Yesterday I wrote about having 24 hours all to yourself. What if that is simply not an option? For most of our lives it really isn’t. For a number of years I had an ideal alternative. Perhaps if you think and pray, you might find that you could work out something similar.

I had a friend who had children of similar ages to my children and they all got along well. We traded every Thursday afternoon. One week I had all the children and the next week she had all the children. The agreement was when you did not have the children, you were free to do anything you wanted – guilt free! You could go shopping, have a manicure, stay home and have a planning session, take a nap, whatever you really wanted to do! I don’t know about her, but I made the most of those afternoons, at home, getting things done that required my focused attention. It was a life saver.

The other thing that surprised both of us was that on the afternoons we had all the children at our house, we still got more done then we would normally. The reason was that the children were so entertained having their friends over that they didn’t need our attention.

It was a sad day when they moved away.

Ministry Opportunity

Would you like to bless some woman who is crying out for some time alone? Are you at a stage in life where you don’t have younger children you are responsible for? Could you offer once a week, once a month, four times a year to watch somebody else’s children in your home? It wouldn’t have to be that hard and actually if you offered two mother’s at the same time you might find a situation like we had! You could start at lunchtime. Eating food together always breaks the ice. Lunches for little people are easy (and can be lots of fun* too). Then you have some activities planned for the afternoon. Remember that the best flow is active/inactive alternating back and forth. Depending on the ages of the children some might even nap. You could read out loud to them. If they’re a little bit older you might even do a chapter book or series of books that you read from each week. I’m guessing they’d be eager to return to your home for the next “installment.” You could do some basic crafts or if you’re one of those wonder women you could do some involved crafts! Go outdoors for soap bubbles, sidewalk chalk or a park outing. This could be older women who have grown children or young ladies who are not yet married and can carve an afternoon out of their schedules. I know there is at least one woman around you who is close to melt-down and would be so blessed if you could give her an afternoon off.

*One fun idea is to work with a color theme. Each time you get together focus on a different color. Get colored paper plates & napkins from the dollar store. Try to serve foods that are that color or use some food coloring to make them that color. Have games that involve colors and use your color of the week. Look for books at the library that focus on your color. We used to have color days and we had a blast with them!