Beautiful Monday

The family in this little yellow house did not meet this particular Monday morning spectacularly well.

It started out okay: Daddy got out for his run, children slept until the blissful hour of 7am (thank you, Daylight Savings, for your lingering benefits), Mama got out for her pathetic Recently Established attempt at jogging, morning chores were being accomplished, and breakfast was served only 15 minutes later than our target time.

But then...

Oh! then the exhaustion of a fun but long Sunday began to kick in. Children were quick to complain and even quicker to cry. The baby was Generally Disgruntled after being denied any decent opportunities for napping all day yesterday. Family devotions was amusing at best and pointless at worst. Mama watched with sad eyes as Daddy prepared to leave, knowing that somehow she would need to alone guide these five [rather raw] children throughout the remainder of the day, which was looking longer and longer by the minute.

School around the dining room table turned into a regular circus act. Baby crying. Toddler testing boundaries with a tenacity that exceeds what's normal even for her. Preschooler crying about boredom (which is not something that is gladly tolerated in this house). Kindergartener being silly and generally unruly. First grader struggling with emotions and the gloom that easily engulfs a melancholy temperament.

I don't like to quit. I am a task-oriented person who likes to get the agenda taken care of. This often lends itself well to homeschooling and the managing of a home and young children-- and sometimes it really, really doesn't. I knew I could push and prod and correct and hound and [maybe] get the correct chapters read and the new consonant combinations practiced and the sums added and the division mastered.

But I knew it would be awful.

Yet, ohmyword, it can be like pulling teeth for me to close those books. I find myself calculating how we can make it up and not add a school day to the end of the year. I don't readily adjust to the idea of simply being with my children when my goal was doing something with them.

And yet, what else could I do?

We left the books. I gathered my children around me, soothing a distraught infant and ministering peace to the restless toddler. From my new spot in the rocking chair, I encouraged my older children to begin assembling their train track while I carefully supervised attitudes and more easily gave the needed reminders to speak kindly, to give generously, and to forgive quickly.

Once Baby was asleep, a mid-morning snack was doled out. Not only are mid-morning snacks an unusual thing in this house, cookies and milk were even more surprising.

"Why, Mom?" asked my biggest child, wondering what the occasion could be to prompt it all.

"Because," I answered. "Just because. It's Monday. It's gray outside. Our souls are a little tender today. And I want you to know that I love you even on Mondays."

After each crumb was savored and cups had been spilled and refilled and fingers were licked clean and the children returned to their play, I glanced around at the happy mess of wooden train tracks and sprawled bodies. I saw the sparkly eyes of children as they made each other laugh. I listened to the sound of chatter instead of grumbling, and I whispered a thanks to the One who ohso kindly moved me away from my agenda so that I might take on His.

We are continuing on with our day and, of course, there have been bumps and setbacks and adjustments-- and I've no doubt there will be more. But we're taking them on together and I'm keeping my goals simple: make my Sensitive Boy laugh, embrace my Biggest Girl's silliness, be gentle with my Tender Son, look often into the eyes of my Precocious Pip, hold close my Sweet One, trust that He will make up my lack.

At 8:52am, I wondered how we would get through this day.

Now, I wonder how we could ever do without it.

Accessorize much?

Playing ball

Plugging along

We're done with another week's worth of Official Schooling.

*deep exhale*

(On Fridays, Gabriel and Bronwyn join 125ish other homeschooled children at the church for group activities-- choir, gym, art, etc.-- and I get those 5 hours to focus on my younger kiddos and catch up on housework. I find that it's a good rhythm to our week, as by day #5 in the week, there are other things in the home that can really use my attention.)

I love homeschooling.

The time when we sit down at the table to work through math problems, practice handwriting, try experiments, and study together is my favorite portion of the day, second only to when we all pile on the couch together for lots of reading (both of the Learning to Read and the Read Aloud varieties). Of course, homeschooling is so much more than just those times, but I love those times. I really, really do.

That said, I find that we give our best time and energy of the day to homeschooling, leaving me scrambling to get the housework done and dinner on the table. Isn't that the way of a homeschooling mom? We do things like spending an extra 20 minutes exploring the house together for real-live examples of multiplication so that our first grader can grasp the concept that seems to be alluding him on paper, and that cuts into our chances to clean the bathrooms and organize the closets. Then we decide to go ahead and make the homemade bread suggested for the science lesson so that the kindergartener can see yeast in action, which means the list of phone calls that was hanging over our head continues to hang for another business day because by the time the dough is rising and the last bowl has been washed, the baby is inevitably crying and the toddler needs to be pulled out of the toilet she's playing in, and by the time those crisis are dealt with, it's 4pm and it's too late to make the calls.

(I try not to think about what things might be like when we've added even more students to the roster because Today is plenty to occupy my full attention. Just know, Mothers Who Homeschool Many and Those Who Have Been There, Done That, I am daily in awe of you.)

Yes, as much as I love the time we spend working through the curriculum together and doing all sorts of terrific learning side by side, I'm very, very glad that summer is a pause from the bookwork. I'm looking forward to "school" being less sums and more digging in the vegetable and flower gardens, if you know what I mean. After all, I'm a mom to more than just two school-age children, and I'm also a wife and a homemaker. Juggling it all can become quite the circus act at times.

I didn't start the school year eagerly checking off Days in Attendance in my book, but I'm not going to lie: I've started counting down the days. Summer is calling! And my response?

Another week in the books is in the books!