morning quiet time with the kids.

I've kind of been slacking on my 'quiet time' routine lately - it had been the case for a while that I was really consistent, but then I fell off the wagon.  Chalk it up to a combination of things: Callista is still an inconsistent sleeper at night, so the exhaustion caught up with me; I started spending my morning time making breakfast for myself and Todd before he headed to work instead of reading; I eventually got pretty far behind in my Bible read-through schedule, so I got discouraged and lost motivation; yadda yadda yadda.

Combine this with the fact that we hadn't really instated any kind of structured Bible time for the kids, and the guilt was hitting me pretty hard.  The kids weren't reading their Bibles.  Like, ever.  I wanted to change that for them, and I also wanted to be setting a better example.

So when I put together my visual schedule, I decided to add in a routine Bible time for all of us, and so far it has been working!

So, basically, the way it's been happening has seen me getting up around 8:00 or a little after to make everyone's breakfast.  Now that the kids can tell time, I've told them to plan on cleaning up their rooms at about 8:20, so we can sit down at the table around 8:30.  We read until 9:00ish, and then I put breakfast on the table.  So far, the start time hasn't been as ironclad as would probably be good for us, but it's at least a jumping-off point.

The biggest two kids, being fluent readers, are required to spend time in the Word.  The younger ones are given the option of either sitting with us to look at illustrated storybook Bibles, or continuing to play until breakfast.  Rocco just kind of wanders around, making a bunch of noise and generally being as distracting as possible.

Is it efficient?  Absolutely not.  Some days I only finish about a chapter... in thirty minutes.  Every other word, I'm interrupted.  It's frustrating at times.  Do the kids love it every single day?  No.  And that was hard for me at first - I didn't want time in the Bible to be seen as a chore.  But then I had to realize that, just like anything that's ultimately good for them, and anything I hope they would eventually choose for themselves, I have to train them.  Self-discipline begins parent-directed discipline when they're young.  And honestly, once they're sitting down and reading, they do enjoy it - they just need the little external nudge to start.

So, there it is.  It's simple, but it is a step in a good direction, and I'm feeling good about it!