Lately I feel like every day ends with me so wrung out and limp that I can’t move off the couch, even to climb in bed.
First we have to deal with Speedracer’s trouble adjusting to K3 when we read his teacher note every evening and have to sit and talk about what “disobedience” means again.
Then we have to face the fussing and sighing and pouting and sassing of homework time with the Ladybug after dinner, again.
And then we close the day by drama worthy of Charlie Sheen from the Cowboy over bedtime, again.
I am so thankful for Mr. Fix-It. We spend the whole evening tag-teaming back and forth through the routine so that (hopefully) no one completely loses their temper.
“Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10)
And yet, we are so blessed. Truly. I’m convinced that our life is no different, no better, no worse, no more or less busy or full than anyone else…but I’m so glad to look back over pictures I’ve snapped and see laughter. Remember fun. Even from down here “in the trenches.”
“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Galatians 6:9)
Like baking sweets every Tuesday evening with my boys while the Ladybug has piano lessons. Only Speedracer would take a greased bundt pan and flip it over as a Captain America shield (those pictures are coming up next week!) and start shooting imaginary bad guys around the kitchen. Or refuse to crack eggs (which is everyone else’s favorite part!) because it’s “goooossss”
Or this morning, listen to the boys debate who gives out the better toys…”Chick-away” or “Uncle Donald.” Seriously?! I didn’t even bother to correct them, it was so darn cute! (That’s Chick-fil-a and McDonald’s for the uninitiated, by the way.)
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23) (My emphasis added–“longsuffering” might just be my new definition for motherhood. It means “patience under provocation.”)
I’ve made a list of things that I want to start teaching the kids this year at home. Homemaking skills and life skills and real-world stuff that they’re not necessarily going to get in school. And I don’t just mean doing chores. They know how to follow directions fine.
I want to teach them the heart of the skill so they can learn to be creative and innovative within their responsibilities. Not just setting the table, but the theory behind setting (and decorating!) the table. Not just clearing the table, but why this goes in the fridge and this goes in the pantry and this goes in the scrap bowl.
So what’s on our list for this year?
Cooking, horseback riding, setting and clearing the table, laundry, and gardening.
How blessed are we that we can teach each of those things without even leaving our yard?!!
And now I’ve talked myself out of an exhausted-mother-funk and into a smile!
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)
What life skills are on your teaching and training list right now?
