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Homeschooling Sick Days & the Blessings of a Forced Slow-Down (& Homeschool Revival & Praying for Your Children)

 Anybody else struggle with the forced slow-down that sometimes comes when the mom in the homeschool family gets sick? 

It's hard to take a break and hit the pause button on all-the-things when it feels forced and when it isn't for a good reason, or a fun reason, like a scheduled homeschool break or a vacation. 

And the forced slow-down isn't frustrating simply because mom is dealing with some sort of illness; it's frustrating because being forced to slow-down when we don't want to slow-down is agitating. (For me, at least...)


A few days ago, my husband came home early from work feeling under the weather and he has been home sick for four days now. And this morning, I woke up with a case of "I-caught-this-from-my-husband". Based on the way he's been feeling, I'm not expecting a quick recovery or bounce-back.

And while I'm not actively homeschooling now that my kids have all grown up and flown the coop, I do have plenty of things planned that I do not really want to step away from right now (as well as some things that I absolutely cannot step away from, things which can't be delegated to anybody else). 



In a nutshell, it's been zero fun. 

And it caused me to reflect back to times during my 25-years of homeschooling when I was sick and I felt like I was being forced to slow down and get better. It was annoying, but it wasn't optional. But it would have been a lot less annoying had I simply accepted the fact that I was sick and would have to slow down until I felt better. 


Do I have any amazing tips to share about improving your attitude during an illness or making the most of those slow-down times of life? Not really. I mean, I am still struggling with being annoyed by the illness I'm facing today - I have no right to "blog-lecture" you about improving your attitude when I'm dealing with a case of bad-attitude-itis in my own heart.

But I can say that there are blessings that come when we slow down. Time to catch up on rest and / or sleep. Time to just be still and enjoy the season of life we're in. Time to reflect on the last however many days / weeks / months it's been since we last paused for reflection. Time to give thanks for the many blessings we have. Time to pray and time to listen and see how the Lord might answer those prayers. Time is a blessing in and of itself, albeit one that I so often take for granted and end up misusing or wasting altogether. 


This coming week, on Tuesday August 6th (which is my birthday, too) I'm speaking live for around 60 minutes as part of the Homeschool Revival Week online homeschool conference. And I'm feeling a tug-of-war between concern that my voice won't be strong enough to speak for an hour and that I won't deliver the content I've prepared in the encouraging manner I hope to...and the tug of knowing I need to fully trust God to work this out for the good of all the conference attendees and for His glory (which is all that actually matters in the end, after all). 

So, I suppose a big part of this blog post is my way of openly sharing my struggle with being unwell. (And sadly, having a chronic health condition has NOT taught me to take the forced slowdowns in stride and see them as a blessing.) This is sort of my public accountability and attitude check. Feel free to scold me if you see me around and remind me that I need to grow up a bit!


If you think of it, would you pray for the homeschoolers who will be part of this event next week? Thank you for your prayers!

And if you'd like to be part of Homeschool Revival Week, here's a link. Tickets are priced at $17. I'd love to have you join us for this encouraging event! 

If you do grab a ticket, would you let me know? Email me at JanLBurt@outlook.com or leave a comment on this post or use the text/chat bubble on my website JanLBurt.com - I have something to send your way if you grab a ticket via the link in this post as an additional way to encourage you in your homeschool venture. 

Lastly, if you have any tips or advice for dealing with illness in the homeschool (whether it's the mom, the dad, or the kiddos that are sick...or the whole family!). I'm sure many other homeschoolers would love to know how you manage the sick days & will be thankful that you shared!

Happy Homeschooling & I hope to see you during Homeschool Revival Week!

~ Jan




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