I called my friend today to check in on her, make sure she was okay. And it turned out she just was completely overwhelmed. I’ve been there, said the exact same words. So, I told her to cry. It’s okay to let loose of the emotion. God gave us that mechanism for a physical release. My friend’s been going through a LOT of challenges lately and a lot of change. It’s not easy. But she doesn’t have to be strong all the time.
While we know that God won’t give us more than we can handle, sometimes we just need to let loose of the emotion, figuratively get down on our knees, and be real in our emotion. Then we can pick ourselves back up and, with God’s help, and that of our friends, keep on going. But sometimes we just need to let go first.
I’m pretty private in my emotions. But sometimes I just need to let it out. I use a journal book and prayer, but sometimes even I just need to lock myself in a quiet space and cry. Yeah, I’ll end up with a headache, but the next day I’m usually better focused, have a better perspective, and can move forward again. I think that as women we sometimes expect too much from ourselves. I know that my husband needs his down time, but for whatever reason it’s difficult for me to allow myself, or give myself that downtime.
If you are in a difficult spot right now, give yourself permission to take some time, to let out that repressed emotion, so that you can be refilled.
And in case it helps, here’s a free audio from Cindy Rushton that may encourage you.
Oops! My Cup is Empty and My Coffee Pot is Broke!
Audio Workshop Download With Cindy Rushton
Tired? Weary? Find yourself overwhelmed by the tremendous load of motherhood? Do you consider this one of the most demanding, yet rewarding roles you will ever fill yet that send shivers down your spine?
Join Cindy as she exhorts you in your high calling. This workshop shares Cindy’s heart as she shares about those good days and bad days, sweet memories and rather bitter moments that have made life so precious all along the way.
Taking you on a journey back in Scripture to meet Hannah, Cindy shares God’s answers to her heart cry during times she has found her OWN cup empty while everything continued to hit all at once!
The biblical insights are sure to draw YOUR heart to your Heavenly Father AND to those you are pouring into. Join us as Cindy ministers encouragement and direction straight from the Word of God to your heart, soul, and mind!
(Listen to through your browser or download to your computer and listen via your MP3 player)
If this recording uplifted you, I recommend checking out Cindy’s Ultimate Women’s Expo (UWE). Over 20 speakers are sharing their hearts and experience in a way designed to uplift and encourage you. Cindy’s built a private, exclusive Membership Site that includes everything from the UWE in one place – all the audios (from all of the sessions and from the bonus gifts from her speakers), ebooks, articles, printable planning pages, cookbooks, on and on. Everything is online indefinitely.
Anyway, if you need your cup refilled, it’s worth checking out. Access to the event and the membership site is only $19.95. Click here for more info.
Whether you listen to the chat from Cindy or not, know that you are not alone and things always work out. Maybe not the way that we expect them to and sometimes in very strange ways, but they always do work out.
As a family, we have benefited so much from all the effort and diligence, and patience that many different parent volunteers to put in to create opportunities for the kids and to help keep them running.
Just yesterday, my 11 yo had Latin class, run by a parent who not only is paid for her time, but also puts in countless extra hours proving extra help and resources for the kids. My 5 yo went to our homeschool preschool group hosted by a parent who has a fantastic playroom and led by a mom who does a wonderful job singing and dancing with the kids and making each one feel special and included. Later I corresponded with two parent volunteers for cub scouts, who put in goodness how many hours keeping that program going. And that’s just in one day.
There are sports programs, homeschool groups, scouting activities, field trips, free homeschool resources (like HomeschoolShare and An Old Fashioned Education), you name it, parents are volunteering their time and energy, taking time away from their families and their interests to create these wonderful opportunites for our kids. I just want to say THANK YOU!!
While you may not always hear it or maybe even feel it, Know that you are appreciated.
I’m not totally sure how my older two children learned to count to 20. It just happened. I’m sure we played games, counted together, and did the usual stuff. Wanting to play hide-n-seek with the big kids as a driving motivation for learning to count to 20 for both of them. And counting to 20 just came together pretty quickly for the olders when they were ready. But this isn’t so for my 6 year old.
Not only is he a visual-kinesthetic learner, he also has trouble remembering the names of things – like numbers and letters. He can remember amazing things, but the names of things (and people) are difficult for him. It takes a lot of repetition and many different methods to move names/labels into his long-term memory.
Knowing how long it took for him to memorize 1-10, I’ve been taking a more diverse approach to teaching him numbers 11-20. These are the only numbers that don’t follow a clean rhythm that directly correlates to numbers 1-10 and thus require a little more effort to learn. (For example, my 6 yo already can do 21-100, he just doesn’t have 11-20 memorized.)
But I was really missing having number tiles for ordering and matching. Letter tiles and alphabet Go Fish cards have been very good for helping him concrete letter and word-building concepts. So, I created some very simple 11-20 number tiles to use for matching games and tactile ordering games. I’m also going to use these for notebooking and lapbooking graphics.
