Motherhood

So there have been two things that I’ve been avoiding : doing our taxes and polishing up a synopsis for a novel I have written. Funny how I have written the whole story, I’ve edited  it multiple times, but then I cringe at doing a synopsis. Probably because the idea of consolidating an entire story in a few pages feels overwhelming. Would I have to read the whole book again to nail the synopsis?

Nope.

However, to make sure I didn’t miss anything, I did skim read the book. Since I’ve written it already, I pretty much know what happens from a skim read. After days of working on it, I can finally say the synopsis is done. {YAY}

Now back to those taxes…

The taxes gave me a headache. This is because we have multiple businesses and keeping track of them has resulted in a paperwork fiasco. I’ve stayed up many late nights gathering receipts  and staring in a semi-comotose state at the Turbo Tax screen.

This year, I’ve resolved to streamline this whole thing and to learn how to do basic bookkeeping. My mother was an Accounting major, so this stuff should come naturally to me, but it doesn’t. I tend to overcomplicate things. It’s just how I’m wired.

Funny though, I’ve been using the taxes to procrastinate on polishing the synopsis and using the synopsis to procrastinate on doing the taxes.

This is what they call Type A mania 😉

One of my “things” is obsessive list making. After I read the book “Getting Things Done,” I am all about the context lists. I have ‘to do’ lists ready for most areas of my life: @ the computer, @home, @phone, @errands, @waiting (things I’m waiting on). My life is pretty full and using David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” method has kept me on track (most of the time).

Now that it’s the day after Christmas, I have some down time. I’d rather do this:

But I really need to do this:

I need to clean all the spaces in my house that I haven’t gotten around to during the year…like baseboards and the tops of kitchen cabinets and the backs of stoves. I’ll also dejunk my house and my garage of excess clutter. Helps me clear my mind and my space for the new year.

But I won’t spend my entire day engaged in backbreaking labor. To feed my creative side, I’ll also do this:

I am a journaler and I love to write by hand. When I wake up early enough, I prayer journal to clear my brain and set a course for my day.

An aside: Do you see a trend here with my desperate need to regularly clear my physical and mental space? The Man says I get a fit of the crazies and start dumping everything in sight. He wisely advised that I stop bringing items into the house…ahem, shopping…to avoid this vicious cycle.

But that’s no fun.

Anyway, during this period before the new year, I’ll also be engaged in other types of writing besides prayer journaling. I’ll write my intentions for 2014, I’ll pound out wordage on a manuscript I’ve been working on, and I’ll be doing the final edits on a manuscript before I send it off to be critiqued.

And I’ll have to put up all the Christmas decor in the house and put our tree out on the sidewalk to be picked up by the trash man. My three year old will be devastated, but I’ll keep reassuring him that we’ll have another tree next year.

What will you be doing between now and January 1st?

We recently went on a family trip to the Spend a Day with Thomas the Train event in the Amish country. My son looooves Thomas the Train. I have even overhead him praying for Thomas the Train’s healing “in Jesus’ name,” lol. So The Man thought it was good idea to take him to see Thomas the Train in person!!

We were in the Amish country and I was in awe of the Amish lifestyle. They rode horse and buggies while  cars zipped on by. They work outside for long hours in BITING COLD weather. They line dry their clothes. I wrote on Facebook that I felt like a slacker after watching them 🙂

The Man said that as much as tourists come to visit the unique Amish lifestyle, they (the Amish) must think we are pretty weird for traveling long distances to ride on a train with a permanent grin on his face 🙂 Crazy modern folk, I tell ya.

Notice in this picture that The Man is wearing a Bob the Builder hat. The grown ups forgot to bring their hats so The Man used the 3 yo’s hat. We were joking about how we had the children all prepared for the cold weather, but we weren’t. Part of being parents, I guess. I, however, refused to wear a children’s hat in public. The Man is braver than I am.

(An aside: I wrote in this caption that I could never stand outside all day in the cold to sell stuff to tourists. But The Man gently reminded me that I used to do this growing up in the flea markets with my parents. I tagged along with my parents and sold jewelry at indoor and outdoor flea markets in very hot and very cold weather. Later, we moved on up to having a store in the shopping mall. So maybe I am like the Amish…vaguely.)

