I was so excited to start blogging, but the shiny object syndrome has turned into a big blank stare.
I don’t know how to format a website. My window of opportunity to write when I started was while I put my baby down to sleep, but now my baby is a toddler who is obsessed with my phone any time it is out – even on the crest of falling asleep – so I’ve lost those daily windows. Life keeps going, people keep needing to be fed, washed, and loved on, and I feel as if I have no time to dedicate to learning something new. And blogging – every part except for the actual writing – is very new.
I’ve heard that when you get stuck, you need to remember your “why” for starting in the first place.
I’m going to take you on a back story journey to get to know me. Maybe we’ll find how I can get unstuck, together.
I bought this domain in September 2023. I had tossed around so many website names – “my kitchen, my heart”, “mise en palace: putting things in their proper place place to run your house like a queen”, and “screaming at clutter: one hot-mess mom and her battle against inanimate objects.” But none of those felt like the writer I wanted to be.
The same September, I started homeschooling. Not just helping my kids learn stuff, but truly getting into the school years with my children.
(Honest side note: it’s almost Christmas now and I don’t think we’ve had a single full week of school in there. If you’re homeschooling, go easy on yourself; no one is perfect, and kids learn from living as well as books.)
With school came choir, and talks of AWANA and putting our kids into swimming lessons. It felt overwhelming.
My mental load went from “play time all the time” to thinking of three structured activities per week along with their homework, and starting to homeschool.
I tried to think of how this could all work. The answer: Keep home simple.
The time and energy of other activities was enough. I didn’t need home time to be jam packed and exciting as well. I could keep our time here simple. Simple meal times, bed times, flow to our day, and even simplifying school and other activities helped me take on this shift to home schooling.
I knew I needed more simplicity, so I made choices:
Choir became our only activity.
I started teaching reading, first.
I made a rule that I don’t go out after 4 pm, unless someone else is making dinner.
And all the kids go to bed at the same time.
While I know we haven’t committed to all the extra activities, I know there is time.
I joined AWANA in 5th grade and didn’t learn to swim until I was 25. I still reap the benefits from both.
I don’t schedule play dates or let the kids go play with neighborhood friends in the mornings, because that is school time.
I do dishes twice each day and don’t force myself if it isn’t my normal time to clear the sink.
I’ve also vastly cut down on toys. My kids play best with each other, not with 100 pieces of a figurine set that gets dumped out and left or overprotected to the point of hurting their siblings.