I’m eagerly waiting for a good night sleep to happen and at the same time trying not to anticipate its arrival coming soon. 🙂 I’m thankful that the past few weeks have been low-keyed so it’s okay that I’m walking around with minimal functioning brain cells. One of these days my daughter won’t wake up needing to be re-tucked in and I’ll get more than 3 hours asleep before the baby wakes up to eat.

One fun thing we finally accomplished this week was replacing all of the white knobs and pulls on the kitchen cabinets with oiled bronze ones. Hooray for small updates that make a big difference (especially ones that are easy to boot)!

Breakfasts:

• Granola and Yogurt (me)
• Pumpkin Pancakes from freezer (Toddler)
• Green Smoothie popsicles (Toddler)

Lunches:

• Pumpkin Pancakes
• Staff Party (new recipe theme) – Spicy Chicken Pasta and Pretzel Caramel Brownies (with homemade brownies)
• Salad
• Leftovers

Suppers:

• White Bean Chicken Chili
• BLTs (I haven’t made bread for a long time so this will be tasty!)
• Asian Salad (Yummy!)
• Pizza (My husband was excited about the return of the weekly pizza night)

Snacks:

• Fruit
• Crunchy Almonds

Goals:

• Run 25 minutes 3 times (I jog slow, but hooray for getting this goal accomplished each week)
• Order name badges for our concert series organization
• Read 30 minutes 4 times (Umm, last week I don’t think I picked up any books other than the Bible and reading to my daughter)
• Write 3 blog posts (Hopefully I can beat my one from last week)
• Plan Warm Your Walls party

Here’s hoping to a few good nights sleep and knocking off all of my goals. What’s cooking in your house this week?

Linking up to Menu Plan Monday

 

Photo by Kara Bee Photography

Fall. That wonderful season when the temperature starts cooling off, soups come back on the menu plan and you start thinking all things pumpkin and molasses.

One of my favorite cookies are molasses cookies. There’s something so wonderful and different about them. This is a recipe passed down from my mom and grandma that I’ve adapted a little. (Replaced the shortening with butter, increased the molasses and cut back on the sugar.) They have the perfect soft and chewy texture.

Linking up to Thrifty Thursday, Welcome Home Wednesday, The Weekend re-Treat, Recipe Sharing Monday, Welcome Home Wednesday, Homemaking Link Up, Mommy Brain Mixer, Thriving Thursday, Pin It Thursday, Thrifty Thursday, House to Home, Link Party Palooza, Strut Your Stuff, Teach Me Tuesday, Titus 2 Tuesday, Good Taste Tuesday, Tending the Home Tuesdays, WFMW, Homemaking Link-Up, Welcome Home Wednesday, Living Proverbs 31, TGIM, Mindful Mommy Monday, Mama Moments, Create it or Bake it, Let’s Get Real
  

Tuesday I shared some of the reasons family time is important and why I care so much about living life together. Fortunately, church is one time where the family can be together. Right?

Hmm, let’s think about what happens during the course of a week at a typical church:

• Sunday School – Separated by age in different classrooms.
• Worship Service – Separated by age with children’s church, nursery, and sometimes even a teen service.
• Wednesday Nights – Separated by age with youth group, children’s group, nursery and adult classes.
• Small Groups – Starting to see even these separated by age for mid-high, senior high, couples, senior adults etc.

Not once in this church week is there a dedicated time for the entire family to be together.

I don’t expect society to care about bringing the family together and creating an atmosphere that cultures those relationships. However, I would love for the church to have many of its functions and opportunities work for all ages to do together. Hey, I’d be happy with one or two church activities that were for the entire family. What a way to support a family-  encourage them to pray together, serve together, and worship together. 

Segregating everything by age is a huge disservice to the body of Christ. After all, families are integrated and the church is a family. We all belong to the same body and have things to glean by doing life together. This mean infants, toddlers, teens and adults. People in every stage of life.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I understand from the church’s perspective that they are a between a rock and hard place wanting to appeal to everyone (especially those new to the church) and even feel a bit of competition with other churches.

There aren’t any perfect solutions but maybe there should be compromise. Have Sunday School and Wednesday nights separated by age (or you could even start with everyone together and then separate) but keep small groups for families. Maybe Children’s Church and nursery could be available for those who want to use it but the church could be equally supportive and upfront as to how they love to see children worshiping with their parents. Each family could then decide what is right for them. A parent won’t feel like an outsider for keeping their family together or for using the nursery.

Further Reading

I found three articles to be very encouraging and reaffirm what I’m thinking. They let me know l was not alone in this endeavor.

• Thriving Family wrote on Welcoming Kids Into Worship
• Jessica from Our Family for His Glory wrote a letter To You Mamas With Little Ones in Church
• The Gospel Coalition’s post was Don’t Segregate the Youth

How do you think that church can best be supportive of families?

(Tuesday I’ll discuss why I keep my children in church with me and give some suggestions for helping them sit through the service.)

Linking up to Fellowship Fridays, Essential Things Friday, Mama Moments, Homemaking Link-Up, Thriving Thursday,  Proverbs 31 Thursdays

 

Society is great at limiting the time a family has to be together. Usually one or both parents work outside the home and kids often spend much of their day at school leaving only a few short hours for family time. Extracurricular events such as sports, scouts, church and other after school activities pull families in even more directions.

It is a rare exception to have a everyone in a family in the same place. It seems harder and harder for each generation to make family time a priority. It is something we have to decide we want enough that we are willing to make it happen for ourselves. We can’t count on others to set aside a set numbers of hours a week and say that it is family time. It’s our job to protect our time. We have to commit to saying no to some seemingly good things in able to protect the time our families need together.

Family relationships are the most important!

Reasons Why I Want Family Time:

• This is where my children learn what a family is. They learn about the cycle of life, how to care for others, and what unconditional love is.
• I want my family to stay connected and grow closer together rather than apart. The relationships within my family come before relationships with others.
• I want my children to come to me with problems, questions, excitement etc. not someone else.
• It is healthy to be around different age groups. There is so much wisdom and grace to learn from those older and younger.
• You learn to communicate and interact with every age group instead of only those the same age as you.
• I don’t want my children to get all their advice and be continually influenced by their peers. (Sometimes peers can help you feel understood but oftentimes they help you dig deeper into the rut you are in and become more dissatisfied with your family.)
• I love my family and I want to spend time with them. (Might be selfish, but it’s true. I want to see and enjoy the people I care about.)

Friends come and go and passions change but your family will be there forever. Let’s nurture those relationships that count the most.

 

Why do you prioritize family time?

(I hope you’ll come back Thursday as we discuss Family and the Church)

Linking up to Fellowship Fridays, Essential Fridays, Mama Moments, The Better Mom, Homemaking Link-Up, Faith Filled Friday, Living Proverbs 31, Thriving Thursday, Proverbs 31 Thursdays