Thursday, August 24, 2006

The Seven Saboteurs

Here are the Seven Saboteurs of my Seven Habits for Effective Homeschooling. (anyone seen the Seven Samurai? It’s a family favorite) I thought I would post them here to remind me where I usually fall off the wagon. I don’t do these all every day, or rarely! and once in a while one or two of them works all right, but when I really have problems, I can usually trace it to one or more of these culprits:

  1. Waking up at 3 am to worry about childrens’ futures and forgetting to pray or make realistic plans OR staying up till 3 am on the computer wasting time.
  2. Getting on the computer first thing in the morning and staying on there until the little ones are squabbling and the middle ones are asking what’s for breakfast and everyone has lost all their motivation to make the most of the day.
  3. Skipping breakfast and then grazing on junk food and then drinking coffee to counter the carb drag and then being too tired to exercise– which brings me back to #2, as often as not.
  4. Letting the day slip-slide away without getting anything done.
  5. Lock-stepping through the day with such attention to the schedule that I miss the gold and silver mothering moments. (done both, sometimes in the same 24 hours).
  6. Theorizing too much and not doing enough day to day things
  7. Conversely, getting mired in the here and now and not planning and working for the future.

Looks like balance is the key here, folks. Can I have order and routine without getting myself invested in it? Can I make time in the here and now for the big vision? Can I prepare and plan for the future without worrying and stressing? Can I put God in first place in the day, not squeeze Him into the odd moments? Can I treat my body as a temple of the Holy Spirit, not merely as a low-caliber fueled transportation vehicle for my soul?

Can I FOCUS? I think most of it comes down to that.

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