For most homeschoolers a new year begins in September, so what better time to learn from the past and begin anew in planning your year? We all have the same amount of time, it’s short, but what we do with it makes all the difference for all eternity, for all generations to come. The enemy loves to distract us and keep us from our most important appointments, so we must learn from reflections of past mistakes and adjust our perspective to more closely fit God’s.
God never rushes; His timing is always perfect. He took time to enjoy all He created, He took time to sup with friends and those in need, and He continually takes time to nurture and love each of us, His children. Wisdom prevails when we emulate His ways—plan to spend time with the precious gifts He entrusted into your care. Take time to enjoy and nurture and love.
Before you begin this year, take some time journeying back over the path you took last year. Reflect on the way you spent your minutes last year—the minutes that quickly became hours that quickly became days, weeks, and too quickly, another year. Were they mostly spent in distractions, or in the car traveling from one event to the next, or separated from your loved ones by activities dominated by strangers, or in tasks that kept you so busy that they took precedence over, “Mama, hold me.” “Mama, smell this flower.” “Mama, play with me.” “Honey, sit by me”? Were they spent in frustration over chaos with frayed nerves ending in yelling? What took precedence over loving, nurturing, and enjoying the blessings that should make your heart soar?
If frustration and yelling have taken the place of peace and gentle leading, life has gone astray from God’s design. Reflect!! Then ask your husband to help you rebuild the broken foundation so the lasting impressions you impart are those of love, gentleness, wisdom, and peace. A husband is God’s gift to his family. He is to protect the family from the tyranny of constant outside activity by saying, “Absolutely not!” so you can be the joy God intended. (Single moms—God is your husband and father to your children. Ask Him to give you direction and wisdom, and He will.)
It is time to make promises to God, each other, and yourself, promises to spend more time with God and the people you care about most. You must make radical changes now, adjusting your life to God’s design, or it will never happen. You must take hold of the pen that inks in how your family’s moments will be spent, or the enemy will. Your husband and children are perfect companions, so plan special times with them or they will never happen.
After fixing your position, maintain a plan book for charting your family’s life. Plan a week or so for clearing away the chaos and clutter in your home and creating order so refreshment, peace, and calmness have room to blossom. Incorporate the entire family taking one room a day to remove unused, unnecessary clutter and to clean from ceiling to floor. Wash ceilings, wallpaper, painted walls, and woodwork with Soilax. Wash and polish light fixtures. Wash and iron curtains, air fluff “dry clean only” drapes to remove dust. Polish furniture with lemon oil. Wash bedspreads, dust ruffles, and dresser scarves. Fluff pillows in the dryer. Clean out cabinets, closets, drawers, and shelves. Scrub carpets with Resolve foam carpet cleaner, water, and scrub brush and then dry them with an oscillating fan. After all is clean, lovingly place flowers, candles, pillows, books, throws, fabrics, delightful fragrances, and all your pretty treasures throughout each room to create a “Welcome Home” home that beckons you when you’re away and delightfully caresses you when you return. Finish up by spending several days in the basement, garage, and yard.
A mom once told me that she would sell her house and get another one before she did that kind of cleaning. It may seem like a lot of work in the beginning, but we all so enjoy the house after we’re done. Our house is small and can get cluttered easily with just toys, but at least we know everything is really clean—at least for a while. After the house is finished, put clothes away in appropriately marked containers (plastic bags, boxes, plastic trash containers) and get out the next season’s clothes. This is always such a tiresome ordeal for the kids and me, so I’ve decided to make it a two-day event instead of one, while also making sure the rest of the house is in order and the evening meals are prepared ahead of time. With all of these tasks out of the way, with calendar and plan book in hand, begin planning, making each day a sentimental day filled with the fullness of God’s beauty, grace, wisdom, and delight.
Plan to spend time alone with God each day to weed out all the negative thoughts and insidious effects from comparisons and inadequacies, to nourish your soul, and to soothe your spirit. Then with your husband, pray for God’s protection and guidance to set each day’s course aloft with His direction and blessing.
Plan your meals out for the week putting it right after your devotions, so first thing each morning you know what you’re making for dinner and can prepare accordingly so dinner isn’t late. Set a timer, if need be, for each phase of the preparation.
Plan to meticulously sculpt a heart for God in each child by daily imparting God’s Word, praying for them, working out their bents, and living a truly godly life instead of, “Do what I say, and not what I do.” Children are like tiny sprouts that need rich soil, fresh spring showers, the warmth of your love, and the light of God in your lives. They are tender and need diligent tenderhearted care. Don’t allow newly sprouted weeds to grow or sooner than you think, these weeds will become towering giants with ironclad roots and minds of their own that literally take over your tender sprouts. So plan your devotion and study for the day.
