Top Ten Ways to Stay Sane
Yesterday I was thinking how funny it is that I am writing a blog series on homeschooling. I felt like I was drowning in life, laundry up to my elbows, snotty nosed kids, work requirements that took longer than I thought they would. How can I offer words of encouragement to other moms, I thought. Well, it's much like a drowning victim offering to share their life preserver with a fellow drowning victim. So here are some practical tips.
Ten Ways to Stay Sane at Home:
1) Find quiet time to be with Jesus (and your fuzzy blanket). This one is pretty hilarious. It's like telling a starving person, all they need to do is find some food. Quiet time? Where might one find this illusive quiet time in a house full of noisy, rambunctious children who never leave? Well, it's not easy. In my house it usually has to be found between 5-6am. You might be lucky enough to have a nap time at your house, or find a few minutes to sneak away in the evening (maybe you have a bathroom that locks and a bible ap on your phone, you have to take what you can get)
2) Laugh. Like the Proverbs 31 woman, laugh. When you just spent an hour cleaning the bathroom only to walk in five minutes later and see it covered with wet sand and poop smears, laugh. When you just told your child to be careful and they spill their freshly filled cup all over your papers, laugh. When you intentionally do a bible study on kindness, and guerrilla warfare breaks out on the couch before you even finish the lesson..... you get the idea. It's good to laugh.
3)Have friends who know your pain. Sharing suffering helps. It also helps to be able to laugh when you have someone to laugh with.
4) Exercise. The other day I misspelled this as exorcise. That might help too. The main thing is get your heart rate up and blood flowing.
5) Listen to music. Sometimes I forget that I can choose to be happy in any circumstance. So too can I can choose to be unhappy in any circumstance. When I am working to choose happiness, turning on some uplifting tunes really helps.
6) Avoid crutches. The baby whisperer gives this advice for newborns learning to sleep, but it is also appropriate for moms schooling their kids at home. It can be tempting to let the kids entertain themselves with TV or other media. They are quiet and don't bother you during that time. But what I have found is that it is not worth it. If they have some media, they want more. Their attitudes and creativity also seem to spiral downward when they do electronics. It's like hiring a bad babysitter, it may give you a break for a little bit, but you'll be sorry later. (I'm not from the stone-age, we do family movie night and let the kids watch cartoons and play video games on the weekends, just not usually during the school week, unless I am pregnant or just had a baby, in which case, who knows what they do.)
7)Have a hobby. I know, I know, another seemingly impossibility for the life of a busy homeschooling mom. But my friend and I were talking about this last night. How many times do we live unintentionally? We spend a few minutes on facebook, or instagram, or wandering the house aimlessly with glazed over zombie eyes, when we could cut those things out of our lives and have have more time for the things we really want to pursue. I love to read, so I try to carve out time for that. And pastries, I always make time for pastries.
8) Remember the unseen. That sounds a little spooky as though I am trying to get in the spirit of Halloween. What I'm trying to say is that as Christians, we walk by faith and not by sight."For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. "2 Corinthians 4:18
9) Get out! The title "Homeschooling" can be a misnomer. We spend 2-3 school days every week out of our home. This is a new thing, since I have added a nature study day to our schedule. We also have one day at week with our Classical Conversations community. Then I often do a field trip for part of another day. While all this does make our days full and sometimes crazy, it helps keep me sane to be out of my house.
10) Go an a date. If you are fortunate enough to have a spouse, sneak out of the house with them as much as you can, preferably at least once a week. It doen't matter what you do, just be alone together. The great thing about the unglamorous life of a homeschooling mother is that it doesn't take much to raise the thrill level. A trip to Costco without children can suddenly be a romantic getaway (not that I would use that as a go to - but hey, whatever works for you).
The good news for us is that if we know Jesus, the sea we are really drowning in is grace (To borrow the line from one of my favorite songs), He's the best life preserver, so if we cling to him it's all gonna be okay.
Ten Ways to Stay Sane at Home:
1) Find quiet time to be with Jesus (and your fuzzy blanket). This one is pretty hilarious. It's like telling a starving person, all they need to do is find some food. Quiet time? Where might one find this illusive quiet time in a house full of noisy, rambunctious children who never leave? Well, it's not easy. In my house it usually has to be found between 5-6am. You might be lucky enough to have a nap time at your house, or find a few minutes to sneak away in the evening (maybe you have a bathroom that locks and a bible ap on your phone, you have to take what you can get)
2) Laugh. Like the Proverbs 31 woman, laugh. When you just spent an hour cleaning the bathroom only to walk in five minutes later and see it covered with wet sand and poop smears, laugh. When you just told your child to be careful and they spill their freshly filled cup all over your papers, laugh. When you intentionally do a bible study on kindness, and guerrilla warfare breaks out on the couch before you even finish the lesson..... you get the idea. It's good to laugh.
3)Have friends who know your pain. Sharing suffering helps. It also helps to be able to laugh when you have someone to laugh with.
4) Exercise. The other day I misspelled this as exorcise. That might help too. The main thing is get your heart rate up and blood flowing.
5) Listen to music. Sometimes I forget that I can choose to be happy in any circumstance. So too can I can choose to be unhappy in any circumstance. When I am working to choose happiness, turning on some uplifting tunes really helps.
6) Avoid crutches. The baby whisperer gives this advice for newborns learning to sleep, but it is also appropriate for moms schooling their kids at home. It can be tempting to let the kids entertain themselves with TV or other media. They are quiet and don't bother you during that time. But what I have found is that it is not worth it. If they have some media, they want more. Their attitudes and creativity also seem to spiral downward when they do electronics. It's like hiring a bad babysitter, it may give you a break for a little bit, but you'll be sorry later. (I'm not from the stone-age, we do family movie night and let the kids watch cartoons and play video games on the weekends, just not usually during the school week, unless I am pregnant or just had a baby, in which case, who knows what they do.)
7)Have a hobby. I know, I know, another seemingly impossibility for the life of a busy homeschooling mom. But my friend and I were talking about this last night. How many times do we live unintentionally? We spend a few minutes on facebook, or instagram, or wandering the house aimlessly with glazed over zombie eyes, when we could cut those things out of our lives and have have more time for the things we really want to pursue. I love to read, so I try to carve out time for that. And pastries, I always make time for pastries.
8) Remember the unseen. That sounds a little spooky as though I am trying to get in the spirit of Halloween. What I'm trying to say is that as Christians, we walk by faith and not by sight."For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. "2 Corinthians 4:18
9) Get out! The title "Homeschooling" can be a misnomer. We spend 2-3 school days every week out of our home. This is a new thing, since I have added a nature study day to our schedule. We also have one day at week with our Classical Conversations community. Then I often do a field trip for part of another day. While all this does make our days full and sometimes crazy, it helps keep me sane to be out of my house.
10) Go an a date. If you are fortunate enough to have a spouse, sneak out of the house with them as much as you can, preferably at least once a week. It doen't matter what you do, just be alone together. The great thing about the unglamorous life of a homeschooling mother is that it doesn't take much to raise the thrill level. A trip to Costco without children can suddenly be a romantic getaway (not that I would use that as a go to - but hey, whatever works for you).
The good news for us is that if we know Jesus, the sea we are really drowning in is grace (To borrow the line from one of my favorite songs), He's the best life preserver, so if we cling to him it's all gonna be okay.
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