There's no way around it. Going to church with tiny children is hard.

Our Sundays these days involve getting up at 5 a.m. Between that wee hour and 7:30 or 8 a.m. when we must leave, we need to make the three meals of the day and get everyone fed, dressed and packed into our family cargo bike.

The bike is the modern-day equivalent of a handcart, and almost everything we own (it seems) goes into it every Sunday: lunch, snacks, a gluten-free option to enable my husband, the bishop, to eat the sacrament without sleeping through church, two bottles, the baby bag, the stroller for my toddler to nap in, the trug for our newborn to nap in, high heels for me, the bishop's briefcase, my purse, and our two snuggly children.

My husband, Lance, rides it the five mostly uphill miles to church in north London, and I ride it back, while the other gets a break by riding the bus sans children.

We try certain things to keep the day normal — naps are still attempted. Our toddler, Gideon, sleeps in the bathroom; our newborn, Esther, in the mother's room; and Lance on the stand (OK, only sometimes — usually when he's had the sacrament bread rather than a chip or a rice cake). I attempt to feed everyone (including Lance) at the right times.

But try as I might, going to three hours of church plus the two hours of round-trip travel (at least) and another hour or so for Lance's morning meetings destroys naps and meals and makes the children miserable for at least that day if not more. It takes me anywhere from one to three days to get my children back on track.

Besides that, I spend much of church in the mother's room, in the hallway, kitchen, or in the nursery with Gideon (who decided he didn't like nursery though he'd been going peacefully for months before he was "old enough" the moment he turned 18 months — the official starting age for nursery).

So is it worth it? Wouldn't I be better off if I just didn't go and spent the day peacefully at home, reading my scriptures and listening to general conference talks?

No, I'm not better off, and yes, it is worth it. I stayed home a couple of weeks ago when I was feeling poorly and attempting to finally feel well after weeks of sickness — tough considering the physical impact church has on us given our biking and public transport commute.

All that next week I missed not having taken the sacrament desperately. It didn't matter that I felt like Esther's day schedule was almost finally on track or that Gideon whined less for two days. The snippets of church that I am able to enjoy, especially partaking of the sacrament, does something for my soul that I cannot get in any other way.

Perhaps it is the sacrifice involved. Perhaps it is meeting with other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Perhaps it is feeling the Spirit from what others have learned and being energized by their own faithful struggling.

It all matters in making me a spiritually whole person for the week.

Lorianne Updike Toler is a constitutional legal historian (currently on maternity leave), co-founder of ConSource.org, blogs at www.allamericanmum.com, and author of "The Other Side of Charity: The Art of Receiving Gracefully" (Deseret Book, 2013).