An honest look at a day in the life of a Homeschool Mom of 7

I Woke up yesterday morning and although I had 9 hrs of sleep, I still didn't want to get out of bed.  I finally did with a jolt when I heard one of the babies being picked up by one of the younger siblings.  We ate breakfast, straightened up the house and I as I was putting books back into the bookcase one of them caught my eye.  It was a book on the Trail of Tears.  I had been meaning to  read it to the kids for a while now.  I figured today would be a good day. 

I usually start our 'school' when the babies are taking their nap, but today I decided to go out on the deck with EVERYONE and read the 32 page book.  The babies were happy to join me, but Gabe wouldn't come out.  Shelby wouldn't get out of the play tunnel and just laid there like a stuffed burrito.  David sat next to me being the good child, he could tell I was having a bad morning.  We stopped once to get everyone a pair of sunglasses, once to get everyone a drink, then we stopped to look at a few clouds.....I felt like I was on the verge of tears.  I am pretty strong willed (yes, me ;) so I refused to retreat.  Gabe finally joined us at page 22 and continued to complain the rest of the story that I wouldn't start over. 
We did have some positive moments, though.  We talked about what it would feel like to come home and find out your house was given away in a lottery and you were now homeless.  I pointed out to the children how the Cherokee people were being attacked for their land.  We talked about the Ten Commandments and how the Early American Settlers were breaking several like: do not lie, do not steal, do not covet your neighbor's house or stuff, and do not murder.  I shared with the kids the route of the Trail of Tears and how one of the trails went past my birth town, Cape Girardeau, MO.  I told them how my parents would take us to the National park when we were children and my daddy showed me a Cherokee Princesses burial stone.  I started to feel nostalgic so we put away the usual subjects and brought out the laptop. 

We started by printing maps, coloring pages, tepee patterns and naturally that was a springboard to our Cherokee village diorama, construction paper headdresses and a milk carton covered wagon. I should have stopped there. 
Everyone was happy, but I decided Gabe needed to practice a reading book which cost us 90 minutes of tears, headaches and finally calling Daddy at work for back up.   We were about to leave to drop Briana off at her Monday night babysitting job when she got a text saying they needed to cancel.  We continued driving and on the way to hockey practice Gabe told me he was sorry.  He said he realized that he wasted time fighting with me and that he could have used it to play. Hmmm....maybe I am getting through. 

We arrived to the rink on time and after I tied Gabe's skates and Daddy came through the door I waved a quick goodbye to go back home.  I was beat.....but somehow my 15 year old talked me into Buffalo Wild Wings.  We sat there laughing at the wing eating contest and had a great time, just the two of us.  On our way home she said, "Mom, I am glad I didn't have to babysit tonight after all."  Hmmmm......I think that might have been a compliment.

I received a phone call from Lindsey during my hot wing dinner.  She sounded frustrated with Shelby who was refusing to listen.  When we arrived home we saw the 4 year old ball of strong will (Shelby) and after many failed attempts to behave, sent her to bed without dinner.  Daddy arrived home shortly from practice, and we sat down to do our family devotional. 

It was on repentance........ 
Shelby was screaming she was sorry in her room.......

Daddy showed mercy and let her join us for the devotional.  He let her know that after the devotional she had to go straight back to bed.  She agreed and sat on the couch next to me happy and ready to cuddle.  When we finished the devotional and asked her to please go to bed, she responded by screaming for another 35 minutes.

We determined she was not very repentant.....

We shut her door and turned up the Hawk's game.  When they lost it in the third period we turned off the TV and sat in silence........wow....I really was beat!  Good night!

I woke up this morning refreshed and ready for another day.  Why do I give you so many details?  Well, partly because I wanted to share the ups and downs in an ordinary day in my life.   I am not super woman, I am not perfect, my kids are not perfect and my house needs a little TLC, but I love them, all of them!!! 

This is where I usually end the blog in a profound thought or Scripture.....how about.....

"This is the day the Lord has made, 

let us be glad and rejoice in it!!!"  Psalm 118:24

The Perfecting Nature of the Cross

     Today is Good Friday and we are challenged to look at upon the cross of Christ.  A good friend of mine asked me to look over the following Scripture and contemplate what it means to be made perfect by the cross.

Hebrews 5:7-10, During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.  Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

     I was intrigued by this phrase: once made perfect. in the Greek it is the word (teleioō) and it means: to complete, carry through, to bring to an end (goal) to accomplish. 

     We know Jesus was perfect by the fact that He was sinless, blameless, and without fault.  He was also 'made perfect' by carrying the cross and accomplishing the goal.  The goal set before Him was to restore relationship between God and man. 

Luke 13:32,  He replied, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal." (NKJ says 'I shall be perfected')

John, 17:4, "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do."

John 19:28, "Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Holy Bible says this about Hebrews 5:7-10:

Christ. In the days of his flesh, made himself subject to death: he hungered: he was a tempted, suffering, dying Jesus. Christ set an example, not only to pray, but to be fervent in prayer. How many dry prayers, how few wetted with tears, do we offer up to God!

He was strengthened to support the immense weight of suffering laid upon him. There is no real deliverance from death but to be carried through it. God the Father was able to save him from death. He could have prevented his dying, but he would not; for then the great design of his wisdom and grace must have been defeated. What would have become of us if God had saved Christ from dying?

