Living In Grace

It’s hard to know how to begin a blog post during a time in our lives like this COVID-19 pandemic if I’m being honest with you. There is so much advice on what to do and what not to do – how you should do school with your kids at home, how you should be tackling all kinds of projects that have been on the back burner, how you should be exercising and even how you should be doing nothing. Opinions are everywhere right now on the internet, especially on social media.  It all feels SO noisy! I don’t want this to be that way for you at all. I want to encourage you to be living in grace, so much grace!

One thing I want to point out to all you mommas doing Zoom meetings with your kids and their classmates and downloading assignments from teachers for your kids to do… this is not true homeschool. It’s harder than actual homeschooling. This opinion is not original with me. I’ve heard several other mommas speak out about this recently. Take it from someone who was homeschooled all her life and was homeschooling before the virus took over everything. What you are doing by having your kids home all day when they are used to being in school is SO MUCH harder! You didn’t get to pick your curriculum. You didn’t choose your schedule at the beginning of the school year and have time to settle into it. You have been thrown into this quickly and have had to pivot daily to handle the challenges.

This time also isn’t normal for us as homeschoolers either. We don’t get to go out on field trips, meet with co-ops and go to the library like we are used to. There is a misconception that homeschoolers aren’t socialized, and it’s not true. We are used to getting out in the world to explore and see other people. All of us are all learning to pivot together but in different ways. It all requires so much grace!

I’m a perfectionist by nature and have been slowly learning to give myself grace in so many areas of life. My encouragement here is to forgive yourself for the days you don’t get as much accomplished as you hoped to get done. You may have not done the dishes, but have spent time playing with your kids outside. The junk drawer may still be junky, but you spent time learning how to plant a flower garden. Your kids are going to remember how you as their momma handled this unique season.

My goal is to get up before my kids to read my Bible and spend time with Jesus, but I’m learning to give grace for the days when I just need to sleep in (like today). Sometimes the house is mess when Todd gets home because I was working on a project, and that’s okay. My kids may not always eat a completely balanced lunch, but it may be a fun lunch they won’t soon forget. I don’t want to look back on this season to see I have wasted it either working too hard or working very little. I’m learning to give myself grace and just try to live it well.

If you are looking for some fun ideas to do with your kids because you are running out of ways to spend time with them during this quarantine, here are some things we love to to:

• Play a game of Uno before bed with a bowl of fresh popcorn covered in butter and salt.
• Make a fun lunch together like tortilla pizzas, crepes, or soft pretzels.
• Read a chapter book out loud to your kids.
• Take communion as a family weekly during this time. We have been doing this and it’s been one of my favorite memories so far from all this.
• Let you kids shoot Nerf guns at random targets in the backyard.
• Go on one-on-one leisurely walks with each of your kids.
• Say yes to mixing up the Playdough when you normally don’t let them do that (I’m guilty of this one and recently just let them be creative with it).
• Give them an unexpected snack in the mid afternoon like deconstructed s’mores.
• Sign up to listen to Adventures in Odessey free for a month.
• All kinds of zoos are live streaming daily featuring an animal. You could watch live or watch the live from a previous day with your kids as part of school.
• And always say yes to every snuggle and bouquet of weeds your child picked for you from the backyard

May you live this season giving grace to yourself and to others! We are all in this together!