I find myself at times feeling like a failure as a mom…
-when I yell at the kids, which I always promise myself not to do again each time that it happens.
-when I find myself pulling my pillow over my head desperately wanting just ten more minutes of sleep rather than cheerfully waking up and greeting my children (or even better, being awake before them so I can be fully engaged and awake!)
-when I fail to resist the temptation of a pizza out rather than a nutritious, home cooked meal. For the second time in one week.
-when I face the temper tantrum of my 3 year old with frustration rather than calmness.
-when I have spoken sharply rather than gently and see the injured expressions on my children’s faces.
-when the baby who is teething has been screaming for what feels like hours and the only thing I want is quiet. (preferably in a hot shower behind a closed door with no interruptions)
-when I realize it has been three mornings since our last morning devotional and Bible lesson though we try to do them daily.
-when I don’t feel much like playing the 100th game of “I spy” in the parking lot because I am just too drained from the day and want to instead text message or read.

The list could go on but my list looks different than yours so I will end it here. You can fill in the blank with whatever your particular struggle is. You want to know something though? The list doesn’t matter. At all. That list is full of lies. Oh, they are things that I struggle with but they aren’t failures. The only failure is in a person who quits trying or never began trying in the first place. I have not quit trying for these children and I began trying for them from the minute I first held my oldest child in my arms.

For every time I have raised my voice there have been far more numerous times where I modeled the appropriate gentle answer. I figure that there have to be many other mamas who are tired and would love a few more minutes of sleep so that is no failure, and I do love to see the sleep tousled hair and pajama clad small bodies every morning. I do my best to feed my family healthy, traditional foods that are within our budget and eating out sometimes won’t hurt us. Frustrations are a part of everyone’s lives but for all of the frustrating moments I am abundantly blessed to be the mother of these children. I love them with all of my heart and they are dear to me in ways that I never could have imagined before I became a mother. I am raising them with the most amazing husband in the world leading our home and guiding us. I could not ask for a better dad for them. I delight in my children and actually enjoy spending time with them.

AND I AM A GOOD MOTHER. JUST LIKE THE OTHER MOTHERS READING THIS RIGHT NOW! Hot showers, date days with my husband, and quiet time to read don’t make me bad. They make me human. I am far from perfect but I am the perfect mother for these children. God entrusted them to my care. Care I will, today, tomorrow, and always. When I feel like a failure as a mom, I simply have to remind myself that I’m not. I will remind you now that you are not. Maybe you don’t need that reminder today but chances are you will, most likely at some time in the near future if you are anything like me. File it away in the back of your mind, maybe print a copy, or pin it to your pinterest board so you will have the reminder handy later. But for today just stop worrying about your so-called failures and be the amazing mama that God knows you are!

The second intent of my blog was to be able to share Christ in some small way, even if it was only with a few people. I figured if the people reading were already Christians then the blog may serve as a form of encouragement, which we can all use more of. And I hoped that I might gain a few readers who weren’t and who might be persuaded to study the Bible based on something that they read here.

All of these goals gave way to the busyness of life. October held a ladies day at our congregation that I was on the planning committee for as well as a week long gospel meeting and I found myself promising to post again in November. Then of course November and December were full of the holidays, family time, and again we were a bit overextended. Then in January I told myself that I might resume blogging with the new year yet I found excuses to put it off.

Now it is February. Last Sunday evening I heard a missionary from Tanzania speak and I was inspired. When I was a young teenager I wanted desperately to be a missionary along with a Godly husband serving others in a faraway land. I went on several domestic mission trips during college and the work I did filled me with purpose but also with humility and a serving spirit. Fast forward a few years and I now consider my mission field to be these children that I am raising. And the homeschool co-op we attend. And the church activities that we are a part of. But the speaker inspired me to remember that I can also use this tiny corner of the internet and type out my thoughts. I can be a Barnabas encouraging other homeschooling parents on a journey that is not an easy one to make. I can provide my own inspiration to others with a simple recipe that is nourishing, delicious, and easy to prepare and maybe helps to liven up a menu stuck in a rut. I can shed the light that I found on a Bible verse while I was studying. I can keep it all real and acknowledge the struggles, frustrations, and weaknesses that I deal with. And I can indeed share God and be known as someone who was not ashamed, who stood up and acknowledged the creator of the universe in a world that often doesn’t.

I have another friend who inspired me today on Facebook. He had posted a comment saying that he was hidden by another friend because he often posted religious and conservative views and he was glad that his friend told him that he was hidden. I also share my views on Facebook and consider it an amazing tool available to share but I am going to also use this blog as tool as well.

