Help Me!

There are those days, as a homeschool mom, when I think to myself, "Aha! This is why people send their kids to school."

We were under a bit of a mutiny around here. I was completely overwhelmed. The girls were complaining about E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G I asked them to do. They were sluggish, and (may I say it?) quite LAZY.

Dillon was interrupting every 5 minutes (no, I am NOT exagerrating) beg/whining me to fix his Mario problems on the Wii, and I was single-handedly trying to manage all of this on top of ridiculously huge projects (like canning and baking and harvesting foods)!

Thank God, Matt had some time off to step in and establish order. I asked him to take over and lead us for a few days. You know, it can be hard to submit to authority and rely on someone else, but this time it felt so freeing! He has such a unique perspective from mine. He doesn't put up with bologna from the kids, and he doesn't try to save the planet one lesson at a time. He simply got things done. He focused and got them done quickly.

I realized a couple of things during that time off from homeschool leadership: 1) I'm sorry for moms who don't have the privilege of a husband with an odd schedule (which lands him home to help during the day, sometimes). 2) I NEEDED a break! 3) We need people in the world who are not over-achievers 4) I need to learn to let go and do things simply sometimes 5) I need to quit multi-tasking during homeschool, focus and get it done, AND I need to make a plan and stick to it. I try to take on too much.

So, I am trying to set up flexible, weekly plans...I haven't been doing that lately. And I am trying to get the kids up a little earlier, so we have some free time left after school but before dinner.

Here's the tentative daily plan:

7:00 - 8:00 Mom's Bible Time
8:00 - 12:00 Homeschool
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch and clean-up
1:00 - 4:00 Free Time (chores, errands, quiet time, Dillon's nap)
4:00 - 6:00 Dinner (prep, eat, clean up)
6:00 - 8:00 Free Time (exercise, errands, chores)
8:00 - 9:00 Bath/Show/Bed (kids)
8:30 - 11:00 Writing and Down Time (mom/dad)

I've never been much for sticking to strict schedules. However, if I use this as a guideline, it will help us get a little more ordered and will hopefully help me to lose a bit of the overwhelmed feelings. I used a simlar schedule last year, and it worked well...as long as I didn't put too much pressure on to follow it rigidly!