Tips of the day.

I’ve been letting this gem of a post at Real Learning bounce around in my head for a few days. 

I want to zero in on "pegs" today. Pegs are set times of the day around which other activities were organized. … For us, those pegs are "food times." And in my house, children expect to be fed at the same time every day. So, even though I really don’t keep a strict schedule of the time between the pegs, the pegs happen at the same time every day. With each peg, there is prayer. This provides order in our days. And all the rest takes on a certain cadence.

Whenever I read some post or book or tip that seems to have The Answer, the way that I’m going to get my life in order, I’m tempted to focus on the details.  Yes!  We too will try having lunch at noon after praying the Angelus together!  Result:  we try it for a couple of days, the novelty is interesting (ironic too, since in Tip after Tip a regular, reliable schedule is the key to family peace), then either it doesn’t work for us outright or I get lazy and it’s back to the old routine.  The semi-chaotic one in which we get no housework done and Mark spends his evening doing laundry.

Better to sift a general principle out of the brilliance, right?  Especially since remembering to pray with the kids throughout the day is one of the things I have a tough time with.  Hang your daily life on a few reliable "pegs."  Mealtimes might work for us too, with the exception of teatime, a habit I’ve never had in my house (and tend not to encourage because my children are never hungry for dinner if they eat an afternoon snack).  The other difference is that our rhythm is more predictable on a weekly scale, not a daily one.  I’m not sure, so I’m letting it bounce around.