002 || You are NOT Bad at Homeschooling

You are not bad at homeschooling. I know that might sound like something you’d scroll right past on Instagram — but stay with me. Because being bad at something and being overwhelmed by something are two completely different things with completely different causes and completely different solutions. And most of us have had them confused for a very long time.

In this episode Sarah breaks down what being overwhelmed by homeschooling actually looks like (hint: it has nothing to do with being lazy or not caring enough), why the label you put on it matters more than you think, and what the real solutions are — none of which require you to be a different person or try harder at things that aren’t working.

This one comes with a permission slip. You’re going to want to listen.

Note: If you haven’t listened to Episode 001 yet, start there first — this episode builds on it.

Links:

•       Episode 001 — The Hidden Curriculum Running Your Homeschool (listen first — this episode builds on it)

•        Shop all Homeschool Glue resources — homeschoolglue.com/shop

•        Receive my weekly email newsletter with behind-the-scenes reflections, homeschool tips and ideas, and more!

•        Follow on Instagram — @homeschoolglue

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I want to start today with something I need you to actually hear, not just listen and nod along while you fold your laundry or smile and kind of shrug off as you're driving your kids to their next activity, but I want you to actually listen to this. You are not bad at homeschooling. I know that might sound like some kind of generic encouragement post you might scroll right past on Instagram, but please stay with me because I think there's something underneath that statement that most of us have never actually let ourselves believe or even consider. And it's changing the way we show up every single day. Glue. It's messy, it's sticky, it gets everywhere. But without it, nothing holds. Homeschool life can feel messy too. We have the loud days, the mental overload, so many moving parts. But we don't need is more curriculum or more pressure to do it all. We need something that holds. Simple systems, steady rhythms, the kind of structure that makes homeschooling easier instead of heavier. Hi, I'm Sarah, a homeschool mom of four, and this is the Homeschool Glue Podcast. Each week we have an honest conversation about real homeschool life and the simple systems that help overwhelmed homeschool moms clear the mental clutter, build rhythms that actually stick, and create the peaceful lives we are all craving. If you're tired of carrying everything and getting nowhere, you are in the right place. Grab that load of laundry and let's get started. Not just in this episode, but every episode after this. And so it really needs to be listened to for everything else to kind of make sense and to be a good starting place before you listen to anything else on this podcast. But today we're going somewhere that I think a lot of homeschool moms need to go, but rarely give themselves permission to go. We're going to be talking about the difference between being bad at something and being overwhelmed by something. Because I think most of us have those confused and have for a very long time or may not have even considered that they're different. And so we've been labeling ourselves as one thing when really we need to relabel it because when something's labeled wrong, you can't fix it correctly because you're diagnosing the problem as something completely wrong. Kind of like if you have an illness and you're being diagnosed with one illness and trying to attack that with some kind of medication or solution, but it's not even targeting the right area, and you need a whole different set of medicines or solutions to help fix that problem. That's what we're going to be talking about today. So I'm sure if you clicked on the title of this podcast, you already know what it feels like to feel bad at homeschooling. I don't need to paint the picture, but at the same time, I do because most of us are homeschooling in our homes by ourselves. We don't have anybody right next door who we can watch out our window. We don't have someone who we can stop by their house and see exactly what homeschooling's like when they're all alone, because our kids act differently when other people are in our house. And we don't ever really get to see what true homeschool looks like for any other family for most of us, like probably 99.9% of us, because we're off doing it in our own homes. And the way our kids act with us is always going to be different than they'll act in another situation, and how other people's kids will act will be different than if you just pop by their house, um, for better or for worse. Um, and so I'm just gonna kind of paint what it might look like in a home where you feel bad at homeschooling. What does that actually look like? So maybe it is 9 a.m. and you already are believing that you're behind. Maybe you have a toddler and they have dismantled something or eaten something or they're fussy and they're teething or they had a blowout, or you have a baby who had a blowout, or you didn't get enough sleep, and the lesson you had planned that you were so excited about this morning is not happening, or it all went down the drain, and you're upset with your kids, and all of these things are happening, and then you don't know what's for supper, you need to do three loads of laundry, you're behind on that, the house is dirty, and you're just frustrated. And then you scroll Instagram and you see