Balancing Child Actions with Downtime

I’m so tickled to be right here on the third day in a row simply sharing life. I must and can get again to some extra curated content- recipes, Friday favorites, and so on, however gosh proper now it feels good to simply present up and chat with you. I’m so inspired by your responses that you simply miss this type of running a blog, too. It’s much less in your face, isn’t it? That’s how I really feel studying my favourite blogs. Like I can simply drop in when it really works in my schedule and test in with a good friend. I hope you’re feeling that method right here. 

Sufficient waxing poetic, let’s chat a couple of much less balanced day 🙂

Thursdays have been our tremendous full days and yesterday was no exception. I awoke (6:15- attempting to slowly transfer again to that 6:00 mark), had espresso, wrote my weblog put up, then realized I had skipped proper over my accessible window to stroll the canine. Sorry, Finley. She acquired a fast up and down the driveway, then I headed to the kitchen to prep breakfast and pack lunch on the identical time.

Breakfast was Greek yogurt with chia seeds and no grain granola with two fried eggs and my regular cod liver oil and vitamin D. Whereas I ate that, I prepped some earl Gray tea to go, washed the produce, and threw lunch stuff into our massive cooler. I acquired dressed and the women and I have been out the door on the way in which to co-op by 8:30 (ish… humorous how that will get later and later as we get nearer to the final co-op day).

Our co-op is tremendous candy and we’ve loved it a lot. We begin with morning time which consists of composer research, artist research, and bible research, then I help in science for the oldest children (we performed with circuits), then I helped with the toddlers, then music with the younger children, then lunch, nature research (my fav!), and ended with Shakespeare. We stayed afterwards to let the children play within the gymnasium (basketball after which some fierce dodgeball) and the mothers chat. It’s my favourite time of the day!

We’ll miss seeing this candy group weekly after we change co-ops subsequent 12 months. We’ll be switching to an choice the place I don’t have to show so I can focus solely on my children’ curriculum and classes, which was a little bit of a wrestle for me this 12 months since I’d spend Wednesday prepping and Thursday educating different children. It felt like we missed two homeschool days and on the ages my ladies are at, we have to modify.

We left the church simply shy of 4:00, which meant a fast flip round at house. I threw in freezer meatballs in my trusty Dutch oven gradual cooker, ate a fast snack (cottage cheese and BBQ chips), grabbed and Spindrift, and Ok and I have been again out the door by 4:20 to move to theater rehearsal.

She had rehearsal till 8:00 and whereas she did that I returned cellphone calls, swung by Goal to get a child birthday reward and a mud pan, and acquired gasoline at Costco. We acquired house round 9:00 (it’s fairly a drive for us to the theater) the place I inhaled some spaghetti and meatballs, poured myself a magnesium, and chatted with the household earlier than all of us headed to mattress shortly after. It’s bizarre when your bedtime turns into the identical as your children!

Theater runs by way of this weekend, with three extra performances. I’ve combined emotions on this system we’ve been a part of this spring, as they allowed everybody who auditioned into the present, leading to a ton of tiny components (assume two minutes of stage time for a 80 minute manufacturing). Mix that with a demanding schedule and necessary volunteer hours on high of the month-to-month price, and it was… so much. 

Nevertheless, they’re adjusting issues for the autumn musical theater arrange and now Ok (and perhaps even H!) need to audition. It has me pondering so much about household priorities and the right way to match these up with child actions. I’m an enormous believer in the good thing about free time. It’s one of many causes we homeschool- time to discover private pursuits, play exterior, be bored, and so on. I additionally see the advantages of activities- studying the right way to be a part of a workforce, sportsmanship, acquire expertise in performing/chatting with a crowd, and so on. 

I’ve stated all spring season lengthy, that we’d be signing up for much less within the fall. However determining precisely what that appears like is difficult. H is pretty simple; she desires to do piano and soccer. However now she’s interested by musical theater as properly. Ok desires to do musical theater, soccer, softball, TKD, and voice classes. Clearly we can’t (and don’t need to) cart her round to all of these. Plus the women will do youth group on the church, which is one evening every week.

Add in appointments (chiropractor, dentist, hair cuts, and all the opposite little issues that pop up) and co-op and we’ll be setting ourselves up for one more drive-happy fall. 

All mothers know we’ve got to begin figuring these things out by summer time as a result of that’s when all of the registration occurs, so I’m curious the way you deal with this. I’ve associates that do nothing exterior the house and their lives look idyllic- gradual evenings, unrushed mornings, time to make lovely dinners, and children exploring exterior. My coronary heart principally craves that, however but I additionally love cheering on my children from the sidelines and watching them shine up on stage. Is there a stability to be struck or is it merely a season of life that will get a bit crazier and also you simply buckle up and benefit from the journey?

If you happen to’ve figured it out (or when you haven’t), I’d be curious as to the right way to A) plan to deal with it if in case you have little children B) are dealing with it when you’re in the identical season or C) dealt with it when your children have been on this stage and when you (in hindsight) would have modified something or have any recommendation.

And when you’re simply silent studying out of your cellphone at the moment, that’s OK, too. 😉 Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will have an exquisite weekend! Oh, and one final image from our busy day- proof of dinner and loopy children wrestling on the sofa.