That was how we spent our weekend before Thanksgiving. We stayed at a lovely Bed and Breakfast owned by a great Christian family. Hopefully, we will get to see Thomas the Train again next year.

This is a subject near to my heart because in a few (short) years, I plan to homeschool. So I’ve asked a veteran homeschool mom, Randi Tisdall from Beautifully Bohemian to share her insights. Take it away Randi!

“How Homeschooling Found Me”
By Randi

I never thought I’d homeschool.

In fact, I didn’t think I could make it to the pre-school stage
without tearing my hair out.

I have twin girls, and they are wonderful kids. However, it was tough
being a mom of two toddlers and trying to take care of them while running
a household! During the early years, it was never a question of
whether or not they were going to go to public school. I mean, they
“had to” right? I did it, my husband did it, and my parents did
it…actually, I didn’t know anyone who hadn’t gone to school. I
was ready and counting the days. And then something magical happened…

…I met a homeschool family.

My husband had been sharing stories for weeks about this wonderful family
he had met, and I was intrigued because I had never been exposed to that
type of family before. They invited us all over for a BBQ one Saturday to
celebrate a special occasion. I think about that now, an afternoon with
these lovely people, and I realize that I was a changed woman that
day. I saw possibilities I never knew existed!

A light bulb went off. “You mean, I can keep my kids at home and
school them…myself?”

It’s not like I hadn’t heard about homeschooling, but those were
the weird kids. The ones that stayed locked up in the basement, didn’t
have any friends, and smelled funny.

After that lovely afternoon, I learned that homeschoolers can, and
are, much more than society makes them out to be. These kids were
smart, well behaved, friendly, and well adjusted. The eldest, about 8,
chatted to me about her studies, as she pulled me around her school room.
The little one, about 5, sat at a piano in her swim suit and played
Beethoven. I was blown away, not just by their intelligence, but also by
their excitement and willingness to learn.

I was impressed, but what stuck out the most for me was seeing the love
between the children and their mom. More than anything, I wanted that
love and trust with my own. Could we develop that kind of relationship if I put their education into my own hands? Could I make that sacrifice to stay at home with them?

From that point on, I really thought about it. Hard. I loved the idea,
but…could I do it?

I thought about my school experience, and it sent shivers down my spine. I
was picked on, I had few friends, and the teachers were less than
unsatisfactory. I came home crying everyday and hated every minute of
it.

I wanted so much more for my kids than what I had experienced growing up.

So, I made a pros and cons list. I started checking out books at
the library about homeschooling, doing research online, and I had
MANY conversations about it with my husband and parents. They all said “go
for it!” I thought, “I don’t know if I have the patience, but I’m willing
to try!”

Fast forward to now. My kids just completed 3rd grade.

I look back at all the fear I had about homeschooling, and it seems so
silly to me now. Homeschooling is a process, and while
that first year of schooling my own was a challenge, it was necessary to
get to where I am now with my children. If there’s one thing I
learned, it’s that you don’t have to be perfect when you start. You will develop
your own way of teaching, and yes, you will LEARN patience (otherwise
nothing will EVER get done lol). Your method will evolve, and soon you
will know exactly what is and isn’t successful for your family.
For ours, we have taken the Waldorf approach to schooling, which is more
art and literature based.

Most importantly, the best thing you get out of homeschooling is
the bond between you and your child. Just like when they said
their first word or used the potty for the first time, you are there now
through a new set of milestones! I was there the first time each of my
children read a book aloud. I was there when they successfully completed
their multiplication tables. And I’ll be there when they graduate and move
on to the next adventure. Yes, the love and trust is there, and it is
strong.

The power to teach with love is in each of us, we just have to let it
blossom.

*Blessings and Love*

-Randi

For more on my adventures in homeschooling, plus tips and lesson
ideas, visit my blog at BeautifullyBohemian.com!

Spring has emerged from its long hibernation. I’m enjoying the sun rays warming my back as I take the trash outside. Upon returning inside, I notice a bowl of homemade banana pudding, Mama’s labor of love, upturned on the freshly mopped floor. The three year old and the one year old exchange a mischevious glance. I step over it, resisting the urge to pick up the bowl, wipe up the mess and be done with it.

