Work before play will pay!

School is starting to roll along nicely. I am finding it a challenge in a nice way to juggle all the boys' needs. So far play dough is working well for keeping my toddler occupied. lol

Today we lost 2 hours to a doctor's visit but still managed to get a decent amount of maths done. Tomorrow I hope to get both maths and language arts done.

Mike, my eldest at 11yo, is struggling with understanding why he must buckle down and get some serious work done this year in all areas. These past few years it has been easy enough to only do what school the boys have felt like doing. I have let it go on the basis that we were unschooling (not my first choice) while we dealt with other life issues, but I am seeing that while my boys are still learning and gaining skills I do not see much enthusiasm in them for some of the vital skills they will need to give them options for their future.

I am learning for myself that life is not always about what we feel like doing, or what we like to do. I am learning the hard way that life is more about working to provide for our families (be it as an income earner, or working as a mother providing meals and clean clothes etc due to her home duties). Entertainment, doing what we feel like, even eating what we feel like is not the main goal here. If anything I have found that there ends up being a cost to pursuing these without thoughts to our work first. The cost is both in moral fibre (character/self discipline/sense of duty) and in our physical lives through bad health, bad financial situations and lack of self control.

In my family my boys (and I) need to learn to focus on disciplining ourselves to do what we need to do first before we do what we want to do. By exercising our mental muscles we will have more options to experience fun things later in life, and we will have the pleasure of good character, knowing we have done our best, rather than the weight of guilt of not doing what is needed.

My health is improving recently due to some major dental surgery. I have a plan in place with my GP to further improve my physical and mental health. This is my time, now, to make a difference in both my own life and that of my children. It won't be easy, but then, from what I read, easy is not always the best way anyway.

Best wishes
Jen in Oz