Plan to heartily embrace your children every day with direct eye contact, open arms, and adoring smiles, carefully tending to their conversations, needs, and dreams. Touch, pat, and hug throughout each day. Look, listen, and learn all you can about the incredible, marvelous gifts God sent in these soft, sweet, little bodies. Cultivate their insatiable curiosity by looking through their eyes, listening to their questions, and “doing” with them. To many moms, this doesn’t come naturally, so make these plans in your plan book.
Create pleasure among the daily tasks of life by planning surprises that delight. Surprise means unexpected, so plan them in the morning, in the middle of a hard lesson, at bedtime … just plan some every day. In the morning, have teddy bear parties, special breakfasts, days off for fun, a walk or game before lessons, a surprise guest for the day, or an adventure away from home. In the middle of a hard lesson, have root beer floats, a milk and cookie break, fudge making, a game outside, a call to grandma, a concert with wooden spoons on the bottom of your cooking pots, a kazoo marching band, hide ‘n seek in the basement with flashlights, a good wrestle, a game of charades, a sing-a-long, or a laughing contest.
At the regular bedtime, allow extra time for a game, popcorn and movie, more books, a tent raising for a sleep out on the floor, or a night walk around the block. What will mom and dad think of next? The possibilities are endless. Picnics in the living room or at a new park, fishing trips on school days, baking in the middle of the day, painting, water fights, hiking, tea parties, finger painting in the bathtub, bubbles in the kitchen, obstacle courses throughout the house, school in a tent, a treasure hunt to find school books, lunch with the seals (a picnic at the zoo’s seal area at the time the seals are fed), a bike ride around Francis Park with dessert at Ted Drewes, pillow fights with old pillows of course, tag while hopping on one foot, patty-cake, and peek-a-boo. Plan them, plan them, plan them into each day.
Include your children when you cook. Some moms say that they can’t stand the mess or someone else helping in the kitchen, probably because their mothers couldn’t. Break that cycle of selfishness and teach your children the joy of working together and creating lovely memories. I never think of my children being underfoot, but instead encourage them to play merrily at my feet. (This summer we had 2 to 14 extra children at our house each day. Now that school has started, I miss the sound of all their laughter and the joy of just having them here.)
Frequently plan giving thoughtful gifts just because you love them—things they want and unexpected treasures. The monetary value doesn’t matter, just the thought. Wrap and personally give the gift or hide it in unsuspecting places. My children get excited over finding new toothbrushes at bedtime, new underwear or socks in their drawer, new jammies on their pillow, a pretty pencil in their pencil box, flowers on their table, or pretty soap on the vanity. And don’t forget endearing notes.
Plan to welcome Dad home with hugs and kisses, candlelight and music, a note on the door, pleasant odors from the kitchen, and then time alone with you for a heart to heart talk. Also plan frequent candlelight rendezvous for appetizers, sparkling juice, and romance, tea and dessert with a great read aloud book, candlelit baths, candlelight readings, strolls in the park, and body rubs.
Plan to convey your love, appreciation, admiration, and fondness to those loved ones near and far by planning letter-writing times. Times when you alone write a letter, note, or card to someone in your home for a surprise treat and also times when everyone sits down together to write several someones.
Also plan regular times for preserving your lovely memories in a journal. And don’t neglect polishing those memories by retelling them, sifting through pictures, and visiting relatives and encouraging them to talk about the past. Also, plan special gatherings of family and friends.
With every breath you take, breathe in the sweetness of everyday life—the laughter of your children, the pitter-patter of their feet, the melody of their voices, the sound of your husband’s voice, the smell of his body, the strength of his arms, the smell of clean clothes, a clean house, food cooking, the stillness of the night, the warmth of each day. Tune your thoughts to strike the same chord, rejoicing in each other’s pleasures and mourning each other’s woes. And let your love spill over into every task allowing its fragrance to envelop and penetrate each child’s thoughts. No greater treasure could be handed down through the generations.
Run along now, you have promises to make and planning to do.
Dear Lord, Thank You for commissioning me with such an honorable task. Thank You for giving me such precious gifts. Thank You for their bright eyes that I may show them You. Thank You for their little ears that I may teach them Your Word. Thank You for their sweet voices that I may teach them to praise You. And thank You for giving me those precious little hands to hold in mine, that I may lead them to you, and together we may enter Your gates hand-in-hand.
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