There. That's a bit better. We're still under the weather over here, but the mindfulness of taking a day off from the computer and from the many "shoulds" of our day-to-day was good for us all. We cancelled plans. We skipped washing that load of laundry. We took a hot bath. And there were many books, cups of tea, and plenty of time together on the floor playing.
One of our favorite cough remedies is a home made decoction made of elecampagne, wild cherry bark, licorice root, cinnamon, and pine needles. We also have some homemade lozenges we love, made without refined sugar. While the cough remedy is our own creation, I draw frequently from this book and urge anyone interested in learning how to make tinctures, salves, and other herbal medicine to pick a copy up. SO good. I love Rosemary Gladstar. Trusting yourself to care for your family in this way is both empowering and effective. And gentle in every way. We use homemade herbal preparations almost every day.
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Lupine being under-the-weather has brought up an interesting thread for me: that of making time for myself. As I mentioned here, it is something I rarely do. That usually works for me. Most days I can pour myself enthusiastically into this life of mothering-and-homeschooling- full time. But sometimes it doesn't work so well. Sometimes I'd just like some time for myself, as I mentioned a couple of days ago.
I posed the question of making time for yourself to the people (mostly mamas) on my blog's Facebook page and I was quite surprised by the responses. You don't do any better at this than I. (Expecially the homeschoolers.) You are stealing time if you make time at all. You are likely running on empty sometimes. And I wonder what we teach our children when that is what we model.
It is a conversation that I'd love to participate in with you - how do we keep balance? How do we teach our children that they matter but that we also matter without pushing their needs aside? How do we make time in each day for the many facets of our family's needs, including our own?
It's a conversation that I'm looking forward to having with you. Share your thoughts, won't you? On how you do it, or how you don't.
Love,
Rachel
