AVERAGE, BORING, ORDINARY DAYS

Ok, so I will be the first to admit it.  I am not as great at this blogging thing as I thought I would be.  After all, there are only so many days of me saying: “Wow, my kids are so amazing” that people really want to hear.  AND, if I am being totally honest, there are days when we are all just plain boring.

Take, for example, today.  I have schooled three children.  I have read countless stories, including Mountain Born, the Usborne Encyclopedia, Eagle of the Ninth, Caps for Sale, Harold and the Purple Crayon, Crictor, and Agustus Ceaser's World until I am tired of reading (GASP…..did I just admit that?!)  Add to that the four loads of laundry that I have washed, folded, and put away, plus the kitchen that has been recleaned; and you have an ordinary, but somewhat boring day.

Yet, in spite of how ordinary my day has been, I have done exactly what I was supposed to do.  My children have been schooled and are relatively happy.  Their progress in their school is nothing short of amazing (or at least to this Mama who is really enjoying seeing the wonder of it all on a daily basis!  I love the a-ha moments when they finally grasp something that they were really struggling with!)  I have a fairly clean house.  I have happy, healthy children, I have a content husband who delights in coming home to us, and of which I am most grateful that after almost 14 years he still chooses to come home to us, and I have supper planned.  All in all this ordinary, oh-so boring, average day has been perfect.

Guess what, God has delighted in it too!  I know He did because of the laughter that I hear in my children’s voices.  I know He did because He smiled as we talked about 1 Peter 2:17 and what it means to serve and respect others and then put that in action.  I know He did because I know that He loves me for being me: average, ordinary, Mama Bear ME whom He created and knew before He formed this world for this time and this purpose!  Does it get any better than that?  Really?

  So there you have it.  Our lives are made up of average, ordinary, oh so boring days.  I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world!

THINGS WE DO FOR OUR CHILDREN!

I love my children.  I adore how individual and unique each one is.  I love how they are so loving, caring, and even on their best days not perfect.  I am often in awe of them when they accomplish something as simple as remembering how to spell a hard word or even remember their address.  Each day they make me smile with their quirky ideas, fun and silly sides, and overall loving nature.  I love my children because they are mine.  There isn’t too much that I would not try to do for them!

Which leads me to my thoughts for today!  We have been hit with either a bug or a bad case of food poisoning.  Either way all three little ones were away for the weekend and got some upset tummy’s.  The older two were able to over it quickly.  We are on our third day of having the living room set up as “Sickness Command Central” for the little one.  There is a mattress on the floor for Mommy or Daddy to sleep on, extra clothes and wet wipes handy, Gatorade and applesauce at the ready, Germ-X bottles everywhere, and Lysol on standby at all times.  You could say that this isn’t my first rodeo, we have been down this road more times than I care to count.  Yet I do not hold it against my children that they are sick.  I am not upset that I have had to bleach bathrooms daily or wash whites for the third time this week.  There is not much that I would not do to love and care for my children, and that includes sleeping on the hard living room floor for six months if need be!

As a Mom, it is my JOY, yes I mean joy not job, to take care of my children.  If I have to sacrifice something to meet their needs, so be it.  I am, after all, first and foremost a mother.  There are days that I am tired, there are times when I feel alone, there are times when I am frustrated.  During all these times I remember that I am always their mother.  I will do what needs to be done to ensure that my children are happy and healthy.  I will do this to the best of my ability, and I will do this gladly.

As I was laying on the floor with the sick little one snuggled close to my side, his hands clutching me as if I was his life line at 4:00 this morning, I realize that I am modeling love to my children.  If I am willing to sacrifice this little bit of my life for them, maybe they will learn to recognize what real love, what a real sacrifice looks like.  This in turn lead me to think about my Father, God on His throne in Heaven.  How many times do we cling to Him, willing Him to be our lifeline when we are sick or hurting?  How often do we take the time to recognize the sacrifice that He willingly made through the death of His child, Jesus Christ on the cross?  How many times am I truly willing to snuggle down next to Him just to find my rest, to be healed?

