living lovely-weekly

this week over at mt hope chronicles we're talking about weekly rituals.
(that's karis on the left, 17 years ago, about 17 months old, wearing a dress that was her mother's)

when our kids were little, starting at about age 4 (for the olders, the younger kids started earlier because, well, they saw the big kids getting to go out....) we started a weekly date with mom/dad. it would be date night with mom, alternating each time with a child-led date night and a mom-errand-date night (like grocery shopping). then we'd alternate months with saturday morning donut date with dad, which didn't last long with dad's busy schedule. but the weekly date nights with mom were a special time (didn't take many pictures). so let's say january was a one kid a week date night, kid choice. february would be donuts with dad saturdays, march would be date errand night with mom, april would be donuts with dad. get the idea? we haven't done date nights (other than some random one on one) since moving here in january, but i know several kids who are anxious to get it going again. this has been one of our best moments of parenting, in my opinion. i love spending time with my kids. they're great people!

that one-on-one time became especially important once we had so many kids we had to switch from a man-to-man to a zone defense. that was their time to share anything and everything, make memories, try new things without an audience and spend some time alone.



again when they were little, we had a weekly family night where we did something intentional as a family, whether it was play at a park, watch a movie, or do a puzzle. this got harder as the kids got older and more involved in sports/dance/youth activities. it permanently fell by the wayside about 5 years ago. i hate that the littles don't have the same childhood as the bigs, but in some ways it's better. the bigs didn't have older siblings to take them to the grocery store and get a treat, etc. now, in place of those nights, i try to make an intentional effort to watch a show with my kids (past favorites have been american idol, what not to wear, jon and kate plus 8. current favorites are survivor, the office, csi miami) or play a game with them (settlers of catan, dutch blitz, norwegian dice). it may not be my first pick, but i never regret pushing all the things on my mind aside in order to spend time with them, even if it's a show i don't particularly enjoy. it has sparked many great conversations and laundry and dishes are still there when the show's over!



when we were homeschooling, we had a weekly tea time where we had a special snack (i was usually the only one who drank tea--the others opted for hot chocolate or milk) and shared a poem from a book, or one they had written. (that's pete in the swing, where he usually was during tea time when it was reasonable to be on the back porch)




and of course we have the weekly ritual of church attendance on sundays and wednesday nights. those days are our anchor days--they help us through the week to maintain focus, and have even helped our kids learn the days of the week.

(olivia with buddies from church in florida)

i feel like i'm forgetting something important, but i also feel like i've been working on this post forever. must be the lack of sleep.....

enjoy your kids!