God is my strength

As I sit down to write this I'm both exhausted and overwhelmed. I have been struggling this week. Thanks to a nursing baby who doesn't sleep through the night, a potty training two year old who refuses to poop in the potty, and three homeschool students who want mom's undivided attention, my patience is thin and my attitude crummy. Right now I'm clinging to the passage in 1 Cor. 7:24 that talks about living as God has called you. God has called me to be a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom. Even though it is hard.

Today my house looks like it threw up. We made more messes then we cleaned up. I have laundry that will need to be rewashed if it sits in piles on the floor any longer. Our homeschool year so far has been sloppy.  I know veteran homeschool moms tell us newbies that it takes time to establish a routine but sometimes that advice isn't very helpful on a bad day. But God has called me to teach my children just as much as he has called me to have them. He is faithful to provide me with adequate grace for each new day. I was recently challenged during a Bible study to view this phase of my life with the thought that right now, God is calling me to obedience, not efficiency. Again that isn't very helpful when you are so far behind on dishes that you have nothing to cook with and if you did, you have nothing to eat it on. Like I said, it has been one of those weeks. But when I realized God was searching my heart (and wanted to help me get rid of that crummy attitude) and not judging me on the cleanliness of my home, it freed me. It freed me to sit and spend time with my children, to pull aside the toddler that has behaved so bad lately and snuggle with her, to take the time to train older children, and to do something fun instead of trying so hard to finish our 'to do' list by the end of the day. By doing that I relieved some of the stress and uptightness I had placed on our home. And when I do that it gives me a little bit of fresh air and just enough renewal to push on another day. God has called me to this and he wishes for me to praise Him even when times are tough. I just have to trust Him that when I "seek ye first the kingdom of God" and allow Him to work in me as an example to my children, He will help me care for the little things like laundry and dishes.

A Fresh Start

This Monday is going to be a fresh start for me. I need this quite often, usually once a month. If it has been a rough spell, I will have a fresh start two or three times that month. Sometimes my fresh start happens on a Monday but they also can happen on a Saturday or Sunday. Any other day and I just try to hang on until the weekend. We have had a lot of upsets to our schedule lately including special services at church and the cousins visiting.

We officially started school in July but have only been going two or three days a week. Now it is time to step it up a notch and get back in the swing of things. Rebuilding a routine is always necessary when trying to return your household to normal. I love the ebook Return of the Routine from 

southernhodgepodge. I have read through it many times and it always helps me get started again. And it's free!

So here's to a new week and a fresh start...

Did I mention I'm going to start potty training my 2 year old tomorrow?

It's going to be a long week.

Camping with the family

We are enjoying the company of my sister-in-law and her three kids right now. Over the weekend we took a family camping trip. All of us had been camping in the last couple of years but this trip was special for my in-laws because it was the first time they had been camping as a family since their three kids had started their families. Two son-in-laws were missing but all eight grandchildren were present.

Anah was a dirt magnet the entire trip. We cleaned her up for meals but she was always dirty within minutes of getting down from the table. This is one of her cleaner pictures :-)

Josiah also learned how to ride his bike without training wheels on this vacation.

Moriah sleeping around the campfire.

1/2 a year!!

What!? I haven't posted since January? That was a month before Moriah was born! I can't believe I never even got around to posting a newborn baby picture. Now here it is August and I am trying to get back into a schedule. It helps that Moriah is six months old tomorrow and that we have already started into our homeschool schedule.

My new goal (now that I feel I might be able to start adding little things back into our lives) is to post on my blog once a week. It might be photos of a day at the park, a field trip, a science experiment, or just my kids being cute but I would love to reconnect with some farther away family and find a creative outlet so I don't go crazy! :-)

Oh, here is a cute picture.....