Free 7 Eleven Coffee Tomorrow

For those of you who like 7 Eleven Coffee, tomorrow you'll be able to grab a large one free. Stop by your participating 7 Eleven and pick one up. The price is in my budget so I'm thinking that, if I can get past being a Starbucks Snob, I'll try some.

 
My sweet husband brought me back some Dunkin Donuts coffee from Bible study last night. Although I don't usually drink coffee that late, it was Dunkin Donuts so there was no coffee spike to keep me up all night.  There's no place like Starbucks. There's no place like Starbucks...

Decisions Decisions

Mama said she didn't want to work. Daddy cleared his throat. He said, "Come with me." They went to a nice little one bedroom apartment that was a bit humid from the heat of summer. It had hardwood floors and old windows with the wooden panes painted over and bricks outside the windows to hold  air conditioning units. Daddy said, "This is where we'll live if you don't work." Then Daddy took Mama to another apartment. This apartment was donned in plush wall to wall carpeting, the cool breeze of central air welcomed them, and just outside of the dining room was a sweet little balcony. Daddy said, "This is where we'll live if you do work."

That was when I was just a little person. My parents were beginning their career and they had to think about a family but that was the choice my mother had to make. The outcome? Let's just say I can't remember a thing about that plush carpet, the central air or the view from the balcony.

SAHM Movement Rocks Feminism

The feminist movement resulted in a high demand for childcare (amongst other things). In order for women to leave their homes and make, what they viewed as, a more significant mark on the world, they began to seek care for their children. Makes sense. Mom gets a job. Mom needs a fill in to do all the things she would be doing with her children while she's working. That may work for a lot of women. But here's the thing. A little while ago I saw this video from a news report on a daycare provider who looked out the window as a nine year old boy punched and kicked BABIES in the daycare. If you choose to watch the video, it's terribly disturbing but it's the very reason there needs to be a reality check in this country. There's a need for children to have mothers who will rock the feminist boat and come back home to care for them.

I've heard moms say that they couldn't stay home because their children would drive them crazy. I've heard moms say they couldn't be home with their children because they couldn't afford to.  I'd like to ask the moms who have either mindset to watch the video and ask themselves which is more important, the children or the career? If the answer is that the career takes care of the children, then I'd like to ask what material things does their career or job provide their child(ren) that is worth their replacement at home? In other words, which would the child rather have, the things or the mom.

Sometimes we get to a place where we feel that we were someone before we were moms. Sometimes we get wrapped into a selfish pity party where we trick ourselves into believing that we can have greater impact someplace else. Maybe it's that the job of motherhood is not filled with outward gratification that the workplace may provide. However, children are a heritage of the Lord, and if they are a reward, as the Lord says, we should feel gratification for being chosen by Him to mother His little ones. Besides, it's the little ones who are sacrificed when moms think in such a selfish way.

Feminists worked hard to give women choices but the choice should always be the home first, our husbands and our children. If a woman cannot stay home because she's a single parent, or she has to work because her husband can't, we should support that woman because she doesn't have the choice. However, it's time to bring more moms home to be moms, and many times it really is a choice.

Here are two of nine reasons I've made my choice. I will continue to pray for support of those who don't have the choice as well as those who choose to walk away for what they feel is a better "lifestyle." That video is one that impresses more upon my heart to do whatever (or without whatever) I need to in effort to be with my babies.

Should Older Children Help to Raise Younger Siblings?

Should older children help raise their younger siblings? I just saw that question asked on Twitter. Then, to make the question even more interesting, there were a number of comments, mostly in opposition that expressed hating when older siblings are forced to take care of their younger siblings.

I'd like to first say that it is a parental responsibility to raise children. Siblings are not parents and should, therefore, not be forced to raise children who are not their own. Now this brings me to another important factor. What one person deems as raising a sibling may not be deemed by the parent as raising the sibling. Therefore, you have before you a matter of opinion.

Some people believe that childhood should be a time of freedom, a time of games and playing without the burden of responsibility. I believe that all thing should be balanced and that childhood should be a time of fun and freedom combined with all the senses of learning true responsibility, how to serve others, and how to share with and help others. Our human nature is very selfish. We are a self seeking people, which makes it naturally difficult for us to put others before ourselves. By encouraging our children to help their younger siblings to brush their teeth, clean up messes, make their beds, and get their assignments done, we're teaching them a tremendous life skill as well as building character. These are not things that they'll get from reading a book or taking a class but things that you can only learn in real life that, in no way, take away from the freedoms that come with childhood.

In our home, our older children help with many of the day to day things I just mentioned. Our older children will even kiss and love up a younger one when they hurt themselves. However, I don't view this as them raising their younger siblings at all. Even when my older children are correcting their younger siblings by keeping them from getting into something, or stopping a toddler tantrum, they're not parenting but responding to common family situations that will follow them into their own families, and some of that is even teaching them to be peacemakers in the center of conflict.

As for those who hate when older siblings are forced to take care of their younger siblings. I have found that when a person isn't a part of a large family structure, it's a bit difficult to understand how things work. In the case of our family, and I have also seen this with the Duggars, the older children are thrilled when there's a new addition to the family and more than willing to care for, nurture, and help with the younger siblings without any force involved. The younger siblings look up to the older ones and there's a sense of trustworthiness and friendship that is developed amongst the children as they entrust one another with things that are close to their hearts.

So should older siblings help to raise their younger children? I still say no. Should they have important roles in their siblings lives and take responsibility for nurturing, loving, and looking out for their younger siblings? On that, I would have to say absolutely, yes.

