Tag Archives: Work Life Balance

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Small Moments Can Add Up to a Rich, Hands Free Life

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Do you have 10 minutes? You can spend that time worrying or tending to your to-do list, or you can spend that time thanking a friend or family member for their kindness or noticing the changing features on your daughter’s face.

That’s the underlying premise behind much of Rachel Macy Stafford’s heartfelt and thoughtful new book, Hands Free Life: 9 Habits for Overcoming Distraction, Living Better, & Loving More. Stafford had introduced readers to some of her gentle ideas and the aha moments that had led her to greater clarity in her earlier book, Hands Free Mama. Now, she gives us more concrete and thought-provoking ideas and exercises to truly make the most of our time with family, community and ourselves.

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Stafford touches eloquently on a topic I’ve written about, which is that we often miss opportunities for closeness when we think only about the peak experiences, the vacations and large events. She writes, “There are moments in between life’s obligations when we are in the presence of our loved ones that can be made sacred.” These small moments–singing to the car radio, walking around the block, sharing meals, helping with music practice–offer multiple daily opportunities to be present and to experience joy.

Children are naturals at this, and Stafford shares multiple wise offerings that her children say and teach by example. But we can learn, too, to turn off the distractions–whether that means literally turning off a technological device or turning off the marching thoughts in our heads–and choose to be truly present in the seemingly small, everyday moments of our lives before they drift away.

Another gift Stafford gives parents is to truly see life through the eyes of our children. When we do this, we can’t help but release some of our adult standards of perfection, which are largely responsible for the voices in our heads that cause us to pressure ourselves or hold ourselves back. To use two of Stafford’s examples, our children don’t see our “fossilized college T-shirt and sleep deprived eyes” when we soothe away their bad dreams in the middle of the night. They don’t notice that our favorite bed pillow could use a laundering. They notice, with love, that the pillow “smells like mama.”

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The book is divided into nine chapters: “Fill the Spaces,” “Surrender Control,” “Build a Foundation,” “Take the Pressure Off,” “See What Is Good,” “Give What Matters,” “Establish Boundaries,” “Leave a Legacy” and “Change Someone’s Story”. Each of these is broken into inspiring and thought-provoking chunks, with personal stories and habit builders to help readers gain perspective, forge meaningful connections, remove judgment of ourselves and others, and be present for and attentive to the small moments that make up our days.

If you have 10 minutes, you can tuck a kind note into a lunchbox, learn something new about a family member, listen to a friend without distraction, or say yes to one more bedtime story. What might you do with your 10 minutes? With your distraction-free, love-filled life?

 

 

 

New Book Helps Parents Homeschool While Working

Do you wish to homeschool while working but remain unsure about your ability to “do it all”? Pamela Price’s How to Work and Homeschool is here to help. Pamela Price, herself a working homeschooler and blogger at both How to Work and Homeschool and Red, White and Grew, shares extensively from her own experiences and challenges, as well as her observations hosting a series of homeschooling workshops and her interviews with multiple families who are successfully combining homeschooling with a variety of work  schedules and needs. In her introduction, she refers to the growing group of working homeschool parents as “part of a new breed of ‘educational entrepreneurs'”. She writes of her own experiences:

We have stitched homeschooling into the weave of our lives, if not seamlessly, at least functionally.

That sentence sums up much of the tone of the book – hopeful, extremely practical and helpful, and also realistic about the possibilities as well as the imperfection inherent in choosing a path that combines homeschooling with working.

How to Work and Homeschool covers a lot of ground, about what it takes to be, in essence, a “social change agent”, redrawing the traditional lines of school, work, home life, education, community and parenting. Pamela interviews multiple real people, in the trenches and in a variety of situations, who are making all of the new possibilities work for their families, in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons.

We meet Emilee, a homeschool student and then parent who runs the thriving Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds business; Brenda, who enjoys multi-generational involvement in her homeschooling endeavor; Khadija, a telecommuting mother of eight; and Jennifer, a nurse-turned-journalist and homeschooler of four.

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Through interviews, anecdotes, experience and statistics, Pamela reveals many myths, truths and tips about homeschooling and combining homeschool and work, that could help the trepidatious take the leap into homeschooling and continue to homeschool with grace. Countless experienced homeschoolers share what has worked best for them and some things they may have done differently. The book has a section on single-parent homeschooling and on contingencies when things don’t quite go as planned. Most helpfully, Pamela outlines different homeschool/work scenarios and schedules, based on family needs, that would help any family consider the best way to tackle homeschool and work, philosophically and practically.

How to Work and Homeschool would be a fantastic addition to any homeschooling library and is a must for parents who intend to combine homeschooling with work.

Graphics: Pamela Price, Hedua.com

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