Taking care of the homeschooling Mom! Body and Spirit

We are about to start our third week of homeschooling. So far, I have introduced my children to all of their subjects and got them into the nitty gritty of doing daily math and reading. My house has stayed reasonably clean, meals have been made and my paid work has been handled.

Guess what didn’t get done?

Mom time. Regular time for me to exercise, walk, stretch, play, read and pray. Somehow just starting up all of the regular activities again (cross country, soccer, piano, art class etc) along with the regular subjects was hard enough on my system without trying to force anything else into a packed schedule.

And then I hurt my back.

I don’t even know how I hurt it. I was sitting at piano lessons getting more and more uncomfortable and before I knew it, I could barely sit, stand or walk. I probably didn’t do anything big to hurt it. I probably picked up the baby wrong, or bent over to get something in a less than ergonomically correct way and something just got irritated. As I was suffering through it yesterday, it occurred to me that prior to the start of school, I was feeling pretty great! I was exercising with tapes or walking, getting in reasonable times to pray and read, and that my stress level was manageable. So starting tomorrow (aching back willing) I am going to try to add this special time back in for exercise, prayer and study.

I have some special challenges. For one, I don’t have little kids that I can just teach for an hour and a half or two and then be done for the day. I have four students and a toddler who need my full presence and attention for more like four or five hours a day if I want to help everyone with reading and math. (We’re talking some Algebra 1 here folks!) It’s simply not possible for me to take time mid morning to exercise and shower. It might be possible around 3:00 unless I have transcription work to do.

My best shot at getting to work out is most likely going to be around 6:00 a.m. either with a brisk walk in the morning with ab or arm work when I get back home, or with an exercise tape. Here is what I would like to do for variety.

Monday: Brisk walk for an hour of two to three miles. Do The Firm – Firm Parts 5-Day Abs DVD tape on return or later in the day.

Tuesday: .

Wednesday: The Firm – Fast And Firm Series Calorie Killer / Lower Body Sculpt 1 / Upper Body SculptFirm Upper Body tape. The Firm: Upper Body Sculpt

Thursday: Off – piano lessons and too much other work.

Friday: Any Kari Anderson tape and The Firm: Upper Body Sculpt

Saturday: Walking for one hour with ab tape.

Sunday: Fitball or new tapes from library. I think it would be fun to try some new things out at least once a week.

For prayer and reading time, I’d like to wake up to the readings in the Magnificate.

I can catch up on my bible reading with the The one year Bible, Catholic edition: Arranged in 365 daily readings : New Revised Standard Version, with Deuterocanonical books around 3:00. That actually an easier time of day to do it because I’ll be more alert. The morning offering and other liturgical observances I have worked into my homeschool lesson plans so I don’t have to worry about that for myself. On special feast days, I would like to make it to mass and I might think about making that a combo fit day – Walk to church and attend mass – a two for one!

Everyone has to find their own way to work these things in. This is what I think will work best for me this year.

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