Giving Up Your Dreams For A Season – Part 2

In my last post I described how our family embarked down the path of homeschooling, all with great expectations and enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, the nature of our chosen way of life meant a return to England for six months in the spring and summer of Sophie’s first year, for ‘home leave’, and I found it a struggle to finish Year 1 with all the disruptions of travel, living out of suitcases and having to leave most of my resources behind in Russia. Still, I consoled myself, Year 2 would be much more settled.

However, that was not to be. Our time here in Russia has sadly and unexpectedly come to an end, and we’re busily preparing to move back to England for the short term while we wait and see what God has in store for our family next. For various reasons it makes sense to put Sophie (8) and Charis (nearly 6) into mainstream schools for the year. I am still coming to terms with the fact that we will never properly finish Year 2, and in all likelihood will be missing out completely on Year 3. Nor will I be able to start Charis off in Year 1 with the greater confidence that comes from starting down a road you have already travelled.

And so, as I pack up the books and the craft materials and the homeschool supplies that it took me five years to build up, I not only feel overwhelmed with sadness, but I realised that I'm also feeling afraid. I’m afraid of many things:

-         I’m afraid that I’m losing my dream, a dream I've held for five years now.

-         I’m afraid that I’m losing my status; the thing that defines me. For at least a year I won’t be ‘a Homeschooler’ anymore.

-         I’m afraid I’m losing my ‘niche’, my ‘passion’.

-         I’m afraid of getting sucked into the 'normal' educational system and of not being able to pull my family out again.

-         I’m afraid my children will be assessed academically and found to be lacking.

-         To be honest, one of my biggest fears is that my children will enjoy mainstream school more than they enjoyed doing school with me and won’t want to return to the dream life that I had envisioned for so long.

As always, I want to ask myself what God is trying to teach me through this experience. What lessons can I learn? How should I use this situation to draw closer to Him and deepen my faith?

But I think it’s too early for answers at the moment. All I know is that God has good plans for us as a family, plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us a hope and future. (Jeremiah 29v11) In a previous post I talked about having to go through hardships, and this is just another aspect of the one our family is called to walk through right now.

Qu: Have you faced the situation of having to give up one of your dreams for a season? 

Abide in Him!



 

Appreciate God's Blessings!

Last month continued to be a busy and emotionally/physically draining month. Of course, 'as luck would have it', I came down with a terrible cold which turned into a sinus infection during a hectic two-week seminar! I've also been finding myself getting teary at odd moments, as I'm still coming to terms with our recent miscarriage. A friend, who's been through the unspeakably painful experience of losing a newborn, lent me the book Grieving the Child I Never Knewby Kathe Wunnenberg, which I highly recommend for anyone who has experienced the loss of an unborn or newly born child.

In the meantime, I continue to thank God for the three, beautiful blessings I already have. The other day, I was looking through an old journal and I came across this poem I wrote for my eldest daughter, who's now eight years old. I'm guessing I must have written it when she was about eighteen months. Now, I'm the first to admit that I'm not the world's greatest poet, but I just wanted to share it with you in the hope that it might be of some blessing, especially to busy mums with toddlers at home:

Every day there is so much to see,
 to learn, to watch, to listen to.
A stone, a pine cone, a dog barking,
 a car alarm.
What happens if I swirl this twig in the water,
 or throw it on the ground?
Let's count the steps or the trees;
 two, three, four, six.
Why is this piece of paper stuck to my finger?
Where has Mummy hidden the biscuits?
Every day there are so many words
 to copy, to practise, to remember - 
 Nose, Chair, Food, Ice Cream.
I'm sleepy, but I fight it.
 I don't want to miss out on anything!
But here is teddy and my sheet.
 I can start again tomorrow.

Abide in Him!



 Photo credit: freedigitalphotos.net/ Maggie Smith

Blog at Home Mom - Book Review

When Christin Slade asked if anyone would like a free copy of her new ebook Blog at Home Mom: Balancing Blogging and Motherhoodin return for reviewing it on their blog, I jumped at the chance. Not only because it was a subject that really interested me, but also because I know Christin a little already from her blog Joyful Mothering, and I love her writing. I know that she has lots of experience and wisdom to offer.

