On the Homefront: Getting Back to Family and Community

On the Homefront Series

August is a month of lots of activities, families are focused on wrapping up the summer, and getting ready for the school year.  As we start a new month, we are often reviewing what was accomplished and taking stock of what's ahead. 

Our focus this month is the Homefront.  When I begin to imagine the Christian home, I think of a place of safety, comfort, instruction, and fellowship.  The home is the center of everything, and the driving force for what happens in our communities, schools, churches, workplace and the world around us. 

This new series "On the Homefront" will be our focus for the entire month of August.

 Here are the  topics we will be exploring:

• Getting Back to Family and Community
• The Origin of the Home
• Order in the Home
• The Influences on Family Life

Getting Back to Family and Community

As we leave our family home, we enter society, and are engaged as members of other communities.  The impact of family life is evident in our schools, churches, workplaces, and community.  We are pulled into so many directions as we leave our homes.  I'm sure your home is full of activity from sunup to sundown.  Each year, I join Ali Edwards A Day in the Life project which chronicles a week of everyday living.  I create a scrapbook that chronicles a typical week.  We definitely use that word "typical" lightly, because no day or week in our home is the same. 

So what's  a daily routine in your household? How do you begin your day?  What are the components of your day?  In our household we begin and end each day acknowledging each other in simple ways. 

Here's a typical day in my household:  

We wake up and greet each other with a good morning hug and a groggy or cheerful "Good Morning" greeting depending on the day the person initiating the greeting.  The key is that we all say good morning, and acknowledge each other in some way.  As we rush through getting showered and dressed, directions are shouted out constantly, "brush your teeth", "wash your face", "where's your backpack", "did you eat something?", "yes you can have some juice".  I think you get the picture of the morning routine.  Following the hustle and bustle to get ready, we head out to school and for work. 

Last year, I began a routine with the boys of praying and sharing our scripture reading each morning.  This was a means of slowing down our day, and ensuring that we honor God at the beginning of our day.  Over the course of the year, the boys have really grown and we have all been more mindful of placing God at the center of our day.  The prayers cover everyone, both in our home and at school.  I can hear a heart for others growing as they pray, and extend our love for God and each other to those they hold dear.  At the time, it was a goal to increase our devotion time, but it has definitely been so much more.  We spend approximately 2 hours from waking up to leaving the house.  It's a time of instruction, caring, and guidance.

The next part of our day, is spent in the community, joining in as an active member as a student, worker, or community member.  We spend approximately 10 hours out of our home, daily at work and school, and return home for the rest of our day.  Upon returning home for the remaining hours of our day before bedtime we have 4 hours to re-engage as a family.  This re-engagement allows for the family to share our days joys and challenges. Although we are busy preparing dinner and settling in for the evening it's also a time to receive instruction for the next days interactions.  The quality of the 6 hours at home, are the most important part of our day and will have impact on how we give of ourselves the 10 hours we are away from home.  This is why we must get back to family life and develop a people who will impact their community in a greater way. 

And How are the Children?

This series comes at an important time, when children are re-entering school, and families are establishing routines to support their lives.  Why now? Because our society has become driven by so many things, and the family is losing it's place in the midst of constant change.  At the core of every community, is the family unit.  The health of the family is evident in how society unfolds.  I'm reminded of the Masai Tribe greeting, "And how are the children?".  The response we are looking for is "All the children are well."  Can we really say that about our families, our homes?  We can when we do the work and get back to making family life a priority.  So what would you respond to the greeting, " And how are the children?" 

Simply Saturday: The Need for REST

Well today is the first free Saturday I've had since February.  So much activity and busyness, so today I'm enjoying a day at home, catching up on rest and of course doing some reflection on the week to come, as my body rest.

When I think of relaxation this is my picture of what it looks like.  Sitting near water, looking out at the water and walking along the beach.  Doesn't that make you take
a deep breath, and go ahhh! Well in the ideal world we escape and get to the water to breathe deeply and exhale.  What happens when we don't? Our bodies begin to tell us that it's time for rest and relaxation.  In the midst of everyday, we need time to pull away from it all, and change our focus.  The month of March and April have been hectic to say the least.  Here's what I learned from the past two months:



R- Replenish
Replenishing is key to being our best.  When we need to be replenished, it's because we've emptied out and need to be refueled.  The danger of not replenishing regularly, is that we find ourselves empty and still giving out, but it's out of an empty place, and it causes damage to our bodies.  It's like running a marathon, without ever replenishing our fluids and resting our bodies.  We become fatigued.  So replenish by drinking lots of water, daily.  Eating healthy fruits and vegetables in large quantities.  Having quiet time with God, daily.  Getting outdoors in the fresh air, and taking a walk.  There are so many ways to replenish. 
 
