Why Moms Need to Look Beyond Today | Persevering in Mothering

wherever you are in your mothering new mom seasoned mom we cannot be shortsighted you may be buried in dishes diapers dinners dirty laundry today but we are playing the long game join me for a day in the life of our homeschool as I talk about persevering in motherhood [Music] we've had some really cold days here lately I looked on my phone one morning and it said it was 1° I can't remember the last time it was this cold in our area of Pennsylvania it's just really frigid outside I don't know about you but as a mom when I can get a morning like this where I'm awake before everyone else and can just enjoy the peace Quiet Moments of the morning it's just so wonderful and that's how this morning started I still have our Christmas decorations up you can probably see I know that for some people this would just be not acceptable but January is so dark and cold I like the cheer of the lights and so we keep our Christmas tree up or we have decided to this year I got up early this morning and made some baked oatmeal and had William come down to join me I would say most mornings for us my kids trickle down one at a time and I'll get breakfast for my youngest ones but then my older kids will help themselves so I don't always make a breakfast a nice meal for everyone um our breakfast is a little bit more laidback but this morning I did and that's always a nice treat for us [Applause] for this baked oatmeal I line the bottom of a 9x13 with sliced apples and then I mix up oats milk eggs some baking powder baking soda some salt and then we add some raisins and cinnamon stir that all together put it on top of the apples and just bake for about a half an hour if this is your first time on my channel hi and welcome my name is Sherry I'm a homeschooling mom to 10 kids our oldest is almost 20 and our youngest is almost two our oldest and youngest were born on the same day so in a couple weeks here we're going to have a party for one turning 20 and one turning two and then we have several kids in between I've been homeschooling for 15 years and I have been through all the stages and phases of homeschooling and I like to come on here and encourage other moms to keep persevering in the great work you're doing teaching your children serving your family working in your homes for the good of others and the glory of God it's not an easy job it's often overlooked by others but it's so rewarding really the day of this recording was inauguration day so it was bitter cold outside for one and then because of the events of the day our day looked a little bit different we started with morning time the kids did a little bit of work I took our younger kids outside in the morning and then around 11:30 we all came in we turned on the TV which is kind of unusual for us during the day that's usually off that's for the evenings but we turned on the TV and we watched the inauguration I think it's really important when we have big days like this in our country that our kids get to see it to watch it firsthand they don't have to hear about it from a second media Source they can just watch the live proceedings and and we've done this for several National events oh yeah this way like wash your hands you're not I look yummy are you not until until Trump's ter is over and then they didn't have V's [Music] presidence for our Bible reading morning time we've been reading straight from scripture and just going around round robin we look at how many verses are in the chapter divided up by the number of readers we have and they each read a few verses and this has been working really well here we're doing one of the last portraits of Albert dur this is actually a picture he drew straight out of the Book of Revelation and I think it's really cool when you do picture study and you look back at famous art prints to see how many of them come from scripture um I've seen this with D's paintings uh next we're going to do Caravaggio he has several paintings that show pictures straight out of scripture now I know this can be a hard time of year for some homeschoolers with just the short days and being so cold outside and not being able to get out as we normally do in nice weather it can be hard to keep going this time of year people get burned out I just think of all the years especially when I was a younger mom when I was just buried in the work of taking care of my family and maybe you're a mom with lots of kids like I was especially when they're all little and you're just changing diapers wiping faces taking care of the next meal the next need constantly going and it can be easy to get shortsighted and to just see what's right in front of you and to not remember the big picture of what you're doing you're at home a lot with young kids that can be really exhausting you're in a place where nobody sees or especially where Society at large just doesn't value the work of moms in the home maybe you've had people make comments or give you looks of pity feeling sorry for you as a mom with so many kids that always have needs if this is you you're in good company while Nelson and I have had so many people surround us with encouragement and just cheering us on raising our kids and welcoming a big family homeschooling them they just see the value in it of course we've also had critics and people that just question everything you're doing but you know these comments start to shift as your kids get older this totally Turns Upside Down and I was talking to my friend Lee about this recently it's easy when the kids are little for people to make comments and predictions about how many kids you're having to have their own opinions but wow things really start to shift when your kids get older and I've been able to see this we now have an adult son we have three teenagers and this is starting to really shift because our kids are getting older they have interests that go beyond what my what me or my husband are able to do they're standing on the foundation that we gave them and they're going to be going out and producing more um some of our kids have talents that are just not anything that we've ever been gifted in they are becoming adults and they're becoming our friends and these these are the people that are going to be coming home for Thanksgiving and Christmas it's no longer us being