Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.



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Planning and Ordering our Days
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Angie Mc
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Posted: Feb 01 2013 at 1:42pm | IP Logged Quote Angie Mc

Coming back to add...

Principles of Happy Moms who Home Educate

Hope something helps!

Love,

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asplendidtime
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Posted: Feb 15 2013 at 11:34am | IP Logged Quote asplendidtime

Maria Rioux wrote:
Just a quick comment on the burnout thread: Maureen is hosting another free Refresh Midwinter homeschool conference on Homeschool Connections. Here's the link: Refresh Midwinter homeschool conference

Hope some of you find it helpful. Registration is limited, but the webinars are recorded, so you could view them at any time, I think.

Also, Homeschool Connections offers classes geared, mostly, I think, to high school students/adults. We've been homeschooling for 24 years and I find that people often become overwhelmed and daunted by high school. Now, I'm not saying grade school isn't daunting enough, ;) but Maureen has done an awesome job making our job a little easier when it comes to high school. My husband teaches for HC (philosophy) and some of our friends do/have (Dr. Harris(Econ.)Dr.s Ken and Alecia Rolling(Classics and philosophy)Dr. Carol Reynolds (Music). Classes are solidly Catholic, and challenging while also accessible. Another help is the Teaching Company and audible.com courses. I put out a list of courses we have found helpful on my own group (The History Place), and we have made our curriculum, K-12, available online, no cost. No program is ever going to be a perfect fit and it is your job to take what works and freely ditch what doesn't, but solid suggestions are generally helpful.
Just a couple ideas.

Lastly, I wrote a talk on the blessings in crosses which was a recognition of God's blessings at a difficult time in our lives. I don't know if it would be helpful to any of you, but an early version of it is available here: Three by Maria Rioux

God bless,
Maria



Oh Maria! Thank you!

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Maria Rioux
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Posted: Feb 15 2013 at 3:27pm | IP Logged Quote Maria Rioux

You're welcome, Rebecca, and congratulations on your littlest member of the fam!
God bless, Maria
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Cay Gibson
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Posted: March 11 2013 at 11:23pm | IP Logged Quote Cay Gibson

Wanted to let you all know that the Homeschool Connections FREE online conference continues this week.

I'll be presenting a talk on Educating Your Child in 15 Minutes. We'll have a Q/A session afterwards. I've never, ever done a webinar and I have a root canal scheduled for 11:20 that morning. Great lesson in humility, right?

I could use a few friends joining me to feel the love none the less. And would really love to see some friendly faces. ;-) Click on link and sign-up.

My talk is this Thurs., March 14 @ 8 PM Eastern time/ 7 PM Central (my time). And it's FREE!

http://homeschoolconnectionsonline.com/webinar-catalog/refre sh-midwinter-homeschool-conference/

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10 Bright Stars
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Posted: March 13 2013 at 8:33am | IP Logged Quote 10 Bright Stars

Even though I tend to be a mole as far as staying in my house all the time, I DO think getting out in nature is very, very important to getting through burnout. I think my husband and I are both battling burnout right now. Just getting up is difficult, the "nothing to look forward to" feeling. Why bother..it will just get undone, or the realization that "one day we ought to.." is in our past sort of feeling seems to prevail. When I step out on my lovely porch, look across the field at the neighbor's horses, take in the lovely green..it makes me realize that I tend to get bogged down in the detail. That the bigger picture..God's world outide, is going on, totally dependent on His Providence. It is neat, clean and ordered by His care of showers, sometimes requiring more scrubbing with torential downpours, baked nicely by the bright sun, given times of peace and rest by the blanket of winter snow, the neccesity to go and hibernate or rest. He has it all set up nicely in nature if we tune in to those rhythms which means we have to get OUT there in those rhythms too. I tend to get focused on spots on the rug, or why the kitchen is yet again a disaster...the quest for order, which shall not come in a home with many children, can feel pointless. Endless lessons when just getting the kids to sit still and BE quiet enough to learn seems to be THE lesson of the day..it can leave a parent exhausted. And then, after pouring yourself into all that...there is dinner to be made, kids to bathe. So, we have to learn that we have to be gentle with ourselves, like God is with the world. He could very easily rush it all by, getting through it and getting it "overwith" to get to the end of time and be done with it all. But, no, instead, each day has it's course, it's rhythm. The birds rise, sing, eat, live, and then sing again and then sleep. Yet we expect SO very much out of our day to day, I think, as modern humans. "I MUST check my email!! I must check my blog. I must phone a friend and figure out what to order on netflix! I MUST repaint that wall. It is really bothering me...and oh, did I mention homeschooling..what to use, what to buy..let's see what so and so is using..oh dear..now I am confused...on to dinner...maybe I should go paleo? Oh dear...now all of my food is "wrong" and I HAVE to stress about this and that. No wonder we are going crazy!!!