They have to learn to clean up their messes. I won’t always be there for them.

I walk to the laundry room and empty the dryer.  Warm, fluffy clothes fill a plastic laundry basket. More clothes to fold. I open the washing machine and toss the damp clothes into the dryer. More clothes to dry. The faint sound of innocent giggles tickles my ears. I start my folding regimen. I daydream about solitude.

I’m an introvert by nature. When it’s quiet, I have time to think. And write. When it’s quiet, I can tap out a sentence on a keyboard. And when it’s not so quiet, I steal moments to write.

But some days, these moments slip from my grasp.

And so I fold laundry. Or wash a dish. And wonder how to remain creative during the daily. A silent fear begins to overwhelm me, a fear which my rational self fights hard to ignore.

Will I be relegated to the daily forever?

I wonder if Jesus asked himself the same question when the disciples asked him how they were to feed the four thousand.

I’ve grappled with this question many times in my domestic ventures, especially when I’ve tried to finagle writing a page of my novel in a notebook while rocking a baby in the middle of the night. Or when I pass by a craft store and admire an intricate quilt that a pair of gifted hands created.

Could I be gifted with such a long stretch of time to create?

There is room for art in any life we have – any life, no matter how crowded or overstuffed, no matter how arid or empty. We are the (writer’s) “block” we perceive -Julia Cameron, “Walking in this World”

To believe that I need a long stretch of time to create is an excuse not to create. I’m here. I’m steeped in the daily.  And I’m fully present {when I’m not daydreaming.} Divinely appointed to rock babies, wipe runny noses, and clear poopy butts of fecal rubbish. Divinely appointed to teach and to nurture and to love.

And sometimes I discover sparks of the creative in pages I scribbled in the middle of the night. Or when I notice my children giggling at one another while I fold laundry.

And when I feed two mouths at a dinner table, my four thousand….

…Miraculous.

I’m excited to welcome Cheri Swalwell to the blog today. Cheri is the author of two devotionals  “A Forty Day Habit Between Friends, Because They Need You” and  “A Forty Day Habit Between Friends, Taking it to the Next Level” which are available now.

Does parenting come naturally to you, or did you feel like a fish out of water the first time your little one was placed in your arms? Maybe you’re gifted with handling the baby/toddler stage, but the preteen years and beyond send you into a full-blown anxiety attack. Do you have one child whose compliant, another out of control, and a third or fourth somewhere in the middle?

I believe children are a gift from God, but I also think parenting is one of the hardest jobs a person is blessed to have. Every day presents different challenges and if you have more than one child, sometimes multiple times a day you are called on to have insight you just don’t feel equipped to dish out. I’m so glad I’m a follower of Christ, because without His wisdom, this parenting journey would be much more difficult than it already is.

This devotional was created from a blog I started over a year ago. Each topic is short and to the point and speaks from a godly perspective about specific challenges you may or may not face during your parenting years. They’re perfect for when you want to connect with God at any time of day and small enough to fit in your purse or briefcase. They’re a great gift to give to an unsaved or seeking relative or friend as it’s just me talking, friend to friend, sharing from my heart. They are the same conversations I would have with you over a cup of a coffee, during a play date, or sitting alongside you on the bleachers.

It has been said that it takes approximately forty days to create a habit. That is why this devotional has forty messages, just the right amount to get you started on a healthy habit of connecting with God. It’s small and compact, but full of morsels to get you thinking about your own relationship with God.

Thank you for joining me on this journey. Can’t wait to connect with you.

About Cheri

Cheri Swalwell is a wife, mother, and avid reader, but first and foremost she is a Christ follower. She has a degree in Psychology and has been blessed to be a guest on a variety of blogs including Christiandevotions.us, Circle of Friends, and Crosswalk.com/family. She is a regular contributor to book fun magazine. If you want to hear more about the heart she has for marriage, parenting, and relationships from a Christian perspective, feel free to visit her blog: http://journeysfromtheheartofawifeandmother.wordpress.com or “like” her on Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/cheri-Swalwell. She loves to interact with her readers, so feel free to connect with her at clSwalwell99(at)gmail(dot)com