Fourty and Still Figuring It Out...and Christmas This Year

Do you ever wonder when the day will come that you finally have life figured out?

You'll wake up early in the morning and have a super workout, after which time you'll eat your wonderfully healthy breakfast and trot right into your day. 


You sit down to feast at the Lord's Table as you dig into His Word. It's rich and delicious, but you NEVER have all of it that you want! 

By 8am, you'll have all the laundry going, your bed made, the kids fed, devotions done, the dogs brushed, floors swept, and all of your special handmade birthday and thank you cards will be written and in the mailbox.

Then you'll start your homeschooling day, changing subjects exactly every 30 minutes, teaching the trivium, taking your daily nature walk, teaching your kids to journal, and making sure that they're at least 2 grade levels ahead of their public schooled peers so that YOU can prove to all that homeschooling is the end all be all.

Oops! I forgot...your homemade wheat bread is ready to take out of the oven, and you've baked enough loaves to have some leftover to sell at the farmer's market, where of COURSE you spend at least one day a week because your family has to eat everything in it's most raw state.

By noon, your children have been around the world in their geography lessons, aced their math lessons on the first tries, learned 20 new words out of the dictionary, and polished their latin and spanish.

Time to grab a quick lunch and get ready for all of your afternoon fun!

Piano lessons are first.

Then soccer practice.

Play practice.

Scout popcorn sales.

Exercise time at the YMCA.

Chores...of course you're teaching your child to do EVERYTHING around the house that you do..you want them to be prepared for life, after all. (No mention of the fact that this apprenticing program makes your chores take 2/3 longer than they ever did before.)

Time to make dinner...Daddy will be home soon!

Rush, rush, rush....little Susie needs to do a lot of the work...she's being trained to be  a homemaker...gotta teach her everything! (Nevermind that she's 4.)

In comes Daddy, time for family hour around the table. 
Talk. Chew. Talk. Chew. Argue. Chew. Talk. Chew.

All during dinner, you're thinking about your beloved blog...it's been so long! You've got comments to attend to, and dangling conversations that you have simply abandoned because you've been so busy.

Now it's time to wash dishes, get little Johnnie ready for his shower (prepare for throwdown over the "to shower or not to shower" for that really is the question), and talk Susie Q into taking a shower instead of a tub bath so that both she and Johnnie can get ready for bed at the same time. (Otherwise Susie will dawdle until at least her 13th birthday!)

Two showers running at the same time will work.  One tub bath would drain all of the water from your hot water heater.  


Susie is ticked about missing out on a bath, so look forward to 2 hours of complaining over this!


Looking ahead at your week you have:
Scouting
Homeschooling Full
Homeschool Co-Op (all day event)
Church - Midweek service, you haven't made ONE yet...
Horseback riding lessons
Bible study class
Errands day
Sabbath Saturday (if you're lucky!)
Church on Sunday - morning and evening


You look over your schedule, thrilled that there are SO MANY great opportunities for you and your children!


But, truth be known, you are wiped out!

And, as you review your week, your heart is pierced when you hear your child tell another adult...well, what we do during the week is....* rattle, rattle, rattle* 
and then Mom reads the Bible to us about twice a week.


YIKES!


TWO days a week?!


What?!


How did that happen?


How did the daily time in the Word together turn into 2 days?


And then you stop and realize...life is upside down.


It's all good. So very many of the opportunities are GOOD ones.


BUT....


Oh, how I love that word.


BUT...


A term of contrast. It might as well read, "STOP RIGHT HERE! Something REALLY important is coming up and you DO NOT want to miss it!"


But, if Susie and Johnnie and Mommy and Daddy are so busy with all the opportunities that they are missing time together in the Word of God, then something HAS to change.


The Word of God...


Living.


Active.


Sharper than any two edged sword.


Used to divide...even to the joints and the marrow; the thoughts and intentions of the heart; the soul and the spirit.


Really.


As a mother, if I allow opportunities to cloud discipleship, I will stand before Jesus and find that I have failed.


My job isn't to rear a wonderful soccer player.


My job is to train and disciple world changers for God's Kingdom.


Period.


How much of Jesus do my children know?


How much of God's Word do they know?


Simplify.


Simplify.


Quit striving.


Simplify.


These will be my reminders to myself as we embark upon another homeschooling semester.


