College Chaplain
Reverend Peter Landry
Adaptable Rhythms & Routine – Lessons from a year at Overnewton
Article by Reverend Peter Landry, College Chaplain
For those who are new to the Overnewton community, welcome! My name is Peter. I’m the College Chaplain and a parent of a Year 1 student here at Overnewton.
After a little over a year of wearing both hats, I thought I’d share a few of the most helpful lessons I’ve picked up along the way from fellow parents, students, and a generous collection of my own parenting mistakes. My hope is that this helps you and your family hit the ground running this year (yes, that pun is intentional).
If I had to boil it all down to one tip (something I’ve seen work across ages, families, and circumstances) it would be this: start the year how you want to finish it. Find rhythms and routines that are realistic, flexible, and sustainable for your family, and protect what matters most.
Let me explain with a quick summer story....
Over the holidays, my partner’s brother challenged her to a 5km race. They had a month to prepare. My partner trained when she could; weekend park runs, building up a steady pace. What she couldn’t train for was that the race would be held in South Africa, on a muddy farm, about 1,500 metres above sea level.
When we arrived, she adjusted her expectations and settled into a slower but manageable pace. Her brother, meanwhile, followed the mantra of “just keep running” (imagine Dory, but with legs). Despite living on the farm, he did zero training. He didn’t even own running shoes.
Race day came. They started at 5:30am, before the sun became unbearable. My partner ran her best ever farm time and still lost by six minutes. Her brother ran barefoot on muddy, gravelly, snake-adjacent roads.
At this point you might be thinking, “Sorry… what?”
The next morning, my partner went out for another run, logging a calm and consistent 5km. Her brother, on the other hand, took sick leave. He could barely walk. His feet were swollen, scabbed, and he spent the rest of the week moving around like a rodeo clown.
So the question is: Who actually won?
The correct answer is… me. The kids and I slept until 7:30am for the first time in months.
Last year, our family lived by the “just keep running” approach. From the outside, it looked fine, the kids were healthy and happy. But underneath, we were exhausted, a bit grumpy, and very much limping to the finish line. We made it through, but we didn’t always enjoy the journey.
So, this year, we’re trying something different. We’re aiming for rhythms that are predictable, adaptable, and centred on what matters most to us: connection, wellbeing, and character.
Connection
We try to spend around 30 minutes each day intentionally connecting with the kids, often one of us playing Magna-Tiles while the other does a frantic tidy. It sounds small, but it helps enormously with behaviour and emotional regulation. On days when work means I don’t see them, I always call before bed. It’s scheduled, predictable, and really matters to them.
Prayer
This has become a surprisingly helpful tool for both connection and emotional wellbeing. Before bed (or on the phone), we pray for:
one highlight from the day (gratitude),
one worry (emotional check-in),
and one thing happening outside our family (awareness of others).
The kids never want to say the prayer themselves, but a short prayer from me helps them feel heard, loved, and part of something bigger.
Wellbeing
This looks different for every family, but a few things that have helped us:
planning something fun just after busy periods,
precooking meals, moving our bodies, and limiting screen time (yes, for adults too),
and blocking out regular time for my partner and me to recharge, in whatever way works best for each of us.
Character
This one’s simple, but not easy: trying to become the kind of people we hope our children will be one day.
None of this is about doing things perfectly. It’s about choosing a pace you can actually keep and enjoying the journey.
“let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” – Hebrews 12:1-2.
