Parenting: What do your morning and evening rituals look like?

In the last two years I seemed to have returned to my roots, working more and more with troubled adolescents and their families. Additionally, our kiddos are entering the adolescent phase of life with one on the verge of teen-hood in her second year of middle school and the other in his last year of elementary school. Needless to say we are in the thick of all things adolescent with more to come.

One of the needs I’ve noticed in the families I work with is the lack of morning and evening schedules or what I call rituals. In our home, the kids get up between 6 and 6:15 am on school days (on their own I might add), get dressed and brush teeth before coming downstairs, make their lunches while Megan does breakfast and I make coffee. They eat, pack their bags for the day and are out the door around 7:20. Evenings vary greatly by activity, but usually include dinner, some family TV time, homework, reading, and the kids getting ready for bed around 8:30 including pjs, brushing teeth, and anything that may need done last minute for the next day. After that, they may read a bit more and then Megan and I go into their rooms around 9 to pray with them and tuck them into bed.

This is how our mornings and evenings go on most days. We feel like this gets the kids around 9 hours of sleep (most study’s say 9-10 hours is optimal), and it provides regular structure. What about you? What are your families schedules, routines, rituals, or rhythms? Share what your family does on a nightly or semi-regular basis.

New State, New Life

I didn’t realize it had been so long since I updated this site. Sorry to all who have been expecting more from us! I will do more content here and additionally there will be content on our Full Life Adventures page: www.fulllifeadventures.org

Here is the very brief life update:
I finished my Masters in Christian Ministry in December of 2016, having already started in the summer of 2016 I also went on to finish my Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy in 2018, all at Abilene Christian University. I also completed a thesis on Adventure Based Therapy with Marital Intimacy and Christian Spirituality.

Megan, the kids and I loved our time in Abilene. We met some incredible people there that will always be in our hearts and minds. But ultimately our hearts were in Colorado and had been since the summer of 2014 when we felt God calling us there.

After working for the Counseling Center at ACU for a short time I found a job in Greeley, Colorado at North Range Behavioral Health working with troubled adolescents and their families. Shortly there after Megan found a job in Greeley at Edward Jones Investments, and through her research we found the little town of Windsor. We moved there in December of 2018 and love it!

We still desire to start following our dreams of having a place for couples and families to reconnect, rest, reconcile, and restore. We believe this will still happen in God’s timing not our own.

We’d love to hear from you all. If you have questions or comments please share.