One of our focuses as a family is creating memories for our kids and us, the kind of memories you remember from your childhood. The doughnuts for breakfast on your birthday, waking up for Christmas morning, long days at the pool, catching fire files, fishing, watching cartoons on Saturday morning…..the list goes on. We want to give our kids the amazing memories we have from growing up.
I hope you are thinking of memories from your own childhood that bring back wonderful memories. My husband and I both had amazing memories of growing up; both our families were very similar in the types of things we did. Beach trips, mountain trips, family reunions, food, church and lots of laughter. Not until I became a parent did, I realize the wealth of memories I had from my childhood and how much time and effort my family put into creating these memories and experiences. #exhausting
Being a mom of two kids, working full time how was I to create memories like the ones I had growing up? Introduce more stress into my life, I was trying to create these amazing memories, the picturesque memories, which was adding so much more stress to my life. Most of the memories that truly shaped my childhood, were the organic, simple ones.
The food we ate, the games we played, playing with cousins, late nights, laughter and the epic sibling fights…. all these simple memories are made possible with getting people together, but not the stress of planning the perfect moment.
Just keep it simple and let life happen, we will make great memories if we are present in the moments of life.
We are all getting ready to spend a lot of time with our family during, Holiday gatherings with family and friends creating wonderful memories But I thought it would be great to share with you a few things we do at our house to create simple memories throughout the year. Memories are made even in the simplest of times!
Family Dinners – we try to eat at a table with all of us a few times a week. This looks different each time, sometimes it is just the kids eating but the adults sit down and talk while the kids eat. This could be eating out, but we are all at the same table, talking and eating. Our rule at the house is no TV and no phones. For a short time that we eat dinner, we are all there and are present.
Bed Time Routine– remember our kids are young, 5 and 3. Each night we have a very similar bedtime routine. Bath, brush teeth, reading books and then prayers. This routine is the same each night, but maybe different with both parents, or one parent depending on what we have going on.
Saturday Morning TV – our kids get up on Saturday morning and are allowed to veg out for a little bit. We all love a lazy morning occasionally on the couch!
Church on Sunday – this one is a work in progress, we were great about this for a while and have fallen off the wagon with all our travel. Going to church as a family is something my husband and I both did growing up and created a strong foundation for our faith.
Always greeting one another – this one may sound odd, but whenever we leave or enter our house, we great each other with hugs and kisses. Our kids don’t get to leave without us saying how much we love them and how excited we are to see them. I know one day they will not love all the attention, but my mommy heart loves giving hugs and kisses.
These are just a few of our simple traditions we work into our daily lives. Would love to know what things you do in your family that works for you!
-Amy
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