I feel like lately this is some VERY good advice when anyone feels overwhelmed or like the day is just not going right. So today I cut and paste and send a HUGE thank you to Brave Writer for her sage advice.

Six ways to start your day over

It doesn’t matter if it is 10:00 in the morning, or 2:00 in the afternoon, or five minutes before bedtime. You can start a day over at any point in the day. When it’s all going wrong—from sibling pokes to spilled orange juice to “Where is the math book?” to the dog peeing on the carpet AGAIN—you don’t have to wave the white flag and collapse into a quivering heap (though you TOTALLY have my permission to do that now and then—it‘s cathartic!).

It has been an ongoing discussion in our family about the idea of a school routine. Both myself and Ken were completely public schooled and so when we think back to a school day we think of scheduled class blocks that repeat in a 5 day a week cycle. I personally feel a bit of guilt when I take a half day to deal with life, or give the kids a light day… after all, class was class and you went to it right? Thank goodness for Brave Writer and her amazing way with words… What we need is to treat our home as more than a schoolroom for certain hours of a day… it is a place of  life and learning and the reality of that is – we must be flexible within the rhythm of that life, of our family.

You can read Brave Writer’s amazing blog post in its entirety HERE. It is titled Don’t Trust the Schedule. But I must share with you a couple paragraphs at the end the really resonated with me:

We create the conditions of excellence and quality performance when we honor the rhythms of life at home, when we value the hot white fire of passion when we see it (rather than remarking, “But that’s not on the schedule today”). We sustain growth when we return to the comfort of the routine when all other energies are subdued. And we honor our human frailty if we toss routine, schedule, or structure when we are falling apart (sick, irritated, frustrated, in pain, exhausted, or bored).

Schedule is tempting. It holds the promise of “getting it all done” which we translate into our heads as “completing our children’s education.” Don’t be seduced by that promise. Mostly what I hear from parents under the pressure of schedule is “I’m behind” and “I feel like a failure” and “I’m terrible at staying on schedule.”

Of course you are. You’re at home. Be home. Embrace the properties of home. Love. Live. Be. Learn. Thrive.

We’re so lucky to be home. The best gift you can give your family is to be glad that you are, and to live as though home is the ideal space for learning to occur. Because it is.

I am often asked if we have a room to school, or more currently if we WOULD have a room if we could. (when we move etc etc) And I can proudly say NO our whole world is our school. Granted we have the bulk of our resources in a single place but every day we are realizing more and more that learning is not occurring at that table, in that chair or even in the house. Rather we are finding moments of clarity and interest in all things.

We have created patterns of learning that work for our family. No, we don’t do math at 10:15 and eat every day at noon… we learn and talk and laugh and cry on our own time in our own way. And as Brave Writer says: Who said there’s a certain amount you must finish by June? We spill into months, take weeks instead of days when the interest grabs us. We learn as we live and we live as we learn. That to me is the joy of homeschooling…

I was reading a blog entry on Baddest Mother Ever about advice she received from her grandmother… the key piece of advice that she was given really caught my attention:

“If you ever walk out of your panties, just keep walking.”

Now I am sure some of you are already confused, others laughing your heads off… but it is some excellent advice. Especially when you take it from a particular situation and into life in general. See, back in the time of our grandmothers elastic was less… reliable… apparently (according to this post) at times the elastic could fail and all of a sudden things would get… drafty. So what are you to do? Stop and pick up those panties or keep on walking? Why keep on walking of course… those are no longer YOUR panties…

There is something so wise in this idea of letting go and going on… how huge is losing your panties to you versus the rest of the world? If you were to stop so many more would notice, the embarrassment would mount… but if you left them there, on the pavement and moved on… why one or two people MAY see it but who are they in the grand scheme of things? Let’s take a look at the examples our amazing blogging momma has to share with us:

• Do you have a cheating husband?  Girl, he has walked out of your panties, so just keep walking.
• Have you been eating right and exercising?  Hey!  You walked out of your panties!  Keep walking!
• Are you breaking free of the bonds of appropriateness and embracing authenticity?  Sister, it’s time to walk out of those panties.
• Is it time to leave the past behind?  Walk out of your panties and keeeeeeeep walking.

Sometimes those accidental changes are for the better. Sometimes we need to stop with the worry and keep on going. Things that seem huge and calamitous to us personally, are diminished by simply moving on. Leave that garbage, the bad feelings, the negativity on the ground with those panties and find new opportunities.

We may not have dicey elastics on our underwear, and skirts that would allow said issue to become a reality on a daily basis but the advice is sound. When things go wrong what do you do? Walking out of your panties, to me, means that you acknowledge in your heart and mind that something has occurred and then you continue on… Let those bad moments become a memory, relegate them to the small and realistic level of calamity that they truly are and become that better, confident person.

Grandmama Irene has more than just this one gem in the post… but I think that out of all the advice… to keep on walking is the one I want my girls to really and truly remember. Let’s put change and negativity where it belongs… dealt with and left behind like those pesky panties with their faulty elastic!

Keep on walking