A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

When the way things are is too costly to your well-being than the way things could be if you blew up your life to expand your choices, you’ll change course.

Big choices feel big because they are. They alter how you see yourself.

• Putting your kids in school or pulling them out.
• Staying married or getting a divorce.
• Going to grad school or putting it off.
• Doing chemo or stopping it.
• Moving away from your family or moving back to be near them.
• Staying in your religious faith or leaving it.
• Exploring a new perspective or doubling down on the one you have.
• Having another baby or stopping.
• Working outside the home or being a SAHM.
• Giving up an addiction…

You’ll know when you know.

You deserve to lead a life that gives you hope.

You deserve as good a life as the one you want for your children.

One question that helped me was: “If I were to counsel one of my kids about this issue once they’re an adult, how would I lean?”

One idea that helped me: “You get to keep making choices. This isn’t the last one you’ll ever make.”

Keep going. Rooting for you.

No one changes course until the tipping point. It’s okay if the tipping point hasn’t yet tipped. Be patient. You’ll know when you know. You’ll move in the direction of your hope and release at the right time for you.

This post is originally from Instagram and @juliebravewriter is my account
so come follow along for more conversations like this one!

If you have a great day, the temptation is to believe that you should only ever have great days. What makes a day great, however, is the fact that it gets compared to the garden variety days and wins! One key to a better experience of your life is to not overvalue the great days or undervalue the garden variety ones.

It’s not possible to have all great days as a homeschooler. Each time we have a great day, though, it’s as if the bar gets raised and suddenly they all need to be great.

Great days exist in contrast to our garden variety, every day days. That’s what makes them great. You only need a handful a year!

Oh and I should tell you: there will be some really, really rotten days.

They pass too!

So the rule of thumb is: garden variety days punctuated by great days (hurray!) and occasionally ruined by rotten ones. Rinse and repeat. That’s homeschool… it’s also life.

This post is originally from Instagram and @juliebravewriter is my account
so come follow along for more conversations like this one!

I don’t know about you, but I almost always think I can “plan my stress away.” I’ll make a better schedule, I’ll create a list, I’ll prepare my room or desk.

But what I’ve found over the years is that DIVING in and DOING something is what cures it.

Sure, planning has value. But don’t imagine that the planning relieves the worry or anxiety. It’s when you simply do the thing—whatever that thing is.

Here’s the Kicker:

It COUNTS whether you planned it or not!

If you are stuck, stuck, stuck and worried out the wazoo, DO something. Engage your body. Even little stuff like counting the stairs on your staircase with a 7 year old counts! Pointing out capital letters in the read aloud COUNTS! Rhyming silly words over lunch counts.

Randomly observing that your child skillfully used an adjective (“Hey, “stupendous” is an adjective and you used it in a sentence perfectly!“) counts!

More Ideas:

• Read a poem
• Write on a mirror with lipstick
• Count spoons
• Notice all the rectangles in the room
• Build a LEGO set
• Look up a historical fact
• Act out a scene from a fairytale
• Bake muffins
• Find the Latin names for birds
• Spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

So repeat after me…

The cure is action!

Then you can “plan from behind”—jot down what you DID in a planner and you’ll start to build momentum in your homeschool.

You don’t owe anyone a perfect performance as a parent, educator, or person.

Exhale. Long, slow, complete.

The stress you feel is not always yours. It’s pressure from outside introjected inside.

You have the same right as anyone else to:

• Take a risk
• Try a thing
• Make a mistake
• Change your mind
• Do something else
• Disappoint someone
• Forget to follow through
• Lose your way
• Overthink
• Worry
• Have dreams and wishes
• Revise a belief
• Speak up
• Say no
• Say I don’t know

You’re learning how to be an educator, parent, and adult all at once. Of course you don’t know what you’re doing yet.

You’ll make mistakes, you’ll stumble on genius, you’ll be bored, you’ll be amazed.

All of it counts.