surrounded by a bunch of needy little kids they are producers they are contributing to us and they're going to be giving back into our lives just from who they become as adults so wherever you are in your mothering I encourage you to persevere play the long game scripture says don't be deceived God is Not mocked whatever a person SWS that is what he will reap and if you're investing in relationships if you're teaching your kids the word of God what you are sewing into their lives that's what you're going to be reaping in the next couple years so it may be challenging when they're really little and it is when they're all small you're just building a foundation and it's hard work but play the long game don't be shortsighted keep the long-term perspective we finished our day by watching the inauguration so we came in around 11:30 turned this on and the kids have been sledding so most of them are still in their snowsuits but we started watching this was so exciting to see and um just really made the rest of our day fun we didn't do anything else this was the rest of our school day I really want our kids to to be seeing Live Events like this not hearing secondhand news sources although there's a time and a place for that but just seeing events happen as they're unfolding so it's really important to me that the kids can watch things live there we go over here let push it there we go need mommy's helper need my helper no no don't touch do it look look you do it watch do it [Music] watch good job another thing that I think is overlooked in homeschooling which is a huge investment is the time that your kids are getting to spend together as siblings friendships come and go someday my husband and I will not be here but they will always have each other and this time that they get to spend together they're building something they're building friendships and these are going to are going to be something they have for their whole life now one thing I mentioned to you guys last week was that I've been excited to do the Burgess bird book with my kids and the Peterson Field Guide coloring book so I started that this week we started with the Cardinal and they absolutely loved it here okay so the first bird that we are going to look at okay you guys can look through these books and just look at the different birds and see which ones you like maybe you want to point out ones that you really like yeah okay can you guys think of any what birds do we see in the winter what birds do you see in the winter um I see have you seen any birds outside I see I think you have if you look carefully Julia do you know of any wait oh yeah yeah um the Eagles like eagles okay can you think of birds around here that I see these I see these outside maybe some red ones there's some red birds what are they called um Cardinals yes Cardinals so we're going to start with Cardinals cuz Cardinals are ones that stay around in Winter and you see them Benny no Mom I like this one the best I think I like these Cardinals are here in Winter and they stay around the longest and you know where they hide where do they hide it's where do the Cardinals hide remember when we were on our hike the Cardinals hide in which trees cuz they keep them almost like their feathers here's a carinal what kind of trees oh evergreen trees okay the trees with all the green stuff on them that's where the Cardinals are I've done these books with my older kids I've done the Burgess bird book and the Burgess Animal book and we do it alongside this Peterson Field Guide coloring book it's really fun they can color the picture of the animal and then there's a sticker that they can put beside it I'll leave links below for you guys if you're interested and then the really fun part is to um after I read some from the Burgess bird book and we color then we watch a little video about the animal now if you go to a humble place.com she has some great YouTube videos for each chapter in the Burgess Animal book she doesn't have them for birds so I had to look this up on YouTube we found a couple but if you're looking for videos for the mammal book she has some great selections on her website see at the bottom where the words are down here okay it has the Northern Cardinal so go ahead and read about the Northern Cardinal right here no at the very bottom oh I can yep go ahead so the mail is the well-known all red bird with a red chest or a crack black face and thick red orange be the female also has a Crest but it is brownish orange Cardinal is now common uh we should wait red a yeah we do have a red but I so I'm going to show you a picture here is another picture of a cardinal okay wait I I need to look at this oh the black so if this helps you draw your picture and I'm going to read to you a little bit about the Cardinal and do you know what the Cardinal says okay you guys might laugh at me but this is what I always taught the big kids how Cardinals sound they sound like cheer cheer CH yeah you told us that already yeah yeah okay a new friend and an old one Peter Rabbit never will forget the first time he caught a glimpse of Glory the Cardinal see him black there was one other thing I was reminded of this week that I wanted to remember to share with you guys one of our kids was sick for a day and um I always want to of course give them extra special attention when they're not feeling well but you know as a busy Mom it can be hard to just stop and there's just always so many things that need to be done but whenever I feel like one of my kids really needs me or I want to spend more individual time with them sometimes the best solution is just to stop whatever you're doing and just sit down sit down beside them listen into their conversations sitting down makes parents stop which is really good so this is just your reminder this week to stop and sit down for just a little bit sit on the floor with your kids sit listen to them play with them laugh with them tickle them enjoy being with them's no range and would like to try attracting some to your yard try putting out all right well thank you so much for joining me this week I want to remind you that you can find me over on Apple podcast or Spotify wherever you get your podcast you can find rif homeschooling you can also find me on the blog rlif homeschooling tocom thanks for watching watching I'll see you next week