Tuesday 2 April 2013

House Cleaning and Home School ?

Today I am not going to share any magic formula on how to home school and keep a clean home. There are many amazing mom's who share on how to accomplish that. Today I'm going to share a little about me and my journey.  Homeschooling is my passion and I enjoy it immensely, house cleaning on the other hand is not my passion at all in fact I wish I could click my fingers the way Mary Poppins does and every thing would jump back to it's place instantaneously! Personally I like a place for everything and everything in it's place however I share my space with a multitude of personalities which makes having it perfect all the time an impossibility.

I've come to realize that personality and circumstances all influence the outworking of house cleaning and home school either working in concert together or acting like opposing forces!

Seasons
Looking back over the last 23 years I have come to realize that their are many seasons in a woman's life and many factors that influence her ability to maintain a home that is a safe haven for her and her family. I have come to understand that during the seasons of life when I looked after myself {Mother Culture} balancing home duties and home school were easy.

The seasons when we were schooling through a crisis (two spinal surgeries and two immigrations) it was very hard to balance the two. Recently I have been walking through a season of standing with a teen who is trying to find a new direction and this has been emotionally draining and home duties have had to take the back seat. As a result I'm now playing catch up and trying to re-organize my chaos (can't have anyone over syndrome).

I've had seasons of a very tidy home and seasons where my friends and family have had to jump in and help.  I remember well the day I had a meltdown when Paul came home and expressed his frustration and the not so tidy home. My response was "Love we have a choice we can place the children in school and I can take on full time home duties and provide us with a picture perfect home OR for this season I home school and we don't have a perfectly tidy home" It was hard coming to the point of realizing that I just couldn't keep a perfect show home and home school. After all we do actually live in our home and it shows.

He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young. Isaiah 40:11 This is a season of having young ones in the fold and as such we need to be gentle on ourselves and our young.
 

Source

A place of safety 

I have found that my home is no longer a haven of solace to me or my family because it's over run with clutter and that in turn makes it hard to keep clean. I am pleased to have walked through this experience it has shown me that it's not that easy to keep home organized and well run during difficult seasons and seasons of change.  I am even more pleased that my sister is living with me and giving me a hand to become better organized. Some of us are naturally able to do all and some of us are not and therefore have to work at it a lot more.

This experience has softened my heart and provided me with insight and understanding towards others whose homes are perhaps not as well kept as my own. I tried working part time a few years ago and I take my hat off to you mom's who do that too I just could not keep all the balls in the air!

Today I read this statement over at Raising Arrows that spoke to me: I believe the purpose of your home is not to create a place that sacrifices the family on the altar of appearances. I agree but I do say as in all things we need to find a healthy balance. A perfectly clean home and an unhappy mom is not worth it. After all you are the indispensable ingredient and if you are not happy no one is happy.

An Ode to Tired Mama's

Take the children along
I feel we do not only our selves a disservice but our children suffer too if we do not teach them how to maintain a home. Anything worthwhile takes time. My friend Mrs S always used to say "Stop credit card parenting!" This was her analogy. If I purchase an item on credit I spend years with the pain of interrest payments combined with base payments. If I save up and then buy I can enjoy my purchase debt free. The moral of the story it's so easy and quick for me to do things myself around the house (credit card parenting quick and easy) but the high interest comes as my children grow and add to the work load. If I savings account parent it takes up to four times longer to accomplish a task (and I end up dealing with attitude . . .) BUT the rewards long term out weigh the effort. Long term they understand the consequence of their actions and they are able to help carry the load making life easier for everyone including themselves. Everyone gains more free time to enjoy doing the things they enjoy including having a safe haven to return to after a day out and about. More importantly children gain a sense of self worth and a feeling of I am needed and important in my family.


How do I ?
Over the years I have used a number of different approaches that have worked.  Nothing works perfectly all the time because things change. Children grow, outside the home commitments change, health issues arise, crisis happen, needs alter. I have found it is important that I keep searching for new ways to encourage and move my family forward and for this I have found Pinterest to be an amazingly empowering resource providing you don't let it paralyze you into doing nothing! 

