Friday Friendship Feature #3, Creating a Morning Ritual or Routine
Welcome to the Friday Friendship Feature #3!
Today, on our Friday Friendship Feature #3, I am sharing an inspiring post that I ran across, written by another homeschooling mom. She shares on a very important topic: carving out your morning routine. She calls it a ritual, but to me that sounds hard! So I just call it a routine. You call it what you want!
Routines and Our Comfort
A routine or ritual is a habit that you make, that soon becomes just the way you always do things! I think that rituals/routines/habits become a comfort to family members, who learn to depend on them.
I personally am not a natural morning person. At all. I wish that I was. However, when I get myself into a good routine of getting up on time, taking a walk while listening to an inspiring audio talk/book/Bible, that sets my whole day off to a great start! The key is getting to bed, something that I also struggle with big time!
Please enjoy what Melissa shares, and leave her a comment if you feel so inclined!
You can tell me what you think about this great read below! I know you will be blessed!
Without further chatter from me, here’s today’s Friday Friendship Feature #3!
Creating a Morning Ritual | Simple Morning Rituals
“How precious are your thoughts about me, O God… And when I wake up, you are still with me!” Psalm 139: 17, 18
Having a good morning can set the tone for the entire day. Creating a morning ritual that brings you and your family a sense of peace, joy, and gives you energy to meet the day isn’t that hard. It just takes a little self discipline and a few little habits!
With the changing of seasons, often comes a new routine. Have you thought about adding a new ritual to your morning routine?
“How precious are your thoughts about me, O God… And when I wake up, you are still with me!”Psalm 139: 17, 18
Creating a Morning Ritual
This year my newest morning ritual is walking down our mountain and back up again. I wear my favorite work out clothes, so I feel good, add some lip gloss, and pull my hair back. The walk is steep and exhilarating and totals about 1 mile round trip. I jog the first half and walk the second, but my goal is to be able to run all the way.
My girls enjoy jogging down to school with me, back packs in tote. And I am setting a good example of how they should care for their bodies as they become young women.
In the morning while the air is still crisp and smells so good, try taking a walk, breathing in deeply, working up a good sweat, and caring for your health, you heart, your body.
You might find it to be the most amazing time of your day, just as I have. When I arrive home, I feel ready to take on the day – no matter how tired I was when I rolled out of bed. My mind is clearer, I have more energy, and taking that cool shower after walking in the door is totally refreshing.
I have been really enjoying my mornings – more than ever.
At the beginning of the year, I made several commitments to myself regarding the morning hours. The first was to rise even earlier – I try to get up by 5:30 am each day. If I have a really late night, it is more like 6:00 or 6:30.
I wanted to have time to cook a good hot breakfast everyday. I light candles and sometimes play music or sing hymns while a busy myself.
As I have mentioned before, the thought of my nearly 18 year old son has sent me into “panic mode!” I keep thinking of all the things I wish I had done.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I have done many things over the years to create good memories – including cooking a lot of wonderful meals – often for breakfast. But my fall back in the mornings for years has been cold or hot cereal. It is healthy – not to mention quick and easy!
My dear son, James, however, hates cereal. Well, he loves grits, but other than that, the thought of oatmeal, Cheerios, or Cream of Wheat – he’d rather skip breakfast. So, I decided that a good hot breakfast that would make him happy 99% of the time was worth the extra effort.
My husband always talks with fondness of his dear grandmother, who I never met. She would rise up at 3:00 in the morning and make up a big batch of biscuits and she would sit there and wait.
When she heard some one stirring up above, she knew who it was from the location in the house and perhaps the time (she had 12 children) and she would put that person’s biscuit in the oven and maybe cook an egg or some other dish to go along with it so that as each person came done they were presented with a freshly baked, hot from the oven meal.
Now, I think she was an amazing woman! Most women think, “Who in their right mind would do that? It’s too much trouble!”
And perhaps it was a great sacrifice.
Who Would Go to All That Trouble?
But the answer to the question of “Who would go to all that trouble?” is: a woman who greatly loved her family.
She had a servant’s heart.
I admire her. I want to have that kind of spirit – the kind of love that Jesus came to share.
I have always loved making homemade biscuits, but on an average morning? It always seemed too much trouble. However, I realized, after having made biscuits several times a week for the last month, that it takes me less than 10 minutes to make my dough, pat it out, cut out the biscuits and clean up.
Then, it only takes 8 – 10 minutes to bake. While they are baking, I can make eggs, gravy, slice up fruit, etc. Total time for breakfast preparation before we eat: 20 minutes.
While the gravy simmers and the biscuits bake, I can wash my biscuit bowl, and other utensils. After we eat, it takes maybe 5 – 10 minutes to put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, wash the pans, and wipe down the counter, and sweep the floor.
Some of the breakfasts we have enjoyed: pancakes with fresh blueberries and/ or strawberries, breakfast burritos, oatmeal with strawberry muffins, biscuits with milk gravy, biscuits with southern tomato gravy, biscuits with gravy, biscuits with homemade jam and/ or syrup, and/ or honey.
I like to serve eggs on the side – scrambled or fried of in the form of a cheese omelet. The kids get what they get – I do try to make enough so that everyone is satisfied, but if they are still hungry there is always cold cereal.
Proverbs 31 tells us that a Godly woman “rises while it is yet night, and prepares food for her household.” I want to be that kind of woman. In so many homes, children wake up mommy and ask her for something to eat.
Believe me, waking up to a warm kitchen filled with delicious smells and tempting sights… so much more … homey.
I have asked myself, what is it I want my children to remember most about home when they are on their own? A picture of an exhausted mother, chaotic home, hurried meals, is not very pretty.
Thoughts of home should be filled with memories of good things, happy times, yummy meals, and the love of a mother whose joy it was to serve rather than be served.
How to Create a Morning Ritual
Melissa has some great tips for setting a morning routine, plus some free printables that will encourage you in your morning quiet time. I hope that you can go read the entire post by clicking below on the link.
AdI think you will find her whole blog, A Virtuous Woman, to be an encouragement!
Read the rest of the article…A Virtuous Woman Blog
So…what did you think?
Are you inspired to be more diligent in creating your own morning routine?
Why don’t you tell me what you incorporate into your personal morning routine, by leaving a comment below!
And check out these Friday Friendship Feature articles from the archives!
3 am biscuits hot from the oven? What a grandmother! And what an inspiration to the rest of us to pour our heart and souls into our families with the mothers-heart God gave us.
Yes, I have to admit that that seems almost out of reach for me! Not a morning gal. But…we each have a sphere where we can shine as mothers and wives! ?
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