I’d like to say that I was perfect and ran to God with everything, never messed up, and of course, never “sinned” anymore; but that would be a major lie!  One thing that I do know is that my Father is always waiting for me.  He delights in me whether I am sick, sad, lonely, happy, silly, and yes even when I mess my life up.  He is always waiting for me, arms wide open, I just need to crawl into His lap and grab a hold of His lifeline.

As I am called upon to snuggle down and sing Jesus Loves Me for the 100^th time today, I hope that I will stop and really think about what that means to me.  As I am asked to clean bathrooms, sanitize the kitchen, and wash yet another load of clothes; I pray that I will do so lovingly and without complaint.  After all, the sacrifice of my time and care cannot compete with the sacrifice of the cross, and just as my Father, I will ask for nothing in return.  I will cherish the time that I get to spend with my children, and pray that I will be the Mama to them that they deserve.  I hope that they will see the love of Christ in me, even on these hard, lonely sick days.

WALKING DOWN MEMORY LANE

I am not a usually sentimental person.  Oh sure, I save a few things that my children have given me, and I have all the love notes and cards that the man that is my wonderful husband has given me in our 17 years together.  BUT, for the most part, I throw away all the little drawings, colored pictures, and refrigerator art that decorates the life of a mom of three little ones.  I have enough clutter in my life, I do not need to keep everything!

Recently, however, the children and I cracked open Mommy’s treasure box, the mysterious hope chest at the foot of my bed.  The children were in awe at what Mommy considered to be treasures.  The ring box from my engagement ring, the shirt that Daddy was wearing when our darling daughter was announced as coming into our loves which just so happened to be the shirt he was wearing when she was born, all their coming home outfits, all their first Christmas outfits.  What a treasure trove of memories.  Oh how the children loved seeing their “past” brought to life by real and tangible items.

This made me think about the verse that is so relevant to our modern “I need more society” which is Matthew 6:21.  I like how the NIV states it, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  I understand that Christ was telling us to store our treasures up in heaven, but it made me stop and think, what is really important to me here on earth?  What are my treasures?

Certainly my husband is a treasure.  He was chosen and made just for me, a person can’t get more precious than that!  All of my children (the ones here and the little one that we are waiting for his big arrival) are all treasures.  They are a reward, a gift from a loving God that gave me the man that is their father!   My family, brothers, sisters, parents, all of them are a treasure.  They have also been gifted to me to enjoy and create lasting memories with.  My friends are treasures because, after all, they are the family that we choose to love!  Perhaps the greatest treasure that I have been given is that of my life in Christ.  I can be me and I am wonderful to Him!  What a treasure that is!

I will continue to purge my gifts from my family and children.  I will continue to store things that are of the utmost importance to me.  I will continue to cherish my friends and family and save mementos of my life to look at as I walk down memory lane.  Let me ask you, what are your treasures?  Where does your heart lie?

SMILES FOR A MOTHER’S HEART

We are homeschooling now.  We are a new homeschooling family that has struggled with many seemingly “easy” issues.  When do we do school?  Why should we do school?  Do we really have to do math?  Is reading all those books really that important?  On and on over the past month the questions have come and on and one I have purposed to persevere through them all.  Yes you have to do school work.  Yes math is important, just like Seth says, “Math explains the world”.  Yes you have to read.  Reading opens the door ways to the imagination and opens your mind to the world.  On and on, day after day, week after week with no end in sight, or so Mommy thought. 

Finally, here at the end of our 5^th week of school, a miracle happened.  Well, maybe not a miracle to the millions of other families that are homeschooling, but a miracle nonetheless to me!  Yesterday we took the day off.  Mommy needed a break, kids needed a break, house needed groceries.  We took our monthly food allowance and headed to two different grocery stores, coupons in hand.  Just for fun I even splurged and bought candy bars.  Something interesting happened when we got home and put everything away, the children still wanted to read.  Ummmm, okay, go ahead.  Next thing I know out comes their school books.  Hmmmm… this is an interesting development.

