Grab Your Mat;
It’s Rest
Time!
. . . May I gently
implore you to take
some time off?
Guess what? It’s May, and for many of us that means it’s time to kick back. I also re- alize that quite a lot of our
readers are just about to start their
school years, and even more are working year-round. Guess what? It’s still
time to kick back!
If you are a passionate, driven, serious
homeschooler, you may very well recognize your inability to take some time off
and put your feet up for a day or longer.
We feel so much pressure doing this job,
don’t we?
As a homeschooling mom who has
perhaps gone before you, may I gently
implore you to take some time off? It
may be just a few minutes, an hour with
a good book, or a weekend alone to take
a breath and think, but time off from the
24/7 demands of homeschooling is essential to your physical health, the health
of your marriage, and the health of your
family as a whole.
I am not the only one who is encouraging you to do so; God commanded a
day of rest and indeed, took one Himself
during that matchless week of creation.
Rest, quiet, a change of pace, and time
to regain focus and see the forest for the
trees are good choices.
Easier said than done, particularly
with little people in your home? Here are
some ideas to get you thinking:
1. If you’re a morning person, plan an extra ten minutes in your routine to pour
yourself a cup of whatever-you-like and
do something that requires no thought
or work. Read a magazine. Take a
bubble bath. Watch some television.
Stretch. Knit. Whatever works for you.
2. If you’re a night person, all of the above
applies but at the end of the day. Whatever works for you.
3. Don’t forget where our true rest and
peace come from. Whether part of
your morning routine or your bedtime routine, there is nothing that will
refresh you like the Word of God. It
doesn’t matter how you go about it,
how long it is, how much you read,
what you read, or who knows it. Whatever works for you.
4. Take a nap. Even a child who has
dropped his nap may be coerced into
a sleepy afternoon if Mom is cuddled
up next to him, rubbing his back. Put
some restful music on and pull up the
covers. Whatever works for you.
5.Stop. Hang up the dish towel, leave
the clothes in the dryer, walk over the
132;May;2012;•;The;Littlest;Homeschooler
crumbs on the floor, and stop. What-
ever works for you.
The truth is, you will never be on top
of it all. I can remember when I had four
children under 6 years old and feeling
very much like I was drowning. In ad-
dition to homeschooling the older ones
and being pregnant with a fifth, I was
maintaining my voice studio and spent
several afternoons teaching voice stu-
dents in my home. One of my students
was a homeschooling mom herself who
had graduated a few of her students al-
ready, and when I told her I felt as if I
could never stay on top of everything
and that the work never ended she said:
“It won’t ever end. You’ll never be on top
of it. That’s just the way it is.”
Wow. Not really what my type A per-
sonality wanted to hear, but I have re-
minded myself of her words often, even
when I’ve given up extra activities on my
plate, such as my voice studio. Even as I
sit in my comfy chair in my bedroom to-
night writing this, I can see the neat piles
of sorted laundry and the bags slated to
go to the thrift store. I know the family
room floor needs to be vacuumed and
the girls’ sheets need to be changed. It
never ends, and that’s just the way it is.
