Prayer Pegs

 Nina helps Jack say his Morning Offering on July 21, 2010 - Jack's due date and his three week old "birthday".

Somewhere along the way in my homeschooling Mom research, I heard the term “prayer pegs.” (See the note at the bottom of this post for a “giving credit where credit is due” attempt for this idea.)  The Prayer Pegs concept seemed a succinct way to name something I was already doing for myself and continually hope to train my children to do - basically “pegging” a habit of prayer and faith formation to different routine aspects of the day – wake up time, meal times, chore times, bedtime, etc. 

Of course, the idea of attaching prayer to regular parts of each day is not new concept for anyone, I know. The fun name just makes it seem like it!

So, with the “Prayer Pegs” name as a catalyst, I began to reflect upon our days, noting what key routine, non-negotiable and natural events occur regularly despite “whatever comes up”.  Then, I thought about our Jammies School Mission and Goals and how we might “peg” activities and action steps related to it to each of these rhythmic events of our day.

Since our primary goal is “to love God”, it made sense to me that the pegging should begin with prayer.  For, as anyone knows, if you peg too much laundry to a line, the line might not hold.  So, before I started randomly pegging things to each part of our day, I wanted to be sure I began with the most vital -- faith, leaving the stray socks and rags of life and studies, so to speak, to drape wherever they might fit in order to dry.  Thus, we could rest assured that the most important things had secure spots to flutter in life’s breeze.

What I came up with was a relatively simple vision of what Prayer Pegs should go where within our day:

Wake Up

Morning Offering

(Daily Readings for Mommy)

Informal Conversations With and About God

Breakfast Time

Daily Prayer

Grace

Bible Story and Devotionals
Eventually: Inspirational Songs

Snack Time

Grace

Praise

Lunch Time

Currently: Grace

Moving Forward: Hail Mary (Building to Angelus) or the Memorare

Tea Time

Grace

Sometimes, Faith Based Story Time

Sometimes, Saint Day Tea or Other Special Faith Event

Dinner Time

Grace

Thank You God for...

Build toward Family Rosary before Bedtime

Bedtime

Currently: A.C.T.S Prayer and, sometimes, Faith-Based Music

Over Time:  Examination of Conscience and Act of Contrition

Additionally, we participate in Mass at least once a week with our entire family, plan to celebrate our Name Days and our Baptism Days, and observe the Liturgical Year in our Domestic Church through special events, such as Saint Day Tea Times.

Over the course of the next few Wednesdays, I will share in detail about each of our Prayer Peg Times.  Please stop by to see what we are doing as well as to add your own ideas and inspiration to our “loving God” mission by leaving comments.

Prayer Pegs are working for us.  To see what works for others this week, check out the Works for Me Wednesday links at We Are THAT Family.

*NOTE:  In the interest of giving credit where credit is due, I have tried to find where I first heard the term “prayer pegs”, but cannot seem to do so.  I have traced the “pegging” concept, however, to Leoni from the CatholicCMason Yahoogroup with a developed example of  a “pegged” day posted by Melisa Wiley at Here in the Bonnie Glen.  If anyone knows who to credit for the “prayer pegs” idea itself, please share!