False Spring
How are you hanging in there, homeschool parents? I tend to get in the doldrums in February, but by middle March, when the daffodils start coming up, I get a spark of energy from the new life I can see springing up all around me. Here in Georgia, we tend to get a “false spring” when some of the trees and flowers start blooming, but the pollen scourge has not yet descended like a yellow blanket over everything. It made me feel motivated to set some goals for myself and my children.
Like many people, I always start the year with the best of intentions. This year, my husband and I made lofty New Year’s resolutions, full of pride and good intentions, coming off our completion of the 75 Hard Challenge. Instead, our home was hit with one bug after another, leaving us feeling run down and unmotivated. With the New Year novelty gone, the coldest winter I can remember made it easy to stay sluggish on the warm couch. Our good intentions turned into a lot of mindless scrolling on our phones. Our gym membership went unused. Good books gathered dust. Kids watched and picked up our habits. The dog wondered where his daily three mile walks went. It really was not a good situation for anyone in Richard's household.
But….up came the daffodils. They are my “new new year!” I decided to make some changes. Kathy had bought me a copy of The Five Second Rule by Mel Robbins, which I started this week. One of the first things she talked about was launching yourself out of bed by counting 5,4,3,2,1 and jumping into action, without hesitating and hitting the snooze button 95 times. So my 5am start time is back, which means my quiet alone time is back, which means my attitude is much improved! I am ready to tackle some personal goals and help my children set some of their own.
One of the things we have been struggling with lately is free reading time. Both Rosie (13) and I have a fat stack of books to read, but have not been creating time to do it. So today we are starting a new habit of reading for an hour side by side in the evenings. Thirteen is a rough age to be a girl, and I’m hoping it will give us some space to have some good talks too.
I’ve decided we will sit in the living room, making it special, and am planning some party food for our first session. Five days in a row will win us a special coffee date out.
Speaking of reading, when my kids were little, my stack was mostly full of the classics, theology and parenting books. I left the business, leadership and time management books to my husband. In hindsight, I wish I had included some of these. As I have branched out in my reading, I can see how those leadership lessons would have been valuable for me as a mother. One of my favorite recent reads is Atomic Habits by James Clear. This would have helped me so much back when I had five little ones, but it looked so businesslike I wouldn’t have thought to pick it up.
Did your New Year’s resolutions hit the skids? Let the daffodils popping their heads up inspire you to start anew. What new goal would you like to achieve? We need to model goal setting and achieving for our kids. Learning to compare themselves today to themselves three months ago is a good way to insulate our kids from the trap of comparing themselves to others!
And tell me which books you think I should read next!