From parenting to career moves, Jana Vink shares her experience as a mom of 4, Licensed Social Worker and business owner in using faith as the value that drives decisions in her family.  And by using faith as the framework, she and her husband jointly make the choices that impact their family.  With kids ranging in age from preschool to high school, Jana’s goal to be available and present for ALL of her kids AND her husband led her to starting her own business.  For her and her husband, family is the priority, so naturally has created her work schedule around the needs of her family.

Every family member has seasons–honor them.

The Vink family recognizes this idea of “seasons” for each family member and has learned the skill of flexing their time around whatever event or activity may be taking the lead at the moment.  They work to highlight the value of each person’s interest(s) so that each individual can feel and be supported throughout their seasons. 

One of the key players in balancing 6 schedules in the family is the Sunday Night Meeting.

Each week this family holds a Sunday Night Meeting to plan for the upcoming week. This gives Jana and her husband a chance to check in with each other and the rest of the family on the needs for the week.  Their schedules work best such that Jana goes to work early so that she can pick the kids up from school and take care of afternoon/evening kid responsibilities, leaving her husband responsible for all morning/before school family needs. 

For their family this set division in scheduling works well… and means that Jana and her husband have learned to communicate more effectively in order to meet the needs of the family. 

She knows that her husband can do things just as well as she can.

So any requests or needs that directly impact before school routines automatically go through her husband, and vice versa for afternoon.

Jana chooses not to believe she is missing out on mornings with her kids, but rather her kids are getting the OPPORTUNITY to develop a close relationship with their dad.

Jana will admit that she and her husband both have “take charge” personalities, so they’ve discovered its best to decide what he takes charge of and what she takes charge of.  And they don’t always agree on issues, but have learned that it is still possible to respectfully resolve issues when seeing the same issue differently.  Ultimately, she and her husband seek to make decisions together, as partners, based on how the values of the decision relate to faith.

“When we function as a team, we can do anything, but when we are against each other or not on the same page, then it doesn’t work.”

Jana speaks to the special traditions that her family has created in honoring birthdays as well as maintaining the importance of creating opportunities for connection even as children age and become more independent.  She speaks to the importance of teaching our children about being stewards of technology as children these days are natives in the technology world, and we, as adults are immigrants in that world.  So teaching them the importance of balancing technology so it is a part of our world and not are whole world is crucial. 

To understand how all this creates Health, Harmony & Happiness in her life, Jana chooses to look through her “faith lens.” She checks in with herself to see if she is doing what God called her to do and asks the question:

“How do I move forward serving God in my relationship, with my kids, & in my community?”

By doing so it allows her to clarify how she spends her time, and it energizes her so she can continue giving to others.

To connect with or schedule a session at Jana’s office or virtually visit www.GraceCounselingIowa.com. 

I’d love to hear your own time savers & hacks for creating work-family balance; share them on our facebook page, CairnYogaWellness and on Instagram using #HealthHarmonyHappiness.

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