Back to School

One week down, 35 to go. But who's counting?

I can't think "Back to School" without thinking of Billy Madison. Sorry. It's just the way I was raised.

There's so much good in this video. Is it silly? Of course. But the truth is so many kids feel that same way as the head back to school. Even our home schooled kids had those fears and a little anxiety as they headed back to school or officially started school.

This year we have two second graders and a Kindergarten student. This is my first year needing to teach more than one level at a time. The first day back was last Monday, August 17. The teaching part went well, but the homework part was a nightmare for one of our kiddos. There was a lot of yelling (mostly on my part) and a lot of frustration (pretty evenly split between the student and me).

First day of School - started out so fun and sunny!!

A large part of the problem was that I had a recent huge influx of sign orders, and normally I paint in the afternoon for about 2 hours while the children have a quiet time. Quiet time has turned to homework time and this student wanted me to sit directly beside her as she did her work. I told her I had my own work to do and she needed to do her own work. What she heard was, "Painting signs is more important than you." I'm not proud of it, but it's very close to the real meaning of what my words said.

Day 2 - sitting within touching distance as Abbey does schoolwork.

That evening I took a step back and evaluated my priorities. Do I enjoy painting? Yes. . Do I love homeschooling? Yes. Do I love my daughters? Yes. And then I needed to think about what I can change to still do all of these things (if possible). Most important on that list are my daughters and homeschooling. I enjoy the other things as well, but if I have to sacrifice any of those things on the list, it will be the painting. In order to still do the things I like best some changes need to be made.

Day 5 - getting into the groove and loving these quieter moments of the day.

1. I need to go to bed earlier. I've set myself a time limit on how late I will work during school nights so that I am a better teacher and a better mom.

2. I need to be willing to give up that chunk of afternoon time for painting in order to help my daughter gain confidence in her ability to work independently. We have compromised on this. I allow the children one hour FIRST to watch a movie. During this time I will write e-mails, respond to messages, create designs or paint. Whatever doesn't get done in that hour has to wait.

3. I need to extend the lead time from order to completion. Previously I was telling customers 1-2 weeks, but my goal was to get all orders completed in one week. However, since I'm not exactly sure how many signs my new hours will allow me to complete I have increased my time from 3-4 weeks from order to completion. As I get into a better routine this may look like 2-3 weeks or it could increase from 4-5. It all just depends on the volume of orders.

Please don't feel guilty about ordering. I WANT you to order. I LOVE painting. I'm still just so grateful that you all are so trusting in my ability to create something beautiful. And I'm excited that many of you are willing to wait three to four weeks to receive something I have made.

I would love to hear how you all fit in all the things you love? What do you have to give up to make your schedules work?