Whether I have five readers or five hundred, I will be doing something.

Starting again NOW!

Math

This week, my son had a math “test” on his last chapter and was able to demonstrate that he understood the material quite well.  In our math journal this week we practiced reading tally marks as well as drawing picture graphs.  He can fill in picture graphs easily and interpret the results of them but he was still having lots of trouble thinking through creating his own.  I found these math journal prompts online but for the life of me I cannot remember where.  If you are reading this post and you do know where the cute journal prompts came from please let me know so I can give the blogger who created them credit.  We began studying numbers 6, 7, and 8 practicing writing the numbers and doing lots of counting! 

History

This week, we studied the Vikings.  My kids loved studying the Vikings and enjoyed the crafts we used to go along with our studies.  We did lots of map work finding the countries where Vikings lived and where they explored.  We also did an activity that let us explore the compass by gluing treasures on our map where the directions indicated.  (again, I thought I had pinned the website where I printed this but it was not there so I don’t have the information to cite it).  We made Viking masks and a Viking longship.  We also made a toy caldroun the day we talked about what Vikings ate. 

Language Arts

We continued to read nursery rhymes this week and also continued to read the second Boxcar children book.  We read several poems about autumn.  We worked on copywork with four words and practiced rhyming.  My son wrote a wonderful creative story about being two inches tall and we read the book “George Shrinks” to go along with that lesson. 

Reading

My son is reading more and more with each passing day.  He is proud of himself and I am very proud of him.  He is learning sound blends rather than just the sounds of single letters now. 

Handwriting

This week my son practiced writing the letters e, i, and j.  I was pleased because his handwriting is growing neater although he continues to dislike writing on the lines. 

Science

We wrapped up our study on the rain forest this week.  We made a rain forest diorama to go along with the conclusion of the unit.  We are about to begin our study of the woods. 

Homeschool co-op

My son this week talked about woodwinds instruments and created a trumpet out of a paper towel roll and a plastic drink bottle.  He took a yellow snack and talked about healthy yellow and orange food and played games in his gym class.  He didn’t bring a paper home about the person he learned about in his heavenly hearts class and I wasn’t able to get him to explain it to me.  My daughter made the sweetest handprint flag craft and enjoyed her story and playground time. 

We had one of them tonight as a family.  The kids were thrilled that we had our “party” with their daddy rather than during the day with just  us.  I found a wonderful recipe for caramel peanut butter apple dip which was so yummy and popular with every single family member.  (I used sucanat in place of the brown sugar in this recipe and it worked well).  We served organic granny smith and braeburn apples with our dip and I cut up a hunk of raw cheddar cheese to go along with our apples.  To make things simple and allow our party to also serve as dinner I added croissants to our meal plan.  I wish I could have made them homemade but I had been planning on attending a ladies night out with ladies from my congregation tonight so I wanted it to be simple for my husband to throw together.  The baby is cutting teeth and has been so incredibly fussy today I didn’t think it would be fair to leave her with my husband.  (Said baby is actually fussing right now…ahem). 

Our meal was yummy and so simple to throw together.  We had fun at dinner talking about what my three year old did in dance and what stories we read today.  The kids LOVED their fall party and it didn’t take much effort on my part to make them so happy. 

Don’t the yellow plates remind you of fall leaves?

Here is a glimpse of our week:

Math

We continued to work on the numbers 1 to 5 this week.  We practiced with manipulatives and the teddy bear counters were their favorite by far.  We also played a game with plastic Easter eggs where they were labeled with dots representing the number and he had to match them to the card with the appropriate number on it.  My son has been able to count much higher than 5 for quite a while but I love the Singapore approach to math taking things slowly.  He continued to enjoy his math journal this week and was able to show it off to his aunt this week.  I try to provide opportunities for the kids to share their work with others so they can develop pride in a job well done. 

History

We had several appointments this week that were unavoidable during the day, including having our oil changed.  I actually switched out week 6 and week 5 history in order to make it a bit easier for us to stay on track with our schedule.  This week we talked about home and family life in Ancient Rome, Greece, and Egypt.  We also talked a little about how medicine has changed so much through the last few thousand years.  The book we used this week was not a Sonlight book but it was a great supplement. 