Anyway, my point is that I think sometimes we very seriously over-complicate life, compounded by the fact that we live in America, and in America there is that wonderful thing called the "American work ethic" which is really a Puritan work ethic. When listened to in moderation, it can be a very good thing, but if we live ALL of our life driving ourselves like a machine...more....more...more...sucesss...boxes checked...accomplish..accomplish...do...do....do...then we are left empty and burnt out. I was thinking this while watching a very old black and white film on EWTN about St. Ignatius. He was 30 something when he finally decided to "do" something it seemed. He had gone to school, been a Captain in the army, and then he became ill..for many years mind you, and he took time to recover (do WE do that???)During this time, he read the lives of the saints, and the Life of Christ or something like that. Anyway, THEN he decided to take a very long pilgramage to Rome to walk in the footsteps of Christ. They showed him literally crawling around and kissing the steps to Calvary. (Imagine yourself on a pilgrimage to Rome...rush, rush..rush...must see it all!! Anyway, THEN he came back home and enrolled in school with children to learn Latin!!!! He went on to study some more, and then founded the Society of Jesus and taught the men his teachings that he wrote called the Spiritual Exercises which took T.I.M.E. to reflect upon ad then actually write!!!! My point? St Ignatius would probably have NEVER happened in our modern day. He would have followed the modern model of..go to 14 years of schooling, go to college and then he would have been required to get a J.O.B.! He would not have had these long lengths of days to think, study, yearn for God. He would have been in a cubicle like everyone else is these days.. busily doing "something", and the world would have missed out on him entirely. Frankly, I doubt he would be a saint! When would he have had TIME to be one?? I wondered..."Who financed this time of reflection and pilgramage for him? What enabled people of long ago to just sort of "live" without having to go about the business of "making a living"." Sometimes I think we "live to work", or in the case of homeschool moms, "live to accomplish". Maybe sometimes we need to live to "become a saint", live to have "time to contemplate", live to have time to "actually enjoy our children". Total paradigm shift! My husband and I were just talking this morning. We tend to have the "is there anything going on today" conversation every morning over coffee. As we have pretty much made ourselves a prisoner of our own homes to get through flu season intact (our kids are very, VERY prone to getting VERY ill when they come in contact with germs..) the answer was again...no. Then, we thought, maybe teh point isn't what we can "get out of life", but the point is "getting through the day perfectly and pleasing to God." This requires slowing down in each moment, the "live in the moment" or "give each moment to God", or "God sees and appreciates your work even if no one else sees it" way of thinking that I just can't seem to give myself over to!

   So, get out in the yard. Breathe in the air, the sunshine, the sound of the birds...close your eyes and listen to their song. Listen to the sound of children laughing and playing. Is there a more delightful sound on earth? Read a book to the kids. Sometimes I think we learn more homeschooling than the kids do, but that is o.k.

I was having a real day of it the other day. I seemed to notice every flaw in my home..the trim was dirty and the house needed repainting. Everything seemed messy and annoyed me. Then, as if an answer to a prayer, I picked up James Stenson's book, "Upbringing" and opened it up to take a quick break. (I wasn't even in the process of reading it, I just picked it up as it was lying around.) Anyway, I opened to the back of the book and he said, "Sometimes parents can get bogged down in the day to day of raising the kids and only notice the undone work, the messy house..nothing they seem to do matters of seems to show." then he goes on to say." Home should be the hearth of family life. It should be a warm glow for the family to take refuge in from the world and to live in it's soft glow."....then he says, "but if we get too close to the fire..what do we see..the messy hearth, the ashes, the soot, the intense heat...no, it is only when we take a few steps back that we see it's loveliness, can better enjoy it's heat" and he went on to say that THAT is what we should dwell on and try to create for our children. If we just focus on all of the ugliness and annoyance of the hearth, then we miss the whole point and really ruin it for our children. I am paraphrasing what he wrote, but the gist is, sometimes we can get so caught up in the little details that we miss the whole point, and THAT is what I think causes burnout. God only asks from us what He has given us sufficient grace to handle and will only give us what He knows we can handle. So, why do we reach for more and complicate it? I am still trying to figure this out too.

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CrunchyMom
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Posted: March 13 2013 at 8:49am | IP Logged Quote CrunchyMom

10 Bright Stars wrote:
Even though I tend to be a mole as far as staying in my house all the time, I DO think getting out in nature is very, very important to getting through burnout.


So many lovely thoughts! Your opening sentence here as well as your other descriptions reminded me of something I read recently regarding The Wind in the Willows. They spoke of how it's wild popularity was due, in large part, to its wonderful descriptions of idleness.

They went on to explain, too, how Ratty and Moley were the heroes who, while loving their friend Mr. Toad, also rejected his "worldliness" and distractibility with modern pursuits.

Anyway, your describing yourself as a Mole makes it all the more significant that Graham chose a Mole as that character who has his eyes open to the wonders of the world around him once he walks away from his Spring cleaning.

Now, spring cleaning, ime, can also be *very* refreshing, lol, and efficiency in getting our work done allows for more productive time spent in idle pursuits, which noble and worthy things such as reading, writing, painting, and music, are considered! But it is nice to be reminded that we need to be able to walk away from time to time without guilt!

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10 Bright Stars
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Posted: March 13 2013 at 9:33am | IP Logged Quote 10 Bright Stars

That is great! Great analogy! I just love The Wind in the Willows and have always gotten the biggest kick, much to my family's confusion, out of Mr. Toad! He is just SO, SO funny to me! And yes, I guess now that I think about it, Mr. Mole would definately be me. Once taken out of my usual routine I can be very happy and always try to think, "You should really get out more often, Kim." To everything a season though. If we followed God's plan, winter WOULD be a time of rest, and then springtime..cleaning our home and prepping for the new school year..summertime...working very hard, and then fall, reaping the harvest of our efforts following a time of retreat and rest during winter. Perhaps a good way to "plan our year" for school!

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