A Few Tips on Managing a Busy Family

 In today’s post I want to share just a few things that have been helpful to our family as we seek to steward our days and accomplish God’s will in our lives.  Life is often busy, messy,  and imperfect in many ways, but over time I have seen that certain things are a real help to us in the journey.  As we have added more children we have had to learn how to juggle things, and I am often seeking the Lord for His wisdom on how to make it all work.  Here are some things I have found helpful over time:  

 

Teach Children to Work

  When I only had a few children I did far too much of the work on my own.  It just seemed easier to do the work than to try to get little people to do it, especially when I knew they would not be able to accomplish the tasks as thoroughly as I wanted them done.  Looking back I wish I would have taken the time to train more and would have not tried to do so much of it myself!  The best time to train our children to work is when they are young.  Little people LOVE to help, and it is good to get them started early even if they don’t do the jobs quite as well as we would like them done.  It is all about training when they are young so that they will grow in skill as they mature. 

A good question to ask is, “Who is the youngest person in our home who can do an adequate job at this task?  For example, “Who is the youngest member of the family who can carry the towels to the bathroom and put them away?”

                            

Freezer Meals and the Instant Pot

  I love to freeze, meats, soups, chilis, etc. and have meals accessible for dinner on busy nights.  It is such a convenience to be able to pull out a frozen soup and put it in the slow cooker and dinner is done!  I used to be a Crock Pot gal all the way until I met the Instant Pot!  I LOVE my Instant Pot for its many different functions. It is a slow cooker, rice cooker,  yogurt maker, pressure cooker, has a saute function and so much more!  I love the Instant Pot so much that I now own two of them!  This is because sometimes I like to do something like cook chicken in the pressure cooker while I am cooking rice in the second instant pot.

 

Room Time

  Every afternoon we have what we call room time.  This is a time when we shut the house down and everyone has a specific place they need to be in the house.  The older children are working on individual school work while the younger children are taking naps.  This is a time when people are not to be roaming the house; this is a quiet rest and study time for us.  The benefit to this is that the children have a quiet environment for individual school work, and I get a time in the day where things get quiet.  This is a time when I can focus on things I need to do, my Bible study time, etc.  When I’m exhausted I will sometimes take a nap myself.  This was a means of survival to me during difficult and painful pregnancies.  Basically when children in our household outgrow naps they graduate to room time.  This has proved very helpful through the years. 

Hire Help

  I used to have the notion that I wanted to manage my own home completely on my own.  It got to a point where that just was not possible.  My husband told me that he would rather I get some help and spend time training our children than that I would try to do all the cleaning and not have the time I need for the children.  Through the years the Lord has provided different means of help at different times.  For years I had a cleaning crew that came once or twice a month.  They would clean the house in a few hours time, and that was always nice to see the house looking all clean at once.   At times I have had a mother’s helper once or twice a week.  Currently I have a lady who comes twice a week to help with cleaning, laundry and help with the children.  This is very helpful in helping us stay afloat, but even with this we still have tons of cleaning and laundry.  I am thankful for the help the Lord has provided in each season. He knows what we need, and He is faithful to meet us at our point of need.  With all God has given our family to do, farm life, caring for animals, writing, speaking, serving, etc. we are in a season where some measure of hired help is a huge blessing.  If you are at that point and need and can afford help, I would encourage you to seek it out.  It is alright and might just be for a season.  May we all be seeking the Lord's wisdom season by season as we seek to manage all that He has put in our hands to do.  May we do it all for His glory!