Must-Haves for Homeschool Moms Who Feel Burnt Out

Girl, if you are approaching homeschool burnout, you need to get the mental stuff off your plate and simplify. Affiliate links are below, so be fore-warned. :p

• Get everything down on paper or your phone or Evernote or whatever. Plan it once and walk away. What do you do on a regular basis that just needs a checklist to take the mental work out of the stress equation? Make that list and never think about it again.
  
  
• Get help. Find a mother's helper,  and If you can afford a housekeeper every week, that would be a huge load off your shoulders. You can only hire a cleaning crew once a year? Fantastic. They’ll bail you out.
  
  
• Outsource. Join a co-op, sign up for online classes, use a pre-planned curriculum, hire a tutor.
  
  
• Use pre-planned meals. Someone else has done the thinking for you, so why reinvent the proverbial wheel? Simplified Pantry is my favorite.
  
  
• Chocolate, caffeine, whatever. I once had a Diet Coke "need" during a particularly stressful season and when I confessed it to a friend, she replied, "Kendra, it's not vodka." Right. I've since replaced that Diet Coke addiction with iced tea, and the caffeine for this non-coffee-drinking girl is a welcome mid-afternoon fuel-up. It's not vodka.
  
  
• A thankful heart. We've been listing everything that makes us thankful and joyful each morning before school starts. This simple exercise is a perfect stress-reliever.

Don't neglect yourself. If you are all sacrifice and no breathing room, you will burn out with bitterness and resentment. There are no hard and fast rules to "quiet time" or "time in the Word" or whatever;  do what works for you and God. Somedays I get to read chapter after chapter and feel especially connected to God in prayer. Most days I do not. Guess what?

It's not about that. It is about reorienting ourselves to the gospel, reminding ourselves that all the sacrifice in the world, all the homeschooling, good mothering, excellent wife-ing, and whatnot are not the answer. Jesus is. Whatever it takes to remind yourself that He's the one who brings increase and fruit -- not what you're doing -- do that.