If there is such thing as a math demon, it visited our house yesterday. I always go on and on about how great homeschooling is (and it is), but yesterday was hard. If a new homeschooler would have been here, they might have thought twice about homeschooling. My only solace came in the afternoon - each child who had suffered with math in the morning all came through on the other end. They had made it! They all conquered the area they had struggled in, somehow, some way. Perhaps if the newbie homeschooler had stuck around, they would have seen the struggle, but then how rewarding it was to power through it, pray as if my life depended on it, and then see a breakthrough in the end. Still, I'm hoping today will be better!
Another thing I'm noticing, having blogged for over a year and almost a half now, is that there are similar patterns in the times and places I read in the Bible. When I was reading in Genesis last year, all the stories about Joseph being stuck in slavery really jumped out at me, especially as he prospered while in slavery and how God blessed him despite his circumstances. Back over a year ago, I found that to be such an encouragement and it was interesting to see that yes, though I'd really like to be out of slavery, we are still experiencing such blessing that I know if nothing changes I will be ok. Verses like this, "...and he was there in prison. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor....." (Gen. 39:20b, 21a) I am a testimony to feeling like I am in prison, but I'm just as much a testimony to experiencing His steadfast love and the sense that He is with me. Lesson 9: God is with me in my prison, whatever place that may be.
So, I went ahead and did the seminar on the weekend to just a few moms. Am I allowed to enjoy doing this as much as I do? I could stand in front of people and talk all day! It is one of my favourite things to do! The books came in on time, they were paid for, people bought them....hopefully they'll be inspired to put the chore system in order! The money that we made that day went right to the mortgage, so it was a real blessing to have had the seminar. That, along with the hay money we made on the weekend got us through a real tight spot. Hopefully we'll see some resolve with the other money that is supposed to be coming in. Give us this day, our DAILY bread.
I officially got the prayer box thing going yesterday. It had been informal up until yesterday. I had just been telling the kids who to pray for on what day, but yesterday we actually had a prayer box full of names my daughter had printed out and cut up. Yesterday was immediate family, but I took it a step further and included cousins, aunts, uncles, even great-aunts, great-uncles, and, of course, grandparents. Oh my goodness, we didn't even get to all of them and some names my kids or my husband didn't even know! What was shocking to me was that I had something to say, or my husband had something to say about each uncle, aunt or cousin, so we could tell the kids a very specific thing to pray about. It surprised even me! It ended up being one of our longest prayer times, but for the first time in awhile, it wasn't about us! It was really beautiful listening to my children pray for cousins they had never met or great-aunts or uncles that they knew were suffering in some way. We prayed for everything we could think of - health, finances, salvation. It was amazing! I can't wait to do it again tonight, but this time, it'll be a different prayer box. We'll be praying for friends. Once again, a lot of these people have been in my address book for years and I write to them each Christmas, but my kids don't know them. I thought it would be a good idea to pray for them even if they don't know who they are. I think there is a lesson even in that - lesson 10: It is good to get my eyes off myself!
After we prayed, I knew I had paperwork to do (go through receipts, etc.), but I also knew I had better go do a load or two of laundry, folding, etc. My younger 5 were all busy playing and I didn't want to disturb them, but the closer I got to the laundry room and saw the pile that was awaiting me, I thought, "No! They have to help!" But then, I thought, "I don't want to interrupt them! They're all having so much fun!" This was one of the very things I spoke about on Saturday. We get cowardly as moms because we don't want our kids to do work. We don't want them to be mad at us for making them do chores, so we do it all ourselves and the burnout starts.
Suddenly, an idea came to me. I walked into the family room as if I were a General and I asked the kids to stand at attention. My little 4 year old jumped up and ran over right away. Then I said, in as stern and general-like voice, "We have a job to do, soldier. Follow me. We are going to go into enemy territory. March behind me and I'll give instructions when we get there!" Immediately he followed me so excited. We got to the laundry room and I said, "About face, soldier!" "Ok, ok!" He didn't know what anything I said meant, but he was trying to get into the game. By this point I had a few other soldiers in the room. I explained to them, "We must deliver these bombs to the right places without getting caught by toddler spies, they're everywhere!" "Ok! This is going to be sooooo much fun!" They could barely contain themselves. I was starting to get into it, too! They started running all over the house, delivering "bombs" to the bathroom (towels) or real scary bombs (underwear) to the drawer (they had to wear special protection to deliver those ones). It was so much fun! They usually hate taking stuff upstairs, but this time I said, "Ok, soldiers, now it is time for a special mission. You'll have to climb mountains to take this to its proper spot. Be careful! There are enemies and landmines everywhere!" "Let me take it up the mountain!" They started fighting over laundry as they all wanted the mountain climbing mission. The little toddler spy was somehow into it, too, and even Daddy "attacked" them on one of their missions. My 8 year old actually said to me, "Stop it, Mom. I'm 8. I'm too old for this." "Ok," I said, "Here, go put this on the shelf, " in my most boring mommy voice possible. That didn't go over well. The next thing you know, it was like a switch went on, I heard him say only minutes later, "Ok, guys, let's go on a dangerous mission!" He was totally into it all of a sudden! I guess he figured out he wasn't too old to play the game after all. So funny. Everybody won that night - my work got done, the kids had fun. Just another answer to prayer for a mom drowning in laundry! I'm sure they'll ask me to do that again today! Lesson 11: Work can be fun!
Now, I'm going to try to re-establish a schedule that might work a little better than the one I've been using. The Maxwells have a Managers of Your Homes book, too, all about schedules. I've created and attempted to implement a schedule every year. Some years are better than others. I really want to potentially create a seminar about this book, too, as I think so many families could benefit from having more order in their lives, but I've put off writing this seminar as I wanted to make sure I was actually "living" it first! Today will be the first day of really trying to make it work. It might be March, but better late than never.
Back to Joseph for last word. He had two children while he was in slavery. He gave them great names. Manasseh, which meant "God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house" and Ephraim, "For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction". Those two names represent how I feel most days, "God has made me forget all my hardship and has made me fruitful even in the land of my affliction." I'm not saying I'm having more babies, but those would be two of my new top names for boys!
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