Her new ebook didn't disappoint. She writes in her introduction: "Pursuing our passions doesn’t mean you sacrifice less as a wife or mother, it simply means you focus more on all the different facets."

In the ensuing chapters she covers topics such as setting goals and having a plan, organising your days, prioritising, and how to avoid sloppy days. And these aren't just ways to organise your writing and blogging. In each chapter Christin discusses how to set goals for your blog and for your children; how to organise your blogging schedule and how to organise your children's time. Throughout the book she weaves a careful balance between our responsibilities to our families and our homes and our desire to spend time on our computers developing our calling and gifting as writers. The final two chapters focus on caring for your marriage and caring for your spiritual walk, which are so important if we want to live a happy, balanced, intentional life.

Christin is well-connected in the blogging world, and I love that each chapter ends with some words of wisdom and insight from fellow bloggers on each topic.

If you're a Blog at Home Mom then I encourage you to buy this book, and as a bonus, all the profits from sales of the book go towards the Slade's Adoption Fund, as they try to raise $2500 to bring their two daughters home from Ghana.

Abide in Him!

Disclaimer: this post contains affiliate links

Creating a Spiritual Atmosphere in your Home School

 Over at the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival this week, we’re discussing Principle # 20 of the introductory synopsis of Charlotte's educational philosophy:

"We allow no separation to grow up between the intellectual and 'spiritual' life of children, but teach them that the Divine Spirit has constant access to their spirits, and is their Continual Helper in all the interests, duties and joys of life."

A Great Privilege for the Homeschooling Mother

For me, this is one of the great privileges of homeschooling, that as mothers who are teachers we’re ‘allowed’ to address spiritual topics and answer thoughtfully and fully questions of a spiritual nature that arise during the day with our children. Having been a teacher myself in a public/state school, I don’t take that for granted.

Indeed, I’ve been blessed with so many opportunites to discuss my faith with my kids, and it’s been amazing how things have come up just through seemingly ‘ordinary’ school work. We don’t have to leave our faith at the doorstep just because we’re ‘in school’ and then take it up again when school is finished.

My Own Insufficiencies in this Area….

Personally, I’m aware that I still struggle in my own walk with the Lord not to ‘compartmentalise’ my faith. My natural tendencies are to believe that I can be ‘spiritual’ while I’m having my quiet time, or during family devotions, but the rest of the day I just have things to do that I get on and do without giving God much thought. I’d love to think I was practising the presence of God like Brother Lawrence while I was doing the dishes, but that’s just not how it happens for me. I’m a sinner, and I don’t love God with all of my heart, mind and soul all of the time like I should do.

Part of my struggle in this area, I’m sure, comes from the fact that I was raised the only Christian in a non-Christian home, and so my faith was compartmentalised. We just didn’t talk about spiritual things throughout the day. However, although I love my parents, I’m so thankful that my children have the opportunity to be raised in a Christian home, and my husband and I are trying to be intentional about how that works out in practice and what difference it makes in our daily lives.

Scheduled opportunities

Here are some of the more scheduled ways in which we try to work out Charlotte’s 20^th Principle in our family:

-         Sophie (7) now has her own Bible reading and notebook time as part of her morning routine.

-         Every weekday morning we have Family Bible time together, involving reading (at the moment from a Children’s Bible) and praying for one another for the day ahead.

-         At lunchtimes we do Scripture memory together (this is the system we use) and sing a hymn.

-         During school time we read from the Russian children’s Bible as part of our Russian language time.

-         We try to play Christian music around the house and in the car.

-         At bedtime we pray with each child.

-         We make the most of  special times,  such as Christmas, Easter, to do meaningful crafts and have discussions together.

-         The children get spiritual input each week at Sunday school

Of course there are spontaneous opportunities to turn our children’s thoughts to spiritual things:

-         conversations arising from the school books we’re reading

-         general questions throughout the day

-         special prayers when the children are feeling ill or can’t sleep
-  directing praise to the creator God when we're out in nature

And then there are things I’d really like to do more of:

-         spontaneous prayers about our own needs and the needs of others as soon as they arise

-         exchanging and writing down prayer needs or items of thanksgiving

-         a weekly 'family church' time

-         praying more regularly for worldwide needs

Qu: How do you try to implement the idea expressed in principle no. 20 in your family?

