Happy Sunday, lovelies! I’m sharing an often-requested post talking details for how the heck I get out the door each Sunday morning and why my kids love taking our Sunday photo. It’s so much more simple than you’d think.
It’s the last Sunday before school starts!!
It’s been an exciting night for the kids to find out who their teachers are! We’ll meet them tomorrow at Meet The Teacher night! We live in a newer area, so we don’t know any of the teachers but the kids are excited for adventure! If you ask them if they’re anxious to go to school they’ll say “Yes!” followed by a quiet, “but I’d rather stay home.” haha. I haven’t made their summer too exciting. They spend most of their mornings playing upstairs together. Then we swim in the backyard and have lunch before quiet-time & nap-time. The twins (5) still nap, but we’ve cut that down since they’ll be starting Kindergarten in a few days and won’t be napping there. Needless to say, the twins were THRILLED to skip their naps for these last few weeks of summer.
Our Sunday Routine
We’ve always considered Sundays to be a family day. This tradition was engrained into both of us while growing up. We try our best to keep the shopping, playdates, exercising, studying, work, etc.. to a minimum by making Sundays a day of rest and family time. On Instagram, I’m often asked what church I go to. Aaron and I were both raised Christian and you can pop over HERE to read more about our faith. Specifically, we belong to The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It’s where our hearts have found peace. When I was in my teens, I bounced around between a few churches and one time, I left religion all-together. I found myself in a really rough place and felt broken in nearly every way. It was in my lowest point that I felt a deep desire to know if there was a God that truly cared about me. I read the scriptures each day and over the course of the next few months, I had far too many spiritual experiences and peaceful reassurances to know for myself that He was real and the Savior gave His life for me. We love our church and have found comfort in making it a part of our weekly adventures.
Here’s what a typical Sunday looks like in our family!
5:50am- Aaron wakes up early to go to church. He serves in our church as a secretary to our bishop (similar to a pastor). Aaron spends quite a bit of time each week scheduling visits with the bishop, lessons given in church, sending out reminders, announcements. He genuinely loves it. Fun Fact: The bishop, teachers, youth leaders, etc are not paid. It’s all through volunteer efforts.
7:10am– Alarm goes off! The kids and I get ready for church. Quick granola bar + fruit breakfast and we’re out the door by 7:50 –ish. (wink wink)
TIP: Saturday night, I spend a few minutes getting the 4 kid’s outfits laid out. Matching the kids is honestly SO MUCH EASIER for me because I look for 1 dress and snag them in all 3 sizes. The kids get themselves dressed before they come out of their room.
8:00am- Church begins! We stay together as a family in the chapel, take the sacrament (or communion), recommit our desires to draw closer to the Savior and treat others with kindness and respect, listen to lessons prepared by a few youth & adult speakers from the congregation (yes, I’ve been invited to speak many times – always a good experience preparing, but say hello to public speaking anxiety for me!!). Then we split up into smaller classes. Avery goes to her nursery class, the kids go to singing time and Sunday school, and we head into the adult class.
10:00am– Head home. Take our family selfie picture. 😉 The kids all know that when we walk into the house, we’ll snap a family photo. They LOVE this because they’ll get a treat within 2 minutes of walking in the house. Win Win for everyone. Right after, clothes are ripped off and pajamas or play clothes are put on. We’ll have lunch, hang out, play games, clean up and then it’s quiet-time & nap-time.
4:00pm- Snacks. Play. Movies. Books. Games. Dinner (most of the time an easy dinner, we’re not making a nice Sunday dinner every week like my mama did. How did she do that every week?? Amazing).
Since we have a lot of family and friends that live close by, Sundays are a good time to get together for dinner or desserts. So maybe once/month we’re getting together with family or friends.
7:00pm– Read books with all of the kids. We’ll read short books separately and then either Aaron or I will read a few chapters from a novel. We recently started doing this from a non-picture book and it’s been a huge hit with all of us.
