The joys of early Fall. Red, orange, and yellow leaves. Crisp, sunny days. The crunch of leaves underfoot. Sweaters and jeans. Apples and fresh applesauce. Pumpkin pie. New school supplies. The first day of school.

I feel like I missed early Fall this year. It seemed that we went from summer to cold, rainy days. The leaves were on the ground all of a sudden, without the lovely, changing colors lingering on the trees. We had just finished our first week of school (a week early this year) when I became ill. It turns out that an asthma flare-up can be horrible if you don’t know that you have asthma. After six weeks of re-couping, I could finally begin to get back to life.

“Where did early Fall go?!”

I now had to attempt to begin school again without the glorious Fall days. Oy. How could I get in the new school year spirit?

I called off school for a day and went on a field trip! We went to a local apple orchard with some other homeschoolers. It was just what the doctor ordered. We had a little learning and had a little fun, too. Then we took another day off from formal schooling to do a little home economics. We made applesauce!

This is an annual event at our house. It normally happens every October. Now it felt like Fall. Now it felt like back-to-school time. Plus, we had lovely, yummy applesauce. Doesn’t it make your mouth water?

Of course, a busy homeschooling mom with many children can experience these kind of circumstances every week. Someone is sick. The dirty laundry is taking over the house. There seems to always be something that needs our attention. Sometimes schooling has to take a backseat for a few days.

In those times, we need to find something to motivate us to get back on track. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves of why we chose to educate our children at home. Sometimes we simply need to remember the fun we were having in the unit we were studying. Other times, it takes a little more effort and creativity to get moving again~ like a field trip and applesauce.

I’d love to hear what motivates others to keep on going when life gets in the way. How do you motivate yourself to jump back into schooling? How do you motivate yourself to keep moving when you’d really like to just sit down and eat some chocolate instead?

Connie