Sanity for the Home School Mama: Finding Contentment in your Crazy Life

Have you ever wondered what a ‘normal’ day in your home school would actually look like?

How many times have you found yourself wondering if you can be an effective teacher for your children, keep track of everyone’s schedules and activities, feed everybody every day, keep all your kiddos alive, and still be Mom at the end of the day?!

Welcome to home school life, mama. On those days when you’re just not sure you can drag yourself out of bed and face the hoard of hungry, curious, needy small people begging for your attention, it’s important to remember that there IS a purpose in all of this decision you made to home school your children, and you’re not crazy!

The key to regaining and maintaining your sanity as a home school mama is to ‘take a step back’ and consider why you chose this journey for you and your family in the first place. Much of our feeling of being out of control comes from a lack of contentment in our situation. A fellow home schooling friend of mine shared with me some thoughts about how she learned to trust that she was doing exactly what she was supposed to be doing, and I’m sharing them with you in hopes that you, too, will find contentment in your home school journey.

“Lessons”

Your life is not your own.

You are a sojourner in a foreign land.

The LORD promises to give you the desires of your heart.

His plans are better than yours.

He has a special dance for you that He has choreographed; you only need to take His hand.

Accepting change with grace is good.

If this sounds so far from your reality, I get it. In the same way that our children have ‘lessons’ to learn through their studies, you and I have lessons that the LORD desires to teach us. But — we have to be willing to be taught.

The word ‘sanity’ means the ability to think and behave in a normal and rational manner. When we distance or separate ourselves from God’s perfect plan and purpose, our thinking can get muddled, especially when we start focusing on our situation instead of on His Provision. As “Lessons” tells us, our lives are not our own, and until we begin to rest in His plan, we will continue to do the same things over and over, expecting a different result — which is actually how we define insanity!

[Get your FREE copy of “Lessons” by clicking HERE!]

So if you want to experience sanity on a daily basis, instead of the continuous ‘beating your head against that dead horse’ [mixed metaphor courtesy of my sane, pragmatic, and funny middle son], it’s important to recognize that you were created for a purpose — and discovering and accepting that purpose will allow you to find the margin you need to believe that you are truly doing what you were called to do…to be your child’s best mentor and still be Mom at the end of the day.

Side note: I got sidetracked this morning by the massively overgrown weeds in my raspberry patch. As I was pulling clumps of overgrown grass and trying to avoid getting poked by nasty raspberry thorns, I realized that instead of being stressed about all.the.things. I still had to do today, I found myself relishing the time to just think. My sanity comes from having space to think, to read, to apply my own learning to my life. And unplanned weeding gave me the margin I needed to refresh my mind and activate my energy so I could face my day with calm and intention.

If this sounds like you, I encourage you to to make space in your day — honestly, it only takes 20-30 minutes to shift your perspective and restore your mental and emotional balance — to do whatever reenergizes you and gives you ‘mental margin’ — that sanity we’ve been talking about — so that you will have more to give to your family. Do you get ‘recharged’ through quiet time for yourself? Dedicated reading time? Social connections? Prayer? Serving others? How about building something with your hands? Or even weeding.

Just do that one thing.

You’ll be so glad you did.