A Drink for Weary Moms

Isa. 55:1-3 - Come, everyone who thirsts come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.  Incline your ear, and come to me; hear that your soul may live; and I will make with you and everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.

As moms, our lives can and generally do spin into the daily monotony of screaming kids, diaper changes, spilled sticky fill in the blank, dirty dishes, mountains of laundry, cooking, cleaning, and more cleaning as the littles follow you around like an aura of dust and filth, undoing what you just did in 2.61 seconds. Add to that grocery shopping, homeschooling, discipling, gardening, miscellaneous activities, and oh yea, supporting hubby and making him happy too. When we finally get a breather, we are bombarded by picture perfect Pinterest and Instagram houses and families whose kids must not have hands because there is not a fingerprint to be found in their perfect white paradises. Girls, we are drained, exhausted, spinning plates and juggling, and there comes a time when we know we are at the end of our rope. We are out of gas and we're just ready to quit. We don't have the energy to shepherd our children, we'd rather parent from the couch. And romance???? Let's not even go there... LOL! So what do we do?

Our culture tells us that we need more "me time", a girls' night out, a retreat, a vacation, more shopping. While these things are nice and not inherently bad or wrong, they are not what you need. They are not going to sustain you and nourish you much more than a candy bar will. Sure, they may give you a quick burst of energy in the short term, but in the grand scheme of things you will still crash if you are not receiving true nourishment of your own personal time in the Word. What we really need is a change in perspective that comes from drinking from the well of living water found in the scriptures. You see, if we aren't abiding in the true vine (as beautifully illustrated in John 15), our focus gets all out of whack, and we begin to think and act like this life is all about us and our comfort, our ease, and our happiness. And when we come to verses like Luke 17:7-10, we aren't comforted. We look at that servant and think, "Of course I want to come in and relax at the table, but this servant doesn't get to." And ultimately, this servant displays an attitude of humility, recognizing his undeserved gift from the master and a willingness to persevere in serving.

So our first perspective shift comes by knowing WHO GOD IS and WHO WE ARE. It comes in realizing that man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, (Westminster Shorter Catechism #1). Once we realize this by faith, then we also realize the truth and comfort of Matthew 11:28-30  Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Now, as you take up the yoke of Jesus, it may be that you are convicted to simplify your schedule, extra activities, or maybe not. But what WILL happen, is that as you go throughout your day, you will realize that you are glorifying God by cleaning the toilet, changing diapers, picking up the toys, cooking the meals, etc.  Instead of these things seeming mundane, now you can realize that you are serving the God who created the universe, the God who sustains each star, the God who formed your inmost being, the God who converted your heart; something that you did not deserve and can never repay. How can you not love and gladly serve such an awesome Savior? The joy of the Lord becomes your strength throughout your day, because you have discovered and abide in your first love. From that joy, you now have strength to serve your husband, your children, your home, and your family in Christ. Because you are drinking from the vine, out of your heart are flowing rivers of living water. Do you see that? Your circumstances didn't change, but by letting the Lord change your perspective, the burden/load/work becomes more joyful, lighter, and you recognize there is a greater purpose which is bigger than you.

The other perspective/focus adjustment I want to address comes from Proverbs 14:4 Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox. There are so many applications in this little nugget of Scripture. Our blessings generally come with responsibilities: no garden - no canning, no chickens - no cleaning the coop, no cattle - no feeding them in the winter, etc... You get the idea. But here's where it hits home to me EVERY TIME: I wouldn't have diapers to change if I didn't have a baby. I wouldn't have shoes laying all over the house if there were no feet to wear them, I wouldn't trip over toys if there were no kids to play with them, I wouldn't have fingerprints to clean up if I didn't have children, I wouldn't have a sink full of dirty dishes if we didn't have food, etc... Do you get the point, Sweet Mom? All of this is so worth the blessing of a home, food, and a family. So the next time you feel frustrated, remember this proverb and let the Spirit speak its truth into your life.  I'm thankful for the dirty diaper because it means I have an Elijah and he eats and is healthy. I'm thankful for the EIGHT pairs of shoes not put away because it means I have many healthy, active children who fill them.  I'm thankful for the sticky fingerprints on the fridge because it means my children have abundant healthy food to eat. I'm thankful for each of these blessings in disguise because by them, the Lord is sanctifying me (Romans 8:28-29).

So weary sisters, come to the fountain of the pure word. Drink and be refreshed! Worship and abide in your creator. Let your focus be fine tuned to your Savior through the Word EACH DAY. There, and no where else and in no one else, you will find rest for your souls.

The Promised Schedule

I stated earlier in a post that I would share the spreadsheet schedule I made up for this year. I made lots of changes on the template that I was using and this seems like it will work much better for us. I did it on excel, but when I uploaded it to google docs, I converted it to the google docs format. I will enclose the links.  Note that along the bottom of the spreadsheet are different "tabs". The front page is the master schedule, then each child has his/her own pared down version of it. I have other tabs for scheduling field trips, chapter book reading for each kid, and even one to record extra spelling words on.  By that I mean this: it seems like always I am being asked how to spell ________. So if it happens to be a word I feel they should know, I record it on my "spelling" sheet and the word gets added to their list for the next week.  (By the way, we do not use a published spelling curriculum. Instead we use the 1400 most commonly used words in the English language and each kid is working through that list. If anyone is interested in a more indepth explanation of how it works, let me know and I can post about that.....)

Anyway, I will also post a link to a household cleaning schedule. Again, there are tabs at the bottom for different areas of the house and a detailed list of what needs to be done in each area. We focus on one area/week (in addition to the normal cleaning). This is a joint effort between the kids and me.

School Schedule/Planner 2012-2013

Deep Cleaning Checklist

So here is how I am doing the school schedule. I used to type in each week's lesson plans. I have found it easier and more manageable this year to just use the template and write in the weekly plans by hand, that way it is easier to change if something comes up.  I bought a "trapper keeper" type binder (remember those from your school days?) I have used a normal 3 ring binder in previous years, but have found that the "fancy" binder is a lot more useful.

I printed off my master schedule (several copies so I don't have to do it each week) and hole punched it and put it in the binder. I wrote out the lesson plans on it. This is my copy that I keep track of who has completed what.  Then I printed off each of the kids their own copy and placed them in a sheet protector. I use a dry erase marker to write their weekly assignments on it. Then at the end of the week, we wipe off the dry erase sheet and write the next week's assignments.

At the bottom of their sheet I write the weekly cleaning zone as well as the memory verse reference that we are working on. Each kid keeps their own schedule with their school stuff.

My spelling lists, field trip lists, and teacher's manuals are kept in my binder as well so that they are handy and I'm not always trying to track them down.

I also keep the cleaning charts each in a page protector in my fancy binder. The "zone of the week" sheet and its protector gets pulled out each week and posted on our chore chart. We try to spend 15-20 minutes a few times each week in the cleaning zone and as each task gets done, we mark it off. All of the kids help, even the 1 and 3 year old are able to do many tasks. As a bonus, they LOVE to help. It is a good thing to train your children to love God honoring work and to do it with an attitude of joyfulness. Make sure you are presenting that attitude toward your work as well.

So there you have it... the system that is currently working for us! But as with anything, it is subject to change at any moment. Also, the schedule is meant to serve me, I am not a slave to it. It works out on paper and that won't necessarily be the case each day in "real" life! I know this. But it is a handy guide. Feel free to use our methods and adapt them in your household.