The Jews reproachfully said, Let him deliver him now, if he will have him, Mt. 27:43 . But it was in kindness to us that the Father would not suffer that bitter cup to pass away from him; for then we must have drunk the dregs of it, and been miserable for ever. His human nature was ready to sink under the heavy load, and would have sunk, had he been quite forsaken in point of help and comfort from God; but he was heard in this, he was supported under the agonies of death.  The privilege of Christ: He was a Son; the only-begotten of the Father. One would have thought this might have exempted him from suffering, but it did not. Let none then who are the children of God by adoption expect an absolute freedom from suffering.

Christ has left us an example that we should learn humble obedience to the will of God, by all our afflictions. We need affliction, to teach us submission. He was raised and exalted, and to him was given the power of saving all sinners to the uttermost, who come unto God through him.

Hebrews 2:10, In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.

Hebrews 7:26-28, Such a high priest meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.  Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.  For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.

Christ made improvement by his sufferings. By his passive obedience, he learned active obedience.

Being made perfect for this great work, he is become the Author of eternal salvation to all that obey him. But are we of that number? This salvation is actually bestowed on none but those who obey Christ. It is not sufficient that we have some doctrinal knowledge of Christ, or that we make a profession of faith in him, but we must hearken to his word, and obey him. He is exalted to be a prince to rule us, as well as a Saviour to deliver us.

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     So I echo the question of Matthew Henry to you today; Are you of that number?  The number of persons who have made a conscience choice to obey Christ?  Not just have knowledge of, or profess faith in Him, but hear His words, look upon His Cross, lay down your life and obey Him?  

This is the will of the Father:   Ezekiel 33:11, Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?’

     Are you of that number? The number of those whom have turned and faced the saving power of the cross?  If you refuse, why?  Why will you not turn and instead die? 

     Thank You Jesus, for the sacrifice You have made.  Thank You for the saving power of the cross.  Thank You for accomplishing the goal set before You.  Thank You for Your humble obedience and for becoming perfect on Good Friday.  My Saviour, my Lord!

How to Shine like a STAR....

Homeschooling provides us with so many teachable moments.  I think that is what I love most about it.  I often ask God what virtue, trait or concept I should focus on or teach the children.  I try to stay sensitive to what is going on in our home and I diligently look for opportunities to reinforce important truths to them. God has never failed to amaze me.   Today we are learning about how to stay pure and shine for the Lord. 

I found a great free website for printing out handwriting pages:  http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/flash/printdots/paragraph/ .  You can put in your text and it will print out a custom handwriting sheet. This made it possible for my youngest writer to be able to write out the Bible verse we were focusing on with ease. 

We studied Philippians 2:14-15, "Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe."  

I had each of them write out the Bible verse and as they did I explained to them just what exactly that means. 

- We talked about how it is important to do EVERYTHING without complaining!  Boy is that a lesson we can all take to heart.  I think it is more accurate to say we do everything WITH complaining lately!!!

- Without arguing!!!!  The kids were challenged with this one as soon as they climbed out of bed and their feet hit the floor.  I think this is a biggy, especially for those of us who are together 24/7!

-We talked about the importance of not complaining or arguing and how that helps us to lead blameless and pure lives. 

-Then we discussed how there are people in the world that do not believe, acknowledge or live their lives according to God's laws.  They are crooked and depraved.  I explained to them how we can stray or get lost if we are crooked and that God desires for us to keep our eyes on Him to stay on the straight path.

-I printed out this picture for them and had them color it in.  (http://www.thecoloringbarn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/star-1.jpg) .  When they were finished we talked about things that make us shine like stars....praying, sharing, helping, serving, forgiving, etc., and as we said each thing we added some glitter glue to the main star.  I told them that everyone has the ability to shine and we added some glitter glue to the top stars representing others in the world. 

-Then we talked about sin and how it gets us dirty.  I had a small cup of potting soil ready and we talked about things that would get us 'dirty' or cause us to not be pure and blameless.  Much to their horror I sprinkled a little bit of dirt on to one of the sections of the wet glitter glue on their star.  They were pretty upset that their picture now had a little dirt on it.  Shelby even tried to cover her dirt up with more glitter, but you could still see it.  This gave me the opportunity to share with them that we can try to cover up our sin, but it is still visible to God.

-Next we talked about what Jesus came to do.  I had them each bring me a baby wipe and we wiped off the dirt just as Jesus wipes away our sin when we ask Him for forgiveness.  It was a powerful moment.  Then we added more glitter glue in that spot so that it could be restored and shine again for the Lord!

-Finally we talked about how everyone has sin, everyone of us.  We added some dirt to the other stars to remember that.  They asked me how to help get those stars clean and I shared with them that they will need someone to tell them what Jesus did for them, too.  They each picked a star to 'tell' about Jesus and we then we wiped them clean and added more glitter to represent a new life choosing to shine for the Lord. 

It was such a powerful lesson.  I am so thankful to the God of Heaven who looks upon us and meets us right where we are to show us the way to shine like stars in the universe.  The kids got it.  They understood on a whole deeper level the power sin has to make us unclean and that only by the power of the blood of Jesus we can be pure again. 

Now, I would be lying if I said my children were perfect little angels the rest of the day!  I wish!  But, I will say that the only correction I have had to give today is, "Be careful and STAY CLEAN!!!!"