The Big White Farmhouse

1. START A NEW WEEK WITH AN EASY DAY.
Mondays are our “easy” days.  We stick to the basics and are usually done before lunch.  I use the extra time to catch up on laundry and other chores I neglected to do over the weekend.  It sets the tone for the rest of the week and I’m much less stressed about feeling behind on life.

2. “QUIET HOUR” IS A GAME CHANGER.
As an introvert, I was really struggling the first few weeks with the non-stop interaction with the kids.  I always felt “on the clock” and it was affecting my parenting.  Enter “quiet hour”: for an hour after lunch, the house is (mostly) silent.  The baby naps, the big two read and the little three play quietly in their rooms.  I originally felt like this was the time to catch up on chores until one day, I was like, NOPE.  This is my quiet time too.  I leave the laundry to fold or the kitchen to sweep and instead read a few chapters or blog.  After the hour, we all come back together calm and ready to take on the rest of the afternoon.  Total game changer.

3. MY BIGGEST HOMESCHOOLING FAIL SO FAR: POETRY TEATIME.
Mark jokes and says that we should instead call this “Make delicious baked goods and hopefully have some leftover by the time the cocoa heats up time” and he’d be right.  Turns out that the kids don’t like tea and we have a hard time reading when we’re stuffing our faces with delicious treats.  Positive side: we all bake together and usually no one gets hurt or cries.  And I’m finally getting some use out of all those sweet treats I’ve pinned, so #winwin.

4. THERE IS SO MUCH FREEDOM IN NOT FEELING RUSHED.
One of the most interesting parts of going back to homeschooling is hearing the boys talk about the differences between now and their time in public school.  One comment that really stuck out was how much they felt rushed – ten minutes to finish that project, no time to ask further questions about a topic, having to read at a certain level or else, etc.  Homeschooling is not for everyone and it definitely can be hard, but I’m feeling really thankful to be able to give them the gift of unhurried time.

5. ALL THE PIECES WILL FALL INTO PLACE.  AND PROBABLY NOT PERFECTLY, BUT THAT’S OKAY TOO.
We’re six weeks in and our days are falling into a groove.  The kids know what to expect and what is expected of them.  But the rest of my life?  A hot mess.  My house isn’t sparkly and clean (although having a set of chores for the kids has helped with it not feeling like a wreck!) and our dinners are simple and often repeated over and over.  I have a handful of half-finished projects just waiting for a free minute to complete.  I’m only now figuring out how to sneak in my running schedule.  While I wish I was a well-oiled machine, I’m not.  Life is crazy and messy, but the pieces will still slowly fall into place.  

6. I CAN DO THIS.
If you had talked to me on the first week of school, I would have told you that I had made the biggest mistake of my life.  What was I thinking?!  Praise God, that feeling has passed.  There are still some really hard days – days when I’m happy to shut the books and start again tomorrow.  But the good outweighs the bad and I have peace about our schooling decision this year.  Next year could be totally different, but for right now? I can do this.