Quiet Time

I find myself craving time alone. Time when I can read or think or type without interruptions. Time when I can focus on the task at hand and not easily be distracted.

I crave it so much that I've found myself waking up an hour or more before everyone else in the house. I keep a gate at the top of the stairs so little ones can't come down and join me if they see the light on.

I also have a tendency to be the last one in bed....just so I can have a few minutes of peace and quiet.

What I've lost, however, is any sense of quiet time during the day. Over the past 2 weeks I've begun to build this back into our days, and I've noticed some really significant changes.

How am I doing this? One way is that I'm scheduling 15-20 minutes of reading time each morning as part of our school routine. Each of us has to find a quiet spot and spend some time reading ~ alone.

Another way I'm reclaiming some quiet time is by scheduling at least an hour (hopefully) of alone time each afternoon. Since the girls have their own rooms now, they can shut the door and do whatever they want ~ read, play, sleep, draw, etc. ~ as long as they are quiet and alone.

What I've noticed is how much more I am able to fully enjoy my time with them. When I've had enough time alone, I can focus more on what they need from me when we are together. After a couple hours of being isolated, we are all ready to interact again.

Take today for instance....they've just had an hour and a half of quiet time. Now they are happily playing together, giving me even MORE time to get some work done. Without quiet time we just get cranky, tired, irritable and just don't know what to do with ourselves by this time of day.

I'm so thankful some things in our schedule have ended, and we can begin weaving quiet time back into our days. I'll hopefully guard our afternoons more carefully in the future, keeping all these benefits in mind.