For church going folk…it can be a day of receiving their spiritual food for the week and fellowshipping with their like-minded peers.

For families with children, this is often a morning of mayhem and chaos.

I would know. As a mom of four kids who attends church without a spouse, getting ready for church with kids is not always a spiritual endeavor.  Well, I guess it is if you count slamming doors and yelling for items such as a misplaced shoe or my sanity.

After years of practice, I have found these tips to help ease the Sunday morning chaos and develop a morning of somewhat peaceful enjoyment. Follow these simple rules to ensure a chaotic- free Sunday morning which will leave you and your family in a great frame of mind to attend your place of worship.

1. Give your kids a bath the night before church.
2. Pick out your clothes and their clothes the night before and lay them out so they know what they are wearing (and can even dress themselves, if they are old enough). This includes socks, shoes and hair bows. I’m not kidding about the socks. Make sure they match. Boys under the age of fourteen tend to be colorblind.

3. If you allow your kids to color, draw or read at church, have an activity bag ready with all the supplies. Hang it on the doorknob of the door you will be leaving from in the morning.

4. If you have a baby restock the diaper bag the night before church. It’s no fun to have a Baby Blowout Diaper situation and realize you have zero diapers and zero wipes in the bag.
5. Wake up early enough to get everyone ready. It’s tempting to sleep in on Sundays, but make sure you are up early enough to have some “Mommy Time” before waking everyone up.

6. Make an easy breakfast that is fast and clean-up is easy such as cereal, toast, fruit, oatmeal, etc.
7. Make sure everyone has their teeth and hair brushed and that they are all dressed.

8. Make sure everything from the activity bag, diaper bag, purse, Church materials are by the front door and ready to go when you are.

~Jaime Kay Chase

Photo Credit: A&E

It is not clear whether compulsive hoarding is a condition in itself, or simply a symptom of other related conditions. ^{Wikipedia} Imagine not having control of what you throw out of your house and the absolute need of bringing more things into the home, and before you know it you are living in a debris of filth. This epidemic of hoarding is also among parents with small children and the elderly.

If you’ve ever seen A&E’s compulsively addictive reality series ‘Hoarders,’ you’re probably already familiar with Dr. Suzanne Chabaud, a clinical psychologist who helps chronic hoarders part with their prized possessions — even if those possessions are, as the show’s opening credits tell us, “worthless, unsanitary or hazardous.”

Read the entire Q&A with Dr. Chabaud here.