Anatomy of a Sunday

It's Sunday.

When I was a teenager, I went through a phase where Sunday was my favorite day of the week. Now, as a 38 (soon to be 39) year-old, religious mother of four, I have to say that it's been a long time since I liked Sundays. I know that Sundays are supposed to be special. A "delight." A day set apart from the rest of the week. But if I'm totally honest, it's my least favorite day of the week. 

Some Sundays are better than others, but most Sundays are pretty similar. 

We wake up by 7:00 so we can get to church on time. 

Our traditional Sunday breakfast is German pancakes, except for Fast Sunday when the "eaters" have cereal. 

Our bathroom is overcrowded, and we can never find any of our fifteen hairbrushes. Scotty always comes in and poops while I'm doing my hair. 

A large chunk of our "getting ready" time is spent negotiating. My girls always want to wear hoodies, so I explain to them that their hoodies will be wonderful and comfortable for after church, but "Let's find something a little nicer to wear with that lovely dress!" I never fully win this discussion, so whatever you see my kids arrive to church in is something that resulted from meeting in the middle. If one of them is wearing a Stitch sweatshirt, just know that we negotiated down from Minecraft, and that was as good as it was gonna get. I also can never get them to wear matching clothes or dress shoes. If their hair is styled, a miracle has occurred that morning. 

Scotty and Nicky leave for church at 8:30 so Nicky can help prepare the sacrament (our church currently starts at 9:00). When I was primary chorister, I also went a half hour early, but now that I'm in Young Women, I don't have to. I bring the girls around 8:50.

We sit in the same pew every week because that's just how it is. Sometimes I joke about changing it up and sitting somewhere different every week, but we are creatures of habit and don't want to be the cause of a controversial ward shake-up!

My kids color and fight all through sacrament meeting. I threaten them with things like, "You won't get to go to Grandma's house today!" which is a bold faced lie because I'm sure as heck not going to stay home with them! There is often hitting and scratching. At some point, we usually have to move kids around and sit between them. Sometimes we still have to take them out in the hall. 

After sacrament meeting, we go our separate ways. Scotty is Elders' quorum president. Daisy and I go to Young Women. Nicky goes to Young Men. Zoe and Eva go to primary. 

After church, Scotty and Nicky often help with homebound sacrament or other responsibilities. We all have different meetings after church depending on the week. Zoe and Eva always come home right after church and eat Ramen. Every Sunday. Without fail. Ramen. If anyone suggests otherwise, they go on a rampage. There must be Ramen if there is to be peace. 

After they eat their Ramen, they usually go play in their room, and then they start fighting. They scream, kick, and cry. They say, "You're the worst! I hate you! I hope you die! I wish you were never born!" and all of the things we used to think our kids would never say to each other because, when we birthed them, we truly believed that we'd be superb parents who wouldn't have normal parenting problems because our nurturing abilities would result in the most loving of homes with stellar sibling relationships. 

I cope by emotionally eating. 

From that point, we go into survival mode. I don't keep my kids from the TV on Sundays. We've tried that. Not for us. I do make them stay off video games and devices, though... until they go to Grandma's where I have no control over anything.

When Scotty has ward council, we watch TV, blog, read, play instruments, do puzzles, bake, play board games etc. Sometimes I sneak in a nap, but it's not a regular thing.

Scotty and I often have what we refer to as "church headaches" or "Sunday headaches." It's a very distinct pain in the head that is not easily remedied. I really think if we could come home from church and sleep it off, it would help immensely, but our responsibilities in and out of the home on Sundays don't really allow that to happen. 

In the afternoon, we go to Scotty's mom's house to visit. Sometimes there are cousins there, sometimes not. My girls love to play "store" in my mother-in-law's basement. She has a bar in her family room, and for years, they've used it as their shop. They're always handing out fake money and making us buy stuff from them. Grandma always has lots of junk food and snacks for us. She wants the kids to remember going to Grandma's house and getting to have an ice cream. 

Nicky likes to play ping pong in the garage or backyard (depending on weather). 

When we come home, we usually have a simple dinner, if we're even hungry. We don't often have big Sunday dinners because of Grandma's overabundance of snacks. 

At home, sometimes we watch part of a movie. Then we get everyone ready for bed and have a family meeting where we go over the schedule for the week. Then it's off to sleep, finally, where Scotty and I often say things like, "How is it still TODAY?" because it seems like Sundays last at least 48 hours. 

And there you have it! My least favorite day of the week!