I was so stressed these past few days, worrying about trying to make our Christmas look the way I thought it was supposed to, and then I realized...no one here cared if we ate on the good china or not.


No one cared if I had a Christmas table cloth and a pretty center piece.


What mattered this Christmas was that we were together. 


Who mattered this Christmas was a dear friend of mine who needed someone by her side.


What my children will remember is the great Mexican food we had at a restaurant on Christmas Eve, the cookies we baked together, the time they spent playing in the snow with their Daddy, and the sharing of all we have to be thankful for...each of us thanked God for something important to us before the opening of each present.


Then we told of something we'd learned from the Word this year...with every single gift.


It was a precious time of sharing.


When it came time to eat dinner tonight, we realized that all we had to choose from was bean soup (which had been paying it's dividends around here for 2 days...p-you!) and corn dogs.


So I decided to whip up some potato soup instead.


And guess what?


From that soup, a new family tradition was born.


Brennan loved it so much that she said she wanted to have it EVERY Christmas night!

It was a sweet, low-key Christmas, and for us...it was perfect!


Here's my recipe. I write these to myself, so you can disregard the personal notes. :)


Merry Christmas!




Homemade Christmas Night Potato Soup

I made this tonight on our very first White Christmas in our own home.

Brennan loved it so much that she said she wants us to have it EVERY Christmas night!

So this is how traditions are born! Thank You, Lord! 

8 Medium Sized Russet Potatoes, diced

2-3 Cloves fresh garlic

2-3 Leeks, root ends cut off

1 large carrot

Approx. 6 cups Organic Chicken Broth

Coarse Sea Salt

Coarse Ground Black Peppercorns

¼ c. salted butter

In All Clad sauce pan (or in a quality soup pot if I have one by the next time I make this) sauté chopped garlic and the ends of the leeks, which have been very thinly sliced and halved, in the butter.

Peel carrot and then shred with vegetable peeler, into thin strips and mix into the above.

Allow to cook over med-high heat until well done (though not browned).

Pour all the chicken broth into a large soup pot and add the sautéed vegetables, along with all of the potatoes.

Add approx 1 tsp. of salt and ground black pepper to taste. (8 churns or so.)

Bring to a boil.

Immediately reduce to simmer and allow to cook on low for approx. 25 minutes, or until the potatoes are very soft.

Remove approx. 5 cups of the soup and put into Vitamix and puree until smooth.

Pour this pureed soup back into the rest of the batch and blend the two soups together.

(If one prefers more of a clear broth with potato chunks, skip the Vitamix. If one prefers more of a smooth soup, everything can be blended in Vitamix, but be aware that you’ll still want to put the pureed soup back into the pot on the stove and cook on low for a few minutes in order to get the air bubbles out.)

Give your praise to the Lord.

Thank Him for His provision and for coming to earth to die for your sins, and rise that you might have newness of life in Him.

Commit to walk in obedience to Him as your Christmas gift to your Lord.

Then…

Serve and enjoy!

:0)

Why We Do What We Do - Called and Commissioned

I remember being terrified.


Out of my mind scared!


Standing in the kitchen just staring with blank abandon out the window of the screened door.


Waiting and watching as the skies went from sunny and fair to dark and eerily quiet in what seemed like only moments.


As I stared, I would wonder to myself, "When is it going to happen? How much closer will it get? Is it going to hit here?"


I was 4, maybe 5 years old living in West Texas where tornadoes were commonplace.


In all those times of waiting and watching for one, I never once remember my mother allowing me to bide the time out on my swing set.


She never taught me how to keep myself safe from one by pointing me to the best place of refuge in the backyard and telling me, "Now baby when it hits, you just run under there and hold on for dear life!"


And she never once threw me into the eye of the storm.


What she did instead was prepare her household. 


She wiped the tub dry.


She grabbed the weather radio, which she made sure always had fresh batteries in it.


She gathered candles, matches, and a flashlight.


I don't remember for certain, but there may have been water, food and toys too.


I do recall that my favorite stuffed bear was always with me.  


She stripped the sheets from my bed, and in what I now realize was supernatural strength supplied to her by God for that very moment, she pulled my queen sized mattress off my bed and all the way into our bathroom.


And when the skies turned almost black as night, and the pressure in the air got so heavy that we could feel it, she lovingly hustled us into the bathroom.


The bathroom in the middle of the house. It was the safest place in our home to wait out the storm, or to hopefully survive through it.


