When our family chose to begin home-schooling full-time four years ago, my number one concern over curriculum choices, legal concerns, or character education was preventing burn-out. Burn-out was something I became intimately acquainted with during my 20s, culminating with postpartum depression after our second child was born. If I took on the primary responsibility of educating our children, I had to take care of myself on many levels or this would never work.

Preventing burn-out involves many choices and one choice I made was to include down-time every day and do something just for me. This became more difficult as the children got older, rest times ebbed away, and schedules became more complicated. However, I began a tradition of putting on the tea kettle around 3pm and the children began to understand it was teatime.

Now, tea is my business, but it is also a great source of comfort and joy in my day-in day-out life of home-schooling the children. It brings touches of beauty and a moment of quiet to every day. Its like a date with myself. Usually I’m brain-dead by three in the afternoon, so I brew a pot of tea, choose a little-touch-of-something (the only time I allow myself or the children to eat anything sweet during the day), and sit down with my “empty reading”…catalogs, magazines, etc.

One of my wishes is that every mom would understand that planning breaks for themselves is as critical as taking their children to the dentist, being at the games, covering the three “Rs”, and keeping the bathrooms clean. I plan 24-hours/month with just my husband, 2x/year away for a spiritual direction retreat, several times a year away with friends, and daily afternoon tea with myself as often as possible.

Why not consider bringing the tradition of afternoon tea into your daily routine at home as a home-schooling mom? Wellspring Tea makes it easy to begin.

• Read The Art and Science of Brewing Loose-Leaf Tea.
• Purchase a Wellspring Tea Starter Kit and one or more flavors of Wellspring Tea.
• Find a quiet moment each day to enjoy a pot of tea.

Meet me for tea at three,
Jenny