Beginning the Year With Rhythms, Routines, and Rituals

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I’m no stranger to family Routines, Rhythms, or even Rituals

This past month I began reading The Life Giving Home by Sally Clarkson with fellow homeschool blogger Sabrina at Kids, Crunch, and Christ. As we go through this book month by month we reflect on what we have read and share if we chose to apply any of Sally’s tidbits to our lives and homes.

January is about Organizing

In the book January is the month for revisiting what is and isn’t working in your home. Mostly in terms of routines and rhythms.

Sally talks about routines, and schedules, family rituals and how they can benefit and free us not tie us down.

She shares what she went through to come up what worked in her own life and her home. Devotional Routines, Mealtime Routines, Household Routines, Morning Routines, and Evening Routines.

As my daughter has grown I found myself becoming very lax in the routines and rituals I had set up years ago when she was very young. My own house cleaning routines, special times for just the two of us, family time, and even making sure “daddy day” was still a thing.

After becoming really sick in December the lock down time in our home seemed to give way to revamping and renewing many our past routines and rituals. Although he was very sick having my husband home for several days straight allowed us to see how much we’ve been missing by running in opposite directions caring for everything but home and each other.

For January Sally opened our eyes to the beauty of the family routine.

I’ve talked about family routines before on the blog and how they bring a sense of peace to children. They love the familiar and knowing what’s coming next. So what did I do with them?

Well I’ve dusted them off and even added some new things for just this time in our lives.

So for January this is what we have implemented in our home

Morning Home Tidy (or blessing). Instead of cleaning my house once a week I spend about 20 minutes each morning after prayer just tidying up everything. I touch up the bathrooms (about 2 minutes each), make sure all beds are made, sweep the floor, tidy up the kitchen (empty dishwasher), start a load of laundry and either dust or vacuum).

Earlier dinner time and a small read. We had been eating dinner so late that it was just ridiculous. I start dinner a little earlier than I used to and having freezer dinners and a definite plan helps a lot with that. We also share a little at the dining table afterwards. Currently we’re reading Washington, Here We Come and planning some travels.

Evening Family Workout Routine. We’ve been exercising together! Inspired by another family on instagram we’ve been working out withJessica Smith’s Walk Strongplan. It fits all our needs and we can adjust it to fit each one of us personally.

This routines will change and flow with our lives and times but it has been really nice to spend more time together and make our house more of a home.

As we read on through the year turning our houses in home. No matter where we live it’s the rhthyms, the traditions, and the love that makes your house a home that the family loves to come home to.

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