Welcome to Organizing your Heart and Home!! We are well are on way to getting ourselves organized in 2011!
Today, Traci is organizing her bathroom closet and it looks amazing! So make sure you head over to Beneath my Heart and get your home organized. Since I’m concentrating on the Heart we’re going to tackle how to better Organize our Family Life. Boy do I need this!
Family life today is just crazy. We all seem to be busier than ever. We are over-stressed, and over-scheduled (yes I am!).
As I was researching and trying to write this post I felt very convicted that I’m not doing a good job at making Family Time a priority.
I just heard my husband say “Amen!” in the other room. Ask anyone in my family and they will tell you I spend too much time on my computer (sigh).
Even my daughter from France gets neglected sometimes and she will be leaving us at the end of May. Well thank goodness for grace and for second chances!
Whether you are a mother of small children, teenagers, young adults, or a grandmother, family time is important. Spending quality time with our family will provide us with an immeasurable amounts of blessings.
Here are three things I’m going to strive to do to help Organize my Family Time.
1. Eat Dinner Together Regularly
Although we usually eat dinner together, I sometimes rush through it to get to the other things on my to-do list. I’m going to try to sit and relax a little longer and enjoy this time with my family.
A recent article, “The Importance Of Family Dinners,” reports:
The number of teens who have regular family dinners drops by 50 percent as their substance abuse risk increases sevenfold, according to a survey of 12 to 17 year olds released by Columbia University.”
It continues: “The survey finds that the more often children have dinner with their parents, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use illegal drugs,” said Joseph A. Califano, Jr., President of The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.
Notice it didn’t say we had to be Giada De Laurentiis. It just said we need to have a meal together. I have to remember it’s the time spent together!
2. Create a Family Night
The solution is simple and can create memories to last a lifetime. Whether it’s movie night, game night, or a family walk night, the key is that a night each week is designated for together time.
Relax and talk with each other! My sister and her husband have done this for years with their boys. Friday night is family night at there house. They even have a song, “It’s Family night, oh what a night!” The boys usually begin singing it by Thursday as they anticipate Friday.
On Friday night they do something together, usually at home, and then the boys make a pallet at the end of their parents bed and they have a slumber party.How fun! And the memories will last a lifetime!
3. Keep Sunday a Sabbath
I have to confess for several months Sundays have been hectic. Church is a given on Sundays but the rest of the day I spend writing posts for this blog. Not so good. I’m not trying to be over legalistic but I just feel it’s getting in the way of my time to enjoy my family.
I want Sunday to be a day of rest and relaxation. So I’m going to try and limit (as in hardly at all, maybe not at all) my computer use on Sundays.
Sometimes it’s good to give something up that is controlling too much of our time. Maybe it’s not blogging for you, maybe it’s talking on the phone, or maybe you’re addicted to Facebook.
Whatever it is pick one day (it doesn’t have to be Sunday) of the week to be your Sabbath day and give something up.
What do you think? Could you do it?
I’m guessing we all have something we could give up! There you have it! I hope you will join with me as we Organize our Family Time!
*Now for my Giveaway!*
I’m super excited to give this book away. Family time begins with a Husband and Wife having a healthy relationship. This book helps couples better understand each other.
Enter to win: (required entry)
- Leave a comment and let me know if you sometimes struggle with Family Time!
2 Bonus Entries:
- Subscribe to my blog, or become a google follower and leave me a comment. If you’re already a subscriber or follower (thank you!) simply leave a comment and tell me.
- Tweet about this giveaway and come back and tell me about it in a separate comment.
This giveaway will end on Thursday (1/26) at 9 PM EST. The winner will be drawn at random, and notified via email.
O.K. ladies don’t forget to stop by and visit Traci at Beneath my Heart. You don’t want to miss out on organizing your Home!
I am a follower of yours!
I’m a FRIEND 😀
Love it! It has been topic of convo around our house – and with some girlfrends lately. I’d love to read this book!
