Creatures of Habit

#1. How important to you, as a working mom, is a schedule/routine for your kids?

#2. Given the opportunity, which would you accept - a bigger salary and less benefits OR a smaller salary and top-notch benefits?

I am such a creature of habit.  In fact, my entire family is like that!  We love vacations, but we're always so happy to get home and get back into our family routine.  Since we are also a homeschooling family, and because as of Monday, I will be a full-time college student, we need routine even more to keep everyone on track and to keep things running smoothly.

We don't have to be as strict with routines as we did when they were litte - at 9 and 6, my boys are way past nap time - and because of my husband's job, they can be pretty flexible.  He is more laid back with their schedule during the day, but I look forward to our routine each night when I get home from work.  We definitely stick to a pattern.

If I get home early enough, we eat dinner together as a family.  Even on the nights I get home late, after everyone has eaten, sometimes my boys will come sit with me at the table and we'll talk.  We sit down together before bedtime, too, to read the Bible and a kids devotional together, and to write in our family gratitude journal.  I pray with each of them and sing our special song as I tuck them in.  It's nothing fancy, but each of them has their own special song that I made up for them when they were babies, and they still love for me to sing it to them.  Our evenings together are the highlight of my day, especially on my three "long days" each week, when I'm away from home for 13 hours.