Hi friends, In these posts, I talk about some of the things going on in my life, set some goals for the upcoming week, and talk about what I’m learning. In this post, we’re talking about how we can return and tend to the things that matter most: Through the Consistency of a Daily Checklist.
The Sweet Calm of the End of Summer Means School is Right Around the Corner
These last few weeks of summer have been full of the muggy, sticky days that make Southern weather so famous. Almost every afternoon, we have a thunderstorm roll in right at the tail of the evening (and then blow through just as quickly). Though I’m told there aren’t as many as there used to be, right at dusk you can see the flickers of the lightning bugs off through the fields.
These are a sweet time. A time that tastes like fried okra, cut up watermelon (or my personal favorite–cantaloupe) from the garden, and burgers on the grill. There’s a freedom in these late summer days… and there’s a pull that beckons us to the everyday of school-time routines.
When I would get ready for my years teaching in public school, I often found myself nervous but ready to start the routines of a new year. And, honestly, that was the indication of a summer spent well.
If we use our time well, we enjoy the rest enough that we feel refreshed and ready to get back. Each year, I’m getting a little better at enjoying these sweet summer days. Of resting so well, I feel like I’ve earned the work that I am about to commence.
And work it is.
We have had a hard few years, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts. In the midst of the tumult of life, we have also been working through the (also hard) years of learning to read. My son finished up kindergarten a few months ago, and we are working on solidifying the gains he made in reading while preparing him for 1st grade with Memoria Press.
I have felt the siren call of new shiny curriculum and the uncertainty that comes with the start of a new school year, with new responsibilities, content, and skills to learn. This week, I have spent my days planning out my new year, and as I thought through what is to come, I began to hear this theme running through my head: Are we busy just trying to survive—or are we busy making the days count?
Are you making a plan—or planning to fail?
Any mom will know the difficulty of maintaining the vision for our lives clear in our minds when there is endless dishes, laundry, and items on our to-do list in the background. We come up for air periodically. We say that it’s time to ‘get our life together, only to fall back into the traps when things get busy again.
And so I sat down to plan my year with the goal that what I plan to do would keep my vision in the forefront of my mind. I want my everyday to move me closer. I want to start as I want to finish—with my homeschool and everything else.
In the midst of this planning, I came across Ashley Buffa on YouTube (watch one of her videos here). She writes at Vocational Homeschooling and Freedom Moms. I found myself nodding along to several of her videos. She’s talking mostly about homeschooling (and a little about intentional motherhood), but what she says speaks to what I’ve been thinking about too.
Cultivating Consistency One Checklist at a Time
Consistency always beats intensity. With our Bible study, our homemaking, our relationships, and literally everything else in life.
So as I plan out what I want to accomplish with my year, I am realizing that what I need to do is create a life around a schedule and routine that fosters this consistency.
This consistency is fostered by daily returning to tend to what matters in our life. If we care about something, we should be tending to it daily.
It’s only through these daily tendings that we will eventually yield the fruit of the life we want.
Related: What have you been given to steward?: On Tending the Things That Matter
But how do we practice this daily tending?
We create structures in our lives that foster this cultivation.
I found the answers in some of Ashley Buffa’s videos. She spoke about utilizing a checklist to foster self-management in her children’s homeschool. Every day, the children go to the checklist, see what they need to do, check it off, and get it verified (by her) to ‘close out’ the school day. This checklist becomes their journey or roadmap through school.
We also need this kind of journey throughout our day that emphasizes the importance of daily tending to the things that matter.
This week, I’ve been putting together this checklist for myself. The goal is that through daily tending, we can produce the fruit that we want our lives to bear.
What I’m focusing on this week:
- This week, I’m hoping to finally finish up the kids’ homeschool room and finish up the organization for the upcoming year. I’ve got a whiteboard coming along with some posters and sentence charts, so I think it will be a great place for my children to learn.
- I also want to get some binders set up this week. I’m hoping to do a Morning Time Binder (you can learn more about it in one of Mystie Winckler’s videos – and you can get my morning time binder printable free with the Living Education Homeschool Planner.) In addition to that, I’m working at a Memoria Press Cottage School this year, so I need to take some time to prep for those classes as well.
- And, all this planning has definitely made me want to declutter and organize the house. I want to rearrange everything to make it more functional. That’s in the works as well.
What are you working on this week? You can let me know in the comments below!
Until next time, keep creating a life you love and cultivating your heart for God.
In Christ,
Cayce
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