I love having 4 daughters to share traditions with. Some of these are things from my childhood, or from Mr. Cat's childhood. Others are things we've been doing since the beginning of our parenthood. Still others are things that are new. It is my hope that these traditions, these lovely bits of our family life, will become memories that my daughters cherish and treasure, and will one day pass on to their families (if the family life is what God calls them to).
We started committing to attend weekday daily Mass around a month ago. At our parish, 4 days out of the weekday, Mass begins at 7:30 AM. Those who know me well know that I am NOT a morning person, not by any means. I relish my sleep. I need my sleep. I have found as I get older that sleep is not something I can skimp on. I used to be able to get by and be just fine with 4-6 hours. Now that I am aging, I am finding my body does not cooperate with me on less than 8 hours a night. Thyroid disease and anemia aren't currently helping in that area. Anyway, I like my sleep.
As a home schooling family, we have, for the most part, always been able to make our own schedules. I loved that I didn't have to rise early, properly caffeinate myself, and get up cranky grumpy kids to get them all ready for school at what I consider to be an insanely early hour. I love not having that hassle. (The two years that my oldest spent in the public school system were very tough for me, and I dreaded each and every morning probably more than she did.) I enjoyed letting the kids awaken when their bodies told them it was time to get up. I enjoyed being able to sleep in myself, and wake on my own. Then reality hit me.
Really, are my children going to be able to always set their own schedule, and always going to wake up in their own time? What about college and early classes? What about future employment? What about morning prayers, or waking babies, or whatever God has planned for their future? As their mom, I am supposed to set them up for success in all areas. I began to worry I was instead setting them up for failure, or at the very least, not preparing them for reality.
After reading an article that an amazing friend and fellow Catholic home schooling mom wrote regarding the attendance of daily Mass, I felt that familiar tug on my conscience. Adding in daily Mass was something I knew I needed to do.
I'll get into that another time, as I am getting way off track here. Suffice it to say, we are learning our new routine. We eat when we come home from Mass. Because we are keeping a stricter school schedule, it needs to be something quick and easy. We usually rotate between cereal and other instant breakfast foods.
3 weeks ago or so, I decided to make pancakes for breakfast. We were all tired and cranky from our new morning schedule, everyone was bombarded with the intensity of the new (for us) curriculum that we are using this year, and I felt that we needed a pick me up. I usually use a griddle when we make pancakes, but it was up in the laundry closet on a high shelf, with something sitting on top of it and I just didn't feel like it. With my low iron levels, I have been cooking in the cast iron skillet as much as possible, and even though I knew it would take extra time only making one pancake at a time, I decided to use the skillet.
We ended up with some thick, delicious pancakes that looked like they could have come out of a breakfast restaurant place. I don't normally even eat pancakes at all, yet these had my mouth watering. What was best was how instantly my girls perked up, and how pleased they were, and how thankful. I realized that something that took such small effort on my part brought about such a great reward for all of us. We were a little later starting school that day, but with the promise of the weekend coming, and bellies full of yummy goodness, they all sailed on through and finished up their work week earlier than normal.
So now we have pancake Fridays. I was feeling sick last week, recovering from a nasty migraine, and so I missed pancake Friday that week, but the girls were so pleased when they saw me reach for the griddle this morning when we got home from Mass. Poor Mr. Cat was headed off to start his school day and was lamenting on the fact that he misses pancake Friday. Perhaps I will have to add in a new tradition just for him.
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