Blessings are also closer than they appear. We always hear "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" but I prefer what God says to us in James 1:2 "consider it all joy when you go through various trials". That always seemed like such an elusive thing to me. How can we be truly thankful for difficulties? The reality is that God gives us disappointments and trials to strengthen us, grow us and draw uscloser to himself. I used to wish I could shelter my children from all hurts, protect them from anyone being unkind to them, and that my bubble protection would make them stronger, more confident people. I didn't want them to have to burden hard things at a young age, when they were older they would be stronger, better able to face an unkind world ...I thought. But it doesn't work that way, only through adversity do we get stronger. |
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With six people in a small house, I am always looking for the best tips to make my life simpler and laundry is one of those areas that I need simplicity the most. So I have plenty of pins on my "cleaning" board on Pinterest devoted to helping me out in this dreaded area. These are my top five favs:
September is FINALLY here! I LOVE September (and not because it's my birthday month) but for the fact that I can officially decorate for fall and start baking pumpin EVERYTHING! I start itching for fall during the last remaining week of August but only allow myself to go into "full on fall mode" after the 1st of September. Fall is my favorite season and since this is the first Monday of September (the month it officially turns fall) I'm sharing the recipe for Pumpin Spiced White Hot Chocolate.
A really big part of our homeschool life involves books. Our shelves are pack with everything from picture books to chapter books, supplemental to resource books and the occasional poetry book. Some of my best memories are of sitting with my kids on cold winter days, hot cocoa in hand, as we read for hours about unfortunate orphans or talking lions. I feel blessed to share these moments with my kids as we laugh over humorous characters and analyze their decisions. We've discussed new words and literary elements such as theme and setting, all while developing a love for well written stories. We have found that we prefer a series and feel a little sad to leave our characters behind when the last book is over. We have inside jokes stemming from the stories we've shared and even have celebrated an ending of a series by having a themed dinner/movie night. The kids have learned that the movie is never as good as the book and the littles learned from a very early age of 18 months to sit and listen to stories that are well above their understanding. When we read the Narnia series Emma and Brody were only 2 and 3 years old and obviously couldn't follow the events in the stories but they sat on the floor with puzzles and toys learning to sit and play quietly while I read to the older kids. Yes, it's safe to say books have played a very important role in our home and the memories we have are priceless. So I decided to share a few of our top favorite books, this is by far not a full list of what we've read and loved but these are our #1 best loved books. It's that time of year again. The start of a new school year is just around the corner. After a day of finishing up our school supply shopping I think the kids are excited to get back to our school schedule. Not to mention getting to use all the cool folders and pencils we bought. (Emma chose her supplies in a matching mermaid theme. How fun is that!) In considering a new schedule for our new school year I decided to share a list of some positive ways we've started our school day over the years. The day before Mother's Day finds us celebrating our oldest son's birthday. Seventeen! Seventeen years ago I became the mom of two kids under two years old! Seventeen years ago we brought him home from the hospital on Mother's Day. I always say that sweet, snuggly, little bundle in blue blankets was the best Mother's Day gift I ever got. Mother's Day is intended to celebrate our moms and let us as mothers know that we are appreciated and not forgotten. Some years have a rather different effect on me. I feel loved, appreciated and needed but more than that I feel the weight of what I feel on a daily basis. This task is monumental and it's too big for me. When we began homeschooling we didn't intend to do it until our children graduate. Our goal was to do it for a few years, for personal reasons, then put them back in Christian school where they had been. It didn't take us long to realize that God had different plans and that His will for our family would put us on a path towards something bigger than us. When I was pregnant with our oldest child we instinctively knew I would be a stay at home mom. After all, my mother and my husband's mother had both stayed home to raise their children. Being the youngest of five children, babysitting my niece and nephews since I was 10, I mostly knew what to expect from motherhood. There were, of course, difficult days. Terrible twos, teething, sibling arguments, but I don't remember ever feeling like it was a job too big for me. I would have my hard days and cry to my husband in exhaustion but get up the next day ready to change diapers, defuse arguments and wipe noses again. It was a big job but I knew what to expect. Homeschooling, however, threw me a curve ball. If I thought being a stay at home mom was a big job, homeschooling multiplied that by 3000!