somebody's beautiful house that looks so calm and they're doing this beautiful lesson, and you think either my kids are not good kids, or I'm a bad mom, or all of the above, or I just truly am bad at this whole homeschooling thing because that's not what my house looks like, and that's not what it feels like. And I just must be horrible at this because everybody else seems to know how to do this except me. Okay, so that um is relatable, hopefully. I mean, obviously, I hope nobody struggles with homeschooling, but I just know that's not the case because we're dealing with real human children and it can be really hard. And so if you're related to any piece of this, you are not alone. And just because that's how many of your days go, all of your days go, potentially, does not mean that you're actually bad at homeschooling. Just because your brain tells you something doesn't mean it's correct. And often, as emotional women, uh, our brain often lies to us. And so we don't have to continue believing something that is just plain false. Just because you think you're bad at homeschooling doesn't mean that you are, and chances are you're not actually bad at it, you're overwhelmed by it, which are two completely different things. So, some thoughts you might think if you think you're bad at homeschooling. You might think, I just can't get my act together. Everybody else has it all figured out. Other moms seem to have this all figured out. She just started homeschooling and her kids are perfect little angels, and I have been trying to do this for years, and I just something must be wrong with me. This just must not be the path that God wants me to take because I'm just bad at it. Or my kids deserve better than what I'm giving them or what I'm able to give them. Or I chose this and I'm failing at it. I'm a failure. Or maybe they'd be better off in school. Maybe they'd be better off with another teacher because I'm just not any good. Let's just sit there for a second. Uh, I'm getting teared up just saying that because I can relate to that thought. I have for sure had a lot of these thoughts myself over the years. Um, just because you've had this thought does not mean you're bad. And actually, it's a good sign that you are not bad at homeschooling. You're just overwhelmed. Uh, if any of those thoughts have lived in your head, just know you're not alone. And today I really want to offer you a completely different way and a way that's going to empower you to actually do something about it because just being bad, like there's not a lot of remedies for just being bad at something. Yes, like some skills we can learn to get better, of course, but labeling yourself as like a failure or just plain bad or not cut out for this, those aren't very empowering places to start from. And it doesn't really leave you a lot of room for improvement. It makes you just want to give up, which is not what I want for you. I really want to help you through this. And so that's what we're talking about today. So here's what I really want to offer you: being bad at homeschooling and being overwhelmed by homeschooling, like I said, are two completely different things. They may feel the same on the inside, and you may label them one way on the inside, but that doesn't mean that they're the same thing. And they have completely different causes and completely different solutions. Okay, so being bad at homeschooling, I would label that as not caring about your children's education, not showing up at all, and not because of, you know, maybe obviously when we go through seasons of hard times, that's not the same. This is like a chronic always status. If you are bad at homeschooling, you're just not showing up, you're not trying, you're not doing anything, and you're not loving your kids enough to keep going on the hard days. I would say if you listen to this podcast, none of those would apply to you because you are caring about your children's education. You are showing up, you're trying so hard, and you do love your kids and you're continuing to go on the hard days. Yes, you may give up here or there, but you're not completely giving up and you're trying to figure out a solution. Okay, that's that's what somebody who is overwhelmed by homeschooling is doing, not somebody who's bad at homeschooling. So you are not bad at homeschooling. And I know that's not you because you're listening to this podcast because you want to make a change. And what are you doing right now? Are you folding laundry? Are you up at 5 a.m. listening to this podcast? Are you running around doing stuff around your house for your family trying to serve them while you're listening to this? Or maybe you're using the only free time you have in the day to try to get better at homeschooling. All of those things tell me that you care. You are not bad, you're just overwhelmed. So, what does being overwhelmed by homeschooling actually look like? It may look like one of the following, but not limited to these. Um, you can fill it in with your own situation, but some of the common ones are having so many decisions, or I would say too many decisions, living in your head with no system to process them. Okay, that's extremely overwhelming for anybody to try to carry everything in your head all the time, especially when there's multiple, even one, but let alone multiple little children who are depending on you and you're trying to keep it all in your head. Another way this looks um if you're overwhelmed by homeschooling, it looks like you have no repeatable weekly rhythm, whether it comes to your homeschool or even your home in general, and what it takes to