A few days ago, I had a little homeschoolin’ momma/house wife epiphany. What if I could do my days without time?
Some days there are things we have to go to at a certain time, but actually, that’s not the norm for me and my kids. We protect our days and evenings, because of my fatigue and sleep situation, but also because we want to not be running around busy. We want to be intentional in what we’re doing, who we’re with…
For me, this means that I get up when I get up (within reason, there is an alarm clock set at the latest possible waking time!) Then I have a little list of things I want to do, each taking between 5 and 15 minutes. It has been so awesome to actually do these first thing in the morning instead of wearing out and not having time for it later in the day. Here’s my personally muy importante steps: Open the Word and spend some time in reading, specific prayer, giving thanks. Make the bed. Grab the mini-vac and clean up a little dog hair! (So simple but it makes me really happy to not have to see it all day!) Hit the mat and do a few stretches and exercises. (Don’t be impressed, we’re talking 5 minutes here.) Put on clothes and shoes and coat and take the dog for a romp outside right in front of our house since the kids are home. AH. So many issues taken care of head on! All this time, the girls have a list of things they can be doing on their own to help their day run smoothly. For all you morning people who are thinking, “Lyn, where’s the epiphany? This is what normal people do…” I am telling you, I am not normal!
Then it’s some hot tea and breakfast, and school with Selah/Yemi however long it takes. Because we ate breakfast whenever, then lunch can be eaten when school is done (because we would never ever do schoolwork for longer than 3 hours). Lunch is simple and we get at least 3 of our F & V servings in. After lunch, I just want to play and spend time with my kids. I fail at this A LOT. When they’re playing or watching a show, I do work…but I want to change that. I remind myself there is time for that later. So when we’re tired of playing, a snack and then it’s what I like to call Soul Restoration time. We go to our rooms and do our thing…Sleep, chill, play quietly…For me, I might rest, blog, sing, spend more time in the Word, exercise. All good things for my little introvert soul. This is usually when Selah has her quiet time, but she might start having it first thing since she’ll have some free time then.
When we’re done with that, we need to focus on housework and cooking dinner. I think my kids should have things they can do to help. Working on that. We eat supper with a devotion, do game night or movie night or just hang out, and then it’s been dark for a little while already and it’s time to go to bed! After they go to bed, Jack and I are so blessed to have some time to chill…and not looking at the clock, when I feel tired and sleepy I am not fighting it. It’s fun to get in bed and see what time it is. 🙂