And then she sheltered us.


She instructed us into the bathtub and pulled the heavy mattress over our heads and she sheltered us.


When the whirling winds came, and panic would grip my little heart, my Momma would tenderly encourage me. She'd comfort me with such love.


I can still hear her asking me with a joyful lilt to her voice, almost like it was a game we were going to play for the next few minutes, "What verses can you think of that we can say together?"


When I had said all of the ones I knew, she'd share one of her favorites, or we'd sing together.


She sheltered me.


People sometimes like point out to me that we are sheltering our children by homeschooling them. There are a myriad of reasons that they give to tell us me why this is a bad idea.
(Why no one ever talks with Shane about this, I haven't a clue. It's always me. Always.)  


Finally I know.


In my soul, and from the depths of my heart. 


I KNOW.


I know how to respond. Finally!


Without a doubt, we are sheltering our children. 


Just as my sweet Momma sheltered me from those storms.


There. I've said it. 


Not only have I said it, I've embraced the truth of it!


We want to give our children the pure milk of the Word. On a daily basis, and not in a 15 minute daily devotional time...but in every single opportunity that we have throughout the day. (1 Peter 2:2)


And what JOY it is to see that they're getting it!


Just as exciting is the fact that they're chewing on some choice meat as well. (Hebrews 5:12)


Yes, we shelter.


The day will come for them to be closer to the tornadoes of life, but it isn't now.


I was so challenged by Professor Kevin Smith's message that I posted yesterday. In many, many ways! (Thank you, Professor Smith for your message of exhortation!) 


We have been called by God to homeschool our children, and we can't quit.


When God calls His children to a task, to a commission, if we want to be faithful to Him we don't get to quit!


Yesterday was such a precious homeschooling day. I hope that I hold the memory of it in my heart forever.


It was a rainy and cool day here in TN, and the kids and I spent every minute of our lessons time on our screened in back porch.


We sat in the big swing that Daddy just put out there for us, all bundled up in blankets and snuggled together, and we studied God's Word through our latest inductive Bible study.

Brennan was following along in her book, her sweet little finger tracing under each word that I read and then she just took the reading reins. She didn't ask, she just went for it!


"So Abram said to Lot, "Please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers. 
Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me; if to the left, then I will go to the right; or if to the right, then I will go to the left." 
Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere—this was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah—like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar. 
So Lot chose for himself all the valley of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward. 
Thus they separated from each other. Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled in the cities of the valley, and moved his tents as far as Sodom. 
Now the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the LORD."
(Genesis 13:8-13)


It was exactly as Caedmon had done a few years earlier when he was her age.


There were very few words that she needed help with, and I gotta tell you...my Mother's heart wanted to explode with joy!


She's gotten it! She's exploded the code of reading! 


And I had the great privilege of being cozied up right next to her when everything clicked in her little mind!  (Thank you, Jesus!)


She's been reading beginner books. Some Abeka readers, some "Hop on Pop" kind of books, but to read the Word of God with such ease...words like Egypt and and Sodom and Canaan!


I'm so proud of her I could POP! Maybe I should write a new book..."Pop Mom, Pop!" 


Shane has been concerned because she hasn't been reading much up till now. I kept reminding him that when Caedmon was 8, reading clicked for him. I suppose it's easy to forget when he really soared with it, because it seems he's been reading forever.


He's now easily reading at a High School level, and comprehending and remembering all of it.


So I'd tell Shane, "She'll get it. It will come. I can already see her progress. Please trust me."


Years ago when we started homeschooling I read Dr. Raymond and Dorothy Moore's work, and I believed and trusted their philosophies for educating children.


And they were right! (Insert great sounds of exultation here!)

But I digress.


The heart of this post?


Yes we're sheltering, but we're also teaching them and loving them and nurturing them and as a rich and amazing blessing, we get to soak in every minute that we can with our children! 


All the while, our kids are getting the richest education that we believe we could possibly provide for them. 

"Dear Lord, please help me remember to soak them in, and not to get so focused on the doing that the soaking is forgotten. Time feels like it's flying by, Lord!"

This picture was taken eons ago, or so it seems.

While God's calling on your life may be different than the one He has placed upon ours, I can assure you of this...


We are called to homeschooling, and we can't quit. 


Much love to you today in Christ Jesus,
Jes