Our house sold and we haven’t closed on the new one yet. This trailer is going to be our home for the unforeseen future. I have been searching for a trailer that would work for our family. We do not know how long we will be living in here. And we have 5 kids. And we homeschool. Check out this trailer! This trailer has a door to the kid’s side and 4 bunks! It has two slide-outs in the kid area! This is the BEST setup I have found.
Yet I’m still overwhelmed by the thought. Anxious and unsure. Living in this tight space is going to take lots of organization and patience.
We are so very thankful that the Lord provided a home for us. “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Duet. 31:8
God, you wanted me to write this blog. What do you want me to write about? YOU. God is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. He is my closest companion. The One who gives me constant strength to make it thru each and every day. Without Him I would be a mess. A confounded mess. Not knowing which direction to turn to. As a mom of 5 children that I home school my days are full of dirty dishes, crying kiddos, spills, fights, wrong answers, impatience, and chaos….but through Christ my days are full of thankfulness for dishes to clean because we have food on the table, sweet moments of wiping tears from cheeks and giving kisses and comfort, and bringing my children to Christ amidst all of the craziness and the chaos. Pointing them to the One who made them, who desires to know them, and the One who wants to be known thru a relationship with Him. This is the reason WHY I home school. God put this responsibility on my shoulders when these sweet babies were born. When He graciously gave me these gifts, these souls to minister to, to show the love of Christ to, to bring daily to Him. He is the One who has so clearly called me to home school.
Yet the struggle runs deep. I doubt myself daily. I see the holes. I see the sin. I see the attacks. I wrestle with so many feelings. So many more than I did when I was in the classroom teaching 25 kids that weren’t my own. I have skin in the game with my own children. The holes, the attacks, the sin are all personal. I see my heart walking around outside my body with these five kids. They are part of me and so the struggle is all the more real. My desire is for them to succeed and so my emotions run higher. My expectations are higher. So we continue to battle the sin. And we continue to fill in the holes….knowing that there are holes in EVERY education. I saw it in the schools I taught at. No education can fill every single hole. So I fall to my knees and ask the Lord to be the One to fill the holes. To cover what I cannot. And He is there. Always there. He is answering me saying, “It will be Ok.” “You are doing your best.” “I am a faithful God that will be with my covenant children from generation to generation.” His promises are true and I will rest in Him today knowing that He is a God that never fails.
One of my husband’s responses to Covid was a sudden interest in chickens. The possible lack of groceries was just too much for this family. We are known to be big-eaters. Thankfully, our metabolism is high as well or we would be in big trouble! We have had chickens before. We raised the chicks under a heat lamp, repurposed an old rabbit hutch for them, and let them free range. However, one Sunday afternoon we arrived home to a yard full of feathers, and chickens were strewn all over the yard. Our only guess is a neighbor dog had fun chasing and catching our poor chickens around the yard while we were gone.
However, this time my hubby was not interested in waiting the 3 to 6 months for the chicks to grow up to lay eggs. Covid grocery threat…we needed to be self-sustained and quick! So we found a lady who sold leghorn chickens just old enough and ready to lay eggs! With my five kids in tow and a dog kennel in the back of my suburban, we set out on the two-hour drive across Michigan to pick up these egg-layers! We arrived at the ranch and loaded up the dozen white chickens into the kennel, laid a pretty white sheet over them, and drove off. Little did we know, that at every turn and stop, the chickens would slide, fly around the kennel, and also poop. This was a disaster. A suburban is big, but not big enough to keep the smell away and stop the feathers from flying everywhere! My 12-year-old daughter broke out in tears…sitting on the backbench closest to the hens. So we rolled down the windows and tried to ignore what was happening in the back. In the dog kennel. The kennel meant for dogs. NOT traveling chickens.
When we finally arrived home, we tried to unload the chicken chickens…so true to their name. Adam got this one spot on when he named them. They are SO chicken. One by one we caught them and put them inside their new home… a lovely chicken coop and 10-foot fenced-in area. Phew! All 12 were out of the suburban. Now to clean it up… when I hear my daughter yell, “Mom! There’s a chicken on top of the fence!” And sure enough on the very top of the fence sat a chicken. She proudly looked around and then proceeded to fly out into the yard. Freedom. And one by one each chicken followed and flew to the top of the fence and flew out of their chicken run. Now chickens can free-range, but not with a black lab licking his chops about 25 feet away. Our dog was going nuts. She was about to run thru her electric fence and get a buzz just to taste a chicken in her mouth. My daughter was crying, again, and yelling because now a chicken had flown back INTO the suburban and was sitting in the driver’s seat. Thankfully, my younger son came to the rescue with a large fishing net to capture all of the chickens that were all over the yard. And this was the day that we found out that chickens can fly.
As a homeschool family, this COVID quarantine hasn’t changed too much of our routine. We continue to plug away at our school work and have even started some of next year’s curriculum. However, those extra activities like piano & violin lessons, baseball practice & games, Grace classes, all church activities & playdates that have been canceled have caused a challenge for our family to be around each other ALL. THE. TIME. There is usually only one day of the week that we are home all day! Not all seven days! My husband is a builder, so he is off of work at this time as well. So we have been intentional about getting outside as much as we can, doing projects, watching movies, organizing closets, camping in the backyard, baking and cooking together.
