When I retired from teaching, I had this grand idea that we would be able to enjoy dinner as a family every night. After all, I would have much more flexibility in my day to prep and cook a meal. But, what my dream failed to take into account was that while I was home all day, my husband's schedule was still controlled by his job.
So I tried it for a while! Sure, we sat down and prayed as a family once I rushed my husband into the house and told him he couldn't change out of his work clothes. If you stopped by for one of those meals, you'd probably get a good laugh. The meals often consisted of each of us coaxing a very tired child who had little interest in eating, because I'd given them a snack an hour before to hold them over, to sit and pray and eat. If they didn't like the meal that was prepared it took extra effort. After several minutes we'd give up, and hubby and I would resort to shoveling food into our mouth so that we could move the kids into their bedtime routine.
This didn't last very long before I decided something had to be different. I asked hubby if he preferred family dinner time or would he prefer to have the kids fed, bathed and ready to play. He chose the latter. And boy do I love watching him play with our kids. This worked well for our family, for the most part.
You see, I still had this grand idea that my family should be gathering at the table at least once per day so that we could talk, pray together, and just connect. A big reason we decided that I should be at home was to focus on our family, which previously had very little time to spend together at all. So I decided to do something, perhaps less conventional for the average family, but would work perfectly for ours.
I instituted family breakfast! We made a few changes to our previous routine, selected a time that would allow for eating (and some playing) and put this new routine into action. AND I LOVE IT!
What does family breakfast consist of? I've been trying new healthy recipes, so as a family we are getting to try lots of new things. We spend some time praying together and chatting about our days and we have a question of the day (Tabletopics). Hayden loves being in charge of getting the question box. We've also given him the responsibility to call the family to the table at 7:00 and are working on helping him to do this independently. (Sidenote: I learned this from this awesome book I'm reading called Motivate Your Child)
We are three days in and have no plans to stop. I'm praying that over time this will become a treasured time for our family. It may be non-traditional but it was what works for our family in this season.
What are your treasured family routines?
P.S. Our favorite breakfast so far has been Peanut Butter Cookie Overnight Oats It's packed with protein, and super tasty. So tasty that we're making it again tomorrow!
So I tried it for a while! Sure, we sat down and prayed as a family once I rushed my husband into the house and told him he couldn't change out of his work clothes. If you stopped by for one of those meals, you'd probably get a good laugh. The meals often consisted of each of us coaxing a very tired child who had little interest in eating, because I'd given them a snack an hour before to hold them over, to sit and pray and eat. If they didn't like the meal that was prepared it took extra effort. After several minutes we'd give up, and hubby and I would resort to shoveling food into our mouth so that we could move the kids into their bedtime routine.
This didn't last very long before I decided something had to be different. I asked hubby if he preferred family dinner time or would he prefer to have the kids fed, bathed and ready to play. He chose the latter. And boy do I love watching him play with our kids. This worked well for our family, for the most part.
You see, I still had this grand idea that my family should be gathering at the table at least once per day so that we could talk, pray together, and just connect. A big reason we decided that I should be at home was to focus on our family, which previously had very little time to spend together at all. So I decided to do something, perhaps less conventional for the average family, but would work perfectly for ours.
I instituted family breakfast! We made a few changes to our previous routine, selected a time that would allow for eating (and some playing) and put this new routine into action. AND I LOVE IT!
What does family breakfast consist of? I've been trying new healthy recipes, so as a family we are getting to try lots of new things. We spend some time praying together and chatting about our days and we have a question of the day (Tabletopics). Hayden loves being in charge of getting the question box. We've also given him the responsibility to call the family to the table at 7:00 and are working on helping him to do this independently. (Sidenote: I learned this from this awesome book I'm reading called Motivate Your Child)
We are three days in and have no plans to stop. I'm praying that over time this will become a treasured time for our family. It may be non-traditional but it was what works for our family in this season.
What are your treasured family routines?
P.S. Our favorite breakfast so far has been Peanut Butter Cookie Overnight Oats It's packed with protein, and super tasty. So tasty that we're making it again tomorrow!
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| It is as good as it looks. Click on the link for the recipe. |
Such great ideas Abbey! Thank you :)
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