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This year, I have been wanting to have a more restful, peaceful year and paradoxically (or not uncoincidentally, depending on your point of view) have been having the most stressful year that I’ve had in a long time.

Part of it is just the way the ball has bounced this year– stuff happened and we’ve had to deal with it. But a big part of it is that I fell into the trap that homeschoolers, in particular, are susceptible to: not wanting my kids to miss out on important things. This is my oldest daughter’s first year in high school, and like homeschool moms everywhere, I panicked. (Note to self: Chill. Out.)

(True story, I was working through the very helpful book Tell Your Time (af), and I started hyperventilating when I realized that my “non-negotiable” completely filled — and overfilled — my schedule. That’s when I realized that my current schedule is not only unsustainable but impossible. There is no way for me to do the stuff I have put on my “non-negotiable” list. No wonder I’m stressed.)

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Mackenzie is the proprietor of the blog Amongst Lovely Things and the host of the excellent podcast The Read Aloud Revival. If you have children, whether they are homeschooled or not, I urge you to listen to that podcast.

Teaching from Rest was truly balm for my soul. The first half was encouragement and wisdom, the second was instruction and practical application. It really helped me look objectively at our life and our goals, and to repent of some unwise and fear-of-man driven choices I’ve made. Primarily, it led me to re-focus on three things critical for every homeschooler: Who I am, what I am called to do, and most importantly, who God is, which forms and informs the first two. It’s full of nuggets of wisdom that resonate with my soul, like:

“He’s called me to be faithful, yet I’m hell-bent on being successful.”

And:

“We are weary because we forget about grace. We act as though God showing up is the miracle. But guess what? God showing up is the given. Grace is a fact.”

Preach, sister!

You can get Teaching from Rest from Amazon, but you can get a package  from the Amongst Lovely Things website with a Companion Journal and audio extras for just a few dollars more. The Companion Journal, in particular, was very useful in helping me make an honest assessment of what went wrong this past year. I’ll be looking at that more in a future post, but for now, I highly recommend this little book for anyone looking to find peace and purpose in their homeschool.