New Routines

Maybe you feel this way too, but anytime our family experiences a big change- adding a baby, finishing graduate school, moving overseas- there is this season where things feel a little out of order, a bit chaotic and unfamiliar, and we are all feeling the growing pains. I remember when Ben and I were both in graduate school, both working, and were adding babies to our family each year. Every time a new semester would roll around, we’d have a “recalibration” phase, as we liked to call it, where the gears of our family and home needed a little extra greasing and a little extra patience to figure out how to run smoothly again.

So, it can take quite awhile for us to settle in. Since arriving overseas, and adding little Adele to our family, the recalibration process has taken a bit longer, I’d say. But, slowly, gradually, I’ve noticed new routines emerging, new structures to our days, and it feels good.

The early rising – it’s an early rising culture here – where Ben tries to beat the kids out of bed so he can have a few quiet moments in the pre-dawn, and when he brings me coffee and opens the curtains at the first hint of light so we can watch the sunrise over the hills out our windows. I soak up a few quiet minutes in the Word with Ady. 

The early jump on chores – to get all the beds made and the laundry in – crucial, now, in these cool fall days where there isn’t as much sunlight or heat, to get the laundry up on the line so it has the most time in the sun to dry. 

The running Norah to school - where I pack all the kiddos in the car and grab my coffee and pray that the drop-off goes smoothly. Some days she's a total champ, and other days there are tears. You could keep praying for us all as she gets used to school every day.

The hanging of the laundry – it adds a good twenty minutes to my laundry routine, but I’m learning to savor those minutes in the sunshine rather than rush through them. Sometimes some little girl will follow me outside, and pluck sticks or flowers or chat to me while I hang. Then there’s the taking down of the laundry, as soon as I see the sun beginning to set, before the evening mist comes – quickly!

The baking – maybe because we have growing kids, but also definitely because we have quite a few people in and out of our home every week – the baking has increased. There is almost always something coming out warm, or at least there should be! The kitchen is the place to be in the mornings – when it’s warm and smells lovely and produces treats!

The “pop ins” - when someone will just stop by, to chat for a few moments over a cup of tea or randomly stay for dinner. Where we’ve learned that hospitality doesn’t mean our home will be all orderly or everyone will behave perfectly or we won’t be in the middle of something, but that instead, it means we are open – our home, our schedule, our kitchen, our lives. Come in and be with us for a bit – it may not be perfect, but we treasure this time with you.

The outside culture - where first thing in the morning I open all the windows and doors, where we get to be outside almost every day, where walking for my sanity is essential, where the kids can run free and we explore our neck of the woods. The mud is a different story, for another time. More on that, later. 

The Saturday morning farmer’s market - just about every Saturday morning, we quickly throw on some clothes and jump in the car to get to the farmer’s market. Back in Chicago, we regularly visited markets as well; however, we often looked more than bought, because prices were expensive. Here, the cost for most food items is either comparable or less than what you’d find in a local grocery store, and so we enjoy finding most of our food for the week from local farmers. Yesterday, we scored a large basket full of a variety of vegetables, two whole chickens, a couple varieties of sausage and bacon, a tray of 32 eggs and 2 liters of raw milk, and locally made peanut butter. We are slowly getting to know these people who work to provide food for our family every week.

The Sunday Sabbath feasts with friends from church – the first time we were invited over for lunch after church, we expected to eat and split, to get home in time for naptime, of course. When lunch took time to prepare, and the kids played, and then we all ate slowly, and cleaned up, and then made tea and coffee, and then gradually pulled out dessert, all while conversations ebbed and flowed around us – and the pace was restful. Which is fitting for the Lord’s day, don’t you think? And we didn’t arrive home until almost five in the evening, and our hearts and lives felt full – of good fellowship, of good friendship. We’ve learned to love these times together, of redefining what we thought rest should look like and sharing life over a whole day together.

These are just some of our new routines, that I’ve noticed lately, and have been appreciating so much. Because for me, it means that we are settling in, rebuilding life, if you will, which can be quite a hard process and sometimes lonely and sad. These routines help give structure to our days, and help our hearts feel more and more at home.