The Tender Mercies of the Lord

I hope you take a moment to watch this!

The Tender Mercies of the Lord

Tender Moments in My Life

I love being a wife, mother, and homeschool mom. There are obvious challenges that come into my life, and yet through each event I find opportunities to grow in ways that I've never imagined. These past 2 weeks have been a great example of this.

I'm trying hard to find my personal time each morning to meditate, read, and pray so that I'm spiritually prepare for the day. I've found this to be a great strength to myself and my children also. I have found such peace and an immense feeling of love that I can treasure in my heart and then share with my children all day. This is my personal goal to feel the tender mercies from the Lord.

Through my children I've had to once again change how I'm schooling them at this time. It's hard for me to change, but through their patience we come up with some interesting schedules. Just a week ago I had to basically put all we were working on to the side. Why? Well, when a child is burned out it's hard to motivate, inspire, and feed them knowledge. So we (the kids and I) sat around together one morning after our devotional and discussed what we could do. They came up with some great ideas and were excited to create their own schedules. After two days of trying their own schedules they realized it wasn't as easy and they were bored by 10am. We all know how childrens' minds change quickly and the excitement wore off. Yes, we were back to having another discussion in the family room. I presented a schedule of sorts that I'd found through my own reading and explained what subjects we would be studying and when. The next two days were much better. The kids were able to add their input and lead me to the topics they were interested and I had a blast coming up with the worksheets and activities to carry it out! So fun! Even with my two youngest sick it worked!!! I have to say that that evening it was fun for all of us to tell Daddy Greg about our day. The kids had so many things to report on, and I was able to share special moments that night when the kids were in bed. Needless to say we have our schedule for the rest of the year.

One of my favorite times with the kids is our reading time. I love choosing classics, but more than that I love, love, LOVE to have the kids come around and quietly work on something! Mary enjoys creating pictures about what I'm reading. Her abilities are improving by leaps and bounds! Hyrum enjoys coloring, drawing, or building. There are times when he can't do anything simply because he's fascinated with the story. He'll just sit and listen and watch me. Samuel is my visual and hands on learner. I know this is not as easy for him, but he loves to sit by me so I can scratch his back. I never realized how much this would bond us together. Lincoln loves to create a project out of my arts and crafts closet that is in the garage. Last week, for example, he created a robot out of a cereal box with all the facial features. He then glued a heart in the middle so the robot would be more like him......realistic! Orson loves to cut all the paper he can get his hands on, colors by his brothers, and sometimes puts his head on my lap so I can rub his head. LauraJo is napping during this time.

This past week my kids were listening to our recent book (The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli) and the young boy in the book was carving. I couldn't help it. I had to ask the kids if they wanted to carve soap while I was reading. What a blast. They were quiet carving their soap with butter knives while I read. Yes, it created a mess all over the coffee table and floor! Quite the mess to vacuum and wipe up, but I didn't care. To see their excitement, frustrations, and multiple attempts as they learned one more skill was worth all the clean up.

Ok, so who is having more fun here? I wouldn't trade if for the world.

Challenges? Yes, I have plenty. They are usually about my selfish desires, though. I have to give myself a "time out" when they are unmotivated and I wish they were different. This past week is my perfect example.

I was so frustrated last week when I realized how burned out the kids were. I could tell that this was showing way too much and giving the wrong message to the kids. As I left I asked them to just give me time to cool off and find out why I'm so selfish. So, I sat on my bed and put my head in my hands. Now what? I believe in prayer and know that Heavenly Father truly knows my needs and so once again found myself on my knees pleading for peace again. Selfishness always drives out the spirit and it was gone. I then opened my Book of Mormon for something to help me. There it was! Just what I needed and didn't know it.

3 Nephi 17:20-23. My eyes fell upon these verses as soon as I opened the book!!! Can you believe it? I completely forgot about this and boy did it help me. As I read it my heart jumped for joy. Of course a gratitude prayer was expressed as I sat back on the bed and realized I'd forgotten the first step to teaching. LOVE!!! Here I was trying to teach my children and I forgot to LOVE them first. How many of us want to learn when we aren't really ready??? Can we make a horse drink water or just lead them to it? Through the Real Love books by Dr. Greg Baer I've learned the importance of this. Loveandteach, loveandteach. It's one word.

Yes, my day went much better after that.....and I wasn't expecting that answer nor the direction it took me, BUT I'm grateful for that learning experience! Yes, I have felt and want to remember these tender mercies of the Lord.

Mary loves Rachel's Puppy!

Mary has loved meeting my sister's new puppy, Brownie! She spent time today with Rachel and Brownie and has come closer to this puppy than any other. It's touching to see how comfortable she's getting! Thanks, Rachel, for letting Mary get to know her.

Reasons why I LOVE homeschooling:

1. Hyrum enjoyed working on his homework in a tree last week, making a Pinewood Derby car with his Dad, and attending his Knights of Freedom class where the boys discussed Thomas Edison. His love of reading has taken off!
2. After discussing the Revolutionary War we enjoyed popcorn while we watched the American Girl movie about Felicity. We talked about what we would do. Can we stand up for our beliefs? Even if it means losing a friendship?
3. Lincoln enjoyed learning about worms in a park while Samuel climbed up as high as he could in a nearby tree to get his P.E. time for the day.
4. Orson & LauraJo started using the little potty after being encouraged all day by the older siblings to keep trying. They sing "Twinkle Twinkle", and the primary song called, "I Know That My Savior Loves Me". Soooo cute! I hope to capture it on camera/video.
5. I get to go to sleep at night wondering how I am going to prepare myself to inspire them the next day!!! Who needs an extra dose of love? What are my first priorities? Am I ready to face the unexpected?
6. I get to spend my quiet time in reading and preparing myself spiritually earlier than the kids. I LOVE my time to read, pray, and make my choices ahead of time to unconditionally love my children a little better each day.
7. We are reading The Island of the Blue Dolphins now and the kids don't ever want me to stop! We love to stop and guess what's going to happen and then ask each other what we would do if we were the girl.
8. I get to start preparing next year's curriculum. I love shopping for curriculum!!! (Yes, I'm very peculiar....and love it!)

There are plenty of reasons that I'll have to list another time!!!

Time with Cousins

My kids LOVE to go on walks around the neighborhood. When Sidney and Reagan came for Piano Lessons we planned to let all the kids play. After the request to go on a walk they all climbed trees, slid down the favorite green hill many times, and even got stuck in some mud! I don't know who was more tired at the end, but my kids were happy!

Eventful Week!

We really enjoyed this past weekend for a couple of reasons:
1. My Grandmother, Mary Anderson Taylor, has been struggling with her health and passed away last Tues., Feb. 2nd at 11pm. I love and miss her dearly! Yesterday we held the funeral to celebrate her life. The reunion of distant cousins was awesome!
2. Due to the above mentioned event my brother brought his family over from California. This brought 7 more kids to add to the bunch and my kids had a ball!
3. We were able to celebrate all the February Birthdays at once while they were here! It was fun to see how Dad surprised Mom for her 60th B-Day with all the pics of her kids and grandkids.