E - Exhale
Breathing is so beneficial to our lives, yet we must take the time to exhale.  In the midst of our hustle and bustle of life, take regular moments to exhale. Breath deeply, and then release the breath.  Exhaling is a signal to our bodies that respite is near.  Exhaling is releasing the cares of the day, and letting them go, not picking them up again.  Do it now,, take a deep breath...now exhale with your lips pursed until all of the air is expelled.  Did you feel that, clear feeling in your head?  That breath of fresh air?  That's what it feels like to exhale.

S-Solitude
One of my favorite words is solitude, because  we all need to be still and have quiet moments in our days.  This is one of the most needed elements in our day, but we often leave it for last.  Starting our day at a slow pace, and ordering our day so that we have time for quiet reflection will restore us.
 
T-Take It In!
In each of these instances of REST, we must take it all in.  Everyday we are walking by moments that should be embraced and taken in.  The bird sitting on the grass as we leave the house.  The freshly bloomed flower in our garden, the baby that smiles at you as you pass them.  Take it all in.  Be refueled, Be replenished, and establish a habit of REST.

SimplySaturday

Simply Saturday: What driving you?

The month of March was a blur, and is all most over!  Where did it go? When I looked online today my last post was February 28th.  When I pause and look back at this month, I realized that I began with a week of travel to Chicago.  When I leave my family for work travel, it takes a week to prepare to go, and a week to reengage when I come home.  Rengaging included conversations with my spouse, supporting my little ones, and attending two birthdays in one weekend.  The following week was full of meetings and appointments, so there goes another week.  At the end of that week, was my son's birthday celebration, my younger's son's trip to ER for a broken elbow, and the arrival of my mom for a visit during Spring Break.  That brings us to today, and the end of a three week blur of activity.

"Our paths are paved with good intentions, and sometimes those intentions are not met because we are living life in full speed. " 

This is why its important to bring in simplicity everyday in simple ways, to help us connect to the people we love and the beauty around us.

Here are some simple ways to reconnect when the world seems to be going at warp speed:

• Breathe.  Take a deep breath, hold it, and then let it go slowly breathing out of pursed lips. (Now you read it, do it now.  How did that feel?)
• Take snapshots of moments in your day.  This gives you a real picture of what you experienced throughout the day, and a diary of how you spent your time during the week or month.  Ali Edwards has a wonderful tool call A Week in The Life, where she chronicles everyday living, and brings meaning back to the simple things.  Check it out.
• Be forgiving of yourself and others.  When you don't meet all of your goals or your schedules overlap, let it go.  Sometimes we cause undo stress because we are trying to walk in other people's expectations.  We can not be all things to all people, so just be true to yourself.  
• Begin where you are.  Instead of trying to make up for what was missed, like three weeks of blog post, meetings, outings with friends.  Just begin where you are.  As you do this, realize most of the time we are the only ones holding ourselves in contempt for what was.  Others forgive us, faster than we do so learn from their lessons.  Again, forgive yourselves and move on.
• Plan again.  So when the busy times come around again, what will you do differently?  I have been looking at busy times in my year, and seeing patterns.  I can see that March/April and September/October are high times for my work and family life.  Knowing this, what can I do to plan for some of those activities, so that next year I'm not writing the same blog post about being overwhelmed with activity. 

Simply Saturday: So many voices........

Well we are ending the month of February, and ready to enter the month of March, marking the first quarter of year.  In January 2015, I wrote this as I ended the first week of the month,

"It's only the end of first week of the month, of a new year and I'm exhausted from  a week's of activity, and so many voices.  We all can forecast the month of January, by looking at magazine covers, store displays, and media blitz.  It's a new year so....( take a deep breath, this is a run-on thought) let's lose weight, eat healthy, simplify our lives, begin our business, focus our dreams, create a vision for life, purchase new clothes and socks for school, get the dryer fixed, eat healthy, so what's the cost of a bag of apples . Whew... that was tiresome.  Just writing it down, was exhausting."

Does that make you tired?  It made me exhausted just reading it again, and so here's the inspiration I drew from it for today's post.  Simplicity is not a language of the world.  The world says, do more, buy more, start this, stop that.  If you know me, you know that I create what I want to see in my life.  I'm able to do this because I'm always examining, how I can be better, feel better, and impact the lives of those around me. 

This week's challenge:

• Take an inventory of your first two months of the year.  Did you set some goals?  Are they visible in your everyday life? If they are, how does that change what's ahead in the months to come?  If not, what can you do to change it? 
• Did you write a vision statement for your year? Or create a vision board? Do you need help in creating a vision for your life, checkout franklincovey.com.
• If your life sounds like my entry from January, how can you slow down this week and take the control back?  What's one thing you can do to begin?  Do it now.
• BREATHE, deeply and often, today is a new day.

