Take a breath

Week 3.

We've only been home a few weeks now and already I'm starting to question everything I ever thought about the kind of mother I am. My children, bless their hearts, are giving me a thousand chances a day to practice any skills I have ever learned in my life up to now.

And to top it off, we just moved last week into a temporary condo while we wait to close on our new house. Great timing, eh?

Yesterday was one of those days where we were all on top of each other, fighting over who gets to use the computer and who has a lesson and who needs to do a follow up work. Every one of us started crying or yelling for one reason or another and one of my children was having a really hard time not punching his siblings.

I thought my head was going to explode. I was so stressed out. And then I realized that just because my kids are not watching the news or trying to scrape all their savings together to buy a house, they are still feeling all the stress that I am feeling. Even if I do a pretty good job at hiding it.

I'm taking this online parenting class right now (to learn tools for how to deal with the reasons above) and one of the things they are teaching us is to learn how to filter out the adult world for our children so they can still experience the magic of childhood.

So even though I'm stressed about homeschool and my husband getting laid off and COVID-19 and moving, my kids don't need to worry about any of those things. They just want to be kids. They just want to know they are safe. And even though I can't promise what the future holds for them, today, I know they are safe. And they are loved.

So I told "said" child above to put on his rollerblades so we could go loop the neighborhood a few times. And in that moment, we laughed, we felt the warm breeze on our faces, we bladed past people out walking their dogs or just taking a breath like us. And for one moment, all was ok in the world. And my child honestly rebooted for the rest of the day.

So the lesson the Universe gifted me today is this: Don't be so caught up in all the things that you miss the most important ones.

Let's all take a minute this week to just take a breath. We've got this.

Living in the moment means letting go of the past and not waiting for the future. It means living your life consciously, aware that each moment you breathe is a gift. --Oprah Winfrey