It’s May which means things are both winding down for the school year while at the same time spinning out of control. Am I right?

End of year parties, graduations, award ceremonies, school open houses, teacher gifts, final tests. If you have kids, there are still birthday parties, family birthdays, and possibly sports (Is anyone else still neck deep in baseball?)

While everything is heightened and a bit wonky in May, we still have to do the normal, everyday mundane little tasks that keep the wheels turning. You know, the little things like cooking, doing laundry, bathing your children and my least favorite task- grocery shoppping. Ok, it’s really a toss-up between grocery shopping and laundry. Anyways……..

So, take a step from the madness of May and look at your year? How did it go? Did your mind instantly fill up with all the ways you fell short? All the things that didn’t get crossed off the list? All the projects and activities that you thought for sure you would do, yet still lay unfinished? Are you automatically thinking of how you failed?

As a homeschool mom, I instantly thought of where I wanted to end up in all my subjects and where we actually stopped. (We are not year round homeschoolers. Mama needs a break!) I thought of the projects and fieldtrips that never came to pass. Yes, I unfortunately looked around at what other moms did with their kids and instantly felt less.

So let’s do something wild and what seems to be against our natural tendencies. Let’s look at what we did well. Let’s celebrate the heck out of it. Let’s end this year feeling like rock stars because in reality we are way too hard on ourselves. Shame never motivates anyone to do better. So why do we heap shame on ourselves, Mamas, by automatically looking at where we fall short and not on where we shine?

Maybe you are feeling awesome about your year. Maybe you needed to read this today. I needed to write it for myself. I’m choosing to focus on what went well. (I’m also reevaluating how I can make next year better.)

Here’s what went well. Here’s what I’m proud of. How about you?

*I taught Henry to read. He’s on the road to hopefully loving books. The fact that I’ve taught both my kids to read has been one of my greatest joys.

*We did our Morning Basket time pretty regularly this year. This is something I’ve been trying to get going for two years. This year we did it. We read some amazing chapter books during that time.

*I restarted my garden this year. Things are actually growing.

*We took some fun, short trips with the kids during the school year. We went to Yosemite in the winter for just a few days (This was on my bucket list.) We’ve hiked more and have gotten outside more with the kids this year.

*There have been a few friends God has allowed me to get to know better and develop deeper relationships with. This has been such an unexpected gift!

I’d love to hear what went well in this past year for you. Let’s celebrate each other!!!