One of the things that has massively changed since having twins is how long and how much work it is to get out of the house, especially for church. It was easy to get out of the house with one child. You dress her, throw a few things in the already packed diaper bag, and go. Now there is another whole level of planning that has to go into leaving the house.
I am using church specifically, because that is one place we go where we really don’t want to be late. Generally, we want and need to be there early. We also attend three times a week making it our most regularly scheduled activity. I will be mostly referring to getting out of the house on Sunday mornings. I will add some tips for evening and weeknight services as well.
1. Prepare Ahead of Time
This is always my first tip for going anywhere, but especially if it’s first thing in the morning. Pack your bags before you go to bed if you know you have to leave the house in the morning. On Saturday nights, after baths, I will do a diaper bag check. I make sure there’s enough diapers, wipes, etc. I’ve recently gotten a little lazy with this; waiting until an hour or so before church starts to check my bag. Then I end up missing important items, like a snack, or cups once we’ve gotten to church. I am always way more prepared when I plan ahead.
I also try to keep a bag packed with quiet toys. However during the week I use different bags and things get shifted around. This caused us to end up with a backpack at church that only had a pull up, some play clothes, and a few teething toys in it. The two year old was not happy about having to share her sisters’ toys.
Finally, I generally try to think about what we are going to wear the night before. I check the weather to see if its going to be cold or raining and go from there. If I’m really ahead of the game I’ll even pull out the girls’ clothes the night before. Then if my husband is ready first, he already knows what they’re wearing. This would include any underclothes, socks, and shoes. This could also be helpful for small children who can dress themselves, but probably can’t match their own outfits yet.
2. Get Dressed Last
I am an early bird, even on the weekends. Once I’m awake I shower and get dressed because I like to get up and be productive. I also hate the feeling of getting into a shower that someone else has just used. Naturally, I continued this routine after the twins were born. I would get up early, shower, get the girls out of bed, make breakfast and get them dressed. I soon realized that I was usually sweating and my shower was useless. It was also frustrating to feel like I was doing all the work myself. All of that was before I had to make two or three trips to the car.
So, what I started doing instead was letting my husband shower first. This allowed us to split those responsibilities and gave me a little more sleep. What we do now is we get up at the same time. He will shower while I will get the girls out of bed and make breakfast. While they eat I set out their clothes, if I haven’t already, and finish packing snacks and cups. Then while I shower, he cleans up breakfast and gets them dressed. When I am done all I have to do is style their hair and we are basically ready to go.
Finally, I am the last person to get dressed. I make sure everyone else is ready with their hair done before I dress. That way I can avoid any accidents on my church clothes. Currently, my husband is playing the drums for the worship team and has get to the church very early. So on days we are running behind, I may still have to dress a child after showering, but it is way less stressful when we’ve split the responsibilities. I still work up a sweat getting them to the car. Unfortunately, I think that’s unavoidable until they can all get in and buckle themselves.
3. Plan Your Meals
One of the things that has helped us get to church on the time since having kids is being strategic about our meals. On Sundays that means having easy breakfast foods such as yogurt, cereal, frozen waffles, or frozen french toast sticks. These are all things that don’t require hands on cooking. I generally combine it with fresh fruit to make a more balanced meal and we are all good to go.
For Sunday lunch and dinner we either do leftovers from the day before or sandwiches. We are usually hungry when we get home from church and try to eat right away. Then when we are preparing for the evening service I need something quick with a minimal amount of mess. Sandwiches fit the bill there. I know it will be easier once all of my children can completely feed themselves with silverware. Until then, this is what works. Slow Cooker and/or Pressure Cooker meals are also good Sunday options. However, they are generally too messy for the girls to feed themselves.
Midweek service is a little more challenging. One of us has always gotten home from work early enough to cook, which has been a blessing. I did a lot of cooking when I first stopped working. Until we needed to start feeding the twins, that worked great. Then meal time took a whole lot longer. We have actually found that sometimes it’s easier to eat at a quick service restaurant where we can order online. This is mainly because we live about 20 minutes from our church in good traffic. During rush hour it could take over 30 minutes. This way we can get closer to the church to eat and then take our time. Instead of eating at home and rushing.
Peace of Mind
I always feel good knowing we’ve gotten to church early. It gives me time to reset my mind and get in the right mindset to worship. I get very stressed out when I am rushing to get somewhere . It then takes me a while to change from the stressed out rushing feeling to enjoying the service. So my final tip would be to always plan for more time than you need. On a recent Sunday evening my girls were taking so long to eat. I thought for sure we were going to be late. We left home 20 minutes later than normal. We still made it to church 10 minutes early and I was proud of myself for having a good system. I was able to truly enjoy the service and I wish the same for you too!