5 Magic Steps to Rescue Your Mind During Homeschool October 24, 2018 By Bekki 2 Comments This content may contain affiliate links.Inside: 5 Things you can do today to conquer your homeschooling frustration. (This content may contain affiliate links) Somedays are so hard we pack a backpack and run away. Photo by Jeremy Bishop Have you ever seen those old carnival performers that spin plates on poles? To be awesome at this trick, you must: · Spin a plate fast and place it on the end of a pole. Keep it spinningAdd more plates on poles. Keep all plates spinning: the more plates spinning the better Oh no! Plate one begins to wobble. That’s ok. You to the rescue! You run back and give plate one a quick spin. You dash to the other side and add more plates at the end of the line. Eventually, you have magically started 20 plates spinning. You are happily burning off that extra serving of Thundercake you snuck after the kids went to bed last night. You’ve got this! Everything is okie-dokie until plates 2, 7, 11, and 20 start wobbling at the same time. You panic. Your job is to keep every plate spinning. You dart back and forth spinning plates. You begin to sweat. Not the pretty little shine on your face that “makes you” glow kind of sweat, but waterfalls of stinky sweat rolling down your back and armpits-sticking-together kind of sweat. Your “mom bun” collapses and ‘pastes your hair’ across your face. photo by Caspar Rubin You accidentally breathe a strand up your nose. Plate 4 is in critical failure mode. You dash to save it but, @!#$%. “I thought I told you to pick up those LEGOS!!” The pain shoots through your right eye and you knock over four of the spinning plates. Only one plate shatters. “Thank goodness!” Bless your husband’s heart. He walks into the room with 6 more plates for you to spin… Can you relate? We benefit from hearing that other moms struggle in their journey. They say misery loves company, but I believe it’s because we can feel so isolated as homeschoolers that we begin to believe that no one understands our struggles. Some days are so hard we pack a backpack and run away. Some days beat us up and spit us out with bruised knees, cracked ribs, and stinky armpits. Some days cover us with vomit and pee. Somedays our “little angels” turn into Tasmanian devils and terrorize us. Literally. Somedays our sweet beloved husband walks into the room where we are lying in shards of shattered plates and covered in blood and cluelessly hands us a new stack of plates to spin. Somedays begin with that dreaded 2am phone call that changes our lives forever. Photo by Matthew Wiebe Some days are so hard we pack a backpack and run away. It’s important to us to know that we are not alone in our battles of spinning plates, dirty diapers, laundry, and algebra. Are you struggling? Frustrated? Feeling like a failure? Experience whispers in my ear, “This too will pass. You will find your stride again. You are not a failure. Don’t give up.” But some days we need more than a whisper. Like I said already, some days are so hard we pack a backpack and run away. If not in real life, in our minds. We have all been there and history shows we will be there again. We need an escape plan from our frustration. I am sharing my escape plan with you today… 5 Magic Steps to Rescue Your Mind During Homeschool {read more} Print this free homeschool mom reminder. This post comes with a free printable reminder list to help keep your heart focused on the heart of homeschooling. I always have the hardest staying focused. This printable simplifies it! Here is a sneak preview… Download Your Free Printable Download the checklist. You’ll get the printable, plus join 9,000+ homeschool moms who receive my weekly parenting tips and ideas!Print. Any paper will do the trick, but card stock would be ideal.Place it on your refrigerator as a helpful reminder.