 Hey everybody, welcome to the Waldoch Way. I'm Jessica. Today's video is going to be all about finding time for yourself as a homeschool mom, especially when you're homeschooling and only, but just because you're homeschooling multiple, don't click away. There are still probably gonna be a lot of helpful tips in this video for you as well. When you are a homeschool mom, you are doing all of the things. You're trying to keep a house clean, you're trying to cook all of the meals, and why do those homeschool kids have to eat so much food? You are trying to teach the children, you're trying to entertain the kids, you are juggling so many balls that it seems absolutely impossible to find any time for you, and so you are always last. When you're homeschooling an only child, I feel like that is even more complicated and more amplified because you are there everything. You are the only one that they have, and so finding any kind of time for yourself away from them, just you is very, very difficult. Over the years, I have gotten really creative with finding pockets of time to use for myself. It's not always perfect, but it does work, and so I thought that today was the day I would finally share that with you so that you would know that if whether you're homeschooling one, whether you're homeschooling multiple, even if it feels absolutely impossible, there are still ways that you can find time for yourself and prioritize your mental, physical, and emotional well-being. The first way that I find time for myself at homeschooling an only is by utilizing shrewing. I have been utilizing shrewing in some form since Emily was probably in about preschool. Shrewing, if you don't know what it is, is a really, really simple. It is just leaving something out and letting your kid discover it. A lot of people call it invitations, but it is with no requirements from you. I actually have an entire guide to shrewing that's a free download. I will link it in the description as well as some shrewing videos up here in case you wanna learn more. But I've used it when she was in preschool in kindergarten to get a little bit more sleep. I used it as she got older to get caffeinated and become human for the day. And then now I actually use shrewing to be able to get my workouts in every day. So before I go to bed at night, I leave something out. That could be a puzzle. That could be new apps on our tablet. That could be a documentary on TV. It might be single-player games. It might be a workbook I think she would really like. It might be just books I think she would really like. It may be a new Lego kit. Who knows what I'm gonna leave out. It's whatever I think she's interested in and whatever inspires me the night before. I'm gonna always leave something out for her. Sometimes it's the same thing. Sometimes she gets really into something and it's left out for days. Other times she doesn't utilize what I've left at all but she still knows that I require 30 minutes in the morning of uninterrupted time. It's not always uninterrupted. She still interrupts me but she knows that she can't really need me for anything. Because I'm gonna take that 30 minutes, I'm gonna go outside and I'm gonna get my workout in. Does that mean that she's not gonna come out there five times to talk to me or ask me questions? No, she still does but she knows that I'm prioritizing that workout no matter what and I utilize shrewing to make that happen. The second way that I find time for myself is by doing what we call learning lunches. This is another thing that we have been doing since about preschool or kindergarten. At that point, Kevin was working over an hour away from the house working 12 hour days and then with the commute he would be gone 14 to 15 hours a day. Sometimes even longer because he was taking night classes at the college as well. And so it was just Emily and I for 15 to 18 hours a day and there were days that by the end of the day I'm like I can't literally cannot go on any longer. Like my ears could not listen to anymore. I couldn't, I just, I couldn't function. It was horrible. And so we started taking lunches together but apart. And so basically I would sit around the TV to watch a documentary or educational show. Back then it was a lot of magic school bus and said the science kid and octonauts and wild crats. Now that looks a little bit more like podcasts and audio books and crash course kids on YouTube and things like that. But basically we will eat our lunch separate. She watches a show, she listens to an audio book, she listens to a podcast and it is 20 to 30 minutes that I do whatever I need to do to fill my bucket for the rest of the afternoon. Maybe that's clean the house or do some chores because maybe the house clutter is driving me crazy and making my eye twitch and I just, I'm gonna lose my mind if I don't give the dishes down or do the laundry. So maybe that's what I do. Maybe I sit in my room and read a book because I just don't wanna do anything which is also sometimes what I do. Sometimes maybe I didn't get my workout in for some reason and so I use that time to get in a quick workout, maybe just rebound or go to the treadmill, something simple depending on like I said, whatever I need I take that time for it. Sometimes it's just calling a friend because I just need to talk. But it's whatever it takes to fill my bucket and I will be the first one to tell you to do the same thing. Maybe it's not lunch for you, maybe it's dinner time, maybe it's breakfast time, maybe it's just a random 20 minutes in the middle of the day that you're like look, it is okay for me to use screen time because a happy mom is way better than that 20 or 30 minutes of screen