"I Don't Know How You Do It All"

"I don't know how you do it all."  If I had a dollar for every time someone has said those words to me, well, I'd at least be able to buy a nice pair of shoes. :)  But seriously, I get that a lot.  I guess I am involved in a lot: homeschooling, small group, MOPS, cakes, singing at church, etc.  I don't know.  Most of the time it doesn't feel overwhelming to me.  The first thing I always say to people when they remark to me about this is that it's God's provision of grace for me that enables me to do so much.  And that is 100% true.  Primarily I have children who entertain themselves and require very little intervention from me during the day (after school, of course).  Except for lunch.  Ahhh....lunch.  If I could just skip from 11:00-1:00 every day and have everyone magically fed, I'd be a happy woman!!  But anyway, today it occurred to me that there is another reason why I am able to do everything that I do.  It's because I say "no" to a lot of other things.  None of my children have ever attended pre-school, none are involved with any kind of sport, none take lessons or other kinds of classes outside of the home, and we rarely do playdates or other trips out of the house during the day.  All of these things can be "good" things, but they are things that if I said yes to them, it would inhibit my ability to be involved in other areas.  And for our family right now, this is the choice we have made.

Now, you might look at that list and say, "aren't your kids the ones suffering as a result though?"  Well, you could ask them, but I think they are perfectly happy.  We do go out and do fun things, we just don't do it every week.  They have lots of fun adventures with Dad on the weekend, which gives all the "boys" important time together.  When they are older, we will probably pursue the idea of sports or classes of other kinds, but for now, we are homebodies.  And in the meantime, I have three boys who love to play together, who use their imaginations for hours every day creating "Thomas stories" in the basement, coloring and drawing cards and pictures, riding their bikes, building with Legos, reading books, listening to books on CD, running around in the yard, learning to garden, being helpers in the kitchen and around the house and all kinds of other things that happy, growing boys love to do.  With plenty of time with Mom just being here if they need me and of course lots of time together reading and learning nearly every day.   By homeschooling, we have given them the gift of time to just be kids, and in return their gift to me is the time to serve in some special God-given ministries for this season of my life.  It won't always be this way, but I am thankful that it is right now. :)