Keep Your Perspective...

This picture was taken by my oldest daughter E while we were driving along a country road in our new state of West Virginia. I think she has a good eye.

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Here's my thought: I get grumpy every day because.......why.....? Funny, it's hard to identify the reason but I think at the root of it I feel like a failure anytime the family doesn't meet the ideal that I have in my head that is my blueprint of "The Successful Family."

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Examples:

-bickering sisters

-breakfast at noon (not exaggerating)

-dirty kitchen

-school still being done at 8 pm (again not exaggerating)

-missing devotions

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My mental blueprint does not have these elements in it. Every time I miss the mark I label it as "FAILURE". I know this is irrational but there it is. Here is where I need to think about this picture and "Keep My Perspective." Things may be dark, they may be imperfect, but in spite of all "failures" am I still looking upward to Christ and pointing my children upward to Him too? If all else fails, is that happening? If I get all bent out of shape because of every shortfall I will not be looking upward or pointing upward, I will just be an irritable shrew that people want to get away from.

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So. I will relaaaax. I will major on the majors. I will ask God for direction (back to that cool picture again...God can speak to us in spite of our weaknesses, He can point the way and be certain we get the message).

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And, when faced with a perspective, I will look up...I will choose joy.

What Homeschooling Really Looks Like

Okay, Ladies....I am sure all of you have beautiful orderly homes as you educate your delightful children and get done by noon every day. But for me and my house...it doesn't work like that. So here's the rundown on a snapshot of REAL LIFE HOMESCHOOLING:

Let's see what we have here....Well, there are the remains of dinner still on the table from the night before...the BBQ sauce.  Also the remains of a milk break, my food processor and all it's gear and the manual, a cookbook, a box of plastic cutlery (I have no idea why), the aim 'n' flame (also no clue), a swiss army knife, jewelry making wire, a t-shirt coloring project, masking tape, and a glue gun. 

And of course, front and center, my science textbook...mid-chapter.  But, pray tell, where are all the children?  The arms of one child are clearly seen in the picture, but what of the other three? 

Believe it or not, I stopped mid-sentence to take this picture.  That's right folks, I was actually reading this chapter to all four of my children when, one by one they drifted away AS I WAS READING until all I had was the chaos that is my kitchen table and one single solitary child.

Now, I will confess, they hadn't drifted far, but they were not sitting bright-eyed and squeaky-clean at the table eager for more nuggets of knowledge to drop from my lips as I read aloud about the human body.  Two of them had darted into the hallway to see how many push-ups they could do since I was reading to them about arm muscles, and one had wandered off for some supply needed for her hands-on project she was pursuing at the kitchen counter while I read at the table.

Ah, yes.  This is exactly what I thought homeschooling would look like!  NOT!