Friday, August 20, 2010

What a Great View

I like it when I can look out the window and see this beautiful sight:


Seeing my kids happy and enjoying each other just makes me feel this weird and overwhelming sense of well-being.


It gives me the encouragement I need to press on.  Just like working outside the home, being at home full time has its struggles:
loneliness and isolation.
A feeling that everything you do today, you have done before, and will need to do again tomorrow. 
The fear that no one notices or values what you do all day.
The guilt of not getting it all done, thus proving your worth.
The need for being self-motivated, self-governing, and balancing it all with a huge amount of God's grace and direction.
But this makes it all worth it.


This reminds me that the value I have in their lives is unable to be measured by clean floors, huge stockpiles of home-canned goods, and perfectly filled out homeschool worksheets.


Those things are wonderful, even fulfilling at times.  But home is more than a house where I keep busy all day.  Homeschooling is more than worksheets and tests.  Life is more than an endless list of things to achieve. 
Home is where I make my kids feel safe and loved by letting them be themselves and enjoying them in the process. 
Homeschooling is learning through life AND books.
And life has one central gaze point:
to glorify God, not myself.

2 comments:

  1. Amen! Lovely post. Moms have the hardest and most important job there is. :-) I did a post not long ago with a segment Oprah Winfrey had written on Mothers. One of my favorite pieces. If you get a chance to read it on my blog, it's inspiring. I reread it many days when things get a bit stressful. I noticed Felicity in the picture from American Girl. My daughter Hayley and I are headed to the American Girl Store in New York tomorrow. Lots of pictures will be up Sat night or Sunday. :-) I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and don't ever doubt that what you do is not important or valued, it is more than you could possibly know, and those girls will treasure you always for being there for them. Many Blessings,
    Jill

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  2. I think we were having similar thoughts. :)
    Lovely pictures of two lovely girls.

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