7:30pm– Bedtime for the kiddos! Brush teeth, prayers, hugs, 37 reminders to lay down. Then parental connection/chill time before trying to go to bed relatively early to start off the work week right!
What caused you to switch from being a Christian to going to a LDS church?
Author
Hi Rachel! Great question– we are Christians because we believe in Jesus Christ, just like non-denominational Christians, Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, etc would call themselves Christians, though their individual beliefs about some things might be different. The full name of the LDS church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Hope that makes a bit more sense. xo
I love this!
Author
Awww, Meleane thanks for taking the time to share that with me. It means a lot! xo
Amazing. Your kids sleep a lot! Mine don’t nap and if they woke up at 7am they will go to bed only at 9pm. They stay awake for 14 hours straight, without napping time. 4.5 and 10 years old.
Author
Oh bless you girl!!! Every kid is so different and have different needs. My kids definitely hate sleeping and are pretty good at resisting. Again, I’m not above bribery and I’ll pay them 5 cents if they take a nap. HAHA! Also, up until recently I didn’t offer “quiet time” for the 5 year olds. It was only nap time. They got so bored they’d fall asleep. Needless to say, they’re pretty excited about school! lol
Thank you Janene for the look in your life…i love your family and the pictures from the happy family…you are so sweet and soooo happy ❤ it is so cute that the are all in the same dresses😍 i wish you all the best❤
Lovely greatings from germany 🇩🇪
Karina xoxo
Author
Hi Karina- Thanks so much for dropping by to share your kindness!!! It’s so fun to hear that you love to know the little details in my life. I’ll definitely keep on sharing. Thanks for sticking around with me! xo
It seems so easy with no naps. My 5 yo still naps and our day is divided by his nap. To dos before nap and after nap. When he naps we do things that usually can do with him, go to gym, cooking, errands.
2 questions I have also, when you have time in the morning to get prep, make up done, hair done? And second, do you have lunch preped one day before, you don ‘ t cook it that day? For me it takes some time to prep the lunch 😔
Author
Yes! You’re like so many moms that love when naps are finished with so that your days aren’t divided. I’m the rare mom that is SO SAD when naps are quit. I love the down time and my kids become overly emotional when 6pm roles around and they haven’t napped. haha, hopefully they’ll do well in school!
To answer your questions, I do my makeup and hair 1-2x/ week. Most days, I simply wash my face and apply moisturizer and sunscreen. I share a lot of those details on my Instagram stories 🙂 But on Sundays when I have 8am church, I always shower the night before and I wake up at 7:10am. It takes me 10-12 minutes to do my makeup and less than 10 minutes for my hair. I’ve got it down quick! lol Also, lunch is super simple. I don’t do extravagant meals. That’s just not something I want to spend our time doing. We keep it simple to where it’s 10 minutes of prepping. You can always do a crock pot early in the morning or the night before to help cut down on time 🙂
How I wish I can do the same Sunday routine, but it’s hard for me cause I have work every Sunday. I always got inspired everytime I read your blog. Keep it up momma.. 😘😘
Author
Oh bless your heart! It’s tough for anyone that serves the community on Sundays to make it to church. YOU are a blessing to so many on Sundays and are exactly where you should be. Don’t stress, you’re doing the best you can and that’s all that matters. And THANK YOU for your encouraging words!!! xo
Love this post! It takes forever for me to get me and my 4 kiddos ready on Sundays. It’s cool to see your schedule and I’ve always wondered how you have time to get a family pic EVERY Sunday…. I’m lucky to get mine to take one with me on Easter Sunday, haha. Sometime down the road, I would totally appreciate it and love to see a post about your family’s favorite dinners (that doesn’t take much time and effort) 😉 I’m always hunting for quick dinners to help decrease the eating out- it’s so unhealthy and expensive for a family of 6! 😊😊 Keep up the amazing job mama!
Author
Awww Shaina! Thanks so much for the great idea!!! xo
Beautiful Family! I saw your Sunday routine post. I was wondering if Born Again Christians were Latter Day Saints?