Qu: What tips or advice do you have - what has worked well for you?

Abide in Him!

Photo credit: girl raising hands: freedigitalphotos.net/pat138241

Making the Most of the Holiday Season

It happened a few days ago. It was a strange feeling, a little unexpected but not unwelcome. My husband doesn't feel the same way, and thinks it's too early, but the kids have been feeling this for some time now. What happened? I started getting excited about Christmas!

Back in October I was following Cheri Gregory's 'A Holiday-Ready Heart'. I love her witty but poignant way of writing, and would recommend you have a look at her posts for the 31-day challenge over at The PURSEonality Challenge Blog. However, because we don't celebrate Thanksgiving (being British) the holidays seemed like a long way away back then.

Then came an invitation to celebrate Thanksgiving with some American friends, and I started thinking about what we could do to embrace the meaning of this celebration with our own children. I settled on Ann Voskamp's Thanksgiving Tree idea (you'll have to skim down to her entry for Nov 7th). Our leaves are all cut out and ready for writing on tomorrow!

And I guess once I'd decided to do that, I started remembering all the fun crafts we would be doing in December to prepare for Christmas, and that was it. I'm now thinking about where to put all the decorations this year whilst unconsciously humming 'Hark the Herald Angels' to myself.

If any of you are like us and live overseas then you've probably had to send out your 'Christmas present request list' to your families back home already. And if you're anything like us then you're resigned to the fact that most of these precious parcels will arrive in January or February anyway! Once a Christmas parcel arrived in sweltering hot June, containing a hand-knitted woolly sweater from Grandma. I put it on the baby, took a quick photo, and promptly took it off again!

So as we start getting excited about Christmas with our families, here are some things that I'm finding helpful and inspiring:

• A good place to start, if you're a perfectionist like me, is with a Christmas planner. There are some good ideas over at 'Christmas Your Way'.
• I'm really looking forward to doing Truth in the Tinsel again! It's a fun way to talk with your children about the meaning of Christmas whilst doing some simple crafts. I highly recommend buying the ebook if you haven't got it already. I've found it a good alternative to the more widely known 'Jesse Tree' idea, which just seemed a bit too much for my preschoolers.
• We're also looking forward to making our advent wreath again and lighting a candle every Sunday whilst reading some Scripture as a family together. There are different ways of doing this, but here's one link that explains what the wreath is. The first Sunday of Advent is the 2nd of December, so we need to have our wreath ready by then.
• Christmas music of course is a must! We have a CD of children's Christmas songs, and a more classical 'Carols from King's College, Cambridge' which we love. This year I'm looking forward to buying Kari Jobe's Bethlehem album.  I bought her two other albums while we were in England earlier this year, and I just love her voice, her lyrics and her music!
• Finally, I'm looking forward to joining in with the Christmas Bible study over at Good Morning Girls to prepare my own heart for the Christmas season. It starts on 26th November, so go and get subcribed if you haven't already!

Qu: What special things are you planning to do with your family this Christmas?

Qu: What special family traditions do you have around this upcoming holiday season?

Qu: How do you manage to keep Christmas meaningful amidst all the stress and commercialism?

I'd love to hear what helps and inspires you!

Abide in Him!

Linking up here:



Photo Credit:
small candle - freedigitalphotos.net/ graur razuan ionut
star ornament - freedigitalphotos.net/ suat eman

Homeschooling Overseas Part 4

In my previous post in this series on Homeschooling Overseas, I talked about the kind of answers I would give to local people asking me why I homeschool. Those answers are often quite different, for various reasons, to the answers I might give to friends and family back home.

Again, I'd like to stress that I'm not suggesting that homeschooling is in any way superior to other ways of educating your children. I believe it's a decision each family needs to make, and this is just the decision we felt was best for our family given our current situation.