Now comes my miracle.  This morning I was awakened by the youngest member of our family because he had a bad dream.  After spending the night tossing and turning with feet, hands, and little knees and elbows in my back I gave up and got up.  I was tired and had a headache.  I mentioned this to the other two dear children when they awakened.  Mommy is tired, can we just take the day off?  Their answer:

I want to do math.  Aren’t we going to read our books again today?  Hey Mom, can I do just a little bit of spelling?  Why are we taking today off too, we need to do our school work?

WOW!  Talk about making this mother’s heart smile.  So like the dutiful mother I am, I showered, took some Tylenol, and tackled the day.  Math got done.  Spelling got done.  Reading got done.  And my wonderful son finished reading his first ever “big” chapter book all by himself.  He even told me what he liked about the story and all about the main characters!  What a great day!

When we brought the children home to school them, our main desire was to create in them a love of learning that will last a lifetime.  There have been days that I have prayed and asked God if we were doing the right thing.  Yet, in spite of my doubts and insecurities I pushed forward, hoping that the children would decide to love learning.  Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.”

That has certainly been the case today.  Not only did God direct my paths but He gave me a miracle, a reason for this Mommy’s heart to smile.  I am not naïve, I know that there will be battles in the future.  I know that there will be days when no one wants to do any schooling but we will work to get things done.  But today, today was like a bear hug from an awesome God, and it all came from my children who made this Mommy heart smile.

MY GOOFY CHILDREN!

There is something incredibly special about being given the privilege of being a SAHM!  I work hard every day and the rewards are endless.  Where else can my pay be given in hugs, kisses, and “I love you Mommy?”  Nowhere, and it is wonderful! 

Okay, some days are more wonderful than others, and I will be the first to admit that I don’t love everything about motherhood.  I mean who loves being awakened at 12:30 am because someone has gotten sick all over their bed?  Or loves the mountains of laundry that three small people can generate, add a baby and you are washing clothes at least 100 times a day!  And the cooking, why do these people need to eat so much?  I mean you would think that once a day would be enough, but noooo….these needy people want breakfast, dinner (lunch), and supper (dinner), with a few snacks thrown in between!  Let’s be realistic here people!  I love my children but wish they came with a self cleaning and feeding mode! BUT, I digress.

What struck me today, as I was watching my children play, was how wonderfully silly, well goofy really, they are.  Take, for example, my youngest son.  After asking if he could walk to Granny’s house (which I said yes to of course), he loaded up his bag of toys and headed out.  An hour later he was home complete with the bag, missing all the toys, and carrying a small bottle of orange juice.  When I asked him if he had a good time his exact words were: “Yes Mama, but I just had to get away from you!”  See what I mean, he’s a goofy kid!  Next thing I know he and his brother are wanting to be fed (for the second time of the day) and are dressed in their pajama’s playing; well I don’t know what they were playing it was a cross between Transformers and WWF wrestlers, or something like that I think!  Made me smile!  Add into the mix my preteen daughter who always has an MP3 player stuck to her ears, her toenails polished no less than two different colors at any given moment (today they are purple and orange!  Seriously, purple and orange?!?), while reading a book to the aforementioned brothers on my bed no less; and you have a house full of goofy kids!

This, of course, led me to thinking about all the crazy wonderful things that I did when I was younger.  (For the record, I was an angel……just saying!)  Which in turn lead me to thinking about God and how He deals with us: His goofy kids!  I wonder how often he looks down on us and sees us playing at life.  We play at church, we run away from Him because “we just need to get away”, we play at our jobs, we play at well, life.  Yet He sits there waiting patiently for us to get it all together and realize that we need Him and love Him.  He smiles at us as we do silly things.  He loves us when we do wrong things.  He cares for us when things seem unchanging and unfathomable. 

I am thankful that I get to go on a daily adventure with my goofy kids.  I am thankful for forts, unmade beds, sloppy hugs, interesting song choices, laundry (did I just admit that), and well for the joy that they bring!  I’m also very thankful for the daily reminder that I am just a goofy kid too, that God loves me for a thousand reasons or more, and that I can be, well ME, and that is okay!

Now, has anyone seen where the boy has hidden the pillows from my bed since they are cubes of power that need to be protected from the evil robots invading?

MIRACLE FROM GOD!

