Mondays for me are my day off. I protect this day quite fiercely as it is not only a day off for myself but it is also downtime for LB.
On my day off I normally end up doing washing and ironing (but I find it quite therapeutic). LB often will get to the end of a Monday and still be in his pj's and I am in dag around clothes. LB has developed a routine for himself which includes 5 little biscuits, chocolate milk and the DVD, Finding Nemo. This is his Monday morning. I protect this time as much for him as I do myself as our week ends are just soo hectic that by Monday morning we are ready to crash.
My older son came home today with a brochure for karate stating that he wanted to do this, the reply was he does soccer and Kiz Biz ( the church week day kids club) and that is enough. One sport and one social activity are the limit because, again I want him to still have down time and now that he is at school his possible down time is reduced.
When I pick up Older son from school, I make sure I go in once a week (see prior blog for why it isn't more than this)to tlk with the other mothers. Last week I got talking to one of the other mothers about "me time". We were comparing where we go to have time out and one we both shared was the shower with the water running over the ears so you can't hear anything else. She refers to it as her rainforest, and told me how she showed her daughter her rainforest by teaching her how to stand in the shower so the water ran over her ears. When the mum asked "Can you see my rainforest?" she responded "No I can see my waterfall"
My reflection on this moment was what a wonderful gift to give your children.
We teach and train our kids to do so many things which we consider important for them to be well balanced adults. How often do we take time to teach them how to have downtime, how to relax, to honor Sabbath. Dare I say it how often to we model as adults the practice of Sabbath.
Sabbath is probably one of the lest respected and obeyed commandments and our lifestyle often means we are moving further away form it as a possibility. If our work or lifestyle was making us break almost any other commandment we would at least stop and question doing it. I wonder how many of us stop and question when it means we are unable to observe Sabbath and keep it holy.
Mmmmm think I'll go to my own rainforest now and make my Monday complete.
Rest well
Blessings
Emma
3 comments:
The only real time out for me comes on a Saturday morning sitting at Starbucks with a caramel mocchiatto and the newspaper. I'm so glad Starbucks decided to come to town.
Friday is my Sabbath, and I work very hard at keeping work out of it. But it's not easy when that phone rings and they tell you--whatever they tell you.
I love that rainforest image.
In my household Sunday afternoons used to be an extension of Saturday big-box-store shopping -- living in a very small town, one has to drive out of town for significant purchases...I'd come home frazzled, and then it would be time for work on Monday. Keeping Sundays free of commerce, even if it meant doing marketing after work or being content with our not-too-terrific local small-town big-box store, lowered the weekend tension level tremendously and provided some quality time for reading and relaxing.
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