However, as I reflect upon all that I've read and experienced, I've come up with, perhaps, my top ten reasons why we think that homeschooing is such a great thing to do:

1)      Homeschooling means I can instill in my children the beliefs and values which are important to our family, rather than placing them in the hands of someone else whose beliefs, values and teaching styles may well differ significantly from mine.

2)      I have freedom to decide what we should study, and make time for subjects such as Bible and Scripture Memorisation. I can talk about my faith in God as we discuss History, Geography, Literature and so on.

3)      I love the Charlotte Mason approach of using Living Books. I know that my children are not wasting their time on meaningless activities just to keep them quiet for 40 minutes (yes, I’ve been there and done that as a mainstream schoolteacher I’m ashamed to say!) but every day they’re being fed with interesting and challenging ideas. Even though I loved school myself as a child, I wished I’d had a chance to learn some of the things my children are learning through the Ambleside Online curriculum. I’m learning so much myself from having to teach it!

4)      Homeschooling is wonderfully flexible. You can work around important family events or crises or illnesses without your child having to miss out or fall behind. You can adapt the schedule to the weather and have spontaneous field trips if that’s your kind of personality. You can turn seemingly ordinary events, like shopping at the supermarket, into learning opportunites.

5)      Homeschooling helps you to work alongside your child in a way that a teacher with a class of 36 children simply is not able to. You can review material or push ahead as needed. You can follow your child’s interests. If they have a question, they know they’re going to be heard and have the chance to have a long discussion about it if necessary (usually culminating with a quick look for a suitable video on youtube!) The length and sequence of the lessons can be designed to fit your child’s mood, learning style and attention span.

6)      Homeschooling avoids the hassle of the school run, worrying about uniforms, needing to do homework in the evenings, and the time that is wasted at school by having to walk between classrooms, take registers and wait for the teacher to deal with disruptive pupils. There’s no need for parents evenings or school board meetings.

7)      Socialisation? Yes, we get to avoid many of the negative effects of that. We don’t have to worry too much about bullying or peer pressure. Our children have less exposure to the latest fads and trends and ‘must have’ expensive items. They have less exposure to unhelpful influences, coarse language, unsuitable images on cell phones or the pressure to start showing an interest in the opposite sex before they’re ready.

8)      Socialisation? Yes, what great opportunities exist in that area for the homeschooled child! They spend their days with people who are not all exactly the same age as them. They learn from older siblings and teach younger ones, and yes they learn skills of diplomacy, teamwork, delegation, leadership, forgiveness and consideration for others by being around them all the time! There’s more time in the day to get out and enjoy different interests, either joining in extra-curricular activities with other children, or following Mum about on daily errands or on her visits to friends and neighbours.

9)      It’s a cliché that people always say: ‘Enjoy them while they’re young because they grow up so fast!’ but we all know it’s true. I don’t want to just have my child for the first 4 or 5 or 6 years of their life. I want to spend as much time with them as I can before they leave the nest. I love to be a part of their growing and learning. I love that they’re so close to their siblings because they spend so much time together.

10)  Being a homeschooling mother is never boring. Yes it’s hard work, and some days can be really difficult. It requires self-discipline, consistency and great patience. But it is so rewarding. What a great feeling when your child starts reading on their own for pleasure and you know that it’s mostly thanks to you and your patience over their stumblings in the early days of ‘cat, sat, mat’! How wonderful to witness your child’s creative works of art take shape, to see the smile on their face when they’ve finally understood something or mastered some skill they used to find difficult!

"The noblest calling in the world is that of mother. True motherhood is the most beautiful of all arts, the greatest of all professions. She who can paint a masterpiece or who can write a book that will influence millions deserves the plaudits and admiration of mankind; but she who rears successfully a family of healthy, beautiful sons and daughters whose immortal souls will be exerting an influence throughout the ages long after paintings shall have faded, and books and statues shall have been destroyed,deserves the highest honor that man can give."                                     David O.McKay

Qu: What would you add to the list of 'top ten reasons for homeschooling'?

Abide in Him!

Homeschooling Overseas Part 3

I'm continuing my series of posts on homeschooling overseas. In the first part I looked at some of the schooling options open to ex-pats such as ourselves. In the second part I talked about our journey as a family down the road towards homeschooling. In this third part I’d like to address the question of what to say when local friends ask the question ‘why?’.

