It's a Wonderful Life

photo courtesy of Kaelan

My life as a wife and homeschooling mom to seven children has challenged me, strengthened me, broadened me, educated me and blessed me.  There has never been a time in the last 27 years of mothering that I have wanted to do anything else.  I am so very thankful that God, in His infinite wisdom, blessed me with a man who also believes that my "job" at home is the only career I need.

photo by Kaelan

“How can it be a large career to tell other people’s children about the rule of three, 

and a small career to tell one’s own children about the universe? How can it be 

broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? 

No. A woman’s function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is 

minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for 

its smallness.”

G.K Chesterton

photo by Kaelan

I wasn't raised to be a stay-at-home mom.  In fact, I began working when I was only 14 years old.  My parents were divorced and my mom worked two jobs to make ends meet.  Am I resentful?  No.  I can see how God was working in my life...even then when I was running the drive-thru at our local McD's.

photo by Kaelan

I went on to college, majoring in music which was never really a huge desire in my life, but was something that interested me.  It was there that Jeff and I met....married, and had the first two of our large family.  I even went on to get a master's degree....but God had other plans for me....for us.

photo by me

We had heard a radio interview with Raymond and Dorothy Moore, modern-day grandparents of the homeschooling movement.  We listened.   We took notes.  We thought that would be something nice to do if we ever found the opportunity, but we were headed to Texas  where Jeff would be a full- time seminary student for three years.  I would have to work to support the family.  Or so we thought.

photo by me

A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.  Proverbs 16:9

But then God.....  (isn't that the way it goes.... we make our plans and then....God)  God, in His infinite wisdom, closed every door for me to work.  We finally saw that not only would it cost us financially for me to work outside the home, but would also be more difficult for our young children.  So God provided... support from our home church and several job opportunities for Jeff.  And I stayed at home with our daughters, taught a few piano lessons and babysat a few other children from time to time.  God has been faithful to provide and we have never been in want.

photo by me

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.  Psalm 23:  1

photo by me

Not only has God provided us with every thing we need, but has blessed us abundantly with a home in the woods where our wonderfully talented children can be free to explore, learn, create and grow....where they can develop their own strengths and talents and become the men and women that God would have them to be.

photo by Kaelan

Unexpected blessings have come....this one was the best!  This child I felt too old and too stressed to have has blessed my heart and soul so very much.  I can't imagine NOT having this little man to snuggle with, to sing with, to watch him dance and play.  

photo by Kaelan

Or to see the world through the camera lens as some of my children do.  What beautiful sights they see and share with me.  And this is all just right outside our front door.  Our cups runneth over indeed!

photo by Kaelan

I thought I would share a few words written by C. H. Spurgeon on Hearth and Home.

Actually, I am not sure who said these words....I found them attributed to Spurgeon, but he died around 1894...before the 20th century!

Two of the most significant events of the twentieth century were women leaving the  home en masse for corporate America, and the subsequent transformation of the home from a bastion of Christian family life, domesticity and culture; to a mere flop-house of individuals co-existing under one roof.  For six thousand years, the home was the nerve center of society.  Men fought and died on foreign battlefields--not just for abstract--but to secure the living, ever-present memory of blessed family life, typified by the phrase "hearth and home."

In the Scriptural model, we see the home as an incubator for leadership and dominion, as a grand instrument for education and discipleship, as the first expression of Godly cutlure, as a place of industry and economic self-sufficiency, as the primary outlet for hospitality and even evangelism--not to mention its significance as the first law-enforcing institution to which man is exposed on his journey from childhood to maturity.

It is to the mother--as the vice-regent of the home--that the responsibility is delegated by the husband for cultivating its aesthetic beauties and virtues.  In the hands of noble womanhood, we can yet see--rising from the ashes of a broken culture--the glories of hearth and home, so that future generations will arise and declare its virtues once again.