This week seemed like a literal flurry of outside the home activity- ballet class, 'the' ballet, swim lessons, play dates, whole family over to the friends afternoon dates, knitting etc. By the time we arrived home this afternoon, after spending such a lovely afternoon with a new friend and her two daughters, I felt completely frazzled. Then I was immediately invited to a movie with a friend (this I could do!) and then reminded by my husband that tonight I was going to go to a new study with the Orthodox church we have begun attending. Ahem...
Now, fast forward about 1 hour, the children are happily engaged in various pursuits and I have had time to come in, grab a snack and put dinner on in peace. I am beginning to feel rejuvenated. When it is that I have become more of an introvert who knows? I thrive on outings with my little group of friends, with homeschool get-togethers, potlucks, and late night Ultimate games. But too much of that leaves me frazzled- almost like I have lost my bearings.
I have also noticed this with my children. They enjoy going out and hanging out with friends, going to the pool, and being in the bigger scene. But I know after this week that they feel cheated if we are having too many meals on the run, if their down time, the time where they create, think, sit, and become refreshed, is seriously compromised. It all seems to point back to that elusive thing called Balance: Living a full and Rich life with lots of room for margin.
I am not saying I have arrived in this department. The whole world (definitely including the homeschooling world- my how those homeschoolers are busy) is screaming at us to be busy, to buy, to produce, to consume, to better ourselves, to become more cultured, more intelligant, more useful, ad infinitum. And I feel like one of my top 5, or possibly one of my top 3, things I work at daily, day in day out, is to protect jelously this balance. It is like I am the scale and when I am working diligantly at reading my children, noting our family routines and family culture, that scale is balancing out nicely and we are more refreshed and can handle the ups and downs of our days. But when I am sitting with my nose to the screen too much, dwelling too much on what we are or aren't doing, comparing (ouch) our beautiful family to some virtual family, losing touch with my first job, that scale goes all wonky. I would go farther to say that without prayer that the scale is almost impossible for me to bring to balance.
So this whole thing takes courage- but I believe that it is a work well worth it.