Click to download a PDF version
If you’d like to use these as well, feel free to download them here (opens in a new window). Simply cut them out on the lines and store in an envelope.
If you have one available, a Xyron or similar sticker machine is a good way to laminate them or turn them into magnets or stickers. (I love my Xyron!) Otherwise, an office supply or teacher supply store may be able to laminate them for you. But it is also pretty inexpensive to just print a new sheet when you need them.
If you have other ideas or games for teaching numbers 11-20, I’d love to hear them. Please post a comment and share how any methods you’ve used. Thanks!
Earlier I shared how I have to have at least one day (preferably two) at home during the week. Nothing gets scheduled on those days, unless I have absolutely no other choice. This is a sanity thing. There are just too many worthwhile activites that pull at our attention, but it all sucks time and more importantly, energy.
A few years ago, when I first decided that we just had to have days at home with no outside obligations, I kept accidentally over-scheduling. With 4 homeschooled kids, a business, and numerous pets, it’s very easy to do. I had to come up with a better way.
Now, a few times a year, when it’s time to plan for the next school year or term, or sign up for activities, I use a weekly schedule spreadsheet like this to help me SEE where our time commitments are.
In Excel, I’ve created a weekly schedule spreadsheet (which you can download below), that I use as a template. Using color coding (one color per child, plus grey for drive time and whole family activities) I can very easily see where our time is commited. My goal is to create at least one to two days during school week (Monday-Friday) with NOTHING in it.
To start, I put in all the activities the kids and I wanted to do that term, then seeing the conflicts, I start whittling away (talking to the kids about it as I have to cut things.) Sometimes, if an activity (like Ballet) has an alternate time slot I’ll insert it on the calendar like this: (see the pink slots for Ballet)
That allows me to take a closer look at really what is possible. My goal is to create activity days, where if I’m going to consume energy running about, let’s just make it that type of day and if we can schedule whatever activities we can into it.
But sometimes it just doesn’t work out. For example, my nearly 7 year old’s speech therapy is offered through the public school system, and they only offer it to homeschoolers at one time during the week. That’s just the way it is. So we work around that.
I’m also looking for conflicts – where schedules overlap. I can’t be in two place at once and I refuse to run around with my head chopped off trying to get one child to one place and another child to another place. It’s not a productive, healthy mind-set for any of us. Using the chart, I can show the kids where there’s a conflict and we can discuss possible courses of action.
For example, my sons really wanted to take fencing this year. But fencing was only offered on Monday and Friday nights. My 9 year old son had to choose – fencing or cub scouts. He chose cub scouts. But having the visual helped him see what his choices were and how he wanted to spend his time.
Once I’ve figured out what the activity schedule is, I note each day as to whether it’s a Full schoolwork day or a Light schoolwork day. And then in the bottom part of my spreadsheet, I mark what subjects will be covered (in an ideal world) on each of those days.
Obviously I’m looking for balance and reasonable work load. It’s not fair to the kids to ask them to do 3 hours of book work on a day where we are only home for 30 minutes. Those are light schoolwork days – which for us means they must read something, write something, and do some sort of math. Most of the time that’s all done through act of being out and about and in the car.
This system has been great for saving my sanity and keeping the HOME in our homeschool.
If you are interested in trying this out for yourself, feel free to download and use the forms that I use. I’ve included a sample for you to get a better look at what this looks like.
Download the Excel file with both the template and the sample (two worksheet tabs in the workbook)
Note: You need a PDF reader to use the PDF file. You can get one free here. To use the Excel file, you’ll need Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice, or will need to upload the file into a web-based spreadsheet tool like Google Docs in order to work with it fully.
Sometimes I have to FIGHT to keep the home in homeschooling. I have to plan and preciously guard that home time.
If you’ve homeschooled for more than 6 months, you may understand what I’m talking about here. If you don’t homeschool, this is is the biggest fallacy about homeschooling… Homeschoolers don’t spend all their time at home!
In fact, there are so many opportunities that pull at our attention and time. In our house, just this year, we have speech therapy, cub scouts, sports, violin lessons, orchestra, tween girls, preschool group, art lessons, and Latin. And that doesn’t count all the errands, field trips, and everything we have to turn down that we might really want to do, but I have to say No to preserve my sanity.
I realized a few years ago that I must have at least one, preferably two days where we just don’t go anywhere, where we have no outside commitments. I adore summer months where we school, but don’t have activities…oh those days are great, because we get to stay home. There’s no drain from going from here to there.
But I digress… the point is sometimes, we just have to scheduleour days at home. And guard them. A few years ago, I came up with this system of making sure when I’m planning out the kids’ activities schedule that at least one day a week is at home, with no commitments. When you have a few minutes, check out part 2 for the details and free downloadable tools and samples
or similar sticker machine is a good way to laminate them or turn them into magnets or stickers. (I love my Xyron!) Otherwise, an office supply or teacher supply store may be able to laminate them for you. But it is also pretty inexpensive to just print a new sheet when you need them.
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