How We Rest With 7 Kids
Resting at home for us is about eating good food, watching good movies, and enjoying family.
It’s a day not to have much of a plan. It’s about doing things that give us delight. Slowing down. Dinner with friends. Naps. Oh yes naps!
(Sometimes this looks like my husband watching the kids or asking someone for help so I can take a nap. 🤣 We take naps real serious around here - HA!)
It may sound silly, but rest requires planning and a little effort.
I try to plan at least one day a week or a half a day when we rest as a family. Sometimes it’s only 3 or 4 hours, but a full day is ideal.
I know what you're thinking. How do I REST with 7 kids in the house?!
Seems impossible. Seems hopeless. Why even try?
Trust me. It is worth it.
It takes some practice. I will still have to feed my children and change diapers on our “rest” day. I still have to split up fights, function as a mother and wife. If someone spills the milk, yep...it’s going to be cleaned up. That’s not what it is about.
It is about: Stopping.
I can STOP.
Stop the extra cleaning and errands. Stop the dishes. Stop the chores. Stop the productivity.
Stop the go, go, go,…all the extra stuff that I CAN stop…I do.
That stuff you want to do to be ahead of the next day…yep...stop it.
I mentioned resting requires effort/work. You may have a little more work to do the day before and after you choose to rest.
That’s okay! You may think it will be counterproductive.
It. Won’t. Be.
It’s. Worth it.
For us, starting Friday evening and wrapping up Saturday evening has worked pretty good in the past, but sometimes you just have to look at the week and see where rest fits best and life has it seasons.
There have been seasons of this working really well and I see the benefits … peace at home. Connection with my family. Lower stress levels.
Some seasons or weeks it just didn’t happen. Life happens. That’s OK. The aim is just to get back to resting when we can. Be intentional.
I feel the difference when we make time for it in our week. It’s good. I prefer the resting. We have something to look forward to and the rest of the week has a different feel to it.
An Update for After the Lock Down...
The above was written during 2020/lock down to help others know they could rest at home with their families. This was very much an important, and still is, rhythm of our family's week. Now that we have a little more freedom we certainly find rest in other things outside the home as well.
We still make time to rest at home as a family, but we also enjoy resting outside of the house as well! Joshua kicks me out of the house often for some much needed silence and solitude, and time is made for him to recharge around friends and eating popcorn in a dark theater haha! Isn't it interesting how we all recharge differently?