Have you ever crafted your ideal week?
In an attempt to balance all the crazy demands of family life including making sure we’re bonding as a family, studying the Bible together, working as a team, resting for 24 hours, and a host of other activities, we’ve spent over a decade crafting and refining our ideal week.
But weeks are rarely ideal.
Curveballs come in constantly and it’s important to be flexible.
But if you let every little thing throw off your rhythm it becomes almost impossible to establish your new normal week, and you can find yourself right back to where you started.
One curveball we face is when April and I go out of town together.
Yes, we exist now in that glorious phase of family team life where the two of us can get on an airplane for a getaway and leave the inmates in charge of the asylum errr…I mean kids in charge of the family.
So do they just throw all the hard work of our rhythm out the window?
Heck NO!
One mantra I’ve left with the family when I leave and they’re tempted to just indulge in a rhythm-ignoring week is to “DEFEND THE RHYTHM.”
This doesn’t mean they have to do things exactly how we would have done it but try to stick to the basic cadence of our week whenever possible.
For example, while April and I were in Florida last weekend, instead of hosting a big Shabbat meal at our house, my parents took our kids to the Spaghetti Factory singing “Shabbat Shalom” on their way to the restaurant (see picture below).
This means that even when April or I, or both of us, are out of town, our rhythm is more or less being held intact so that we’re not having to initiate a hard reset when we return.
So when the rhythm-destroying Balrog comes to ruin the fragile rhythm your family is attempting to establish and you’ve determined it’s time to stand your ground, pick up your staff, do your best Gandalf impersonation and hold the demon at bay.
DEFEND THE RHYTHM!
Jeremy
P.S. Wondering how to craft a seven day rhythm for your family? The Bethkes and April and I made a whole course called The Seven Day Family to walk you step-by-step through the process. Check that out here.
This entry is a part of Jeremy’s Journal, a newsletter Jeremy sends out every Wednesday morning to encourage you on your parenting journey. You can sign up to get them every Wednesday here.