maintain a home, upkeep a home, all of those things. And so you're rebuilt rebuilding from scratch every single week. Okay, that's overwhelming. That's a lot on our mind all the time. It may look like a mental load so heavy that by the time school even starts for the morning or afternoon, you're already depleted because you've been trying to do so much and you just feel so weighed down by the responsibility of everything. Being overwhelmed by homeschooling may look like life circumstances that are genuinely just very hard. Maybe going through infertility and infertility treatments or trying to get pregnant, and it's just a lot physically, emotionally. Maybe that is pregnancy, um, or you know, maybe you have a pregnancy after a loss or a long period of infertility. And so even just emotionally, it's really hard, or maybe it's a pregnancy that physically is extremely hard. I've lived both of those. Um, and it emotionally and physically is so genuinely hard. Um, homeschooling with toddlers, I'm living that right now. It is so hard. Or little ones or kids with special needs of all different kinds: physical, mental, emotional, maybe marriage stress, financial pressure, health issues. I mean, just living in the world we live in is overwhelming. If you look on the news or even social media, uh, all of these things, these life circumstances or just circumstances of the world can be genuinely hard and overwhelming. Maybe it looks like systems that nobody ever taught you, so you don't have them because nobody ever taught any of us these systems, unfortunately. And luckily, we have uh the ability to do that differently with our kids, but first we have to figure out what they are, right? So this is these are just a few different things that overwhelmed, um, being overwhelmed by homeschooling may show up as in your life. And I'm sure you have your own. Um, you know, my whole family went through, I've talked about openly, my dad was in the hospital for four months. He fell off a roof 15 feet onto concrete. I got the call at 6 p.m. Um on a Tuesday, uh January 17th, 2023. I, you know, it's one of those dates that you say the date and immediately tears come to your eyes because you just can remember it so vividly and your world turns upside down. And sorry, did not mean to get emotional, but I know what homeschooling through really hard times looks like. Some I've shared publicly like that one, some I have not. But trust me when I say I I do understand, I may not know your exact situation, but I have homeschooled through many, many hard times in only the like five or six years we've been like full-time homeschooling. And so it can be so hard. But that's not where we're gonna stay for this episode. We're not gonna stay in the hard. I just want you to know I do understand, I don't have one of those lives, and I know nobody does, but I really try on social media to not just portray the good, even though there's so much beauty in homeschooling. I also want to be realistic because if I portray that my kids are perfect angels and they always get along, and my toddler is he never eats crayons and he always just sits obediently at 14 months and you know, does whatever mommy tells him. Like, obviously that's not true. But it can look that way if we only show up a certain way on social media. And so I've really tried to balance being authentic, authentic in the beauty, but also authentic in the pain and authentic in the trials without being, you know, like airing all of our dirty laundry and sharing personal things about my children. That's where I really struggle because I want to help moms and I want to like scream from the rooftops, today was so hard and this is why, but I can in some ways, but also, you know, I have real children and I want to protect their privacy. So that's all to say I can relate and I want to be that voice online who's not just sharing the good, because while that is so inspirational and can be motivational in the right ways, it also can be so um heavy to like compare yourself to that. Even though I know we try not to compare, it's pretty much impossible to not compare yourself when you're seeing this like beautiful homeschool room and this family who must make a lot of money because my house doesn't look like that, and their kids are all sitting so nicely, and they get all these subjects done, and I'm over here and I I don't even know what's for supper, and I haven't showered in three days, and my toddler keeps pooping during his nap, and like I can't get homeschool done, like all the things, you know. I laugh because it's just true. Um, it can be so easy to compare ourselves to that, and when we see that on social media, and then we're like, mine doesn't look like that, it is so easy to just feel like we are bad, we are not doing this right, which just isn't true. You are not bad, you're overwhelmed, and you need help. Okay, so before we continue, I just want to take a second to talk about why this even matters. Why does it matter if I'm bad or if I'm overwhelmed? Um, because you may say, what does it matter? I'm just not thriving right now, and my kids aren't thriving, and I I just feel not good. So, what does it matter what I label it when it's gonna feel the same no matter what? Um, and I want to just kind of fight back against that for a second, because first of all, it really truly does matter because if you think it doesn't matter, that's because you're not looking at it correctly. It does matter if you think you're bad at homeschooling versus being overwhelmed, because being overwhelmed, there is so much room for improvement. There's so much room for change