I had planned to write this post earlier, but I’ve been a bit busier than expected. It’s better late than never, right? We have had a lot going on, but I haven’t stressed. I have had an unusual sense of CALM and PEACE that I haven’t felt in a long time, so I really want to share what works for our family.
I read something earlier today about stress, worry, and anxiety coming from feeling like we don’t have control over the future… guess what? No one has control over the future… we have to trust in GOD and surrender those feelings to HIM. When we do this, we will become rooted in HIM, and HE will give us PEACE.
Now, this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t plan for the future, or neglect our responsibilities, but we should release the stress of them to GOD. We can rest in the assurance that HE is in control, and HE will do what is best for us. We need to make sure that we are taking care of all that HE has BLESSED us with, and do our best to model HIS love to our families and all of those around us.
The Proverbs 31 woman shows us some of the ways that she modeled this attitude. We can strive to be more like her in our lives. I am working on a study for this!
First thing, I want to remind you that everyone’s home and family are different, so what works for me or someone else may not work for you. However, if you take some of what works for me and tweak it for your family, I truly believe you will find a bit of peace in your routines.
A long time ago, I made a file card system to help keep our chores organized. I then expanded that to include other areas of our lives to keep me from forgetting important events. It also helps me to think about things beforehand so I can better prepare for them. Am I always prepared for things that happen unexpectedly? No, but I can usually pull something together pretty quickly to accommodate changes because of the routines that we already have in place.
Household Routines File Set Up: OVERVIEW
As I said, household chores were a BIG challenge for me at one time in my life. Part of that was that someone I was with insisted that a spotless house needed to be my TOP PRIORITY… things have since changed for the better, and we are not around this person anymore. This system came about as an effort to find a balance between a clean house, a garden, and my kids. It was very successful at helping us get the things completed as they needed to be, and I no longer had to fight any LAUNDRY MONSTERS.
The next biggest challenge I faced was the ‘What’s for Dinner?’ dilemna. Thankfully, that question was included in the daily routines that I had created with our previous system, but I needed to work on it a bit. I started meal planning, which helped me develop a better grocery shopping routine. Previously, I had just gone to the grocery store with no real plan, and shopped for my usuals and then just tried to make them last through the month. If something unexpected came up, I didn’t have a plan for it.
Continue reading “Finding Peace Through Routines”