There were many things I wasn't prepared for. I wasn't prepared for the criticism, especially that which came from Christians. I didn't know that, strangely enough, homeschooling either offends people or annoys them. Even Christians. I wasn't prepared that people would question my ability or consider me to be a sheltering mother afraid to let her children out in the "real world", and I especially wasn't prepared that Christians would feel this way towards me. I wasn't prepared that when we explain that our decision was a result of God impressing upon our hearts to homeschool, that some Christians would be snub-nosed towards us. Not all Christians, of course, but it was hurtful that Christians wouldn't understand our decision to follow God's will. I often think that if God had, instead, called us to the foreign mission field that Christians would be supportive of our following His call yet upon finding out that our call was something unorthodox we don't get the same support. Interesting. I don't base my self worth on anyone's opinions but I think I might have started out with rosy glasses, thinking Christians would be more understanding and supportive than the world. Maybe it's because there are private Christian schools nearby and it doesn't make sense why we wouldn't put them there. Why homeschool? Your guess is as good as mine. But all I know for certain is that God definitively asked us to homeschool our children, that it was His plan for OUR family and I don't question it. I wasn't prepared for the fact that while it gets easier in some respects, every year is hard. Every year has its charms as well as struggles. Every year is easier and more difficult than the last year. I distinctly remember how hard it was to have two toddlers while trying to homeschool second and fourth grades. I had a fussy one year old and a demanding two year old, that was a hard year. As was the year after that. Those two years were probably the hardest. These days we don't have babies or toddlers in the house but I'm trying to teach them both to read and write while teaching my oldest Algebra and Geometry. It's hard but not in the same sense. Every year presents new challenges and we have to learn to grow and adapt. I wasn't prepared for how much I would love it. How much it would change not only me personally, but the entire dynamic of our family. I wasn't prepared for how it would broaden my worldview. See, homeschoolers aren't sheltered, narrow-minded, anti-socials. We develop a bigger view of the world around us and appreciate culture and diversity. But mostly, I wasn't prepared for how monumental the task was. I didn't know that God was asking me to do something bigger than I could ever accomplish alone. It didn't take me long to figure it out. I've thought it nearly everyday for the past seven years. "God this is too big. It's monumental and I can't do it." He simply says "I know." And He does. He knows that what He requires of me is something I can't possibly ever achieve. I don't have what it takes to teach them world history and geography, how to read, to write and speak eloquently, how to conjugate verbs, understand algebra and geometry...not to mention trig, how to be respectful, loving, thoughtful and sincere, to love their neighbor but follow God and not the world, to be self-sufficient, independent and confident. To do all that and more...times four. In the moments when I begin to let fear and doubt creep in my thoughts, when I feel incapable of all He has required of me, God lovingly points me back to a verse he gave me in the beginning of this journey and my anxious heart is quieted. Isaiah 54:13 "all your children will be taught by the Lord and great will be the peace of your children." I look around at my children and see God's promise revealed. They are happy and at peace. When I stop being anxious and insecure and simply look to him, I am reminded that His strength is perfect and He is more than enough. I can't attempt to accomplish such a monumental task on my own but He is big enough to accomplish more than I could ever hope for in my family. He didn't give me an impossible task to make me feel incapable, he knows how incapable I am. He never intended for me to do it alone. He gave me an impossibly monumental task so that I would give it back to Him that He might do it for me and bless me. So when I say "God I can't do this" it need not be out of frustration but rather with open hands expecting Him to work through me because "He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us." (Eph. 3:20) If what he's asking you to do seems impossible, you're probably right. He gives us tasks that are bigger than we can accomplish on our own because he desires for us to seek him. “God is God. Because he is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what he is up to.” ~Elisabeth Elliot |
About MeI'm Becca, a former chocolate junkie, herbal enthusiast, curriculum writer, homeschool mom to four active kids, wife to my jack of all trades hubby, blessed child of God. Archives
November 2018
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