In working on the homeschooling book (still working on it), I begged Karina Fabian to tell me about her experiences with homeschooling versus school-schooling. She obliged me despite a crazy-busy spring, and this is the crux of what she shared: “I’m a better mother when my kids go to school.”
Me? I’m a better mother when I’m not allowed to walk.
Started back to school this week, and conveniently I came down with some kind of foot-ailment on Saturday. While awaiting diagnosis the nurse advised me to keep my weight off the thing, and I agree — what with the bit about how it only hurts when I use it, hehe.
–> Turns out I’m a better teacher and a more attentive, involved mother, when I’m not sidetracked trying to do everything else other than the heart of my vocation.
Reminds me of that twinge of dissappointment when the lights go back on after an evening power outage. The house flips back to life with buzzing and beeping, you blow out the candles, and family members gathered by the fireplace disperse to their preferred distractions.
***
These moments of forced-quiet are an illusion. Lacking electricity, there’s no reason to think the SuperHusband and I wouldn’t assemble plenty of lower-tech conveniences and distractions. Blessed with a permanent injury, I’d figure out how to re-mobilize and get just as busy as ever. I score in the 99th percentile for the ability to think up new hobbies.
But for now, I’m enjoying the quiet. In a wishing-I-could-grow-up-to-be Bill Shannon kind of way. Incorrigible. Utterly incorrigible.