A Student/Teacher “conference”…

Perspective.

That has been the theme for us lately.

It has been SEEPING into every crevice and corner of my life.

School.

Parenting.

Teaching.

Mentoring.

Wife-ing(you know…like BEING a wife..LOL)

God has really been putting obstacles in front of me that continually point me to PERSPECTIVE.

As you can imagine …Life as a homschooling, working mother of 4 crazy cool kids is exhausting and it is EASY to get discouraged and EDGY.

Lets be REAL…

We ALL have crazy busy lives.

We all have appointments and paperwork and bills and responsibilities….

and THAT is what should give us perspective.

The fact that we have bills and all the things that we stress about should be an indication that we are BLESSED.

We are BLESSED enough to have jobs and money to pay the bills…

Blessed enough to have things to STRESS about.

Blessed enough to have schedules and lists.

But …

in the midst of ALL THAT…it is easy to get lost in the “crazy” sometimes…easy to “forget” how fortunate  we are as mothers.

As we all know….

In SOME PLACES…

In TONS of places….

ALL OVER THE WORLD………..

Mothers are not so fortunate…

We are SOAKED in opportunities and  posessions…

Yet we still EASILY forget it and complain…

I see it manifest in my children…

from having “sooo much”…they take cues from me.

And MOST of the time..

The lessons I need to teach them are the lessons I need to LEARN.

I have said it before…

God is CLEVER like that.

Shasha has a hard time when I go to work on Saturday nights because I leave before Dad gets home and their uncle stays here with them for a couple of hours…

She does not like it.

AT ALL.  Mostly because she is SOOOOOO tired by 730 that she just wants  to snuggle.

I mean…

lets

be

real…

On Friday nights I AM TIRED after teaching kids all week and dealing with …well……LIFE, all week that the LAST THING I want to do is go to work till 330 am….in a BAR. While I am SOBER.

Not ALWAYS a cake walk/

But..

I

DO

IT.

I do it because I am blessed enough to HAVE a GREAT JOB that helps provide for my family.

I do it because it makes life just a BIT easier on my family and husband.

I don’t ALWAYS do it because it is FUN.

I do it because it is NECESSARY.

And

that is  the approach I take with her when she calls me…ON MY WAY TO WORK ---SOBBING on Saturday night because “the boys are watching something in the living room that I don’t want to watch”.

REALLY??

Oh….no, Maam!

In my  most MOTHERLY voice I said “Shashamane ...Do you think I WANTED to leave you in that comfy bed watching cake boss??? Do you think that was easy for me??? Do you think after a week of homeschooling 4 kids, I wanted to leave and get dressed and go TO WORK?”

“No”, she said…still CRYING.

Still SOBBING, actually.

“I know it is hard, but…I want you to remember what we have been talking about lately.  Remember ..PERSPECTIVE? Remember that we have to be  thankful that Mommy and  Daddy HAVE jobs to be able to MAKE money to pay bills. Right?  Remember that YOU have a HOME and don’t live in a tent. Starving. Ok?”

She squeaked out a UNINTHUSIASTIC “yes”.

But she wasn’t crying.

At all.

She had seen it…Perspective.

She felt a tug of what I feel.

She had “reflected” inward and gained perspective.

Not an easy thing for a 9 year old to do…

Oh..

LET’S

BE

REAL…

That is not an easy thing for a 35 year old to do!!!

We are all  on this journey together….

THANK GOODNESS the lessons I need to LEARN are also the lessons I need to TEACH.

AMEN.

He is clever I tell ya…clever.