How do you do it?

The most common question Dave & I get asked everywhere we go with the kids. I don’t think it’s so much that we have 4 (we honestly don’t think 4 is THAT many kids) but the fact that they are so close together. My answer is, I honestly don’t know! I get up in the morning, fix breakfast, go over scripture with Franky or play scriptionaire on my Iphone before he has to go off to school (YUCK). The girls get up and I change them and get them ready for the day. I make sure the hubby’s uniform is ironed & ready to go…and my day starts. I run at the speed of life! Same routine everyday. I homeschool our 2 & 3 years old (YES, I teach them from colors and alphabet to biology and 3D shapes…we have a very high standard when it comes to education in this home, my son was learning Reformed Theology, Exegesis and Hermeneutics last year in 3rd grade) academics in the morning…along with the daily lessons God presents us with on patience, forgiveness, love, perseverance, obedience…sharing. Snack time and then, it is off to make lunch. After lunch they all go down for a nap and while they nap I cook dinner and occasionally blog. Afternoons are more creative. Arts and crafts, baking, painting, music (I play classical music for the girls…they love Mozart & Beethoven)…after that we go exploring outside. I lay a blanket on the grass or our drive way and I teach them about the heavens and our beautiful creator while they watch the clouds fly by. They love it! They ask me often, mommy are we going to watch the clouds today? It is the simple things I want them to cherish, the simple yet beautiful things I want them to soak in and bring life to their heart. When we come inside it’s shower time for all 3, dinner time followed by veggietales, bible stories and night-time prayers. All that while dealing with potty training, cleaning, doing a million dishes (we don’t use a dishwasher, I AM the dishwasher! LOL), organizing ( I am OCD about a clean and organized home…I am working on it!!!), laundry, folding clothes, putting away clothes, ironing and everything that happens unexpectedly during the course of our day. A gazillion Cheerios on the floor that have been conveniently stepped on, water leaking from sippy cups, the girls fighting, Kenny opening drawers or getting into the bathroom to unroll the toilet paper and drag it around the house!

I don’t know how I do it! Nevermind, I do…the GRACE of God and my AMAZING husband. God blessed me with a man that loves being a part of their lives, changing diapers, making them breakfast, changing them or simply laying on the floor and letting them jump on him like a bounce house! 🙂

God not only gets me through the day but allows me to enjoy my role as a wife and mommy to these precious 4 kids. Only a crazy person (or one that has been radically changed by the love of God) would think of having more! LOL Yet, we are. Only God could have done the work in our hearts to change it from “we are DONE!” to I must be obedient to the call…and allow God to guide us into how many children we should have. I had an IUD on. After God working in our hearts and much study of the word, we decided we could not violate our conscience anymore and to remove it. If we are going to claim to trust God then we MUST hand over to Him every single area of our lives, holding NOTHING back! So we stepped out of the boat and into the unknown…we know who holds out future and He has better plans for us than we do for ourselves. 🙂 I don’t just make it through my day, I am present and enjoying every moment. Not to say I don’t have days where I pray “Lord just let me get through today ALIVE!”. There are days where I either feel awful physically, mentally or I have just lost sight of the eternal and drowned in the temporal. I know what kind of day I have had depending on how I feel at night. When my head hits the pillow & I have had a day where I’m not present, my priorities as messed up (usually leads me to have a very bratty and ungrateful attitude!), I know it. The weight of my conviction falls on me (in the manner of a dump truck of guilt!), as I examine my day. I go over the things I did that I want to continue to do. The things I did and do NOT want to repeat tomorrow or the things I didn’t do and I want to start. I want a life without regrets, I don’t want to look back and say OHHH MAN, I MISSED IT! I SHOULD HAVE…blah blah blah. I want to continuously examine my parenting to ensure I am right on target with what God expects of me as a godly mother. My home is only explained as serene chaos…and I love it!

‘The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.”