Doing It All

As you start to walk down this path combining homeschooling with working from home, you’ll come up against your limits pretty quickly.

:: Prayer Rug Woven from my Suriname Skirts ::

There will be limits to your attention, your energy, the number of daylight hours.  You can’t add in new activities or responsibilities forever.  No amount of organization or preparation will let you change the hard lines of your day.  There will be good things you have to say no to.  There will be things you miss.

For me, this year it was letting go of a curriculum I had purchased with the highest hopes.  It was going to be perfect.  But really, I didn’t have the space–the time or the mental energy–to make the curriculum a success.  So I had to find something else.  Something that fits the reality of our days right now.

This winnowing is hard.  And it’s not something that you can do once.  Every new season puts stress in different areas calling for re-visions.  But it’s also holy work.  It’s the work of figuring out how our lives can become a prayer.  In The Teenage Liberation Handbook, Grace Llewellyn describes the goal of all our learning:

The idea is not to fill your mind up like a crowded refrigerator. The idea is to weave a prayer rug out of everything that comes your way.

As we look honestly at the limits, we can begin to see the grace notes–those places where refreshment can enter.  I am finding that even in the busiest seasons, if I can find ways to nourish myself, I can love and work more fully.

Today I’ve got a date with the season’s first pumpkin spice latte and a pile of collage materials.  Christine from Bare Branch Blooming is hosting October’s Gluebook Party.  I’ll be creating in public and sharing on Instagram.  You come too!