When Less Is More

After a rough start to our school year, we finally found our stride in early November and have been pushing hard ever since.  In order to be able to take a month off of school when Baby Dylan arrives, we've been doing extra days whenever we can squeeze them in.  We only took two days off instead of a full week at Thanksgiving, and over what would normally be a two-week Christmas vacation, we accomplished some extra days there as well.  And since Jon doesn't routinely get Monday holidays, we haven't been taking them, either.  Over all, the spark plugs have been more than eager to plug along at their work, making my job that much easier.

There's only so much a person can take, however, before starting to feel burned out.  Two weeks ago, as my anemia worsened and my energy diminished, I realized that even if the kiddos were content to push forward at the pace we were going, I needed a break. 

I had a few projects that I'd been neglecting, so instead of our formal together time (others call it circle time), we focused solely on our core curriculum and set aside our extra subjects.  This enabled us to finish up our health book and add in some of these side projects.

Imagine the spark plugs' excitement when Mom pulled out two years' worth of coins and let them count, sort, stack, and exchange all those glittering quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies!  This made for a fun afternoon without the kids even realizing that we were reinforcing this year's math concepts.  (It also didn't hurt that I let them redeem all the coins and add the proceeds to their savings accounts.)

While they were busy with the coins, I sorted through baby clothes and worked on our Family Closet, a universal laundry system that is working really well for us at the moment.  While it isn't without its drawbacks, I am greatly enjoying the fact that no spark plug can tell me, "I have nothing to wear!"  Mama, 1; clothes shoved under the bed, 0.

We had numerous outings that week, such as my next prenatal appointment (the spark plugs LOVED hearing Dylan's heart beat); a tour of the Rengstorff House with our home school group; a Valentine's Day-themed park day; and a few other pressing engagements.  It was nice to have a little extra time to fit in these important things.

The end result of this temporary shift in schedule was that I felt encouraged and less burned out.  I additionally appreciated the extra time to work on the house and prepare for the baby's arrival, and I think the spark plugs loved some of the special projects I gave them. 

This week, we're back in the saddle with a full school load complete with Together Time.  While I'm still pretty tired, the change of pace (even though I actually felt busier with all the extra time away from home!) was just what we needed to re-energize and re-focus for these final weeks until we bring home our 6th family member.  The flexibility that home schooling affords us has never been so appreciated!