Does your home feel chaotic and stressful? Are you looking for a way to make your home a peaceful haven for your entire family? I’ve written an ebook/workbook that will walk you step-by-step through the process of bring peace and beauty to your home. LEARN MORE HERE!
So, you’ve checked your heart attitude, you’re starting your day off right, you’re accepting less-than-perfect days, now let’s take a look at a time of day that can either make or break the peacefulness of your home.
Meal time!
Many of you reading this are stay at home moms, and I’d venture to guess quite a few of you are homeschool moms as well. That means you are gathering your family around the table at least three times daily, if not more. No wonder this time of day is crucial to the peace of the home!
Now, I’ve mentioned before how I was convicted by Family Strategies to take a more leisurely approach to our meals, but you might be wondering how you get from SAYING you want a more peaceful meal time to actually PARTAKING of a peaceful meal.
Here are some ideas to help you get there:
1. Prepare! I know this sounds simplistic and rather boring, but it’s the truth. The more you plan your meals, the more you can relax as meal time approaches. You know what you are having and you aren’t scrambling last minute to pull it all together.
2. Learn how to get the meal to the table and how to orchestrate the meal so that you get to eat with the family too. I remember being in awe of women who could get every dish to the table at the same time, hot and delicious. I also remember when I finally asked another mom of many to help me learn how to actually manage to eat with my family. Learning these things revolutionized meal time for me and for my family!
3. Make meal time fun! Choose new meals, play a meal time game, look your family in the eye and laugh long and hard! So much of this has to do with attitude. If meal times make you uptight, chances are you won’t feel the least bit peaceful during the actual eating of the meal. Go into the meal with a merry heart, and you might be surprised at how wonderfully peaceful your family already is!
4. Expect mishaps. Mama, get over it right now…someone IS going to spill something. Keep a towel and a smile handy!
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Craig says
I clicked on a tweet from you today, thinking that it would take me to your site. Instead it took me to Finding Joy – and a post that I absolutely hearted pieces. But I really wanted to get here – so I could read you. I knew already how you must’ve gotten the name raising arrows – before I read your about page – and this post? Totally brimming with awesome. The love of all the good moms I read – and have met – just continues to astound me. The thoughtfulness you put behind a meal – and you are so right – meals are where memories are made. My mom tried to make our meals this way – but for instance, she only ate part of the meal with us – wasn’t good at that part of your plan. And I had a father who had a penchant for ruining every meal – so only meals without him were fun. Most of my memories of mealtime are all from the way he destroyed them. The memories your babies will have from your mealtime – those are the kind of memories that make for really well-adjusted adults. Anyway – along comment – sorry. Thank you for this. And I think I’m going to like reading you. God bless and keep you and your husband and each and every one of your arrows.
Amy says
Thank you so much, Craig! And I’m glad you also accidentally ended up at my friend Rachel’s site as well. 😉 Many blessings to you!
Miranda says
I participate in a group called MOPS, I’m sure a lot of you at least have heard of it if not participated in one, and we recently had an awesome craft that would fit in nicely with this post. It was called a conversation jar. You can do different themes, since we did this craft in November and it was not just for the moms in MOPS but also to give out on a mission trip and to our local Fishes and Loaves charity at Thanksgiving, we made our theme giving thanks to the Lord. We put scripture about giving thanks and discussion questions to promote conversation at the dinner table. For example: “Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstance, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:16 – 18 followed with the question What does it mean to you to ‘never stop praying’? I think it’s a really awesome idea and plan to make others with different themes. 🙂