Character Building For Families memorization
But amidst all of the things we are filling our days with, are we using this extra time well? Are we gathering them around the table as a family and filling them with good food for their tummies, but more importantly, eternal food for their souls?
The devil likes to distract us. He makes us think that there are other things that NEED to be done. He makes us think that there are other things that we WANT to do. And all of these things can be ok, even good. We are doing life together. But, are we redeeming the time that we have been given and ministering to the souls of our children, bringing them to the Living Word?
In this time, and always, I would like to challenge us to show our children Christ. Christ crucified, Christ risen from the grave, Christ as our Mediator, Christ as our Friend, and as our constant source of strength. But, this will be a battleground. An INTENSE battleground. I see it in the eyes of my children when they would rather run outside to play basketball or jump on the tramp. I see it in my own heart when I would rather go put in another load of laundry or pour another steaming cup of coffee. This WILL be a fight. This WILL be a battle. The devil is battling us for the hearts of our children. Will we be found taking up our Sword of the Spirit, the Word, fighting for their precious hearts? Or will we let another day go by?
Mamas, I beg you, fight with me. Battle with me. Take up your arms and redeem the time that we have been given. Let’s make it so that we are able to look back at this time with joy. With the joy of learning more about Christ. Seeing Him more fully through His Word. Bringing our children to the feet of Jesus where He promises to bless them. And giving us the hope that we need during a time of uncertainty and trial.
This time of uncertainty is not going to end soon. The repercussions of this silent enemy will be huge. Life is going to be changed. But we personally know the One who doesn’t change. And we are on His side! Let’s hide God’s Word in our hearts so we are able to battle the enemy together.
Challenge your kids to memorize a chapter of the Bible! Our recent memorization was Psalm 139. Here is a video of my kids reciting it with their motions.
I have been a runner for as long as I can remember. My dad loves foot races. And so do I. I remember him challenging us to races in our backyard, sprinting barefoot through the green grass from the pool to the gravel driveway. Out of breath, we would fall to the ground in a heap of giggles.
This made me a track runner throughout middle school, high school, and college. I traded my bare feet for socks and spikes, lush green grass for the black rubber track, and my competitor was not my dad anymore, he was found in the stands cheering me on. Now, as a mom, I have competed in a couple of triathlons and other races. So I have been running for a long time.
But the running that I have been doing over the last year and a half has been similar to that of Jonah. God asked him to go to Ninevah. He ran in the opposite direction, even getting on a boat to avoid the task given to him by the Lord.
God has been asking me to write this blog. And I have been running. Hard. Ignoring the prodding voice inside, giving excuses, and giving my time to other things. But God just keeps pursuing me. And He doesn’t ever stop. He kept pursuing Jonah and He hasn’t given up on me.
I didn’t want to write a blog. It’s not me. But I am going to listen. I am going to lean hard into this task of obeying Him and I will let Him lead me. And if this blog encourages only one soul to live more fully for Christ? Then so be it. He will lead this race of life and I will follow. Barefeet and all.
Truly blessed by this girl. She tirelessly sewed for hours to send headbands and scrunchies to a home in Bangladesh. One of our friends went to visit her sponsor kids there and Hope wanted to send something along as a gift.
She gives me what her name is…Hope. Hope that the next generation will serve. Not themselves but others. Hope that the next generation will run hard after Jesus. Fixing their eyes on Him as their reward. Hope that one day all of the orphans and the pain and the sadness will all go away. Because of the Man that we’ve put our hope in will meet us face to face and say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” And all of eternity will be a fulfillment of that hope that was planted deep in our souls.
My hope is in Him. Our Hope is in Him. Praising God for my daughter, Hope, and for the next generation that will continue to carry on the torch of faith, hope, and love.
We had four sweet kids. Three boys and one girl. They played baseball and softball and took music lessons. They caught frogs and fish in our pond. We were complete. Or so we thought.
Doing laundry is a chore I don’t mind doing. Getting everyone’s dirty clothes clean for the next adventure. Often praying over them as I fold their specific piece of laundry. But every time I did the laundry, something was missing. Not just that matching pair to a sock, but a whole pile. There was an entire pile of laundry missing. I saw it almost every time I lined up my kids’ four neat little piles in a row. There were four piles but something in my mind kept telling me, “You need ONE more pile of laundry.”
Really!? But my baby is 3 right now!! He is out of diapers! Aren’t we done with strollers, diaper bags, and sleepless nights? But every time I would go into that laundry room, I would see something missing in our family. At that point, I knew I needed to listen to the Holy Spirit’s sweet and quiet whisper in my heart. We needed to add another pile of laundry. As long as my husband agreed!
He did. Our “pile of laundry” came into the world with 4 siblings who were in love. They couldn’t get enough of her. They fought over who got to hold her. They fought over who got to get her out of her crib when she woke up. She is such a blessing. I didn’t grow up with babies in my family so I didn’t understand. I didn’t see the impact.
My kids learned how to hold a baby. They learned how to feed a baby, how to buckle her in a car seat. And how to wake her with kisses and hugs. I didn’t see how a baby can add such an amazing dimension to a family that only God knew. He calls them a gift. He calls them arrows in the hands of a warrior. Why wouldn’t I want more arrows? If I can encourage you in anyway, if you are able, add one more pile of laundry to your family. You will never regret your decision. We have only one chance on this earth to raise souls for Christ. And those piles of laundry? They are the ONLY thing we can bring to heaven.
