TOS Review: Flourish

Have you ever picked up a book, started reading it and think that the author knew you and your life personally?  Well, that is what has happened as I read Flourish: Balance for Homeschool Moms.  I am thrilled to do reviews on anything from Apologia Educational Ministries, and this book was certainly no exception.  And this one is written by a homeschool mom for her fellow homeschool moms.  I loved this book and will read it again soon and continue to highlight it and be inspired.  :-)  It is available at the link above for only $15.00.

Do you find it difficult sometimes to "do it all?"  Is there just not enough time in the day?  Do you say yes all of the time because you are just "too nice" or just plain uncomfortable saying "no?"

This book, sometimes feeling like a loving smack in the face, lol, addresses all of those issues, and more, with a witty, conversational style.  There are quotes or tidbits galore that cut right to the chase like:

• "Don't say you don't have enough time.  You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein."-  H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

• Make peace with your own homemaking style.  Relieve yourself from the burden of trying to live up to someone else's standards.

• Keep in mind the principle of finding peace in the space between the ideal and reality.

• "There are two sure ways to fail: Think and never do, or do and never think."-- Zig Ziglar

• "Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least."-- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

• "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."-- Teddy Roosevelt

• "I am still determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions and not upon our circumstances."-- Martha Washington

• "Show hospitality to one another without grumbling."-- 1 Peter 4:9

• "Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors and let every year find you a better man."-- Benjamin Franklin

There are forms included  for self-evaluation (to see where one's time is being spent), planning, and goal planning.  There is also a section in each chapter called "Take Action."  In this, there are concrete exercises for the reader to take that go along with the theme of each chapter.  What are those chapters? Funny you should ask, lol.  They are:

• A Invitation to Flourish
• Change Your Mind to Change Your Time
• The FREEDOM Toolbox
• Where Did My Time Go?
• Aim High: Setting Goals
• What Do I Do Next?: Seven Essential Planning Tools
• We Interrupt This Program
• It's Time for an Attitude Adjustment
• Oxygen Masks and Monkey Bread Days
• Training Your Children
• Making Memories
• Managing Your Home
• All of Life is Learning
• Solo Act: Flourishing as as Single Mom
• Home Business
• Moving Ahead

In these chapters, Mary Jo is not preachy.  She does not tell you that it is her way or the highway. She guides her reader to figure out what is best for them given their lives and situations.  It is an engaging and interactive book.  It isn't something you are going to read passively or without much thought.  You are actively involved in this book, answering the questions, evaluating certain aspects of life and making the decisions on what needs to change.  She helps her reader break things into 3 categories:

1. Irreducible Facts- what you can't change
2. Non-negotiables- what you won't change
3. Preferences- what you can and will change

Once you determine those, you are on the way to making healthy change in your life, home and homeschool.

You may have heard Mary Jo.  She is the host of the "Flourish at Home" show on the Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network.  She has written other books, is an international editor and book coach, teaches high school literature for a homeschool co-op and has homeschooled her 4 sons since 1997.

More important than any of those other accomplishments, she is a mom and stresses the importance throughout her book of having special time with each of our children and together as a family.  All of the other "stuff" means nothing without our family and the special times we share. Our children, someday, will be reminiscing about fun events and times with each other and us, not whether or not we had an impeccably clean house or had the hampers empty every day.  Live every moment to count and make them memorable.  Then you will be truly able to "flourish."  :-)

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