Homeschool Mom Moment

Yesterday, my husband asked me to wash his uniforms for work.   Of which, I gladly complied.   However, when he awoke and asked about his uniforms, I realized I had not dried them yet.   As I was quickly moving individual pieces of clothing into the dryer, I found a clean pair of uniform pants.  I started the dryer with a shirt in it and a few moments later also found a clean shirt already in a pile of folded laundry.   So imagine the dismay I felt when my husband realized today that I STILL had not dried the load of uniform clothes from yesterday.   Luckily, I had the shirt dry from yesterday and just had to dry a pair of pants.   However, it's moments like these that make me think I am SO bad at this job.  

From then, I swirled into a self pity mode of all the things I do wrong and can't keep up on.  Then a situation from church on Sunday came into my head.   My children were in Sunday School.   My husband stepped out of the sanctuary for a moment and inadvertently heard what was happening in the class.  Apparently, some of my children kept speaking out of turn and the teacher had to remind one of them THREE times to raise his hand before speaking.   I started to think "oh great, my children are the ones who can't raise their hands and act like civilized people".   I even asked my husband today if I could go back to work... somewhat half jokingly, somewhat hoping he'd say sure.   

So even later this evening... well into the early morning hours, I sat watching some TV.   I turned off the TV before heading to bed and just sat in the dark silence enjoying the light show that was happening outside.   I said a quick prayer, like a "what am I doing, Lord?"  type prayer.  

As I sat in the darkness, memories of a book club I attended last summer came flooding back.   We studied a book called "Home School Supermom, NOT".  In it, and in countless other stories I've heard from home school moms, we question our ability to do this.   We ask ourselves if we are messing up our children for life.   Will they get into college? and etc.   Over and over I've heard stories of moms who have asked these same questions and have gotten to the end and realized they DIDN'T mess up their kid.  And YES they were able to get into college.   And YES some people do have messy houses!! 

I felt encouraged just by the memories and I think the spirit of the Lord was ministering to me.  So I wanted to share my encouragement with others.   The devil wants to steal our joy and make us feel incompetent to do what God has called.    But through Him, we are able to do all things (Phil 4:13)  He has equipped us to do this great work (2 Tim 3:17, Heb 13:20-21).

I hope this encourages you to press on in whatever God has called you to at this moment.   It's probably not easy, but God has a purpose and a plan in it!   Press on toward the goal of the prize (Phil 3:13-15)!!

Cause my mother did it, and her mother did it....

Have you ever heard the story about the mother teaching her daughter how to make a roast.  She said first you cut off the two ends.  The daughter asked "why do you cut off the ends?"  The mother replied because that's how my mother taught me to do it.   So they went to the grandma and asked, "Why do you cut the ends off of the roast?"  She replied, "because that's how my mother taught me to do it".   So they go to great grandma and ask her, "why do you cut off the ends of the roast?".  She replied, "because my pan was too small! I had to cut off the ends to make it fit".  

So my correlation to this story?   My sons are tall for their age, but most of them have small waists.  My son got into the next size of pants for length, but the waist was too big.  Being the quick and frugal mom that I am, I rolled down his waistband to make it a little tighter.   Well now a few years later, he still insists on rolling his waistband down.   I just noticed that he even did it to his pajama pants!!  Ten years from now, when this is a big fashion fad, you'll know where it came from :)

So the bread yesterday turned out delicious!   So good in fact, that we made another batch yesterday.  We gave one loaf away and gobbled the second up quickly.   With a family of 7 people, a loaf doesn't go too far.   Even the two loaves from the next batch are almost gone this evening.  

K heading out for a worship practice.   Have a good night y'all!!

Summer Projects

Trying to do some organizing now that summer is here.   It's hard.   I'm a little overwhelmed.   I know if I just start picking away at something eventually progress will be made.  So here I go....   

Today I baked bread for the first time.   Now I feel like a "veteran home schooler"... well kind of :D     It's baking in the oven as we speak.  I'll let you know how it comes out.

It's been raining today and the boys baseball game got cancelled.   I'm kind of sad.   I actually love watching them play.  I've been keeping score this season too which has given me a whole new view on it.  I've been running stats for the team too.   Their record is 2-7 right now, so we're hoping to get more wins!!! 

Now that summer is here, another change in our family has been the use of the Wii and computer.   We normally have a weekends only policy for electronics, but with all the extra time for the summer, we decided to adjust a little.   If the kids do extra chores, not their normal ones, they can earn Wii time.   Never have I had children volunteering to hand wash my kitchen floor and sort laundry!!   I think I could get used to this!   Just wish there was more I could just "send them off" to do without supervision.   This place would be immaculate!

My other summer project is painting our front stairway.   I've always envisioned this kind of mural in there of a nature scene.  Now I am NOT an artist... so we'll see how this all comes out.   I usually have these great pics in my head and are sorely disappointed when I'm not able to make it happen.  I think I have my expectations set properly this time though.   I'm just now painting the base blue color that will be the sky.  I decided to let my 9 and 10 year old help.  Oy yoy yoy... just a little stressful.   Pretty sure I'm going to go back to doing it on my own :)

My daughter is working on a loose tooth.  This will be her first one out.   She's a little sensitive to pain, so she's already been "working" on it for days!  It's quite loose.  Maybe today she'll let me do the string thing and just YANK it!!  Ha, if that happens you can be sure there will be a youtube video to follow.

Hope you are all having a blessed and relaxing day!

Shout out birthday to my dear friend Cat!!  We don't get to see each other as much as I'd like these days, but I still cherish your friendship!!  I hope you have a fantastic birthday and may God pour out his blessings on you this next year!   Love you girl!

Oats

To Barbie or not to?

My daughter has been really getting into dolls lately with some of her friends.   Most of it has been doll house dolls of the smaller type.   So my daughter gets this gift card to Walmart and I suggest to her to buy a Barbie or some Barbie clothes.    I didn't see any other doll stuff that looked 'better' or 'worse' than Barbies (okay actually I do think there are dolls that are worse than Barbie).  But in that moment, I remembered comments from people being very against Barbie and I second guessed myself.   It's not that I'm trying to please other people, but I have had a few of those parent moments where you think something isn't going to be a big deal for your kid and then you look back and think "wow, how did I get here".   I don't want to have to take the Barbie's away in the future because they are causing issues.  So do you think Barbie's can really cause image issues in girls?   Do they as a whole portray a lifestyle that I would not want my daughter to emulate?   I really don't know on this one, so thoughts??

The summer has started out as a busy one for us.   We seem to have these months throughout the year where things ending and new things beginning overlap and its just pure craziness!   We are finishing up baseball season in the next couple weeks and starting other summer activities.   All four boys are playing baseball this year.   Luckily, because of the way their ages fell, we only have to deal with 2 different teams.    I also signed my three littles up for a theater class.  The class runs for 2 1/2 hours on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  My oldest is joining the swim team and is considering joining 4-H for rabbits.   Yes, this means lots of driving around for me.   I really don't mind though and it's been kind of fun so far.   Ask me again at the end of June!  

Our bunnies have finally reached 8 weeks old.   We ended up losing one a few weeks ago.   It was the one that my oldest wanted to keep, so he took it really hard.   Hopefully we'll be able to get rid of the others easily on craigslist.   I'm hoping to not have 5 rabbits in a few weeks!!   We did find out that we have 2 females and 1 male.   The male has already been separated from mama!   We don't need this whole fiasco happening again!! 

Tons of other things are swirling around my head to write about, but I think I'll just stop at that for tonight.  

Hope you all have a blessed week!!