Embracing Life

 

 Yesterday I realized that my own whining is starting to annoy me.  Hmm.  Usually an indicator that it’s time to suck it up and stop whining!  Yes, I live in the country.  Yes, it takes 40 minutes to drive to the gym for basketball practice.  Yes, I have to spend two full days a week in town waiting around for my scholars to finish their various activities.  Yes, I have to drive insane distances for basketball games at least twice a week.  Yes, we have found our school schedule is too full for the time we have available.

But, you know what?  My kids love living in the country and they are perfectly willing to spend 1-2 hours a day in the car for their activities if it means we get to live where we live.  And basketball is only a season.  A season when much of the time it’s too cold or rainy to enjoy the 22 acre wonderland we call home.  They are also growing into wonderful big people through the challenges they’re placing on themselves in their activities.  Through sports and dance, they each have a social outlet that city-kids-plunked-on-a-farm need.  And I even get some three-syllable conversations every now and then with the other moms.  How cool is that? 

But you know what?  I have more time to read and write than most homeschooling mothers.  And I *love* to read and write!  At the moment, I’m reading THREE different books:  a fluff novel, a heavy worldview tome, and my favorite book of all time.  I also get to spend two hours on Monday night and an hour on Thursday afternoon just hanging out at the library.  They have the best machine-made hot chocolate on the planet!  I’ve also started a new blog inspired by my favorite book of all time.  (I’ve actually been blogging about it for a while, but given my lack of passion for WWMD I wanted to make sure this one would “catch”.)  I would have called it “Hidden Art”, but my imaginary friend Amanda already has a blog by that name.

But you know what?  We have more than enough time for the basic subjects.  Latin can wait and my teens won’t be scarred for life if we have to set aside Current Events and copywork for a few months.  In fact, given our tight schedule we have become a much more disciplined home educating family than we’ve been in the past.  I’ve even managed to cut out the majority of our eating out!  No small feat when you consider how much time we spend away from home.  I manage to make breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the same hour every Tuesday morning.  Granted, there isn’t any variety in Tuesday meals, but in addition to being tasty they fill me with a great sense of satisfaction knowing that they were made at home and not at the local fast food joint.

I can sit around and complain about my life or I can embrace what I’ve been given.  I know that I’ll be much happier if I don’t fight this life every step of the way.  And then I can enjoy those folks in the picture up top a whole lot more!  (Think about it… if I’m annoying myself, imagine how THEY are feeling!)