Finding the Balance

"I am sadly concerned that thousands of mothers are so over-burdened that the actual demands of life from day to day consume all their time and strength. But of two evils, choose the lesser: which would you call the lesser--an unpolished stove or an untaught boy? Dirty windows, or a child whose confidence you have failed to gain? Cobwebs in the corner, or a son over whose soul a crust has formed, so strong that you despair of melting it with your hot tears and fervent prayers?

I have seen a woman who was absolutely ignorant of her children's habits of thought, who never felt that she could spare a half-hour to read or talk with them--I have seen this woman spend ten minutes in ironing a sheet, or forty minutes icing a cake for tea, because company was expected.

When the mother, a good orthodox Christian, shall appear before the Great White Throne to be judged for the "deeds done in the body," and to give her report of the master's treasures placed in her care, there will be questions and answers like these:

"Where are the boys and girls I gave thee?"

"Lord, I was busy keeping my house clean and in order, and my children wandered away."

"Where wert thou while thy sons and thy daughters were learning lessons of dishonesty, malice and impurity?"

"Lord, I was polishing furniture and making beautiful rugs."

"What hast thou to show for thy life's work?"

"The tidiest house, Lord, and the best starching and ironing in all our neighborhood!"

Oh these children, these children! The restless eager boys and girls whom we love more than our lives! Shall we devote our time and strength to that which perishes while the rich garden of our child's soul lies neglected, with foul weeds choking out all worthy and beautiful growths? Fleeting indeed, O mother, are the days of childhood, and speckless windows, snowy linen, the consciousness that everything about the house is faultlessly bright and clean will be poor comfort in that day wherein we shall discover that our poor boy's feet have chosen the path that shall take him out of the way to all eternity."--Author Unknown

I came across this anonymous letter to Elizabeth Elliot when I was searching for advice on how to maintain an orderly home and homeschool at the same time. As our family grows I feel like it is constant work to keep our house in order. There are days that I spend cleaning our house just for it to become dirty again the next day and it feels like all my efforts are in vain... I have to (and want to) maintain some standards of cleanliness but at the same time I don't want cleaning to be the primary focus of my days and in the meantime having my kids running around unattended. It seems like putting a lot of energy into something that doesn't have any eternal value. I know I have written on this subject before, but I am still trying to find the balance...I'm up for any suggestions:)

A Civil War Birthday Party

For the past year or so Elijah has been really interested in studying and reading about the Civil War, so this year for his 8th birthday party he requested a Civil War birthday party. I was really excited about the idea but I wasn't quite sure how I was going to pull it off. I knew costumes would be essential so my sweet mother in law ordered some confederate and union hats for each child and my mom provided aprons and bonnets for the girls along with mustaches for the boys. Elijah wanted to have a yard battle between the north and the south. Each kid got their weapon of choice, the soldiers faced off on opposite sides of the yard and charged at each other. Some were wounded, but we were very fortunate to have good nurses on the battlefield to help those in need:) Then Matt organized some yard games of flag tag, water balloon toss, and a major water balloon fight. For snacks we provided some food to capture the spirit of the Civil War, such as hardtack, "goobers" (unshelled peanuts), and fruit leather (along with cheese, crackers, fruit and veggies- which would not have been on the menu for civil war soldiers). It was so funny because some how the name of hardtack was changed to "heart attack" and they were all asking for more "heart attack" bread:) Elijah requested chocolate eclair cake for his birthday, which was also changed to "I declare" cake:) It ended up being a day of great fun and what Elijah called "the best birthday ever"!

A summer visit to the mountains

Matt has been working so hard on remodeling our house and I wanted to give him some solid time to work so I took my kids and my niece to the mountains to see my parents for a little mountain getaway. We had such a fun time. My parents have a lake in their neighborhood so we spent a lot of time swimming. Elijah and Trinity were so proud of themselves for swimming to the middle of the lake and back! The little guys just enjoyed playing in the shallow water and sand. One day we went to Carl Sandburg's house and saw an outdoor play of the Rootabaga stories which was really fun and cute. Then we went to the little goat farm on the property and had a little picnic by the creek. The weather was just glorious and the property at Carl's house is so beautiful. Then we took the kids to Belle Chere (a fun festival in downtown Asheville) and they got to ride the rides and make crafts and eat ice cream and popcorn. We all had such a blast and can't wait to go back in the fall to pick apples:)