Sophie was 7 at the beginning of this academic school year, which means that here in Russia she should be going into Year 1. And so, like never before, I find myself being questioned by interested and/or concerned local friends and neighbours as to what exactly I’m doing with her and why I’m choosing to teach her at home rather than send her to local school. Homeschooling is so rare here that they just don't understand why anyone would even want to do this.

As I contemplate this, I realise of course that there are certain things I would say to some groups of people and not to others. For example, I don’t want to go into detail with local people about how I feel I can provide better teaching materials and resources for my child at home, or how I wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of my child learning how some students ‘supplement their teacher’s income’ in order to ensure good grades, but I might mention those things to some ex-pat friends. With friends who are believers I would probably go into a few details about some of the spiritual advantages of homeschooling, but it's usually not appropriate with the majority of local people who tend to ask me questions.

So what would I say? Here are some things I came up with:

Friend: “Which school are you sending Sophie to?”

Me: “Actually, Sophie learns at home with me. We have ‘Home School’.”

Friend: “Oh! Why did you decide to do that?”

Me: “Well, I’m a teacher by profession (OK, I know not everybody can say that, but if you can then it helps!). We decided it was more helpful for her to learn in English so that when we go back to England it will be easier for her to go to an English university.”

Friend: “But how do you do exams? Do you have to show someone what you’re doing?”

Me: “It’s not necessary to do exams until she’s 16 or 18. And in England you don’t have to show someone what you’re doing in home school. (This may not be true for you depending on your home country situation). Exams are needed to check how the student is doing, and I can see for myself whether she’s learnt something or not.”

Friend: “How do you know what to teach?”

Me: “I bring lots of books from England, and I follow a curriculum on the internet that tells me what I should be teaching.”

Friend: “Isn’t it boring for her not to be with other children and have friends?”

Me: “Oh, she has friends and opportunities to mix with other children. She plays every day with our neighbours, she has friends at our church and she goes to an art class and dance class twice a week in town.”

Friend (running out of things to say): “Well, it must be really difficult. I couldn’t do it!”

Me: “It does take up a lot of my time, but I really enjoy it. I like to have all the children with me during the day, and they go to bed at 8pm, so I get some time to myself in the evenings.” (Russian children usually go to bed when their parents do. They make up for this by having an enforced 2 hour nap at kindergarten).

So that might be how a typical conversation might go. I tend to stress certain things (like the importance of learning in English) which aren't actually among the top ten reasons why I homeschool in the first place! In my next post on this topic I'll list those top ten reasons, but in the meantime, let me know how you deal with these kinds of situations, I'd love to hear how other people handle them:

Qu: What kind of questions do you get asked by local friends about your homeschooling? 

Qu: What answers do you give?

Abide in Him!

Ten Tips For Coping While Hubbie's Away

My wonderful husband recently had to go overseas for a nine-day training workshop. Thankfully I had some help during that time - a friend came to stay for two nights and then my mother came for the remainder. However, despite having some extra pairs of hands to help with washing up and to entertain Sophie, Charis and Nathaniel while I was in the shower or needing to pop out for groceries, I still felt absolutely exhausted by the end of the nine days. I realised that it's not just the physical tiredness (taking on extra chores that my helpful husband usually does) but it's also the emotional tiredness of being the sole responsible parent for an extended period of time.

Afterwards, when I'd had some time to reflect on this and other times when I've been looking after the children on my own for several days at a time, I put together some tips for coping in these situations - partly for myself, but also in case they're useful for anyone else reading this post. So, here we go.....

1) Before your husband leaves, make sure you're stocked up on groceries and petrol for the time ahead, as much as possible. Have meal plans and a rough schedule prepared.

2) Enlist the children's help early on. Explain how Daddy being away means you'll have extra chores, and that you'll be needing their help and support over the next few days. Try to foster a team spirit - "We're all going to pitch in and help each other through this!"