Language Arts

This week we had several creative writing activities.  My son narrated one writing journal to me about new friends he has made recently and that sweet boy also felt the need to list his many old friends too.  He also had an assignment to talk through the steps of a common activity and he chose to do brushing teeth.  We also worked on learning our phone number this week…we might need more practice on that one.    We did a very cute craft with a paper plate making a shark.  The teeth were the digits in the phone number.  I didn’t take a picture of this one since I didn’t want to broadcast our phone number but it turned out very cute.  We read “My father’s dragon” this week.  We were actually supposed to read the first 5 chapters but my son LOVED this book and we finished the entire thing.  For the next week and a half I think we will read the second Boxcar children book during the read aloud time slot.  We also did a mini author study on Lois Ehlert and did a few fall crafts to go along with those books.

Reading

My son is gaining more fluency every day.  He is reading entire sentences now and learning new words all the time.  I could not be more pleased with “Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons”.  We are a little more than 1/5 of the way through the book and he actually sometimes asks to do more than one lesson. 

Handwriting

This was one area where we got a bit off track this week.  We actually ended up doing only a few pages of review and didn’t end up practicing any new letters this week.  We will get back on track next week. 

Science

This week we had fun with science.  We did an experiment where we mixed very ripe (read yucky black) bananas and brown sugar and then painted a tree with it to see what sort of bugs we could attract.  Sadly, we attracted NONE at all.  My son is a bug enthusiast so he was sad by the lack of bugs but we watched for a while and checked after 30 minutes and 45 minutes and not a single bug came to eat at our dessert bar.  We did get to have fun exploring the creek.  We also talked about flamingos and moose this week. 

Homeschool co-op

My children each take three classes a week at co-op.  My son is learning about the orchestra in his music class and this week they talked about the brass section.  In his gym and health class they play games and also talk about healthy eating and this week he was able to bring a red snack and wear red.  He takes another class called Heavenly hearts and this week he learned about Corrie ten Boom.  My daughter is taking similar classes.  In her music class she is learning about patriotic songs.  She has playground time during her gym class and she has a storytime in lieu of the heavenly hearts class.  This week her story was: “The rainbow fish”.  We LOVE our homeschool co-op and it is so good for the kids. 

It feels good to have finished our fifth week and still feel good about all that he is learning. 

The featured author for the month of September is Lois Ehlert, who is a favorite in our home.  My kids enjoy the artwork in those books so much.  In the month of September I am doing an autumn theme for our homeschool so I selected books that fit that theme.  We read “Nuts to you” and “Red leaf, yellow leaf” and my kids enjoyed both books immensely. 

We had a lot of fun learning about squirrels when we read “Nuts to you”.  We have a backyard that is full of trees and we are able to spend a good amount of time watching the squirrels and chipmunks playing.  My five year old and three year old both loved learning about what squirrels eat, the colors they can be, and how they store their food.  Their favorite fact by far was that squirrels are able to use their tails as umbrellas. 

We did both a squirrel craft and an acorn craft to go along with this book. 

I saw the idea for the cinnamon acorn craft at All kids network and altered it a little.  My kitchen smells so good where these are hanging now…to me cinnamon smells like fall even though I bake with it and use it year round.  I saw the squirrel craft at Learn, create, love. 

My kids also enjoyed “Red leaf, yellow leaf”.  This book was about a tree growing from a tiny seed that fell to the ground and then a boy transplanting it to his yard and watching it grow each season.  We talked about the fall and how very soon our leaves outside will change color and fall.  We actually found a children’s rake and gardening gloves for the kids on clearance at Lowe’s and picked those up.  My kids are thrilled about the prospect of helping daddy in the yard when the leaves fall.  Last year we helped in the form of playing with the piles of leaves but this year they are excited about doing the actual chore.   

For this book I created a sensory tub which we have enjoyed playing with but I haven’t been able to take any pictures of the kids playing.  My camera battery was dead the day we did that activity but I’m sure we’ll play with it again and I will post pictures then. 

 We loved focusing on Lois Ehlert this month and we are looking forward to reading books by Amy Krouse Rosenthal next month. 

Our homeschool co-op began its fall term last Friday and I am teaching two classes so I was busy last week making final preparations for those classes.  Our first day of co-op was wonderful…it was so good to see old friends again and to meet a few new ones as well. 

My three year old began ballet last week and my five year old had his first session of homeschool gym at the YMCA today so we’ve been busy getting used to changes in our routine as well. 

In the past couple of weeks, we’ve had quite a few picnics with family and friends to enjoy the last days of summer and so things are busy but good here.   

I will be posting regularly again now and I already have several posts lined up.