Just like the first week of summer break, the last week has surprised me with Hard Things. In the summer I always get smacked over the head with thoughts about home improvement. And I don't mean the kind that starts with a hammer and nails.
I guess self-reflection is not tenable while teaching two kids, managing my home and chronic illness and trying to find time for myself and my husband and laundry. But in the summer when things are more relaxed it's like the issues stand out! Suddenly they are everywhere and I'm confronted with my own selfishness, my children's moods, the fingerprints on our walls and the fact that I haven't swept under my fridge in six months.
Our family needs to work on unity and screen time consumption. Our media hours have been through the roof this summer but my husband says not to worry about it--we do very little screen time during school. But I am Worrying About It. I don't have a time machine and I can't go back and change it so I am trying to take steps to reduce our screen time this week and of course my lovely children don't like that. And honestly neither do I. It has been a lesson in perseverance and discipline. But I know it is better for the atmosphere of my home, and thus we go on. We all like each other better when there is not copious amounts of noise and distractions around.
So what did we do this week? On Monday I set up some stations around for Esther to play with during school and organized her toys. Keeping her entertained will be half of the day! We are stocked up on play dough and Elsa and Anna have their own shelf.
On Tuesday I had a painting class with Becky! We had a ton of fun! This was also Reuben's last day being sick and he ended it with a killer ear infection. No one in our house has had an ear infection in at least a year so I was stumped as to what to do. I knew I knew what to do, or at least I did, but what was it? I started with putting colloidal silver in his ear but it didn't work and then I finally remembered garlic drops which did the trick.
On Wednesday we drove up to visit my natural path and friend, Kim Fuhrmann and had a meeting with her to get some insight into my health. I'm going to keep doing what I am doing and add in a probiotic at night.
We also got in a walk somewhere in the week and worked on the kids free reads.
On paper it was a good week but we dealt with a lot of hard attitudes, mine included. I think transitions are always hard and I don't know why I forget that every year! What kid wants to end their free time and go back to school? I mean some parts of it are exciting but it's also a lot of work. And for me too, as Mom and Teacher.
We all treated ourselves to bubble tea and lots of animal crossing to compensate. Forget what I said about screen time, it's the last week of summer break. What was I thinking?
If you want to visit my dream island, there it is. I love my island-- I guess it's a norm core. With flowers. I have lots of flowers.
Becky has her own island too that she wants to share soon as it's done! And now I need to go start my day...I woke up at 4:30 and couldn't get back to sleep, so I definitely need a nap today...hope the baby will take one with me!
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