If there was ever a season where trying to avoid chaos while also relaxing collide more than summer, I don’t know what it would be. The attempts to let the kids sleep in but not waste the day away (looking at you Mom’s of teens), have free time but take advantage of all the VBS/Summer Camps, take vacations but make memories at home, enjoy more time with your kids but figure out how to get space so you don’t lose your mind… Well, it can feel like an impossible or overwhelming couple of months.
Enter Bookends. Bookends are a way of starting and ending your day that create enough structure so life feels orderly, but not so much that you can’t enjoy the Summertime Vibes. Morning and evening bookends are mini routines- 3-5 basic tasks or processes you complete that help start and end the day in a positive way. The advantage of bookends is the way they create predictable habits allowing you to use less brain power when you are tired, give a sense of control over the day and help your values and goals be addressed regularly.
How do you set up these Bookends in your world? First start with a quick analysis of your mornings and evenings: what things need to happen for the day to flow well?
Do you need to start the day with an empty dishwasher because you have a bunch pf people in your house all day creating a lot of dishes?
Does laundry need to be folded on a daily basis?
When are you most likely to read your bible and pray?
Do you have a lot of daily appointments that need to be checked the night before?
Is meal prep something that allows your afternoon to be more peaceful?
Do you have physical pain that is helped by stretching or a hot shower?
These are examples of questions to analyze in deciding components of your daily bookend, and whether it is more helpful in the morning or evening.
A sample daily bookend could be:
AM: make coffee and read 10 minutes in bible; empty dishwasher, 5 minutes stretching and start one load of laundry.
PM: check calendar for the next day, fold one load of laundry, gratitude journal, run dishwasher, prep lunches.
The idea is whatever you include needs to be simple, fast tasks that help your days run more smoothly. The entire process should be 3-5 tasks and accomplish-able in 20 minutes or less and would ideally be done (or almost done) before the kids get up. Very young children are often up very early so bookends can be adjusted to allow for what works while caring for them. The concept of bookends can be applied also to the way you start and end the day for your children, and also can also be helpful for Empty Nester’s (like me!) who work full time and still benefit from the routine of habits and patterns.
Taking chaos and bringing it into order is a God ordained task. Motherhood is often a daily grind of trying to wrestle all the chaos of laundry, children, messes and food into some semblance of order. Bookends are one way to approach this goal that feel manageable and achievable. Some systems I tried over the years were overwhelming to maintain and others were too expensive or tedious. For all the Mama’s facing summer and feeling stressed- I pray this encourages you and gives some relief to the chaos so you can find joy in the next few months.