You guys actually read my crazy Day in the Life post. All the way to the bottom!
And some of you had questions about it. So, I’ll be addressing those questions over the next few weeks.
- How we do bedtime routines,
- why our kids don’t have their own beds,
- letting our kids go places on their own,
- encouraging independence in our kids, and
- how we incorporate prayer into our family’s daily routine.
Since that last question came from the estimable Haley at Carrots for Michaelmas, I did that one first. . . .
I want perfection in prayer. At least I think I ought to want it. Raptures, ecstasies, levitation, my heart literally bursting into flame. That’s what a good prayer life looks like in my imagination.
In reality, I’m not a cloistered nun or a desert hermitess, able to spend hours deep in contemplative prayer. My prayer life has to happen within my vocation to motherhood. It’s stolen moments, and frequent interruptions. And it mostly has to happen alongside my children. So there’s no levitating, but there are requests for crackers, and bathroom breaks, and whisper shouting. But it’s better than nothing. It’s so, so, so much better than nothing.
That’s what I’m slowly coming to understand. If I wait for the perfect time to really get serious about my prayer life, I will never have a prayer life at all. If I wait for my children to be ready, they’ll be grown and gone and we won’t have started yet.
A perfect prayer life would be lovely. But since that’s not possible, we have found ways to incorporate prayer into our daily family routine. It’s very imperfect, but it’s happening.
The rest is guest-posted over at Carrots for Michaelmas!
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Ack! Thanks, I think I fixed it.
On TOP of all those post I'd love to know how you get/stay disciplined about your routine. Do you have a chore chart for all the kids that they know what needs to be done in the morning? Do you think they are disciplined that way because you've disciplined yourself? When did you start or was it always natural to be that way? We are sorely in need of a schedule or routine or SOMETHING around here, mine are only 4, 2 and 7 months and I know that a routine would add some more peace to our day. My nagging feeling is that it's gotta start with ME being disciplined with a routine first, and then I can work on one with them! Thanks for all the sharing you do, it's truly an inspiration. 🙂
I wanna know this too. I think about and team about having a great routine for my family but when it comes time to execute it that's a whole mother story…
Okay, I'm on it! :0)
I love love loved your post at Haley's today. So much good stuff there.
I think that is a wonderful way too pray for those of us not named Mother Theresa. I used to say a few quick prayers on the airplane jumpsest or in between girl scout meetings or whenever there was a free moment. I think the Lord likes that because we are thinking of him in all we do. My goodness you are so busy with all of those kids that any time in prayer will be pleading to the Lord.
Thank you for sharing such wonderful ideas and suggestions! We will be incorporating many of these this week. I am so excited to homeschool in the fall and have more time to pray with my children. And do you have a lamb mold or do you do that by hand?
I pull up a picture of a lamb cake on my iPad and just freehand it. It seems to turn out recognizeable.