Running With Spears

I’ve had some reactions from my posts thus far from well meaning friends assuming that what I need is assistance in finding curriculum, or homeschool support groups to ask questions about how to do it better, or help of some sort. I very much appreciate the thought and love that I know is behind these responses. I have awesome friends and can’t imagine doing life without them!!!! LOVE you guys!!!! But, I’m actually pretty good with our crazy life most days. And one thing these responses helped me realize is why I did start this blog.

I feel like the media saturation and unending Pinterest ideas for how you can be supermom make normal Mom’s feel inadequate at best…and then if you’re going through an especially busy season, or something comes up (like figuring what it means when your kid is diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder), or you have a bad day…it can be super easy to feel like you’re the worst Mom ever. I know there are plenty of others out there who feel the same way about our generation’s inundation with articles and blog posts and whatnot telling you how to be a better Mom. But I haven’t seen all that many people post not your very best Mom moments, but your average days, or even your bad ones.

I have read a few blog posts about NOT being perfect, though, and I love them! So, I think my goal for this blog is to just join the ranks of those Moms. The happy being not super or perfect Moms! And I’m pretty sure I’m the least organized, most fly by the seat of my pants, whatever works Mom I know. So, I figure if I post about our wacky life, maybe it will help tip the balance just a smidge from the idealistic life it sometimes feels like we’re all supposed to imitate. 😉

As a note: I’m NOT AT ALL saying to live insignificant, powerless lives. Go for your dreams! Say yes to God’s plans for you! Step into your destiny! Change the world!!! But along the way, don’t feel guilty if making amazing bento lunches every day isn’t your thing, or what your works for your family is vastly different than what someone else has told you your day to day life should look like. 😀

Here’s a “typical” day at our house. Except that there really isn’t such a thing as typical around here, our days fluctuate wildly from one to the next…consistency and routine aren’t really my thing. 😉

8:30ish – Get up with Boo who, along with Artist had piled into my bed the night before. See that Artist grabbed some chips for breakfast. Look for something better to feed them. See nothing and hand Boo a bag of cookies. Go back to bed cause I’m exhausted (and try to sleep despite the girls tag-teaming asking me a battery of super important questions such as “Are you asleep?” or “Can I have some chocolate?”).

10:00ish – Get up for real. Discover we’re out of coffee. And I’m out of my B vitamins. Resign myself to having NO energy all day.

Satisfied that the girls are playing happily on their computer, I get to work on my editing.

We eat lunch at some point, I waste some time on FB, Pinterest, etc. The girls rot their minds watching some TV, and trash the house playing.

3:30ish – I get Artist set up doing some math. She whizzes through it…she’s a math genius. Then we struggle through her reading lesson. And I spend a few minutes helping her learn to tie her shoes. (P.S. if you always get your kids Velcro shoes so you don’t have to mess with laces, one day you wake up and realize your almost 6 year old has no idea how to tie shoes.) 😉

4:15ish – Finish school. Yep…assuming you can do math, you figured out that we did a total of about 45 minutes of official school.

I proceed to straighten the house, do dishes, etc. in preparation for Misteris coming home around 5:30 or 6:00. The girls entertain themselves by coloring on our windows.

Fortunately (this time) they’re using markers specifically made to come off windows. :DSurprisingly they actually stay focused on this the entire time and don’t make other messes behind me as I’m cleaning up! SCORE!

6:30ish – Heat up leftovers. Make a peanut butter sandwich for Artist, whose food aversions due to SPD severely limit what foods she eats. We all gather around the table to play Zombie Dice with dinner. I help Boo count a few times, which is the closest thing to any school I’ve done with her all day. :p

The rest of the evening we do pretty normal stuff…a little play time, bath, bedtime stories…I sit in bed with the girls for awhile reading on my nook while rubbing Artist’s back to help her fall asleep.

And there you have it! I bet you feel loads better about your typical day now, don’t you? 😀

The other day I decided to try to find a few new blogs to follow. I searched for homeschool blogs, but felt like all the ones I found came across a lot like “Seven Secrets of a Highly Organized Super Homeschool Mom!”

Um…no. I didn’t want to read tips on how to wake up at the crack of dawn and have an amazingly scheduled day guaranteed to turn my kids into child geniuses.

I also browsed quite a few pins on Pinterest that said something along the lines of “I homeschool, what’s your Superpower?” Which was also unhelpful.

I realized that what I really wanted was for some Mom out there to admit that most days feel a lot less like conquering the world with awesome super powers and more like doing your best to scrape up some semblance of teaching the essentials while trying not to pull your hair out during reading lessons, and at the end of the day get the kids tucked in to bed with everyone’s sanity in tact!

Misteris said I should just write that blog myself. So…here goes!