Freedom in chaos
Photo by Claire Mummert CLAIRE MUMMERT Sometimes, as a mother, I feel bogged down by the day to day. I can't seem to get the house consistently clean (because let's be real that our little people are far less concerned with its cleanliness), which gives me a chaotic brain space that starts each day. Then, I have to get the kids ready for school. I always thought this would be an easy thing but I was deeply mistaken. My kids typically sleep later than our school schedule allows, and waking up kiddos does not start our day off right. There are multiple tantrums about not wanting to go to school (especially this late in the year), not wanting to get dressed, and how brushing their teeth is the worst. Then, when they finally arrive at the breakfast table, no one is hungry and one of my kiddos frequently decides they are no longer consuming whatever food has been prepared. We get to school in the final moments of drop-off, and I breathe a sigh of relief that we made it. I take my smaller kiddos to preschool a few days a week, which is a forty-five minute drive. The one day a week that all the kids are in school and I have no weekly commitments, I am supposed to get three hours to myself. But that, oftentimes, is when I can do errands or go to the doctor or see my counselor. LOVE OF DIXIE MAGAZINE
Life is chaos. I begin to think that what I really need is some time away. This is always the logical step for me. I need a vacation, I need to be alone, I need adult time, I want out of this house, I need to travel, I am restless. In fact, this weekend I get to stay overnight alone for my birthday, and I am deeply looking forward to it. But what if this isn't the answer? While these times of relaxed space really give us time to recharge, they aren't the only ways for us to feel freedom from this crazy pace. I have begun to wonder how to grab onto freedom during the school year and how to reduce the frenetic pace of life. The first thing we did was address Saturdays. Why are we going and doing all day Saturday after a crazy week? Do we really need to go to every birthday party we are invited to? The answer is no. We started instituting Sabbath Saturday. This is a day where we are not allowed to plan anything. We do not leave the house typically (or, at least, not by car), we put all phones and electronics away, and we stay together. We set no alarms, but we also don't ask our kids to go back to bed when they wake up. We cook meals together, and we stay in the same room most of the time.
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SUMMER 2019
