As homeschool moms we all know how quickly life can get busy. Run one child to soccer practice, another to choir, take one to the doctor . . .  Before we know it, we are scheduled every minute of every day. There are new moms who need a hot meal delivered to their doorstep. Elderly neighbors who need a phone call to make sure they’re all right. Church meetings and Bible studies to attend. There is just so much to do!

It is so easy to get caught up in all of the tasks that need done. Before you know it, your family is going in multiple directions and you are barely spending any time together. I don’t know about you, but our family does not do so well when we are going in a dozen different directions and don’t get any quality time as a family. We are more stressed and tend to fight more with one another.

I’ve shared previously about how meal planning can be a tremendous blessing in busy times. There is something else that is highly important when life is getting busy and spiraling out of control:

Intentional Family Time

I thought you homeschooled your kids. Aren’t you home with them all day?

As a general rule, yes. The children and I do spend most days together. But it’s not the same when ALL of us aren’t together. For our family to be at optimum performance, we must have time as a whole family. During those precious hours when my dear husband isn’t at work, our evenings and weekends quickly fill up with soccer, and meetings and other tasks we want to do. Our meals are much quicker, our conversations much shorter, and we barely have time to really connect and spend time with one another.

It is a priority that we find a day each week when we can simply be together. Maybe it’s to have a leisurely dinner, or to work in the barn, or drive around the nearby lake. It doesn’t matter what it is, so long as we’re together. I would love to say that every Sunday after church, or every Friday night is our exclusive family time, but that’s not always the case. It may be Sunday this week, Tuesday next week and Thursday the week after that.

It isn’t always possible. Some weeks have so many outside obligations that we just cannot find a chunk of time to simply be together. We do the best we can. We aren’t making bad choices by doing these other things – they are all good things we are doing! But for us, the better choice is to make sure we have time together.

One way I try to do that is to have dinner at the kitchen table together every possible time. We do on occasion have a night where we eat pizza and watch a movie in the living room together. There are evenings where due to a meeting or someone’s work schedule that someone may not be able to eat dinner with the rest of the family. As a general rule, though, we eat together daily.

Have you been in a busy season? Are you getting quality time together as a family? I want to encourage you over the next week to find a few hours you can block off on the calendar to spend together as a family – be it a leisurely dinner, a family game night, or a walk in the woods. Take the time to intentionally enjoy that time together without outside distractions.

I would love to hear from you! Do you have intentional family time built into your schedules? What are things you do to spend time together as a family?