Purposeful Homemaking: Blessing Our Family

Written by Crystal Heft, Contributing Writer

I admit it, I stink at routine! Some days I manage to get right out of bed and run right through a very productive morning of cleaning and cooking and managing my home.?

Other days I decide to just chuck it all and not worry about it.? Recently I came to realize that my children notice the choices that I make and whether or not I get?my own work completed has an impact on them.

On good days I manage to toss together a snack and fill water bottles for each of them.? I set these things on our counter so that when snack time rolls around I don?t have to worry about what they?ve chosen to eat or how much.? On the days I let routine slide, I find we are scrambling and squabbling over how to get a snack together.

It?s just snack! It takes me all of a minute to dish out.? But doing so ahead of time not only saves me time and grief but it does something else.

It makes my children feel loved, thought of and cared for.

Now I know what you are thinking. My?children are still young.??Six years old and younger to be exact.? How could setting out a snack make much of a difference to them?

But it does.? I realized this a few weeks ago when my four year old, Ezra, asked me why I hadn?t done it in a while.? I just sort of brushed off his question with no real answer.? I mean, how does one describe why they don?t stick to their own routine?? The next day I got it together and had snack ready to go and then I slacked off again.? He noticed and he asked again.? I think he asked me three times over several days before I squatted down and held his little face in my hands and asked him why Mommy making a snack?was so important to him.? And then he said it.? He said the words that?ll crush any Mommy?s heart.? He said, ?Because?you make snack because you love me.?

To him, a snack laid out ahead of time shows love.? I haven?t missed a snack yet.? And I?ve even started dishing up our afternoon snack ahead of time.? I now take special joy in these mundane little tasks.? I started doing it because it made MY life easier.? Now I?ll keep doing it because it makes my son feel loved.?

Crystal is a former special education teacher who decided to stay home after her first child was born. Staying home was a completely foreign idea to Crystal. However, she followed the Lord's leading and is happily homeschooling her three children while also running a photography business.

Crystal blogs about life, homeschooling, photography and more at Crystal Starr. Stop by and check it out!

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Source: http://www.purposefulhomemaking.com/2012/08/blessing-our-family.html

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