ABC’s of Homeschooling ~ Just Keep Swimming, Swimming, Swimming

Ever feel like you’re banging your head against a wall?

Or talking to deaf ears?

Or swimming in circles?

Sometimes school is *not* going well. Sometimes everyone is dragging their feet, including the teacher! Sometimes everyone is a little A.D.D. and can’t seem to focus (even the teacher.) Sometimes the kids wonder what it would be like if they hopped on the long, yellow bus (and so does the teacher.)

EVERYTHING worth doing takes work. Everything WORTHWHILE is going to get hard.

• I don’t homeschool because it’s easy! Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t.
• I don’t homeschool because it’s *always* fun. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t.
• I don’t homeschool because I know exactly what I’m doing and I have some magic ingredient in me that  somehow gives me all of the patience and diligence I need — sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t!

I homeschool our children because it’s worth the effort.

Because I’m convicted, and committed.

Because when something is important to you, you’ll make it work. 

So what do you do on the hard days? You channel Dory from Finding Nemo and you “just keep swimming.” Maybe you switch things up for the day, maybe you take a break, maybe you regroup and refocus and try again. But you don’t give up.

Just keep swimming, 

                                               swimming,  

                                                                        swimming….

Because one thing is for sure, if you don’t.. you won’t get anywhere. Like anything else in life, when you don’t have any motivation or when you’re having a hard day, you just keep putting one foot in front of the other — even if they’re baby steps — because at least you’re still moving forward.

I’m guilty of flopping down in frustration on bad days. Or keeping my chair warm on unmotivated days. But I have to remind myself to get back up and move. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. I’m not perfect. But when I remember that you will make it happen if it’s important, I usually find a way.

One more thing… as a Christian, I need to remember I can’t do it on my own. In my own strength I am imperfect, lazy, weak, unmotivated, undisciplined, scatterbrained, stressed out and unreliable. But when I seek Christ for HIS strength, I am made able.

Sometimes the holidays bring accompanying distractions, financial stress and many other things that encourage bad days or unfocused days. Or maybe you’ve recently been through some kind of life-altering event. Whatever the case..  I hope and pray that if you find yourself swimming in circles or just collapsed in a heap.. I pray that you are encouraged. We all have bad days. We just don’t like to advertise them. Many of us have REALLY bad days and we don’t like to open up about them. But you are not alone. One step at a time, one day at a time, life moves forward. When you don’t have the strength, Jesus does.

I’m not really sure how I ended up here.. this wasn’t what I originally set out to write. Maybe one of you needed it. Maybe I needed it. God bless you and keep you, my bloggy homeschool friends.

This post is a part of the ABC’s of Homeschooling hosted by Dawn @ The Momma Knows. You can see all of my ABC posts here.