It is just over two weeks until Christmas. My oldest two, a college freshman and high school senior, have finals and papers due at the community college they attend this week. My youngest, a ninth grader, still has one more week of homeschool after this before we take a break. We have Christmas parties, drama club performances, annual volunteering, and family Christmas traditions scheduled for this month. On top of that, there is cookie making, present buying, gift wrapping, and general Christmas business. It is a stressful, time-consuming time of year that does not always feel so joyful to those carrying the mental load of the to-do lists and schedules.
The idea of making time for self-care right now sounds ridiculous to me; like I need one more thing to add to my to-do list. But I realized as I was crawling around on a tile floor with a bag of little safety pins, basting a quilt at 7:30am this morning instead of my usual morning walk, that self-care was exactly what I was doing (in my defense, it was 33-degrees outside). I was doing something with that half-hour that brought me joy, doing something that had nothing to do with school or work or Christmas. The basted quilt looked beautiful to me. I was proud of my work. I even took pictures. It felt good to do something outside of my normal routine for thirty minutes that brought me joy.
What does self-care look like for you when you are amid a busy season when you do not need one more thing to add to your list? Maybe this week it is finally taking care of that thing that you have been meaning to do for a while. Or maybe it is finding one thing to take off your to-do list and let someone else handle it (TeachersPayTeachers.com is an awesome place to start). Your homework this week is to take care of yourself!
North Star Homeschool Resources 