Monday, September 19, 2011

Monday Mastery: Taking Breaks

Parents all know that their job is 24/7.  But I have to think that for homeschooling families, that is even more so the case.  I'm not saying it because I'm trying to brag ... I'm just saying that much of the time, I'm pretty well tired.  Plus, it doesn't help the fact that I'm a bit of a control freak (my sisters would confirm this ... though, they may argue with the *bit* portion of the statement), so I find it really difficult to take a break -- to hand off the care of our children to someone else just for the sake of taking a deep breath now and then.

But my husband has made a pact with me that when he comes home from his day job (his 40-hour-ish job; on top of being Daddy), I get to have one hour for myself.  Call it a lunch break.  We start this new thing this week -- so I'll let you know how it goes.  I don't know yet what I'll do with this time, but for the sake of my family ... I need to start scheduling this break in so I don't have a mental breakdown.

Meanwhile, bringing this post to the Mastery portion, I have discovered one magical way to take a small semi-break midday. 

Our local library has been an incredible blessing to our family.  Not only are their programs free of charge, but one of the main children's section librarians is also a homeschooler (to her only child).  She is very homeschool friendly and has been a tremendous resource for us and the community in her influence on scheduling lots of homeschool events and classes at the library.

Yes, for the next six weeks or so, our older boys are attending a homeschool science class at the library!  Free.  It's educational.  It's social.  It's close to our home.  But best of all, I am down two kids for a blessed hour each Monday for six weeks. 

May I just say: Ahhhhhhhhhh (as in, sigh of relief).

They are there now and the house has already decreased in chaos by like 75%.  Never liked Mondays much ... till now.

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