pitch in quite a bit.
We have to prepare somewhat before Sundays, especially since my four year-old sister is black and her hair takes three or so hours to do before Sunday school the next morning.
You may not want to hear this, but what we do is relax as much as possible between church activities on Sundays and then have a "major cleaning day" on Mondays. It has worked really well for us (I always despised "pop cleaning days" which used to happen spontaneously)and even though it seems overwhelming to have a whole day dedicated to cleaning, it is actually less stressfull for us. At least we know when it is coming (not that we don't maintain through-out the week) and the more we do it, the faster we get at it.
God bless,
Everly

MamaBirdEmma said...

Thank you all for your great suggestions! I am going to put them into practice for this coming Sunday and will report back on how we did!

Xenia Kathryn said...

Yes, I've recently come to really appreciate having a clean house on the weekend-- especially on Sundays! I'll echo what everyone else has said and just say that preparation on Sat. night helps a whole lot. I'll probably be "singing a different tune" once Baby #2 comes... but perhaps getting into the habit now will help me out a little in the near future :) Job gets V. ready on Sun. mornings, so I found that I HAD to pick out her clothes the night before so she wouldn't look like too much of a ragamuffin for church... *wink* I love my husband.

I like the idea of a Sunday dinner (a good crockpot-meal or a hearty soup sounds nice!).

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