One thing about homeschooling is that there isn’t much alone time for Mom….a child is with you 24/7 for the most part. This morning I am walking through a perfectly quiet home….no children, the puppies are outside, the sun is streaming through the windows. The counters don’t have a peanut butter knife on it….the koolaide is actually full in the fridge, not empty there. I marvel at how I can go straighten up the den and its still straight 30 minutes later…..how quiet and wonderful it is to hear the birds…..yet I am awestruck at how before I turn around good this will be my daily experience. An empty nest will not be my idea of the wonderful life…..what a surprise….and here I was thinking 2 days ago if I could only get them grown….
At least a hundred times a day a little girl says excitedly “Momma…Momma come look” at a caterpillar she’s watching grow, a bean plant that sprung up, her math page finished….She is excited to share her world with me.
In the afternoons our sons lump on my bed if I am finishing up work and share with me the days events at school as long as the snack lasts….(another universal law: they talk while they snack afterschool, after its over they go silent) Nevermind that we eat in the kitchen, cookies in bed take on a whole new meaning after they’ve visited.
When I first began homeschooling, about the time Dh would hit the door in the evening I would meet him in the drive and say…”Just one block, let me get out of here walking for just 10 minutes”….for at that time Miss Madison was saying “momma Momma” about 3000 times a day and I was a new homeschool mom and didn’t now how to deal with a constantly chattering student, after all in public school my students sat quietly at least 10 minutes of the hour each hour working. Not Madison…..
This morning, on my much anticipated day or two off from parenthood I am wholly aware what a gift it is I have this time with them. I am aware that this is precious time and that while today and tomorrow I rest, which is good too…..that come Monday I will relish being Mom again. Truth is by 10 pm when I was calling to affirm their arrival, I was already missing them.
Sometimes when life is busy, we need to take a step back as Mom…..even if its for a single hour sitting with our coffee in a quiet corner of the yard…..and remember how blessed we are by the God who gives us these children to rear.
Mark 9
36He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37″Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”
Have I welcomed my children this week? Am I aware every day that my ultimate role as mother is to lead them to firmly rely on Christ? To encourage their walk in Him?
It takes balance to be the kind of wife, mother, person God wishes me to be. In order to do my tasks well I must learn the skill of balancing rest with work, play, and instructing them. It is an ongoing lesson to be learned…..and thankfully God is listening when I am tired, worn and lost in how to accomplish that task.
