Taking a Break

Today was the first day of what I am calling our Fall Break or what we have recently been dubbed as Columbus Vacation. No, I do not regard Columbus so much that think he deserves a week nor do I even think he even deserves a day, in fact we usually study Leif Ericson on Columbus day. But this year the week falls on Columbus Day so naturally we just had to call it Columbus Vacation. No matter what we call it, it’s a week off. When I was planning out our official school year I knew we would need a break right • about • now. Last week confirmed we were all ready to take a school break. In years past, I would feel guilty taking a break during the school year. Even when the schools in town were taking days off, I would still feel guilty taking the time off. We take days off when we were feeling burnt out but still, I beat myself up for taking time to relax. Seriously, I knew we all need time to breathe and rest but would fight myself to let us all take a break. Truth is, we all need time to rest. Planning and teaching school while running a house and for some of us, working, takes a lot of energy and creative thinking. As kids they need times where we are not in teacher mode. Not just part of the day but decent chunks of time. And we need time to regroup, do house projects that take more than a few hours and we need rest.

This year I have learned a lot about taking a Sabbath rest. I don’t rest well or at all. I only rest when I get sick and even then I push myself to get back on my feet as fast as possible. I don’t go on vacations and when I do have time off I find myself making a list of to-dos. I think when it comes to school, I am afraid that I won’t get it all in, or that we are always behind (whatever that means), or well like I am failing. 

But here’s the deal. We all need breaks. God invented rest. And taking a break from school is good. So this week I am practicing not beating myself up while we rest. I will prep and plan for the upcoming weeks of fall fun, but letting myself take a break without beating myself up is my main goal. I need rest and the kids need me to be in mommy mode without being in teacher mode.