3) Don't plan to do too much! I often fall into the trap of making great plans for things I will be doing while my husband's away. It's true that there is one less person around to feed and clean up after, and those first couple of evenings may seem like you have more time than usual on your hands, but it's not long before the tiredness kicks in. Pace yourself. This is a time to shorten your to-do list, not lengthen it.

4) Watch out for temptation! For some reason, not having my husband around to keep me accountable means that I soon fall into the trap of staying up too late watching mindless TV shows, or reaching for those comfort foods that I wouldn't normally consider part of my healthy eating plan. Before I know it, it's midnight, I have a half-finished box of chocolates in front of me, I wonder if I really needed to stay to the end of that not-very-good film that I've already seen before, actually, and I start to panic about being the only parent around to respond to the early morning calls of children beginning to wake up. Late nights eventually have a tendency to replace early morning Bible reading and prayer times, which are actually even more essential during this time.

5) Get more sleep! Not only do you need more sleep during this time, but it's tempting to actually get less sleep because of the above two points. Try to go to bed half an hour earlier than you usually would.

6) Simplify where possible. Don't be afraid to cook simpler meals, including ready-made meals. This is not the time to be worrying about the kids' nutritional needs! Haven't got time for your usual 30-minute workout? Don't beat yourself up about it. Don't have the energy to bath the kids as often, iron their clothes or clean the house quite so thoroughly? It really doesn't matter. And it's OK to put the kids in front of the TV for an extra hour than usual :-) Do what you need to do to survive.

7) Pray more! The one thing not to simplify or give up on is your reliance on God and His strength. You might not be able to have as long a quiet time in the morning, but see if you can pray more during the day as you're going along. You're going to need to rely on His help more than usual.

8) Try to get out of the house more. Stress levels can rise if cabin fever sets in. Getting out for some fresh air, whether it's to the local playground, or for a walk in the local park, or even just down to the local library or to have a play date with some friends, can really help lift your mood. It helps the time go faster, and also helps to wear out the kids, especially if they're able to run around. Tired kids means earlier bedtimes :-) It also helps you to get in some healthy adult conversation and interaction with other grown-ups, which may be somewhat lacking. However, keep it simple. This is not the time for long day trips which involve long car journeys, missed naps and ultimately results in cranky kids and one frustrated, grumpy mum.

9) Don't be afraid to ask for help! Don't try to be supermum. Accept offers of help from friends and grandparents, as long as it doesn't actually cause you more work in the long run. If someone is able to watch your kids for an hour or two while you can get out of the house on your own and recharge your batteries, then that can be really beneficial both for you and the kids.

10) Finally, prepare the kids for Daddy's return. This is something you can all look forward to! Make cards and welcome home posters, go and pick him up from the bus station or wait eagerly at the door for his return. Have some nice food or even homemade cakes waiting for him. Let your kids know how important Daddy is to you and the family. However, you might want to give him some time to recover from the trip before you hand him the nappy bag and walk out of the house on a bee-line to the nearest coffee shop :-)

Qu: Does your husband often need to go away for extended periods of time? What other tips do you have for coping while he's away?

Abide in Him!

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Photo credits: Ducks: freedigitalphotos.net/EA, Monkeys: freedigitalphotos.net/Lavoview

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Finding Grace in the Interruptions - Part 2

Welcome back to my little series of Finding Grace in the Interruptions. I hope you found Part 1 helpful. There, I looked at how God often sends things our way that we might be tempted to label 'interruptions' or 'hindrances' to our plans, but are actually His way of getting our attention or teaching us something valuable.

However, sometimes these 'frustrations' might actually be more of our own doing than an 'opportunity' sent by God. What do I mean? Well, perhaps us feeling annoyed and irritated is actually a sign that either we have our priorities wrong or we have overstretched ourselves.

