With the new school year fast approaching, it is essential that we, as mothers, make sure we don’t get overwhelmed by the responsibilities and tasks that accompany the months of August and September. We must simplify our lives to make sure we have room for all the things that await us:
Back to school shopping, organizing school papers, calendaring school events, scheduling sports events, shuttling to extracurricular activities, deciding whether to be a coach or room mom or carpool driver or co-op coordinator, planning for the far to quickly approaching holidays.
The list is endless and paralyzing.
Feeling overwhelmed is a call to simplify
When we feel overwhelmed, we need to simplify. Often we only simplify by trying to tackle our list of to-do’s. But we just as regularly need to evaluate and simplify our lives. So let’s break the process of simplification down into 3 steps: why we avoid it, why we need it, and how to do it.
Why We Avoid Simplifying
1. We are afraid of making seemingly big decisions.
2. We are afraid of making the wrong decisions.
3. We are afraid of looking like we can’t handle it. (Even though it’s true.)
4. We are afraid to let go of our junk. It may be ours, but it’s still junk.
5. We don’t want to let anyone down.
Why We Need To Simplify
1. We need room to breathe.
2. We need space to grow.
3. We need time to listen. To others. To God. To ourselves.
4. We need peace.
5. We need to cultivate our ability to make wise decisions and model it for our children
How To Simplify
1. Pray – God’s really good at showing us what we need and what we don’t.
2. Write A Mission Statement – A measure of what is important to us. When we can’t think or decide our mission statement can decide for us. If it doesn’t fit – get rid of it. (It’s also a good idea to create a mission statement for your family to help everyone have proper direction.)
3. Seek Counsel – develop a trusted circle of people who know you and will help you identify the important from the unimportant.
4. Default To No – when new opportunities are presented, default to no. Few of us have too much time on our hands.
5. Just Do It – The fear of making a poor decision should not require us to carry hundreds of heavy, unmade, procrastinated decisions.
Action Time
Take a few minutes, right now, to list, evaluate, and prioritize your responsibilities for the coming year.
Join The Discussion
How are you preparing for the upcoming school year? What is one tip that helps you manage the chaos?
As homeschoolers living in a small home, we incorporate the principle of “prime real estate”. That means to purge and assess needs in prime areas- like making sure kitchen cabinets hold kitchen essentials and efficiency-boosting items, versus junk drawers, chachki, or seasonal items that can be stored elsewhere.
Thinking about storing necessary things at their point of use makes straightening up the house fast, easy and intuitive. Too much stuff to manage is certainlly detremental to an orderly and simplified environment, as is stuff maintained in the wrong/inconvenient place.
This is so timely. I blogged about this last week.
http://www.justhisbest.com/2010/07/school-year-planning-part-one.html
We are a homeschooling family and the biggest thing we’re doing is we are reducing the amount of STUFF we use for homeschooling. We have one crate per grade and one bin per student and one bookcase for the extra books and supplies. Everything else is OUT!
We are also simplifying our space by reducing our other belongings to just what we need so that the spaces in our home have a specific function and purpose in order to bring more peace to our home. With 4 kids ages 3, 4, 5, and 6, we are definitely surrounded by chaos that we need to consciously get rid of.
We we have more space to BE and less clutter, we have more peace as individuals and a family. Our goal for August is DECLUTTER!
It’s amazing how much more peaceful our homes can be when we just do a little decluttering. Great idea to do it BEFORE school starts!