Simply Saturday

Simply Saturday: Reliving Your Childhood

Well it's Saturday morning and the work week has ended.  Today I'm in bed finishing up my Saturday morning routine.  I watch my quilt show on PBS, followed by a sewing show and painting with Yarnell.  PBS has been a staple in my life since childhood.  It's what we watched before their were nickJr, Disney, and all of the media outlets that children are watching these days.  

What's amazing is the relevance of PBS, 48 years later is still the same.  My children watched PBS and enjoyed the same shows that I did as a child.  In raising children, we often get caught up in the latest fads, and creating busyness that's unnecessary.  I often speak of reclaiming childhood, because it's in childhood that the true nature of a person is developed and most apparent.  

What did you spend time doing as a child? What drew your interest? How have you shared those childhood experiences with your children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews?   

Here are a few childhood experiences that I enjoyed, and my children are experiencing them as well.

Playing board games:  Sorry, Trouble, Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Checkers, Go,  Hi Ho Cherry O, Scrabble, Life, Monopoly and the list goes on..

Playing outside in the neighborhood

Pretend Play in the house with my sisters

Building tents and forts

Playing with legos

Reading, Reading, Reading all the time

Going to the park

Visiting the museum and exploratorium

Going to the Zoo

Taking a drive

Creating artwork masterpieces

Painting with watercolors

Playing with Playdoh

So here's the Simply Saturday challenge for the week:

1.  Spend time today reliving a childhood experience.  You can relive it by getting out and doing it.  Journaling about it. Sitting and just reminiscing on the experience.

2.  Share it with someone by telling of the experience and what it reawakened in you.  

3.  Write a post on Facebook or twitter with the hashtag#SimplySaturdayChildhood

Simply Saturday

#SimplySaturdayChildhood

Simply Saturday: Remembering Childhood

As a child, my richest experiences were when I was given time to explore, wonder, and create.  It's what I held onto into adulthood as an educator, parent, and woman creative.  When I explore I approach in the same way as I did as a child.  I watch and take in all of the environment, I circle back and look at details of what caught my eyes, the first time through, and then I make note of what stood out for me.  As an adult, I'm reflecting on why was it meaningful, what does it mean to me, and how it add value to my life.

Today as I write this, I'm at a birthday party with my 7 year old.  I'm sitting enjoying the reflection time, looking at the e,exhibits in the Museum of Osteology.  It's amazing!  Since my son doesn't need me to navigate  party etiquette, it's refreshing.

I watched as the kids navigated the Museum and explore on there on, I was reminded of the simplicity of new experiences.  As we experience new things, as children or adults our approaches are similar:

• We explore with our eyes, ears, mouth, touch, and smell- our innate ability to use our five senses to make sense of the world around us.
• We look for something familiar, building on prior knowledge or experience - this is our beginning of formulating knowledge and growing as life-long learners.
• We look for extensions of what we are learning - how can I take it and build on it further.  Do I share what I've learned or experienced with others.  If so, with who do I share this new knowledge.

When we apply these basic steps we are living and experiencing our world, not just bystanders or site seeing.  This is life in it's most simplest form.  Through the eyes of a child, we learn about ourselves.


Live Simply!

Simply Saturday: The Little things Matter

In the course of a week of work, we strive to get to the weekend and exhale from all of the days work.  This ritual of winding down, and relaxing has been at the core of my life from childhood.  I watched my parents work hard all week long, and then relax and unwind Saturday mornings, by reading the newspaper, cover to cover, enjoying a cup of coffee, watching mindless tv, or just hanging out around the house with the family.

We will be starting a weekly series, Simply Saturdays in February to highlight the ritual of slowing down, taking it easy, enjoying life, and exhaling.


The Simply Saturday series is about making time for the little things, and taking time to pause and reflect.  In our busy hustle and bustle, we often get overwhelmed by all the things that compete for our time and attention.

I have been fortunate to spend my days, with young children and families, who remind me that time moves fast, and that it's the moments that matter.  To capture moments we taken pictures, we tell stories, and we share our experiences.  In those stories what we are really talking about are simple things that make us smile, and treasure everyday life.  That's what Simply Saturday is about.

We will tell of simple stories, share pictures of moments, and share our experiences.  This month the focus is on acts of kindness, and displays of love.  So here we go......

February 7, 2015
This week I fulfilled a Pay it Forward challenge, by mailing a care package to a friend, Kali Schofell. As a mom, I remember the difference a day makes, and how knowing that others care and understand, got me through the day.  I had as much fun shopping for the items, and filling the custom box, as Kali had receiving it.
Simple Lesson:
Take time to share joy and honor friendships both near and far.

Live Simply, Live fully, Live Life

Kelly Ramsey