I have learned that the key to making house cleaning more attainable is having an organized home / home school area and finding your rhythm and what works for you during your particular season of life. What works well for one person might not work for you so experiment and try new things until you come to a place of contentment.


Pinterest

Encouraging bloggers

clean, cleaning,mom 52 Week Organized Home Challenge Homemakers Challenge Raising Homemakers

On the WWW

The question is : House cleaning and Home school is it possible ? The long and the short of it is YES it is. I would like to encourage you to find what works for you. When deciding what to do take into consideration your current season of life and the ages of your children. As Diana Waring says: "You are the indispensable ingredient" without you there is no home, no home school, so look after yourself, make small permanent changes in order to effect long term change.

Blessings
Chareen

This week
 ---ooOoo---

Linking with
Teach Me Tuesdays Hip Homeschool Hop Button The Homeschool Village


** Photo Credit Stuart Miles

TT - Queen Elizabeth II

This week ...


  • Format: Hardback
  • Number of Pages: 63
  • Vendor: Usborne; Publishers
  • Publication Date: 2012
  • ISBN: 978-1-4095-3954-4
  • Series: Usborne Young Reading
  • Author: Susanna Davidson
  • Illustrator
I am really loving this new series by Usborne.  This is a twaddle free book about the life of the Queen from her birth to present day.
This book contains six chapters
  1. Family
  2. Heir to the Throne
  3. Love & Marriage
  4. Head of State
  5. Family Strife
  6. A job for life
It contains beautiful photographs well written text make this an excellent resource on the life of Queen Elizabeth for young and old alike.

Blessings

 Welcome to Tuesdays Treasures.  I started these posts as a way of sharing great books in honour of my friend in New Zealand who would arrive with the treasures she had unearthed at her weekly trip to the library!

There are so many wonderful books out there hiding on shelves so I invite you to blog about a book on your shelf, one you're reading or one you found at the library and add your post to Tuesday's Treasures Resource Link Up below.
Please link to this post. 

A Button for you.
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Pop on over and see what others are sharing.
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Every bed of Roses
--oOo--




Monday 1 April 2013

30 Days of Praying for our Children

My friend Marcy from Ben and Me has been sharing about the book Lead Your Family Like Jesus and has invited us to join her for the month of April in seriously praying for our children every day. Prayer is not something I find easy to do while in the trenches of parenting and school and home duties. I prayed through Stormie's book The Power of a Praying Parent years ago and was amazed (yes I know I shouldn't be . . .) at the changes I saw in them and more importantly the changes in in me and my attitude over that dedicated month.

Marcy shared a quote by Tricia Goyer from the book which really spoke to me this morning.
Prayer is an essential act of will that demonstrates whether we're really serious about living and leading our families like Jesus. Without it we'll never be able to connect our plans and efforts with God's plan for His kingdom, or engage the spiritual resources Jesus promised in the work of the Holy Spirit.

Marcy shared a how Tricia broke down prayer into four main areas in our children's lives: head, shoulders, knees and toes.

Heads: Psalm 3:3
But you, O Lord, are a shield around me;
you are my glory, the one who holds my head high.

Shoulders Psalm 55:22
Cast your burden on the Lord [releasing the weight of it] and He will sustain you;
He will never allow the [consistently] righteous to be moved (made to slip, fall, or fail).

Knees James 4: 8-10
Come close to God, and God will come close to you.
Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts,
for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.
Let there be tears for what you have done.
Let there be sorrow and deep grief.
Let there be sadness instead of laughter,
and gloom instead of joy.
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.

Toes Hebrews 3:12-14
Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters.
Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving,
turning you away from the living God.
You must warn each other every day, while it is still “today,”
so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God.
For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed,
we will share in all that belongs to Christ.

If you are committing to pray for your children for the next 30 days, leave a comment below so we can pray for one another on this journey of praying for our children.

Blessings
Chareen


Graphics from Ben and Me Facebook Photo Stream