Many homeschooling families begin their day with morning basket time.  What is morning basket time? It usually starts with a literal basket.  Mom has packed the basket with books.  She carefully selects books for spiritual growth, books for inspiration and encouragement, and books that tie family studies together.  Mom rounds up her young ones, sometimes at the breakfast table and sometimes later, and they pull a book out their basket and begin the day. Some families start with a hymn of praise,  prayer time , and the devotions.  This moment of intentional worship creates the school day’s center and focus. It encourages bonding between siblings, between mom and child, and more importantly between Christ and the individual.  Then off they go, attending to family and independent studies with Christ as the day’s anchor. But what about Mama? Mom takes time to cultivate and nurture morning basket time. She flows from student to student training, guiding, and modeling lessons for them.  But where is her center? As a homeschooler, a mother, and a wife it’s easy to focus on the tangible checklists of others.  I can serve my family and mentally cross off their needs as they’re met.  But often, I get caught in the current and drift from person to person and habit to habit without pausing to nurture my own relationship with the Lord.  I take so much time and energy helping others on their journey I forget about my own. And then I started my own Morning Basket! Considerably smaller than my family basket, I carefully selected books and habits to help me stay focused on Christ and not on tasks. I want my homeschool to be a homeschool for God’s Kingdom, but a Christ-centered homeschool starts with Christ-centered Mama. In my basket, I have my favorite study Bible, a journal, colored pencils, an amazing pen and lots of greeting cards.  Before heading to the kid’s basket I dive into mine.  This may include a 5 minute swim through the scriptures and an illustrated prayer in my journal.   It may be more of a soaking, where I have lots of energy and time to marinate.  This could be a 30 minute annotation session, with highlighting and detailed notes. Whatever my time allows I try to end the time with intentional outreach.  Using the stack of greeting cards,  I write at least one encouragement card.  Sometimes my card goes to a pastor or church leader, sometimes it’s written for a missionary or hurting friend,  occasionally a child needs a special note from mom, and then there are times where I simply text my husband an I’m thankful for you GIF. My morning basket gives me a tailored, easy, and efficient way to keep my own spiritual life alive.  It feeds me for the rest of my day and stops my relationship with Christ from stalling underneath the business of homeschool. It gives me balance and strength as I mentor my children.  After all, the purpose of a Christ-centered homeschool is to cultivate habits and hearts that lead to Christ-centered lives not merely Christ-centered educations. Do you have a Mama Morning Basket?  What goodies do you keep in your Basket?