and growth. And that is a much more growth statement to say I'm overwhelmed than to say I'm bad. Okay, bad is a label that is pretty hard to change versus being overwhelmed. We come and go from overwhelmed throughout life, and that's not a static state that we stay in forever. Um, and it's just way more motivating and helpful to label it accurately as being overwhelmed versus just when we just label ourselves in a certain way that's very fixed, then that's just the way it is. And we're not going to spend much time trying to make it better. Um, it's kind of like I figured this out with weight loss for myself. When I am um just label myself as like, I'm never gonna lose weight, I don't look good, and this is just the way it is. Well, that's not very motivating to want to be a healthy, great version of myself. But if I label myself as like, okay, I'm postpartum, that's hard. I was breastfeeding, that's hard. But I'm not stuck here, you know, those are all hard seasons, but I'm not bad, I'm not broken. Um, those that's a lot more motivating to me than just saying, well, it's never gonna happen. So I might as well just give up. That's not true. Like bodies can change, lives can change, homeschools can change. And so if you were actually bad at homeschooling, what would the solution be for that? Well, if you were actually just bad at it, um one solution could be just stop doing it, obviously. Um, you know, you might look for more motivation or more discipline, or you might try harder if you're just bad at it, or you might try a different curriculum, maybe that fits with you better. And not that these are bad things or um things that you shouldn't do, but there's just a different uh way to go about it. If you're actually bad at homeschooling, maybe you would learn more about homeschooling to get better at it, um, or try to be a different kind of person so that you're not bad or care more about your kids, you know, if that's part of the problem. But I can pretty much guarantee those aren't your problems. I don't think you need more motivation. I don't think you know need more discipline. I think you have tons of motivation. You want to make a change. You have tried so hard, you have so much discipline, and yet here you are, you know, you're still struggling despite trying so hard. And I don't think you need to be a different person. I think you are a great person for your kids. You just need to learn about to make some changes. And so if you're overwhelmed, the solution would be and is having fewer decisions to make each day. Having some kind of repeatable rhythm you can follow every day and every week so you have less on your plate and less in your brain at all times. Creating systems that carry the mental load so that you don't have to, so that when you're sitting down with your kids, that is what you're focused on. You're not focused on dinner and laundry and cleaning and taking the dog to the vet and this, that, and the other thing. You're focused on what you're actually doing because you have systems that will take care of everything else at the right time so your brain can be present. And it would also look like having some margin built into your day so that you can actually have some breathing room, so that you can actually spend some time decompressing at the end of the day or the end of the week. I mean, doing things that fill you up. Okay, those are just a few of the solutions to being overwhelmed. None of those require changing who you are, none of those require trying harder at the same thing over and over and continuing to not get the outcome that you want. None of those require more motivation or changing who you are fundamentally. None of those require any of those things because they're not a you issue, they're a systems framework issue. Um, and those things are outside of you, and those are things that we can add in and we can change and we can tweak over time. Do they require some discipline and some motivation? Yes, but not as much as you would think. And um, it's a lot easier because they actually work versus being motivated and working hard on things that aren't working, and then you just keep trying them and you get frustrated. You will see results with these things versus when you think you're bad at homeschooling, you're just throwing things at the wall, hoping they'll stick and they don't, and you keep throwing the same things at the wall. I'm just gonna try harder and I'm gonna be more stern with my kids. Like, that's not gonna work, and that's not the environment we want. We need to try something different. Okay, so we're over 20 minutes in, and you're like, okay, maybe I actually am just overwhelmed. Um, I wish I could give you all of the answers in one podcast episode, but it's just not possible. This is gonna be, you know, we're in it for the long haul. If you want some tips of actually fixing, you know, the problem of being overwhelmed, come back next week. These are things we're going to talk about. I'm gonna walk you through slowly uh because Rome wasn't built in a day, and a much more peaceful homeschool will not be built in a day. Unfortunately, it's just not possible. However, little changes will add up and make a huge difference with time. But what I really want to do now is just give you permission and give you something to consider. So this is your official permission slip, if you will. You have permission to stop calling yourself bad at homeschooling or any variation of that that you say to yourself, like you're not cut out for it, or I'm failing my children, or I'm, you know, I'm not meant to do this. All of those things are