1) Wrong priorities

I'm sure you're familiar with the scene: you've just set your toddler down with a box of legos, and your preschooler seems happily engaged with her dolls. "Great!", you think, "I'll just check my emails." Ten minutes later you're in the middle of reading the latest blog entry on one of your favourite websites when the toddler and preschooler start fighting, or the preschooler needs to be taken to the toilet, or the toddler wants you to help him build a tall tower of blocks. "I'll be there in a minute!" you promise. A minute goes by. More whining. "Hold on,  Mummy's just reading something important...." Then it strikes you. Actually, to be honest, what you're reading is not that important, and certainly nothing that couldn't wait until your kids are tucked up in bed that evening. Your life suddenly flashes before your eyes, and you see yourself in an empty house, kids having flown the nest, regretting all those missed opportunities of building tower blocks of legos or rejoicing in milestones reached and skills mastered. I've been there so many times!

Now, sometimes our children might be interrupting something important, like the fact that we really do have to get dinner in the oven or finishing hanging up the laundry. In those situations it's good to pray for grace and patience. Perhaps this is an opportunity to teach our children how to help with household tasks, or perhaps we need to allow ourselves an extra half an hour to finish whatever it is we're doing. 

Something that helped me was to remind myself that God is in control. He knows I need to get the dinner in the oven, or provide the family with clean clothes. Living in a culture that values people over time has also helped. I know that He will help me accomplish all the things I need to accomplish without me having to sin by shouting at or being impatient with my children.

"By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.." 2 Peter 1v3

However, I've come to realise that a lot of the time it's just me being selfish with my 'me-time'. When I decided that I wouldn't open my computer during the hours that my children were awake unless it was for homeschool purposes, or to check something quickly that my husband wanted me to do, then suddenly I became a much more patient and purposeful Mummy. The same goes for phone calls and texts. I don't want my children to grow up thinking that my computer is more important than they are!

2) Over-committing

Sometimes we might have our priorities right, like we know that it would be really good to help our six-year-old with her art project right now, or we'd love to chat through with our friend who's just popped round about the struggles she's having with her marriage, but we don't have the time because we need to be off to X, Y or Z.  Or maybe we find that most of our daily annoyances come from lost shoes or last minute toilet trips as we're desperately trying to usher the kids out of the door and into the car. In that case it might be time to look at whether we've overcommitted ourselves.

Do we really need to have volunteered to help run the children's group at church? Do we really have time to go to this Bible study? Does our child really need to go to three sports practices each week? All of these are good things, but perhaps they're not God's best for us at the moment.

I still feel a wound in my own heart from the time, almost 20 years ago now, when I desperately wanted to talk to a friend about my parents' recent divorce, but she was too busy. Now, she didn't know what I wanted to talk about, and she was busy with important, church-related things, but I still to this day feel that she let me down. I would hate to think that I would in turn do that to someone else without realising it.

Filling our lives up with busyness, even good, 'Christian' busyness, is not always God's best for us. How can we be a light and blessing to others if we don't have a little space in our day to allow for these kinds of heaven-sent 'interruptions'?

"Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." Luke 10 v 41,42

For the third and final part to this mini-series I'll be looking at one other caveat, where perhaps the interruptions we're facing have a different agenda behind them. You can find it here.

Q: Have you had a time when you realised you had your priorities wrong? How did God speak to you about it?

Q: Have you been in a situation where you felt God was directing you to drop some of your other commitments and focus on being at home?

As always, I would love to read your comments, so don't be shy!

Abide in Him!

Photo Credits: freedigitalphotos.net. Girl with toys: Tratong, Woman at computer: Stuart Miles, Mother and Son: Ambro, Coffee: Stuart Miles

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Drab Hens

I've just started a reading schedule with my Ambleside Online Year 0 group that hopes to read through the major sections of Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study. We've started on the section about birds. I was really struck when I read about how the female bird is deliberately drab so as not to attract the attention of predators. It has often grated on an old feminist nerve of mine when the kids have noticed in the zoo that the male birds are so much more beautiful than the female birds (especially the peacocks), but now I understand the reason why God designed it that way. I see a parallel in my own life too. As a stay-at-home mum I sometimes feel like the drab partner, whilst my husband continues in an exciting job that I also used to do once. But now I'm encouraged to remember how important it is to be drab sometimes (lol!). Also, the idea that the chicks are also drab like the mother before they reach maturity just reminds me of the great privilege I have to be the biggest influence in my children's life right now, and what a responsibility it is to know that they're imitating me whilst they follow me around!