When the Guilt Monster Growls... Just Growl Back!

My week fizzled... just-like-that!  I had ambitions and, sick daughter aside, the other two children and I were pursing them quite well until Wednesday!


We decided to tackle this school year with 4 day weeks.  Something I have read about over the years with some homeschools and I felt it would be worth a try in our own.  The kids are older, the curriculum is meatier, we could use a day without "work".

Originally this day off was going to coincide with the weekend to allow a 3 day break before working hard again.  That worked wonderfully for week 1... but each week since has just gotten crazier and crazier!

Through our missions work we recently answered a calling that pulls us out of the house on Wednesday.  It used to be just for the evenings, but as of this week, we will now be gone from first thing Wednesday morning until bedtime Wednesday night!

We do consider it a blessing to serve and we are excited about our treks into town to do God's work.  It just mixes up the homeschool schedule in an unexpected way!  And, as my darling 7 year old lamented at the beginning of this school year... we love our schedule!

This weekend I will be sitting down with that bless-ed chart and praying over it.  Then, I will formulate a game plan of sorts to give us peace AND progress in our busy weeks of homeschool and volunteer work.

I must confess, though, I temporarily lost hope after spelling today.  I realized that I did not go over their words with them... not once... since Monday when I issued them!  Oh, the guilt monster just wanted to sit down and have a good growl at me.  But then I glanced over at an article from a spring issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, (Yes, I take FOREVER to get to reading magazines in their entirety!).  The article was, "That Guilty Feeling", and I was reminded that I am not alone and I am not a bad teacher/mom for dropping the ball.  With all we had going on (our new Wednesday schedule, a missions retreat, and my one public schooled child's open house) in the last two days... even if we were trying to keep up in public school they would have been unprepared!

So now, with the guilt monster pushed back, my only regret today... I didn't have the camera when my 7-year old darling daughter decided to do an art project while cuddling her pet rabbit!  Normally it is her stuffed rabbit she is hugging while she works, but I looked over and it was our live one that she was sharing her project with!  Oh, how I love homeschool!

Brooke's usual companion, Blueberry

Brooke's cotton tail rabbit, Peter (named after Beatrix Potter's fuzzy friend!)