not serving you. And I give you permission and would encourage you to change the language around that because that's not serving you. It's not serving your kids. And it's just putting yourself in a fixed mindset that isn't going to improve anything. It's just going to keep you stuck. You also have permission to acknowledge that this is genuinely hard. And I honestly do wish more people online were talking about this. Um, I struggle with this myself because I obviously want to help motivate and encourage people who want to homeschool to try it out and see how it goes for them. And so talking about how hard it is, you know, isn't like the best like sales pitch, but it also is realistic and I don't want to set people up for failure because homeschooling is hard. You know, being with kids 24-7 can be really hard, uh both in school and out of school, you know, even if they're blood related to you, especially if they're blood related to you, because you get the most authentic version of them and they get the most authentic version of you, and that's not always pretty, you know. We have multiple sides to ourselves and we let the not so charming sides of ourselves out at home with the people we love the most. So you have permission to acknowledge that this is genuinely hard for you. Not because you're weak, not because you're bad, not because there's something wrong with your kids, not because you're not cut out for it, but because it is hard, okay? Parenting is hard, homeschooling is hard, and you know why it's hard? Because it matters and because you care so much. Okay. When you care about something genuinely, it's usually not super easy because you're putting so much weight into it, you want it to go well, and so it's going to be harder for you because you want to put so much of yourself into it, you want it to go well. Okay. If you're listening to this, homeschooling one child or homeschooling multiple children, it is hard. You have different needs, you have different needs, not even only between one another, but between you and your child or children. Like I'm introverted. I have some extroverted children. That is hard. You know, they're loud, they want to be around me and they want to talk to me all day. And I love them and I love their conversation, but it also drains my energy. That's hard. Okay, that's just the truth. It is hard. Managing a household is hard. Managing a household on top of homeschooling is hard. Managing a homeschool while homeschooling, and then if you had working or caring for a parent who's sick or uh running some volunteer organization or serving in your church or leading a sport or whatever, coaching, all of those things is hard. Okay. It's just the truth of it. It's not bad, it is hard. Um, it is a lot that you're carrying, and you have permission to label it as hard. Not as bad. Okay, you probably already have been doing that, but just as hard. You also have permission to need systems. I think so many of us see the social media and see how everybody else is doing it and thinking that's just innately who they are. People look at me and think, wow, she must just naturally be organized, naturally be a planner. And back against that because I actually think I have become this way because I'm naturally really bad at it. Um, I'm naturally really disorganized, and I'm naturally somebody who has a huge struggle with holding everything in her head. And so I have just naturally through the hardships of my life uh adopted systems and really gotten to fall in love with productivity and time management and systems to help me with all of these things that I'm just really bad at. Um, and so it may look like I have it all together, but that's because I lean on things that give me space in my mind so that I I mean, I'm not trying to fake it till I make it. It's just how I appear because I have all of these things holding me up. So while I'm doing a lot and I'm able to do a lot, I'm also able to be really present for the most part with my kids and carry a lot because I'm not worrying about most of it at any given time because I have systems that are worrying about it for me, if that makes sense. And so it is okay and not, it's not just okay, it's good. It's good to need systems. We're humans, we are not meant to carry everything in our mind. We are not meant to hold all the weight of a family on our shoulders. Obviously, we need God, and that is a huge part of this as well. But God also gives us resources in this world to hold things that are too heavy for us to hold by ourselves. Um, and to help us be smart with our time and to make wise choices with all the things that we do, so that we're not trying to do way more than we're physically, emotionally, or cognitively able to do as humans. This is not a character flaw to need systems. Um, the best companies in the world have very detailed systems. Teachers have systems. Uh, if you look at the Proverbs 31 woman, I'm sure she has a lot of systems. She's doing a lot of things and she's not coming into them super stressed. She has systems to allow her to do a lot of things and be present and showing up for all of them. It's not necessarily, I mean, there are people who are naturally better at this, but it's also something that we can all learn. Um, systems are not a crutch, they're not something that shows you're weak. They're actually a great source of strength and something that anybody who's uh remotely good at anything has some kind of system. Like somebody who's really good at an instrument, they have a system for practicing, they have a system for fitting into their week. An Olympian um swimmer has a