on enjoying daily rituals

Do you find yourself singing, Cinderella-esque, as you dance into your apron and bend down to scrub a toilet?

Yeah, me neither.

But there are ways to find pleasure in the little tasks we do each day. And personally, anything that makes chores more enjoyable is something I'd like to sign up for.

We all have rituals, whether we intend to or not. The first step to enjoying our daily rituals is being more intentional with them. Do you wake up to kids screaming they're ready for breakfast, then rush downstairs to pull out whatever boxes of cereal still have something more than crumbs left in them? If that's you, I imagine your day doesn't get off to a pleasurable beginning. During this season of life you're going to have to be more intentional.

Wake up before the rest of your family. Do what it takes to make this happen. Go to bed earlier. Make your kids stay in bed later. Baby used to wake up wayyyy too early. We nipped that in the bud by getting him an alarm clock and telling him he wasn't allowed out of his room until it went off. Eventually (it really didn't take very long), his body got used to that, and now I can control when he gets up. Obviously make it reasonable - he doesn't go to bed at 6 and get up at 9.

That's all much easier said than done, but this post isn't about creating rituals (there are plenty of other blogs and posts to discuss this, and maybe I will sometime); it's about enjoying rituals. So set you up some and let's go.

The easiest thing to say is that certain things are necessary, and we should enjoy that we are able to do them. Like scrubbing toilets. When you catch a stomach bug and have your head in the toilet, you don't want to remember that it's been a year since you convinced someone else in your house to clean it. You want to think about keeping your hair back, and rest (somewhat) easy knowing that at least you aren't getting toilet germs on you.

But that still doesn't quite address the issue. It all boils down to your attitude. And believe you me, I can have a stinkin' one with the best of them. But ultimately, I recognize that I have chosen homemaking as my job, and I always want to do an excellent job. I try to teach baby to do excellent work on all his schoolwork, not just when I'm standing over him or reminding him. As a Christian, I am to work as if I'm working for God Himself - because I am. It's a happy bonus that my family and I get to live in the clean home afterward.

I have set days that I do certain housekeeping tasks. I like this better than trying to do one big clean in one day. It makes it feel like I really don't have to do all that much. I highly suggest FlyLady if you are having trouble keeping up with basic household tasks. She will help you set up a schedule and stick to it. Doing the same thing on the same day of the week every week also takes out the guesswork. At this point I always know on Mondays I'll need to clean bathrooms, and on Thursdays I'll do a thorough clean of the kitchen. I don't even have to think about it. And if you have kids - involve them!

Sometimes I'll play music, or sometimes I'll secretly challenge myself. "Let's see if I can get glistening tubs by the time baby finishes his math worksheets!" Such a thrilling life I lead. But these things get the job done, and a job done and done well are really where the pleasure comes in.

When guests come to my home, I never (ok, rarely) have to wonder if the hall bathroom is presentable, or if the house stinks from the trash piling up. Having set up my rituals and them becoming second nature, things like that are just naturally taken care of. If we want to have a dinner party, we maybe change out the hand towel and run the vacuum over the main floors really quickly. Ten minutes, tops, and my home is ready to entertain.

So I get the satisfaction of productivity, my guests feel welcome, and my family feels at home. That's really all I want out of this homemaking job, anyway.

Do you have certain daily rituals you dread? Or if not, share your tips for enjoying all the little necessary tasks!