Does retweeting your tweet count? ; )
We three try eat dinner together every night just about. I hope it’s just ingrained in our (mostly my Kiddo’s) head that that’s just what you do. We also have started family night with homemade pizza (we all three chip in somehow with it) and I am loving it. As for Sundays, well, they tend to be a bit hectic but we try to keep things calm enough to sneak in a nap after church and lunch. : )
I’ve always wanted to read Love & Respect, so I hope I win! : )
I’m a GFC follower. (Aubrey Charlebois)
I’m a follower. Yes, I sometimes struggle with family time. Especially with my husband’s crazy work schedule!
I made a decision a couple of months ago that I would not go shopping on a Sunday (all necessary shopping is now done during the week and on a Saturday only) – instead, we share this day as a family and attend fellowship, as well as prepare for the week ahead – this decision has made a huge impact on my life.
I am a follower of your blog and enjoy reading each post. I especially enjoy “Wednesdays With Wanda.” I used to always (years ago) look forward to the recipes in the Family Life. Maybe I read some of her articles.
Thanks for the Words of Wisdom—Needed to hear them!
Love your post. My family struggles with family time, mostly because our girls ages range from 3 to 11. So what the 3 yr old wants to do the 11 yr old is not interested. We are still trying to figure this out. Blessings,
Thankyou for this series…yes we make Sunday night our family night – my son comes back from his dad’s at 5pm & it is so important that we respect the time together. If we rush on by & don’t do it I can be assured that my little boy will let me know!!! I also have been feeling convicted (not in a legalistic way) of late regards being too busy on Sunday – I am looking at staying off my computer on Sunday’s and allowing time to talk with my husband and just ‘be’ together. Thanks for your encouragements.
Tiffany
I just tweeted about your giveaway as well! 🙂 p.s. I got Jesus Calling in the mail & have started reading! Its awesome!! Thank you so much!! xoxo
I am already a follower through google friends connect!
This is something that is on my mind all the time!!! And as much as I think about it & want to do it, I still find myself getting caught up in life (& blogging!) I feel like my 2 boys are growing up soo fast, which I know happens, but I want to make the most of the time that I have with them while they are little because I know in a few years….they are not gonna want to hang out with their mommy! Thank you for this post!
im a follower of yours . I’d love to win the book.
oh yeah, with a 16, 21 and 22 year old, family supper time together doesnt happen very often. And I miss that! So I cherish those times that every thing just falls into place and we get one of those wonderful days when we’re all together.
We try to reserve Friday nights for movie/pizza night with our 3 kids. However, we sometimes get off track. The kids really enjoy it so it’s something I want to make sure we stay on track with.
This was a great reminder for me, and definitely something I have been thinking about for awhile that needs to be more of a priority!
trishaplatt@yahoo.com
We have small kiddos! Two boys, 5, and soon to be 4 (13 mos. apart. I have to admit we have several date nights throughout the year, but I want to make MORE special moments w/ our kiddos as a family, we do, but not enough!
We are now empty nesters and we try to keep these things together more than we did when we had kids at home. I love that we try to wait for dinner so that we can be together!
We struggle with being able to get all three of our children to the dinner table at the same time. Our oldest is in college so she is home when she can be. The other two are involved in school and sports activities that can rob family time but we make a very hard effort to sit down for dinner together at least 5 times a week. That mean NO tv or phone calls and their friends are always welcome to join us. It amazes me how many never have a sit down meal with their family. Like you said, you don’t have to be a gourmet cook – just a mom who can gather everyone together and provide something to eat!
Thanks for reminding us what is important.
Oh — so glad Dee from RedLetterWords tweeted about this post . . . because the lack of time — especially family time — has been heavy on my heart lately! I know it’s an ebb and flow, but sometimes I wish I could chuck the To Do List and Calendar in the trash!! The kids are over committed, and the hubs and I REALLY need a date! Gah!!
As a family, we ALWAYS eat dinner together . . . so I guess I should count that as a blessing! 🙂
We do struggle with family time. I have a teenager who wants to be elsewhere with his friends, a younger teenager and an 8 year old. It is hard to find a common bond for all of these kids. But we always eat dinner together during the week!
There’s nothing like a tight budget to encourage creative family time! Our family loves pizza/movie night and board game bonanzas — but it is hard to totally be “in” the moment. I have to intentionally close the laptop and put away the cell phones! Just being in the same room isn’t enough to qualify as family time.