system for what they eat and how they manage their time and all the things that they do and what they focus on at different times. They're not like swimming and worrying about dinner that night. You know, they probably have a really good system and a lot of money, but we're gonna forget that part. Um they probably didn't always have that. So anyway, I digress. It is okay and good to have systems, they are so helpful. And this is also your permission slip to start where you are. You may hear this and think, oh, I don't even know where to begin. And that's okay. That's why I'm here, that's why I'm making this podcast. So just keep coming back every week, and I will give you lots of tips, ideas, systems, microsystems, macro systems. I'm just making up stuff here, and maybe that'll be a word I use in the future, but I'm just thinking like, you know, smaller systems and then larger scale systems that kind of hold it all together. Needing a framework to hold things together is not something that's wrong with you. And it is okay to start where you are. You don't have to be where I am. If you were, you wouldn't be listening to this podcast. And that's why I'm making it because I want to help people who are where you're at. I want to help people who are feeling like they're drowning with homeschooling and to look at you and say, you can do this. I'm here to help. So don't compare yourself to everybody else. It's okay to be right where you are, just like with homeschooling and our kids. We should not be comparing them to little Betty down the road. We should not be comparing them to little Henry who already, you know, is in college in the fourth grade or whatever. Uh, we should not be comparing because we're all different and we're all on a different journey. And the fact is that you're here showing up right now, and that's all that matters. Just compare yourself to yourself. And chances are, if you continue to listen to this podcast every week and implement a lot of the things I'm talking about in a few weeks' time and a few months, you can look back at old you and say, Wow, look at where I was a few months ago and look at where I am now. Like I have come so far. And you can be so proud instead of like judgmental or comparative to who you used to be. You can be celebratory about it, that you've made these changes and look how far you've come because you're woman. So give yourself permission to be exactly who you are right now and be open to room for improvement. Also, on top of that, please give yourself permission to believe that it can actually get easier. I truly believe that, I truly know that because you're not bad at homeschooling, you're just overwhelmed, and there's so many ways to help you with that. And I'm not promising your life's gonna get simpler. I wish I could. I wish I could promise that. Um, I can't promise that nothing bad will happen in this life. God doesn't promise that. So I definitely cannot promise that. But what I can say is that when you have systems and a framework holding you up, you have more room to deal with the hard times. You have more space, you have a plan in place for when the hard comes instead of crumbling when you already were on the edge of crumbling. Because chances are, if you're super overwhelmed when life is going decently okay, whenever something hard happens, that's when you're probably gonna get derailed and and you know, put your kids in school or whatever, which is not the end of the world. However, if that's truly something you don't want to happen, we need to have some systems in place so you're not gonna be crumbling whenever, you know, a bill comes that's too expensive or something happens to your health or the health of a loved one or a child gets a diagnosis. Like obviously these are things I wish never happened, but I'm being realistic. And part of homeschooling is that life continues and we we continue through it. Whether we continue homeschooling for a season or not, it's still on us to educate our kids. Um, and so the hard is part of that. And I recently went to a um homeschool conference where Donna Jean Breckenridge, uh, who's part of the AO Ambleside Online Advisory, who created Ambleside Online, was the main speaker. And uh, I don't have this in my notes, but it just reminded me of her speaking, and she was talking about a lot of hard times she's had um over the last few years, losing loved ones, losing friends and family. Um, and how she was talking about how we should not shield our kids from life and the hard times, because this is the curriculum that we didn't plan for them, but God did. And this can be part of their ministry. As hard as that is, as much as we want like our kids to have the perfect childhood and to nothing bad ever happened to them. And especially if we had a harder childhood, we're like, we're gonna make sure they have the best childhood they could possibly have and the best education, but we aren't fully in control of that. You know, God uses children, God uses the things that happen in our life at any point in our life. There are things that happen to kids before they're even born that will affect them for the rest of their lives, and God uses that. Um, and so this is your permission slip to believe parts of your life can get easier. And just knowing that I wish I could promise that all of life will always be easy. That's just not something I can promise. But I can say when you have these systems in place, they at least take some of that extra stress off when the bad does come. And I don't want to leave you on a bad note, but I I do try to be realistic that it's not all, you know, with