Sabbath rest is an ongoing challenge for me. I wonder if part of the problem is that I have a wrong idea of “rest?” Cooking meals and cleaning up the kitchen is the hardest part of the tension I feel in not fully resting. My family culture, too, was one where there was always a lovely and somewhat laborious Sunday dinner. One of my favorite childhood memories was walking into my grandmother’s home to the coziest smell of roast beef. Still figuring it out!
I think many of us have a notion of rest that may be based in something other than our own discernment in this season of life. Family practice, general culture, Norman Rockwell- you name it :)
I tried to flesh that out a bit in my essay “A recipe for Sunday rest” (linked in this post). For some people, cooking a big meal is restful, and for others it’s not. I do wonder if our grandmothers were on to something though, with the roast dinner (I too have excellent memories of such a thing on Sundays!) in that it can be made ahead or actually low-intensive on the day (chuck meat and veg in a pot to simmer for many hours.)
I know friends for whom “going for a run” is a restful practice. I can say with certainty that it is not restful for me!! I think Sabbath rest means stepping away from laborious work, especially our “typical” work. (So if I’m at a computer all week, that’s probably not restful for me on a Sunday.) My friend who is home with the kids doesn’t do laundry on Sundays bc she sees it as work. I don’t mind throwing a load in, because it isn’t laborious for me. Sometimes I think we also conceive of rest as “lack of activity”, which it can be, but isn’t for everyone. Maybe the best question to ask is: do I step away from Sundays feeling refreshed and if not, why not? What would actually help restore my soul after I’ve gone to church?
Thank you, Kerri! It's really helpful to see a collection of resources here on this. I have loved your pieces on rest, and I really enjoyed Grace Kelley's piece, too.
We love Zuppa Toscana! It's in our regular rotation and definitively good left over (and really, soups are one of the least stressful meal to for us to make anyway.) Will save those other ones, as well.
I love that you included Grace Kelley's piece because I also stumbled across it on Notes and found it helpful. We've tried to implement a version of a night off for me (with varying success, in fact we haven't done it in several weeks), and also with my husband spending extra solo time with the boys on the weekends so I can have some silence and rest. It's always a bit of a play-by-ear thing, though, based on what we need. And also *he* doesn't yet have his own non-work or non-child-duty time except after bedtime, but being with the boys is pretty life-giving to him right now. Well.... this is turning into my wondering about how other families rest with a mom mostly on childcare duty during the week. :) Grace did have some great tips!
It’s definitely a challenge! Have you ever tried to rope in help from outside, whether it’s pooling resources like 2 dads watch kids at one house so both moms can go out, or maybe grandparents want to read stories or play games on zoom for an hour while dad is around but mostly in the background doing his own thing? I feel like the multiple-small-children years take a lot of creative energy to navigate!
Yes after I drafted this, I realized the soup/ stew/ let the meat marinade in flavour is the theme for easy Sundays! 😅
Sabbath rest is an ongoing challenge for me. I wonder if part of the problem is that I have a wrong idea of “rest?” Cooking meals and cleaning up the kitchen is the hardest part of the tension I feel in not fully resting. My family culture, too, was one where there was always a lovely and somewhat laborious Sunday dinner. One of my favorite childhood memories was walking into my grandmother’s home to the coziest smell of roast beef. Still figuring it out!
I think many of us have a notion of rest that may be based in something other than our own discernment in this season of life. Family practice, general culture, Norman Rockwell- you name it :)
I tried to flesh that out a bit in my essay “A recipe for Sunday rest” (linked in this post). For some people, cooking a big meal is restful, and for others it’s not. I do wonder if our grandmothers were on to something though, with the roast dinner (I too have excellent memories of such a thing on Sundays!) in that it can be made ahead or actually low-intensive on the day (chuck meat and veg in a pot to simmer for many hours.)
I know friends for whom “going for a run” is a restful practice. I can say with certainty that it is not restful for me!! I think Sabbath rest means stepping away from laborious work, especially our “typical” work. (So if I’m at a computer all week, that’s probably not restful for me on a Sunday.) My friend who is home with the kids doesn’t do laundry on Sundays bc she sees it as work. I don’t mind throwing a load in, because it isn’t laborious for me. Sometimes I think we also conceive of rest as “lack of activity”, which it can be, but isn’t for everyone. Maybe the best question to ask is: do I step away from Sundays feeling refreshed and if not, why not? What would actually help restore my soul after I’ve gone to church?
Thank you, Kerri! It's really helpful to see a collection of resources here on this. I have loved your pieces on rest, and I really enjoyed Grace Kelley's piece, too.
I’m so glad! I hope the recipes can be of use to you, too.
They definitely will be!
We love Zuppa Toscana! It's in our regular rotation and definitively good left over (and really, soups are one of the least stressful meal to for us to make anyway.) Will save those other ones, as well.
I love that you included Grace Kelley's piece because I also stumbled across it on Notes and found it helpful. We've tried to implement a version of a night off for me (with varying success, in fact we haven't done it in several weeks), and also with my husband spending extra solo time with the boys on the weekends so I can have some silence and rest. It's always a bit of a play-by-ear thing, though, based on what we need. And also *he* doesn't yet have his own non-work or non-child-duty time except after bedtime, but being with the boys is pretty life-giving to him right now. Well.... this is turning into my wondering about how other families rest with a mom mostly on childcare duty during the week. :) Grace did have some great tips!
It’s definitely a challenge! Have you ever tried to rope in help from outside, whether it’s pooling resources like 2 dads watch kids at one house so both moms can go out, or maybe grandparents want to read stories or play games on zoom for an hour while dad is around but mostly in the background doing his own thing? I feel like the multiple-small-children years take a lot of creative energy to navigate!
Yes after I drafted this, I realized the soup/ stew/ let the meat marinade in flavour is the theme for easy Sundays! 😅