Taste and See that the Lord is Good!

To begin this week, I'd like to encourage you to look for ways that the Lord has blessed you!  Instead of turning to complaining, let's taste and see that the Lord is good!!  

Here are my top 5 Blessings that I've found over the past few weeks:

Blessing 1)  Healthy, happy boys, who are full of spunk and excitement!

Blessing 2)  Vehicles that run!  We may not have new, shiny vehicles but they run and get us to where we need to be!

Blessing 3)  For a church family that is always there to encourage us in times of trials!

Blessing 4)  A home!  It might not be in the part of the country we would like, but we are choosing to be thankful and content where we are, and pray that they Lord opens doors to move us soon.

Blessing 5)  A husband that works hard for our family at a job that he doesn't particularly care for.

This area of seeking blessings is something I tend to struggle with and I am working hard at really searching for the blessings rather than turing to complaining and grumbling!

My Job Description... Full Time Stay-at-Home Homeschool Mom

This morning as I was checking my Facebook page, this article came up on my news feed.  Its title piqued my interest and so I began read.  The title of this article is "Being a Stay-at-Home Mother Is Not a Job".  That right there was enough to get me going!  I was so upset by reading this!  Are you kidding me!!!  Are you seriously saying that what I do 24/7 is NOT a job!!  For real!!!

In order to get the full scope of the article I knew I needed to read it all, and not jump to conclusions from the title alone.  So I read it, and my conclusion is this... she is really coming at it from the aspect of stay at home moms claiming that this is their "career".  Somehow that offends her to the point that her "real career" is diminished because she chose to work outside her home.  Well this article makes me feel like my choice to stay at home is diminished and that what I do isn't a "real" job!!

I think though that her point was that full time working outside the home moms still have to do everything that we do as well.  They still have to clean their house, cook meals,  and do laundry, along with helping with homework and things like that.  You know what, I totally get that!  I worked outside my home for a time, and it was really hard!!!  It was not fun to work all day, come home and cook dinner for my family, then bathe my children and put them to bed barely getting to spend anytime with them.  Which is the exact reason that my family sacrifices so that I am able to be home and take care of my children!  Its a HARD job!!!  And yes I do believe that what I do is a JOB!  A career...NO!  But a job none the less!

Do I judge working moms, absolutely NOT!!  I certainly do not think that they love their children any less because they send them to daycare and go to work!  We each make these decisions based on what we feel is best for our own families!!

I guess my reason for wanting to write this post was to make a point of lets not judge each other!  We are all moms trying to raise our children to the best of our ability and wouldn't it be so much easier if we all supported each other instead of trying to diminish each others personal choices!!

That is all!!!  Thank you!  Rant over!

Blessings

This year has been a very trying year for our family.  Starting this journey of homeschooling, my hubby is in search of a new job, and then being strapped financially to say the least, it has pushed us beyond what we thought we could handle.  And then in the midst of what feels like total despair, God blesses us through a gift!  This gift was given to us without this person knowing what we were asking for or what had been going on in our lives.  This is truly a blessing from the Lord, it was God reminding us that in our time of despair he is still in control.  God will always take care of his children!  

This blessing came in the form of curriculum!  I know to some that may not seem like a big deal, and to others I know they are feeling the same way I do, that curriculum given is a HUGE blessing!  We had been wanting to use My Fathers World, next year but the cost was going to be a stretch for us.  So we had just been praying that God would provide and since I know He has called us to homeschool, I had no doubt that the funds would be there.  THEN out of the blue, I get a phone call from a friend, that I don't talk to often and I know she doesn't know our financial situation.  She had a TON of homeschooling materials to get rid of.  A bigger blessing is that she just wanted it out of her house so she was just giving it!   They just "happen" to be what we would need for next year!  She had first and third grade My Fathers World, Singapore math, and lots of extra workbooks and such.  Elijah will be using the third grade next year, and then Noah will just be Kindergarten but the first grade material will be used the following year!  God is so good, ALL the time!!!  This gift will cut our homeschooling cost by more than half of what we were expecting!  I also need to add that this all came at a time when my hubby's car was broken and he was in the midst of trying to repair it, you also must know that my hubby is NOT a car person.  God blessed us there as well, because through You Tube and a friend on the phone he was able to get his car fixed and running, with out the huge cost paying someone to do it!    

As I am constantly thinking about this blessing in our lives I am in awe of God's timing and how I so much needed some encouragement.  If you have ever walked through a desert in life you know exactly what I am talking about!  These verses have been on my heart:

Ephesians 3:20-21

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.  Amen.