Saturday Evening

Sundays are often the hardest days of the week to be prepared. We rise early for church but there are many last minute preparations that need to be taken care of. I have found it easier to deal with Sunday by preparing everything I can ahead of time. Usually I prepare my Sunday School lesson sometime during the week before in case I need to purchase or make anything by Sunday morning. There are plenty of other things that can be done Saturday evening. 


I usually go through Sunday in my mind sometime Saturday evening and ask myself a series questions...


?What will the weather be like tomorrow and what type of clothing would be best for church?
?Are we having company after morning or evening service?
?What are we having for dinner?
?Is there any food I can prepare ahead?
?Are we ministering in any way-music, speaking, nursery, etc.?


I need to know what the next day will bring so I know how to adequately prepare the night before for instance...


If I am in nursery I try to choose clothing I can move around on the floor with.
If the weather is cold, I will plan warmer clothing for the family.
If we are having company, I may set the table ahead of time.


Then I tackle preparing the clothing for the morning-pressing, pulling out clothes and making sure I have all the parts to all of our outfits, so I am not scrounging around in the morning looking for a shoe or something. I also may try on my own outfit. Since I have had baby, things don't fit like they used to fit, so I want to make sure my clothes fit properly and are modest. 
Then I prepare all I can for dinner the following day-thawing and marinating meat, setting up the crock-pot with a browned roast (I use a timer so it comes on around 1 in the morning to start cooking). 
The final step in my preparation is to gather all the things we need to take to church in the morning and set them out on the kitchen table-diaper bag, car seat, Sunday School Curriculum, offertory music, Bibles, tithe money, dishes or vases to return to people at church, cards to deliver to people at church, and anything else I can think of. Saturday evening, Emma gets a bath-and we hope she stays reasonably clean until after church. 


Sunday morning is nice because all I have to worry about is feeding and dressing Emma and myself. My husband takes care of himself, and we are off to church. It really eliminates any stress Sunday mornings and helps keep the day more set-apart and restful.