homeschool glue and my business, I'm never gonna act like I'm gonna show up and save every part of your life. I know some people do that. I just think it's not realistic. If God can't even promise us a super easy life, then little Sarah from Minnesota definitely cannot promise you that. But I can give you lots of systems and ideas and rhythms and things like that that can at least make the hard times a little less hard because you're not just struggling with life in general at the same time, if that makes sense. Okay, so we've gotten through now two episodes of this relaunch of the podcast. I want to talk a little bit about what's coming next. So, over the next several weeks, I'm going to get really practical. We're gonna talk more about overwhelm and the types of overwhelm. We're gonna talk about why homeschool overwhelm even happens. Um, we're gonna talk about having a repeatable week that you can follow as one of the first systems you put into place. We're gonna eventually talk about meal planning and laundry and cleaning and all the practical things like that, and having um a second brain so it's not just your brain having to control everything, having a system so that you're not carrying everything in your head. And I have very practical things I do in my life that have just worked themselves pretty naturally once I've adopted them into my life, and I truly believe can work for you as well. And so those are just it's a little preview of what's to come in the next, you know, few weeks, the next year of the podcast. Because here's what I know after building these systems in my own life when the framework is in place, everything truly does get easier. Not perfect, you know. My kids don't suddenly start acting like the perfect little angels that I thought they were gonna be before I ever became a mom and had real children. Um, but easier. And easier hopefully will be enough, um, at least to get you through and get you to the point where you are able to be really present. Um, that's truly my goal with this podcast is to get you to a place where there's peace in your home, a peace that can only come when you're not trying to carry everything all the time, and you have some kind of framework for the things that continue to happen all the time, like needing to eat or having clean clothes or having a tidy home or paying the bills or all of those things, plus all of the little ideas that come to your head, and I want to read that book, and I want to do that with my kids, and I got to sign up for that, and I got to pay for that, and I got to do that. All of that noise that's in your head, I want to calm that. And I have lots of practical ways to do that. And so, in that way, easier can be so helpful because it allows you to really focus in on whatever you're doing right now. Like I'm recording this podcast, and that's all I'm thinking about right now, because I have systems in place. So I'm not worrying about what's for dinner, I'm not worrying about laundry, I'm not worrying about homeschool tomorrow, I'm not worrying about the bills because I'm focused on this because of my systems. Okay, so you're not bad at homeschooling. You just have to find the right framework, which is something I'm gonna teach you. And that's what we're really building together in this season. So if this episode resonated with you, I really want to ask you to share this with one homeschool mom that you know that may need to hear this today, because chances are uh a lot of homeschool moms out there are overwhelmed. And they may not portray that, they may not willingly admit this, but maybe be that person who maybe you get a sense that life is kind of hard for somebody who's who's a homeschool mom. If you could send this episode to her, I bet it would bless her just to even know that first of all, you're thinking of her, but second of all, to know, oh wow, there is this idea that maybe I'm not bad. I'm just overwhelmed, and that's so freeing in and of itself to not label myself in such a negative way. So if there's a homeschool mom that you think of when I'm saying all of this, it would be so amazing if you could send this episode to her, give her some encouragement and give her some hope that there can be a pretty easy fix to this. It will take time, but I'm here. I'm here to help you with that every step of the way. And then make sure you subscribe to this podcast. Uh, just follow me on whatever podcast app that you use, and make sure you don't miss episode three and episode four because we're really gonna jump into a lot more content about this and a lot more practical and tactical things you can do. So I know the first two episodes, I wasn't giving you a lot to actually implement yet. I will in the future, but these are very foundational episodes that are so important. Um, and I really wanted to use them to lay the foundation before getting to the more practical, nitty-gritty um tactical tips. So make sure you come back next week for more. And as always, thank you so much for listening. Happy homeschooling. I pray this episode blessed you and gave you something useful that will make homeschooling easier or more fulfilling. If this episode made you feel seen or gave you one thing to change this week, would you please share it and leave a review? That's how more homeschool moms who are struggling with overwhelm can find something that actually helps. You can always find me on Instagram at homeschoolglue where we talk simple systems, rich learning, and the real version of homeschool life. You don't need to do it all, you just need systems that stick. I'll see you next week. Happy homeschooling.