Back on track

Today was our first day back to normal after the holidays. It was back to school, back to housework, back to our regular routine. We needed it! After weeks of Christmas break, we had gotten so used to living with no routine, no school, no housework and it was starting to really show! The kids were getting wild and out of control, I was getting frustrated and crabby, and the house was way past messy! So we got up this Monday morning and got ourselves back on track..... well......sort of!

We did not start our school work until about 10 am and the kid's attention had wandered by about 10:30. We couldn't find any pencils but there was paper all over the desks and the floor, there was a ton of bickering and commotion, the girls hair never got combed, everyone wanted lunch a half hour earlier than usual, and there are still toys underfoot wherever I go in the house.
In reality, I did not expect anything different. As usual, it will take time to really settle back in. We really enjoyed our Christmas break free-for-all and, though we do need our normalcy back, it will be a process to get used to work once again. We are taking it slow. Today, we did accomplish a few things. We dug the classroom out from underneath all that paper, found at least a few of our pencils, wrote our Christmas thank you notes, and did some reading together. I spent the rest of the day catching up on laundry. That's not so bad for a Monday, right? My hope is that by next week we will be back up to a full school schedule, and will have the house under control again.

On days like today, I feel so blessed to be able to home school and to have the flexibility to take things at a slower pace sometimes. It is wonderful to be able to take a break when we are feeling burnt out and ineffective, and it is just as wonderful to ease back into our busy life after our break. Home schooling is so very family friendly and suits our family so very well; even when we struggle, at least we struggle together. So today, as I review our first day back from break, I feel very grateful to have this time with my children and especially to have the perspective to be impressed with so little accomplishment.