How do you observe the day of rest?

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Unfortunately, same. I lurk so much that I have never actually posted until today…
 
Thank you everyone for your replies! You all are giving me good ideas to adapt for my next Sunday. And maybe things to avoid as well. Maybe it’s time to do a Sunday technology fast…
 
I work overnight, so part of my shift is on Saturday night, part on Sunday morning. As much as possible, I get my stocking done before midnight and stay on the forklift or do paperwork after midnight. If I have too much to stock, I make sure to do the heavy stuff before midnight and save lighter things for after. I usually take a walk in the park after church, and refuse to do any shopping or chores on Sunday.
 
After Mass, we usually go out and spend time as a family. Sometimes we have picnics. Sometimes we go on an outing. Sometimes I make a big dinner and invite family over. It just depends. We do our best to avoid chores on Sunday.
 
I generally save certain reading material for Sunday, like the Catholic Register, or church oriented books. Not that I don’t look at it these things during the week too, but I like to make a point of saving the bulk of it for Sunday.
 
Any household chores that I don’t get done by Saturday night (like yardwork, grocery shopping, or laundry) get put off until Monday.

We sleep in if we can, if the children aren’t up too early.

We do things as a family - a lot of time is spent sitting in the living room, just spending time together. Some are reading, some are on the floor playing games or cards, maybe a family movie if we can find one. Mostly though Sunday for us is simply about resting and spending time together as a family.

We don’t buy or sell on Sunday, so we don’t eat out or do online shopping, because we feel that is causing others to work on Sunday unnecessarily.

We as parents take turns taking a nap and the other stays up with the children.

We usually have a simple meal of biscuits or scrambled eggs for supper so that Mommy can get a rest from cooking.

I reflect on the gospel reading for that day. And I look around at my family and thank God for our life together.

I love Sundays!
 
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Just wanted to add that I saw this cartoon a few years ago when teaching my oldest daughter. For a simple child’s cartoon, it convicted me so deeply. In that moment I realized that Sunday had slowly become a catch-all for all the work that didn’t get done around the house that week. I went to confession and changed my ways, and what a blessing it has been. God’s way is always best for us.
 
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Spend time with friends/family, eat a good meal, watch a movie, do some crocheting, read a book, listen to music, go to the lake, depends on the day!
 
We have devices that replace the servants of old. Washing machine does the job of laundry servants, Dishwasher, deep freeze, microwave, electric pressure cookers or crock pots or rice cookers and such make cooking far less taxing.

I think it is very important for the Stay At Home Parent to get their day of rest. Other parent does the cooking/cleaning, order out, pull a meal out of the freezer, go to a restaurant, make sure the person who works in the home 6 days gets one day to relax!
 
My schedule is erratic. I take my rest where I can get it.
I cannot necessarily schedule every Sunday as a special resting day.
Nor can I schedule it as family time any more as my family is deceased.
I go to Mass, I try to catch up on any prayers I missed during the week.
That’s about it.

I don’t think it’s really realistic to expect people to work all week when they do not have anyone taking care of their house cleaning or their laundry at home and then try to squeeze everything they need to do outside work and that can’t be done after work into one Saturday out of the week.
 
Some of the responses I’ve read here have led me to think that people are feeling criticized because they don’t do enough to observe the Sabbath. I don’t think it’s so much a matter of criticism, but perhaps of yearning. I think we all recognize that we’re too busy with work inside and outside the home, various obligations that we have, etc. That makes it hard to find the time and space for the more traditional Sabbath focuses of God and recreation. (That’s re-creation – a time to be created again.)

One way of looking at things might be what we feel we must do; the other way is what we can’t do. And that leads in a meandering sort of way to asking what is it we yearn to do?

For example, why do I find the idea of the Jewish observance of the Sabbath to be so attractive? A lot of preparation goes into it. You can’t start a few minutes ahead of time and have a shabbat dinner ready or your stew cooking in a crockpot for tomorrow’s meal. Still, there’s something about saying this time is special and nothing interferes with it; I’ll do whatever work I need to do before the Sabbath starts so that I can truly relax, spend time with God and family, and be re-created for the new week. It takes a level of commitment, but it also says that this is so important I’ll make it a priority.
 
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