Finding Fruitfulness with Routines

I like to think of routines as tools that help us to be fruitful. When proper routines are in place, our family has a framework that guides our day with ease and, for the most part, grants us peace. Finding fruitfulness with routines isn’t as difficult as you might think, it’s just a matter of figuring out your priorities.

 

Routines are the core we can always rely on to get us back on track when the craziness of life invades.

One thing I learned during a serious illness, major transition for the entire family and both mine and my husband’s fathers ending up in the hospital during the same time is that routines can help a family feel secure in the middle of chaos.

When we were rushing back and forth from hospitals, having extended amounts of bedrest and trying to cope with all the changes taking place, my children could always look to our routines as safety ‘benchmarks’ for each day. This made them (and us!) feel stable, knowing that certain time frames were reserved for certain activities.

In our home, we have morning, afternoon and evening routines. Within those routines I try to incorporate everything I feel is necessary for a “fruitful” day.

For Example:

Our current basic Morning Routine looks something like this:

Get up, Get ready for the day, Make bed.

Personal Time with Lord.

Exercise

Bible Time, Morning Basket and Breakfast with kids.

Chore Time

Homeschooling Lessons

Our current Afternoon Routine:

Lunch

Check messages

Finish up Lessons

Quiet Time

Free/Art/Outside Time

And the Evening Routine is:

Dinner with family

Time with dad, Mom’s office hour

Spend time with husband

Baths/showers, brush teeth, etc…

Set up for the next day

Story Time

Bedtime

3 Routines Per Day

3 routines per day, this is the basic way our home is run Monday-Thursday. (I have a more specific schedule for each day.) It can definitely fluctuate during different seasons, and I have times when errands and field trips need to happen, but having this framework in place provides consistency and predictability for all of us, a core that we can count on and accomplish our priorities every day.

If you are interested in creating routines and schedules for your family, The Master Household Notebook I’ve developed has everything you need to do just that and MORE! Stop the chaos and bring order to your home, keep important information all in one place, establish schedules and meal plans to make your days run more smoothly and bring calm and frutifulness into the atmosphere of your home. The Master Household Notebook is available for download at a fraction of the cost of most planners and is undated- so you can continue to use it over and over again! CLICK HERE to purchase now!

Routines are most effective when they are based on your priorities.

As you can see in my morning routine, time with the Lord and His Word is one of the first things we do, this is because it is the most important thing to me to do with my family. Creative expression is very important as well, so it is included in the afternoon routine. Filling my children’s lives with good literature and character-building material is included with our lessons, but also in our evening Story Time. By having these routines in place it gives the children consistency and stability, and holds me accountable to our family priorities.

 If you’d like to set up routines for your household, here are some suggestions to get you started:

• Think about the top 5 things you’d like to be productive in every day and list them. These are your top priorities. Mine are Relationship with Lord, Relationship with Spouse, Relationship with Children, Duties at Home and Homeschooling. Can you see how my routines reflect my priorities? In order to accomplish fruitfulness in our priorities, we must be willing to give our time to them. Anything else is considered ‘extra’ and is incorporated AFTER my priorities have been given the attention they deserve.
• Decide how you will give attention to your priorities. Maybe you want to spend more time with your children and they go to school everyday and have extracurricular activities after school- think about a time each day you can connect with them. perhaps it will be over a meal, or a certain day of the week- but schedule that into your routines and commit to it. Maybe your schedule is snowballing your housekeeping efforts at home- incorporate a time frame into your routines and don’t let anything of small significance take it over.
• Decide what you will NOT allow to get in the way of your routines. I allow myself to check messages early in the morning if I have done certain things first, if I haven’t, then I don’t allow myself to check messages till lunch time. Social media has a way of ‘hooking’ me and before I know it, a precious hour has been wasted and I’ve gotten nothing done. When my husband and I spend some time together watching a show or just talking, we are pretty firm that the kids need to play by themselves for a little while, or often, they are getting their baths and showers in. We have had seasons where the kids easily took over our attention and we would go days without really connecting, so now, we have that boundary in place and our marriage is better for it. Chore time ensures that at least basic house cleaning and laundry happens daily. It is OKAY and beneficial to place boundaries in order to protect your priorities.
• Give yourself and your family time to adjust to your new routines- at least three weeks. If you haven’t had routines in place, it can seem odd to get used to at first. The kids might not like that they now have a designated chore time, you may not feel comfortable ignoring your phone while you have bible time, but if you can commit to three weeks of solid routines in your home, you WILL see fruit from it!
• And consider creating a master household notebook to keep track of your routines, schedules and more. A master household notebook is usually stored in a 3-ring binder and holds all your routines, schedules, calenders, shopping lists, important information and menu plans. It’s the “command center” of your household and a valuable tool to help you run your household more efficiently. Check out THIS POST for more information on how I use mine!

Routines can easily be utilized to nurture fruitfulness in any area of life. They help to provide stability to the family and grant us peace in the midst. Try incorporating routines based on your priorities and watch your fruitfulness grow!