Today we found out that our new Little Bit is going to be another boy.  Some of us in our house are not happy, mainly the girl that is now totally surrounded by brothers and boys constantly.  I must admit that I have suspected it was going to be another boy since finding out we were going to be blessed again, but I am also disappointed that it is not another girl.

This led me to thinking.  Dangerous I know, but what can I do?  Why should I be unhappy with the blessings that God is giving me?  All I want is for this little one to be healthy.  All I want is for this baby to be blessed and grow up surrounded by love.  Why then am I disappointed that it is another boy?

Here’s why…….I miss pink.  I miss dresses.  I miss little ribbons, cute pig tails, and polished little toe nails.  I miss the idea of tea parties, dress up, and baby dolls.  I miss little kitchens; Barbie’s everywhere, and well, the general paraphernalia of a little girl.  I miss the idea of little kisses and hugs wrapped in girlie giggles and Mommy / Daughter time.  I miss taking my little girl to town when she is dressed in her princess dress.  I miss being a Mommy to a little girl.

As much as I miss this, I do know what I am.  I am the proud Mommy of a beautiful young lady.  I love how grown my daughter is and how she is willing to help.  I love her spirit, how she knows what she likes and why she likes it.  I love how my daughter is not interested in boys yet; no one is as strong, handsome, or mature as her Daddy!  I love how my daughter can be delicately beautiful and then tougher than most boys.  I love how my daughter can cook up a storm, clean a house in no time flat, and still know how to hunt and fish.  I love my boys, but my little girl holds a very dear place in my heart.

We will welcome Cole James sometimes in early December.  We will love him because he will be our gift from an amazing God.  In the meantime, I will enjoy my Starbuck’s run with my daughter.  I will covet her laughter, wisdom, and maturity.  I will relish being the Mommy to only one girl, and pray that I will be the best Mommy to my darling daughter that I can be.

YES, I ADMIT IT ~ I’M NOT PERFECT!

Okay, I will admit it.  There are days that I struggle with, well, life!  I work very hard to balance home, school, housework, homeschooling, being the encouraging wife, laundry, dishes, cooking, and laundry.  Did I mention laundry?  When I want to do something for me, I feel like I just don’t have the time.  Who can find the time to be everything to everyone?  Some days I feel totally overwhelmed, exhausted, and yes in spite of a house full of children alone.

Today has been one of those days.  Oh it is nothing in particular.  Maybe it is the rain.  Maybe it is the fact that the laundry that I folded and put into the appropriate child’s basket still has not been put away.  Maybe it’s the fact that I realized that I have not sat down to scrapbook for 3 years.  Maybe it’s because I am missing the “me” time that I was always able to find when we just had 2 children and I wasn’t in school full time.  Maybe….well maybe it is a lot of things.  In spite of this today has been a day of struggles.  Oh there is nothing in particular, just a blah day.

This has lead me to thinking about a lot of things.  Why am I so blah?  Haven’t I been abundantly blessed with everything that I desire?  Didn’t I always want to grow up?  Well, I’m grown!  Didn’t I always want to be a mom?  Been there, done that times four now!  Didn’t I always want to be a teacher?  Doing that too!  Why am I so blah?

The answer is simple, I’M NOT PERFECT!  To those of you who know me, this will not come as a big surprise.  I am not Super Mom!  I am not Super Woman!  I am just me, purposing to honor God the only way that I know how and be obedient to His call on my life.  For me that means washing clothes, doing dishes, cooking more food to be devoured by three hungry children, washing more clothes, educating aforementioned children, and deciding that yes I am worth the time to try to carve out some scrapbook time!

I know that I am not done running the race set before me!  I know that I cannot grow weary while doing good, although on days like today I am tempted to do just that!  I know that I am not perfect, but I know that I don’t have to be!  Jesus said that His yoke was easy and that His burden was light.  So on my not so perfect blah days, I can run to Him and be okay! 

 YES, I ADMIT IT ~ I’M NOT PERFECT, but that is what makes me wonderful and I know that it is okay!  JESUS IS PERFECT~ HE’S THE ONLY ONE THAT MATTERS ANYWAY!