When I look back on my family memories as both a child and as a parent, some of my fondest recollections revolved around our traditions for the family meal. It was the daily ritual of our family meals that pulled us all into the same orbit at least once a day, all week long. It was a place for common ground.

A good family meal is nourishing, restorative, allows for conversation and simple exchanges to take place. It marks a beginning and an end to a day of work and activities, and it allows families to touch base, tell stories, connect, laugh, and be supportive about the day ahead.

In our fast modern times, slowing down for a family meal can be a bit of a challenge. Busy schedules, longer work days, and eating on the run can deprive home life of this special time. Here are a few tips that encourage this time-honored ritual and help to keep the family meal running smoothly.

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Summer is officially here, with its days spent building sandcastles at the beach and t-ball games in the evening. Summer has a way of starting out long and lazy, but then it quickly gets filled with activities and impromptu get-togethers, and it’s all those things that start to interfere with family dinnertime.

It’s easy to get into the habit of picking something up while you’re out anyway, stopping and grabbing something to eat between your daughter’s soccer practice and your son’s baseball game.

Before you know it, family mealtime can fall to the wayside as summertime activities fill your schedule.

Why Dine Together as a Family?

Family dinners serve several important functions. Studies have long shown that children who sit down to dinner together with their family are less depressed and get better grades than their peers that do not. They are also less likely to become addicted to drugs or alcohol.

Beyond those studies, preparing and serving a family meal also gives you control over what is going into your children’s bodies. Focusing on real food is important, and eating a diet high in fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains and low in preservatives and deep fat fryers goes a long way in maintaining our health and energy.

How Do You Make Time?

So, we know it’s important to eat well and eat together, but how do we manage this in the midst of summer? The answer is not to always plan on being home every day at dinnertime, though that would also work. Instead, plan for the unexpected meals on the go.
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Today I’m over at Simple Bites, the sister cooking blog within the Simple Living Media family. I’m talking about my favorite ways to store and organize recipes I find on the Internet.

From the post:

…”About 75 percent of the recipes I use on a regular basis come from the Internet. Betty Crockers of the post-modern world have a plethora of recipes at their disposal, but it’s easily overwhelming.

“The Internet is a huge place, so how do you organize all the recipes you want to keep? There are almost as many systems to organizing URLs as there are URLs themselves, so there’s no one right way. But I like using systems I’m using anyway, instead of subscribing to a unique program solely for recipes or menu planning.

Whatever you use, the point is to keep it simple, easy to use, and helpful when you need that exact recipe in that precise moment. It’s such a pain to know you have a recipe somewhere, but aren’t sure where you saved it.”

Read the rest of the post, and share your favorite recipe storage ideas in the comments over there!