Heaven Help Me!

The kids and I have at least a two week break off from school for Christmas. I say “at least”, since some of them worked really hard and earned themselves a three-week break. They have been playing in the snow, playing with each other, reading The Sisters Grimm and Perelandra, enjoying “down time” so their minds can rest a bit. The curriculum we use is vigorous, sometimes too much so, I think. At the end of the school day, the kids are really tired. Me, too. We have fifteen weeks of school behind us, now just twenty left to go! But for now, I love these relaxed days when we wake up to a less structured day. Although I am no fan of structure, I see how helpful it is in getting everything done that needs to get done. Pretty soon, we’ll have to go back to it out of necessity, to study and learn, to advance, and to find that work we are called to do.

Share on Facebook

My five year old daughter just came up to me saying she desparately needs her belly button cleaned out. Apparently, she has “years” of lint stuck in there. Do I do it? I scope out the scene. (My response: No, I have dust bunnies the size of small cats to clean under my couch right now. The navel will have to wait.)

Share on Facebook

Abort73 Graphics / Abort73 Shirts

Share on Facebook

Being a mother for 12 years has given me more job experience than I have on my ‘ol resume. Here is a list of things my children have taught me over the course of my career:

1. It’s a very bad idea to forget to add water to ramen noodles and try to cook them in the microwave.

2. Children who don’t feel like waiting until dinnertime will attempt to do the above.

3. Children will make a slide out of the bathtub if you let them.

4. “Food fight” has a whole new meaning when you leave children unattended to answer a phone call.

5. Babies love to play with water…A LOT. As a matter of fact, babies like to play with milk and kool-aid, too.

6. Young children don’t care if they are nudists. After bathtime, they would rather sit on their bed and play with Barbie’s for two hours than get dressed. They must have a high metabolism.

7. The only thing that motivates children to move faster is candy.

…to be continued (due to me running out to a homeschool meeting !

Share on Facebook

~ From the Diary of St. John Henry Newman

Everyone who breathes, high and low, educated and ignorant, young and old, man and woman, has a mission, has a work.

We are not sent into this world for nothing;

we are not born at random; we are not here, that we may go to bed at night, and get up in the morning, toil for our bread, eat and drink, laugh and joke, sin when we have a mind, and reform when we are tired of sinning, rear a family and die. God sees every one of us; He creates every soul, . . . for a purpose. He needs, He deigns to need, every one of us. He has an end for each of us; we are all equal in His sight, and we are placed in our different ranks and stations, not to get what we can out of them for ourselves, but to labor in them for Him. As Christ has His work, we too have ours; as He rejoiced to do His work, we must rejoice in ours also.

~ Sermon: “God’s Will the End of Life,” from Discourses Addressed to Mixed Congregations, 1849, in Daniel M. O’Connell, Favorite Newman Sermons, NY: The America Press, 2nd ed., 1940, pp. 177-178

Share on Facebook

With the return to work and school means a return to our family following a schedule to get all the things done in a day that we want to get done. I based our family schedule on a book by Holly Pierlot entitled A Mother’s Rule of Life: How to Bring Order to Your Home and Peace to Your Soul. I highly recommend it. The basis of the book is that 1.) It is possible for your family to live according to a schedule, 2.) such a schedule will order the day and create peace within your home, 3.) many good opportunities are lost due to the lack of a family schedule, 4.) A family schedule can improve your marriage and relationships with your children because those things which previously could “never happen” now have a set time on the schedule to make sure they occur. *This could be as simple as a set time for husband and wife to talk & spend time together ever day (not meant to make the husband/wife relationship something either has to “stand in line” for, but it happens every day because it is listed on the schedule. )

People often wonder how I have the time to accomplish everything i do. Most just completely “freak-out” when I tell them I am a homeschooling mom with five kids. The secret is the schedule. Our family’s schedule can be found here: basic-winter-2009-schedule .  “The schedule” can be liberating when followed, because it ensures that we use each moment thoughtfully and wisely, but occasionally it can become a monkey on my back of endless structure and demands (that is when we take a day off from it). I have always enjoyed a more free-flowing existence more than structure… sometimes I know I HAVE to stick to and enforce the family schedule because it’s the right thing to do for others. I undertake it for the sake of the souls placed in my care. It is with this thought that I realize the work God has given me to do is absolutely designed to get me to heaven. The schedule is a tool one can use to get there. Whether or not I use it is up to my free will. He leads me, but doesn’t drag me. He respects my free will, and watches me silently as I grumble about if only my carcass was more diligent, if only I would cooperate more with the grace He freely offers me, I could accomplish so much greater things. As I age, I realize one of the biggest regrets of my life is the time I have wasted, not using each moment to the fullest to accomplish some greater good. May 2009 be lived out with diligence to my responsibilities. The schedule can help me do this. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Share on Facebook