This is a guest post contributed by Lara Chomout. You can learn more about Lara in her bio at the bottom of her post.

When homeschooling was simply a dream, I imagined... well… that we would be home. I remember asking the worried questions about socialization and which curriculum would serve us best. From these questions, I learned about the world of homeschool community and all the wonderful things our local group had to offer.

So, of course, when we stepped into our first year of homeschooling, I added all the social things I could find. Wild + Free groups, co-ops (P.E. co-ops, presentation co-ops, I even started a weekly co-op with friends), and sports.

Everything we were involved in was wonderful. But I quickly learned I could not do all the things, homeschool my children, keep a house, and still be a present mom and wife.

People would constantly ask me how I could do it all. They were impressed with me—and the facade I had created. The reality? I wasn’t a very good mom at the time. My marriage was hurting. And honestly, I have no idea if my children were learning anything.

I was running on empty.
I had to let things go.

The Season I Quit

A wise woman who had graduated two homeschool children once told me:
“Only add 2–3 extracurricular activities to your schedule.”

I didn’t dare look her in the eye and confess that most of our mornings were booked solid and that I was squeezing in lessons wherever I could find a crack of time.

Her wisdom likely came from her own been there, done that experience. She gently encouraged me to evaluate my commitments and pray over the ones God wanted us to keep in our week.

Now, here’s the deal: I am not a quitter. If I make a commitment, I will see it through—even if it costs my sanity. So going to each organization and saying we were quitting was NOT going to be easy for me.

“It’s like a bandaid,” she said. “If you take it off slowly, it’s going to hurt. Rip it off. It’ll sting a little, but you’ll only feel better afterward.”

I remember sitting at my computer, phone in hand, taking a deep sigh and making the calls and sending the emails. Letting them know we would be breaking (quitting) for the remainder of the year.

It was humbling.
But she was right. With each call and email, I felt life breathing back into my lungs.

A Season of Doing Nothing

For a while, we just... stopped. We still went to Wednesday nights at church, but otherwise, it was a season of “doing nothing.”

It was such a good season.

A season to observe, to evaluate what we missed and what we didn’t. A season to think about what actually benefited our family’s rhythms and our goals for homeschooling.

Learning to Guard Our Time

I quickly learned the value of guarding our time. Before, we gave it away to everything—which led to burnout and turned what should have been life-giving activities into draining ones.

When we added things back in, we held tight to two questions:

Who are we giving our time to?
Why?

We decided to add a weekly co-op that breathed life into our kids and into me. It’s mutually beneficial: our kids get community, I get community, and we love that it’s at the end of the week.

But other than that co-op?
We resolved to keep our mornings sacred.

I learned quickly that if we booked our mornings, school was not going to happen.

We also added afternoon piano lessons. And eventually, we added a P.E. co-op because our kids loved it—it meets in the afternoons, gives them exercise and exposure to new sports, and gives me another place to connect with other homeschool moms.

Holding Our Commitments Loosely

As our children grow, we may add or remove things. But we protect our time much more carefully than we used to.

And because we guard our time, God has allowed me to open it when it matters most. My door is open when a grieving friend needs coffee and conversation while the kids play. I can answer the phone when someone just needs to talk. I can invite the neighbor’s daughter over when she watches us playing in the driveway.

Evaluating Your Time

If you’re in that burnt-out, over-committed season, maybe it’s time to pause and ask the same questions we did.

Write down every activity you're giving your time to. Next to it, write how it’s helping or hurting your family’s peace, joy, and goals.

Rip off the bandaid. Quit a few things. Maybe quit everything for a season.

Look at your days. When are you the most productive? For us, it’s the mornings—so we guard those fiercely. For you, it might be the afternoon. Plan your outside commitments around your most focused time.

Protect What Breathes Life Into Your Family

The activities you give your time to should breathe life into your family, not drain it dry. Guard that time. Be careful who and what you give it away to.

And I promise—when you do this—your home will start to feel like a place of peace again. You'll create space for learning, for laughter, for margin. You’ll breathe a little easier, and your family will too.

Lara is a homeschool mom of two in West Texas. She is a graduate of Angelo State University with a B.A. in Mass Media with a focus in Journalism and a B.A. in German. She has a heart for sharing the gospel of Jesus to those near and far who have never heard his name. She blogs at Little School on Avondale and you can find her on Instagram and Facebook.