Reminds me of The Episode of the Purple Crayon in a Sunday School class, circa 1985. I (19 years old) was asked to fill in for the regular teacher . Said yes. Everything going fine until another kid wanted the purple crayon. Suddenly they all want the purple crayon. I managed to convince them that she who had it first had the right.
PF, This is Geralyn. My dear husband asked me if I would be able to give you some encouragement. Your post sounds so much like calls that I get from my daughter, a homeschooling mom of 4 very loud children that are very capable of standing their own ground. It is very evident how much you love your children, but let's face it. Mothering and homeschooling is not for whimps. It is embracing the cross. On some days it feels very splintery and we would like to set it aside for just a few minutes. I have often told my daughter that God never tests us beyond our strength, but that I thought that kids did. With homeschooling, the mom never gets a break. I remember a time when I just got so sick of being touched by my kids. I actually offered it up to God when they would climb up on the couch and get as close as possible to me. I felt like a total failure having to offer that up to God. I had a prayer that I said quite often that told God that I was sorry that I had disciplined or yelled at my kids when anger was in control. Try not to compare yourself to others. It usually just leads to discouragement. How easy it is to "say", but so difficult to put it into practice! I still struggle with comparing my old farmhouse containing 7 generations of collected junk, 20 years of homeschooling supplies, as well as items left behind by 6 kids to other people's neat, up to date homes. You seem to struggle with feeling that you are failure. I don't think that success is achieving the ideal, but rather that one keeps getting back on the horse even though they know that they will probably just fall off again. Rejoice in the fact that you heroically get out of bed each morning to start over again. That is holiness. I understand about the noise. I also had piano players and those added decibels could push me over the edge as I am a person who likes quiet. Is there anyway that you can get away from the piano? Would earplugs help? We had a daughter who suffered from bad migraines. When this happened at a meal, we had whisper night where everyone had to whisper. Maybe your kids would think that was weird enough to do for 15 min. or so, but I don't know because you have 2 young children. One thing that we did with our children was to do whatever we could to make Christ a real person to them. We did morning prayer and evening Bible with them. When we did this, the time often seemed chaotic and unproductive.However in the long run, it produced great fruit. These times were tailored to the children's age. Prayer might be motion songs, building with blocks while singing "Building up the temple of God", etc. Bible time often involved acting out a Bible story. The boys loved dragging out the dead bodies of Ananias and Sapphira. When we left church , we blew a kiss to Jesus in the tabernacle. We also celebrated baptisms and Holy Days. We created a lot of traditions for these. Now that all my children have left the nest, it brings me great joy in seeing my children carrying on these traditions and or making their own so that Jesus will be real to their children. My youngest daughter, who has an almost 2 year old boy, uses a stack of holy cards with him at night. He picks 2 and they talk about the picture, etc. In actuality, often he will just toss the cards in the air. However, he is still hearing about the saints and asking for their prayers. I will close with the image of a blond haired blue eyed 2 yr old who has just pulled over a pyramid of redwood stain at a Home Depot. He has blotches on him from the top of his head to his shoes. The floor has an enlarging pool of stain. Mom wants to crawl into a hole. That little guy is now one of the most dynamic priests I know. Hang in there. Make getting some quiet time for yourself a priority.
Thank you so much! This was so helpful and comforting. Yes, we make Jesus and Mary and the saints living and real to our kids on a daily basis...and I love what you said: It often seems chaotic and unproductive...every night when we gather around the bed and I can't get even the 8-year-old to kneel quietly without him throwing his body around like a ragdoll lol. But they all pray, even the 1-year-old! He chatters away like he knows he's talking to someone. My 2-year-old really gets going. She asks Jesus to help her with things she needs, take care of Daddy when he goes to work, make sure she gets to see her cousins soon... She prays the longest of all of us haha. My 8-year-old tells us often of how God helped him with this or that throughout the day, and how he prays for more people to know and love Him. So I am very encouraged when I'm reminded of how that's what's truly important. You and Terry seem like such wonderful holy people. How blessed you are to have raised priests! My husband and I tell God all the time we'll take as many boys as we need to get to raise a priest. I know this season is just crazy and I am super grateful for these and any more children God wants to send me, as inadequate as I am. Sometimes I just need to talk about it with someone who understands. Thanks, Terry, for bringing your lovely wife on here to talk to me!
“I will close with the image of a blond haired blue eyed 2 yr old who has just pulled over a pyramid of redwood stain at a Home Depot. He has blotches on him from the top of his head to his shoes. The floor has an enlarging pool of stain. Mom wants to crawl into a hole. That little guy is now one of the most dynamic priests I know.”…..PRICELESS!
I feel the struggle, PurpleFlower. When my two children were one and two, due to a extended family plight we became an instant family of six. Our nephews at the time were six months and one and half. I had to ask for God's grace to make it through each minute vs each day. It wasn't easy raising four little ones under two but managed by repeatedly telling myself that God would not have put me in a pickle without helping me out.
As St. Paul says, "I can do all things in Him who strengthens me!" Mary, thank you for upholding your child during her years of raising children!
I am also thankful for my patron Saint Theresa, she showed me that in my own little way I was glorifying God.
Yes so true. I kept repeating the scripture "he who receives a child in My Name receives Me." So I kept saying thank you Jesus for coming to me. It helped a lot.
I have been thinking about your post, waiting to answer. All I can add is some humor! My mother who had seven, and I was the oldest girl with one older brother, always said children were 'barbarians who needed to be educated". Ha! well at least in our house. I had two sons and worked full time, too. I would do my work after they went to bed and up until 2 a.m. getting it done, so had years of short night's sleep. But I do miss them being little! Now we have an empty house and no grandchildren close to us. I so miss the kids around. We just visited our only grandson who is 11, I hadn't seen him in three years. I wish I were close enough to help you out and babysit, but we are too far away. But, this too shall pass, and one day you will have gotten through it. Lots of good advice from the posters for you. I would take the boys once a week to the park or someplace special and that would give them something to look forward to, and I always told them in advance what was expected of them. That made the going easier . . .God Bless You and your family.
