Flourish: Balance For Homeschool Moms Book Review

I was given the Flourish: Balance for Homeschool Moms book from Apologia Educational Ministries  in exchange for an honest blog review thanks to being a part of the SchoolHouse Review Crew.

I was eager to get this book because I’ve been struggling trying to balance all that I have on my plate plus homeschooling my kids properly. I can’t afford to quit working from home LITERALLY and I also can’t just ship my kids off to a school or have someone else teach them. I’m a virtual assistant for several bloggers, help my husband run his blog, and also run this blog. As a wife and mom of three kids running a household is also something that has to be done.

Somehow it all gets done, but I always feel like I’m not producing the quality of work that I know I can do on all home fronts. There is always something that isn’t done or it got done but it could have been better. For me finding this balance was a task that HAD to be done.

What This Book Doesn’t Do

This book really doesn’t so much teach you HOW you should manage your time. In fact, I felt more like I was listening to someone coach me along throughout the entire book. As you can see from my image I took a good bit of notes from reading this book. I literally took to heart many of the things that Mary Jo Tate mentioned in her book.

I didn’t feel like this author was making me feel guilty for not already living a balanced life. There have been other books that I’ve read about time management and the author made me feel like I’m an idiot for not already knowing this stuff. Which, to their defense, it is pretty much common sense to know that you only have so many hours in a day to work. However, in the same token, if you’re like me you tend to work far more than you really should. Of course of those “working hours” you really do spend a good portion of that time getting sidetracked for one reason or another.

What This Book Does Do

That’s where this book comes in handy! She literally forced me to take off my own personal blinders. I was forced to take a reality check of what I’m doing throughout my day. Am I wasting my time by getting sidetracked too much? Am I letting too many people interrupt my work? Am I not delegating enough? She forced me to really figure out: HOW AM I REALLY USING THE TIME I HAVE?

To be honest, I’m still working on the “homework” she gave us to do in the book. (Recording my time is really hard to do when I’ve never had to be in the habit of doing it until I started doing VA work. Now all of sudden every minute I’m working counts.) Even though, according to Mary and my blogging/VA mentor, have stressed that it’s something I should have been doing a long time ago.

All throughout the book there are many quotes of inspiration and even some Bible verses worth remembering. (No, she doesn’t get into the whole preachy mode, but merely gives us simple reminders of God’s provisions for our lives.)

Here are some of my favorite lines from the book:

“But keep in mind the principle of finding peace in the space between the ideal and reality. Focus on what you can do rather than being paralyzed by what you can’t do.” Page 183 of Flourish: Balance for Homeschool Moms by Mary Jo Tate

Benefits Go Beyond Just the Mom

These tasks have not only been beneficial for me, but also for my whole family. For example, my middle child longs to have my attention every chance he can. He’s a jabber and I don’t think he can really help it. He’s just busting to share every moment and thought he has with his world. Since we’ve always had a special bond (him and I are the closest of my three kids), he can’t wait to tell me things. He’s the main one who interrupts me the most throughout my day. However, this book has given me ideas of ways to keep him happy, but yet still get my work done on time the way that I long for it to be. I don’t ever want to lose my special bond with him over my having to work. I was starting to fear that there for a while that I was losing it. Now I’m still going to have to try and help him reign in his chatter box because it’s a major issue, but that’s a whole different issue altogether. I do sincerely believe in my heart of hearts that it’s not interrupting me out of disrespect.

The rest of my family does a pretty decent job of not interrupting me. There are days when my husband is overly sociable and can’t wait to talk to me, but those are so rare that I treasure them when he’s in those modes and I personally will drop what I’m doing to focus on him on those days. My other two kids, they are really respectful of my blogging hours and work. My daughter may curl up next to me and lay on my arm as I work or get behind me and play with my hair when I’m at my desk, but she’s content with just being next to me. Jimmy usually waits until he sees me get up, and then he pounces on me. However, I see that they all try to be respectful of my working time.

Who is This Book For?

This book is designed with the homeschooling mom in mind. However, I can tell you now that if you work from home, outside the home, homeschool or not, this book will benefit YOU. The reason it will is because in our society today a vast majority of families are juggling MANY different things at once. Let’s face it as a Mom we juggle A LOT in our day. I feel as a mom that we juggle more than any other family member in the house. This book will inspire you and transform your daily lifestyle if you let it. In turn, that will help transform your family’s life too. As the saying goes, when “Momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.”

More Information about the Book

You can find out more information about Mary Jo Tate by visiting her blog.  You can also purchase this book for yourself for $15.00 on the Apologia website. You can also connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

Feel free to click the image to read the rest of the SchoolHouse Review Crew’s reviews of this book.

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