***Hold on, I’m not going to try to convert anyone here. This blog is not religious even though I consider myself a religious person. I just think the idea of a Sabbath is a really good one that everyone can benefit from, religious or not.
Ok, that disclaimer out of the way, the idea of a sabbath is that you set one day aside each week to rest and recharge yourself. You work away at your life for 6 days and on the 7th you rest. Anyone who has ever read the “Little House” books knows that this idea has taken some wacky turns in the past. No, no one in my house is forced to sit and read the Bible all day on Sunday, that is missing the point.
Over the last few years I’ve been trying to incorporate the idea of sabbath into our home and I have to say I like it. It started because our church met on Saturday evenings which left our Sundays completely open. At first we used that day to finish up projects around the house or run errands. Then we gradually started to find other times to do those things in order to leave our Sunday’s open.
Now, our Sunday’s involve watching movies and knitting, reading books and playing legos, meeting up with friends and trying new recipes. We keep to things that feel restful to us. I’ve even adjusted my workout schedule so that I do not darken the door of the gym on the weekends. The gym isn’t restful, it’s a weekday thing. Sunday’s are for restful things.
Of course this doesn’t work every week but we do try to keep to it. We are doing school from Monday to Thursday, cleaning the house on Friday. Saturday is all basketball at the moment but when that’s done it will be taken up with gardening and various home improvement projects. Then on Sunday, we binge watch and knit, we hang out with friends we don’t see otherwise, we might even go to a museum if we feel like getting out. We only do things we feel like doing. My hubs needs a little more activity during the day than I do so he will sometimes go to Walmart just for fun (Nope, not kidding).
I don’t know how the rest of the family feels about it, I should probably ask, but I know my own mental health responds well to this rhythm. I think the kids do as well. It gives them time to be board, time to be creative with their time, time to get into fights and work them out.
Try taking a day off yourself, set aside that time and see what happens. I don’t think we were ever meant to go go go all the time. Our bodies and our brains were made for work and for rest and a Sabbath day helps us keep that in balance.
Messy Homeschool 