A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

Today’s thought: It all counts

• The dish washing,
• the foot rubbing,
• the tub bathing,
• the skip counting in the car,
• the singing at the tops of your lungs together off key,
• the carefully copied passage,
• the shopping for groceries,
• the spontaneous walk in the neighborhood,
• the sorting the laundry into the right colored piles,
• the charging of the dead phone,
• the pause to text your sick mother-in-law,
• the five minutes you take to regroup,
• the gentle way you overlooked your child’s Big Mess,
• the fifth book read after lunch when you usually only read three,
• the naps (oh yes, the naps count!),
• the petting of the dog,
• the recitation of a few historical facts,
• the listening carefully when your child explains how to beat level five,
• the cuddles,
• the enthusiastic cheer for small successes and big ones,
• the science experiment you finally got through with all the right ingredients,
• the trampoline jumping,
• the needed and taken break…

This stuff also counts:

• The short word,
• the worry,
• the rushing,
• the aimlessness that takes over when exhausted,
• the bickering,
• the harsh tone when a child is simply being a child,
• the endless pages of material a child already knows,
• the push, push, push to work harder on what a child isn’t ready for,
• the conversations with a spouse overheard by the child,
• the missed opportunities to play,
• the loss of contact with a teen,
• the blankness that sets in when sick of homeschooling,
• the lost moment when a child was excited but you were distracted,
• the anxiety that something’s wrong,
• the blues,
• the bad math book that you spent too much on,
• the co-op where a bully mistreats your one child,
• the much-needed, not-taken break…

You get to choose what will count in your homeschool.

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