Hello Darlings!! This is Cheri here with today's Coffee and Words. We hope the school year is off to a great start!!
Yesterday was such a bittersweet day in our household. A new chapter has begun, all three of my kiddos are officially in elementary school. As the school year started quickly approaching, I started hashing out last year. Last year was a great year, but my family was in a constant state of chaos. I spent more time in my car than I actually did at home. I was carting myself and kids all over the place. It seemed that we were doing homework in parking lots, eating dinner on the go, constantly looking for things, that by the time the school year had ended, we were all officially burned out. You could hear us sizzling from a mile away!!!
Yesterday was such a bittersweet day in our household. A new chapter has begun, all three of my kiddos are officially in elementary school. As the school year started quickly approaching, I started hashing out last year. Last year was a great year, but my family was in a constant state of chaos. I spent more time in my car than I actually did at home. I was carting myself and kids all over the place. It seemed that we were doing homework in parking lots, eating dinner on the go, constantly looking for things, that by the time the school year had ended, we were all officially burned out. You could hear us sizzling from a mile away!!!
This year, I made a bold decision to take a step back. I have always been the
type of person that had lots of irons in the fire. I thrive on a busy schedule,
I can multi-task to the max, I actually feel like my best work is done when I
am under pressure, but at the end of the day or shall I say at the end of last
year, this type of go, go, go schedule had taken a toll. I might thrive on this
type of schedule, but I had a hard pill to swallow, my kids didn't. They were
exhausted and I knew things had to change this year. I sat the kids down(mainly
the older 2) and I asked if they really wanted to do all of these
extra-curricular activities and they really seemed indifferent, I knew right
then and there that I had my answer. I then took the same approach with
myself, had my own heart to heart and with mixed emotions, we decided to take a
break from the go, go, go that had become our norm.
I
have been an avid athlete my entire life and that competitiveness has carried me
through many trials. I am not one to give up easily and once I have made the
decision to entered a commitment, I will stick it out till the end. I am not
saying that we are never going to do all these wonderful things again, because
there is something about seeing my girls up on stage performing or my son
rounding the bases that make my heart go pitter-patter, but I want it to be on
their terms and I only want to do or say yes to things on my terms not because I
feel like I have to, If that makes sense. I want us to do things because we
enjoy it. I am making it a top priority to apply this same principle in all
areas of my life and business. As much as I hate to say no, saying no is really
a good thing and I am going embrace it. "No does not mean never, it just means
not at the moment." Seeing my kiddos burned out at the ripe old ages of 5, 7,
& almost 10 because of a constantly on the go lifestyle really made me put
myself in check. We have cut our activities down to one with the possibility of
picking up a sport later in the Fall. If that happens great, if not, no biggie.
For the time being, I am committed to channeling my efforts on spending more
time at home, having family dinners, where we actually sit at the table and
discuss our day, and just slowing down. We have to learn to take a step back and make the most of these precious years with our kids.