time that they're gonna get. If that's what it takes for you to get what you need, I am 100% telling you to do it and take it. The third way that I get time for myself is for us, we live so far away that we're in the car a lot, like a lot. Like we live an hour from the grocery store, from the library, we're in the car a ton. So I utilize that time for me, not always, but sometimes. So if Kevin's driving, I'll read a book. If I'm driving, I'll say hey, I'm gonna listen to an audiobook or a podcast in which case Emily will probably put in earbuds or headphones and do her own thing. I'll use that time to call a friend. Again, it's kind of the same thing that I do during lunch. Obviously I can't work out though, but I do whatever I need to do. Now that Kevin is home full time, he does the majority of the driving, he was a truck driver by trade, so that's what he does plus I hate driving. So I do a lot of reading when we're in the car. I also do a lot of working when we're in the car because it brings me joy and I love what I do and that's something that I like to do and so I do that a lot when we're on the road. The fourth way that I find time for myself is by doing things parallel to Emily and I know that you were thinking that is not really time to yourself and you're right, it's not. When you're homeschooling an only child, sometimes you have to get creative because that's always gonna be the two of you. Like you're together 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can only create so many pockets of just you when it's just you and them. Like you can't be like, hey, I'm gonna be like leaving you on your own for hours of the time. It's not like they have anybody else to entertain them or play with them or do anything with them. So sometimes you have to get really creative and you find ways to take care of yourself beside them and so for us, that might look like, hey, Emily, you didn't like what I screwed this morning or I woke up late or whatever. I still need to get my work out in. Why don't you come work out with me and that happens a lot. I got a little two, three and five pound weights out there for her and she loves them. I have, I fit things that she does on the treadmill all the time and I look like, hey, I didn't get my steps in. Let's go for a walk. I mean, she loves doing that. We do five K's as a family. So it's taking care of me with her beside me. If I really need to tune out or if she really needs to tune out, we will put on headphones, listen to music or again, audiobooks or podcasts, whatever. That's not always what happens but sometimes it's just a day when I'm like, we need to go for a walk and we need to disengage. So let's put our headphones on and just go parallel to each other but not do anything together. We also journal together side by side. We each keep our own journal and so that's something that we do, again, parallel to each other. And there are a lot of times when like, if we're not feeling great or I feel like we haven't read a lot or we're in a slump or whatever, I can say, hey, you know what, why don't you grab your Kindle, I'll grab mine and we'll sit on the couch together and we'll spend 20 or 30 minutes reading, just like, hey, let's just start our day with this instead of whatever else we were gonna do today. Let's have some downtime together. So that is another really creative way and that can work whether you're homeschooling one or multiple but specifically if you just have one, you can easily still find a way to take care of you and do it parallel to them. If you cannot find time that's just you, you can still find a way to take care of you and honestly you're creating better habits for them as well. So we have talked about self-care quite a bit in this video and so I just wanted to let you guys know that I will link my self-care series up here as well as in the description. At the beginning of this year, I did an entire series on how I am prioritizing myself mentally, physically, emotionally, all of the things because I am on a health journey to become the best version of myself. And so I really want to encourage you to make sure you're making yourself a priority. It is not selfish to do that. It is a necessity. The thing that I have learned over the past year and a half of making myself a priority is that it has made me a better person. It has made me a better daughter. It has made me a better wife. It has made me a better mother. It's made me a better homeschool teacher. It's made me a better entrepreneur. I have more energy. I'm in a better mood. Like the list goes on and on and on. So even though I really didn't have the time to find a workout in my day, like there was no time or hours to be like, oh, here, I'm gonna take 30 minutes here to workout every day or start eating more elaborate meals that weren't prepackaged and ready for me to just grab and eat, I didn't have the time for that. It's funny how when I made the time for it, I actually feel like I have more time in my day now than I did before because I have more energy and it's all of the things really, really have helped. So I hope that if you were one of those homeschool moms who just didn't have the time, couldn't create the time, couldn't find it, that this video helped you maybe, if it's not one of the things I mentioned, at least helped you start thinking creatively so that you can try to find some sort of pocket in your day to create that time so that you can do something to take care of yourself because it is absolutely going to be worth it. Now, I would love it if you would tell me down in the comments what creative things you do to find time for yourself and when you find it, what do you do for yourself?