Little Things Mean A Lot

My eleven year old makes coffee every morning around 5 a.m., on her own and without my asking. This is just one of the ways that she shows honor. At around 6, I drink coffee while she sips on tea and we do our devotionals. It's a time we both look forward to.

When the tea cup I let her borrow broke, her heart broke with it. She sadly said, "Now I can't have tea.". Well Daddy, being the wonderful Daddy that he is, vowed that he would get a replacement teacup, one that she could call her own.

After weeks of looking and picking out mugs (because if you can drink tea out of it, it's a tea cup to my dear husband) Daddy finally found the cutest little heart tea cup second thrift store. Her face lit up when she saw it. Now it's back to tea time. Only now, my other girlies are wanting their own tea cups too. Go figure. Now we're all going to be having coffee and tea while doing our devotionals. It's just a little thing but it means so much that they want to do these things together.

Here's Cayla's little tea cup with one of the biscuits I made this morning. I'm looking forward to picking out cups with my other girls.

The Philanthropy of a Homemaker

Why is it that a woman who wants to dedicate the most vibrant years of her life to being a homemaker is socially unaccepted? Our volunteer firemen are commended and respected for giving their time (and lives) voluntarily to the dangers of community emergencies. There are a great number of respectable people who dedicate their lives to the rescue and care of animals. Not all of these volunteer positions are held by wealthy philanthropists seeking to give back to the community; many are living on a dime (for lack of better words). The point here is that there are a vast number of humanists who seek to do their good work in the community by following what they believe to be the golden rule, do unto others. They're applauded, awarded, and adulated while the homemaker is, should I say, taboo.

I'm not going to get into the sacrifices of moms who voluntarily stay at home with their children, nor will I talk about the nurturing, the giving, or the molding that's involved in motherhood. I could say that this is a commonality amongst most mothers regardless of their occupation. However, I would like to note that the moms who do choose homemaking as a full time occupation are doing far more than a meaningless work that lacks fulfillment. On the contrary, we are doing a work that gives the greatest fulfillment of all.

As this election year has progressed, I've listened to many attacks on Ann Romney's character and intelligence simply because she's a homemaker. Many of these attacks are thrust forward out of mere ignorance as feminists react to their fear that a new image in the White House may convince more women to take on the needed role of taking up home occupations, fear that women will experience a "set back" as a result of the important White House image that future generations of women may come to admire and follow. Here's a woman who placed her children before herself, trained and educated them, showed them how to be productive in their community, and served as a support for her family along the journey of building a successful business. Not just anyone can accomplish these feats. Each one requires intelligence along with selflessness, patience, kindness, gentleness, discipline, flexibility, trustworthiness, virtue, and a number of other character traits that would make this post far too long. Besides, in a society where there are so many condemning feminists to diminish and criticize such a valuable occupation, I should probably add that there's a great amount of courage involved in being a homemaker also.

Out of all of the other opportunities I've been offered in life, I've opted to experience the firsts of my babies, to nurture them in a way that brings them to me when they have questions and thoughts instead of seeking wavering peers. I've chosen to flip pancakes and bake homemade bread in the morning, read stories aloud in the afternoon, and make full course home cooked meals in the evenings so that my family will have a list of great memories of how Mom made their days special, just as the memories I have of my grandmother. I have the honor of molding and shaping my own children into productive persons, and I do this from the time my children awaken, while they walk along the way, until the time that they lie down to bed. I love my occupation as a stay at home wife and mother. So cheers to Ann Romney for standing up, defending and setting a great example for all of us stay at home Mommies who know that the choice to stay at home and shape the future from our own front door is philanthropy at its best.

Our Year Round Homeschool

Today is our first day back to school after a break of about two and a half weeks. Our family does year round homeschooling simply because I find that the children retain what we learn when we're working year round. I don't have to spend a great deal of time on review and we generally plan two weeks off after we've worked ten weeks, with the exception of holiday time when we work things out a little differently.

With a variety of ages ranging from seven months to seventeen, we have been pretty creative in the way we approach school but the method that appears to work best for us is doing group study for most subjects and independent for some others. Naturally, the children have their individual math curriculum but most of our other subjects are done as a group with some independent work broken out by skill level.

Our day starts off with Bible and Character. We believe that the most important thing we can pass on to our children is God's wisdom and we do that through their Bible teaching. God tells us that we are to teach His words diligently to our children, making them sharp, and talk to them about His words when we sit with them, when we walk with them, when we lie down and when we rise up (Deut. 6:5-7). So my husband and I believe it is a priority to make sure that our children are in an environment that teaches them about the Lord throughout the majority of their day because of the principle in the Deuteronomy 6:5-7 scripture and Bible and Character study is viewed as the most important element of our study for that reason.

The rest of our school day is combined with a variety of reading and hands on projects. My ninth and twelfth graders are currently reading Don Quixote and it's been a pleasure to see how they've enjoyed 17th century literature. My younger ones are doing the abridged version of Don Quixote and have also really enjoyed some of the living books we've read on the history subjects. We believe that God's hand has always been in the history of the world, we choose curriculum that highlights how God has shaped this world so that we can show our children that just as things unfolded from Adam and Eve to Christ, He is still shaping this world for the things that are to come. I'll be talking about some of the curriculum we've chosen for this year as we progress.

Our girls are studying home economics to learn how to be efficient keepers of the home. We learn through Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House and a few other resources. This book is the absolute most thorough book I've seen and the reviews on it are outstanding. I use this book as a reference and decided to teach from it this year. We'll also be creating our own sewing patterns and sewing up some pajamas for the boys this fall. I think they'll be better housekeepers than their mom!

 I'm excited about our school week. I think it'll be a great year of fun and learning for us all.