Heart of Wisdom Academy

One day when my children are teenagers, I'll be in the fellowship and hear about a mom who is at home nursing her many sick little ones, and my heart will sympathize for her and I'll want to rush over to her house and relieve her; I'll want to let her sleep or bring her a meal, or do her laundry, because I'll remember all the many many days I've needed to stay home and nurse the children and I'll miss those days. I'm so grateful to my mom and all the Saints that glory in helping take care of all of our needs. There is no end to my gratitude. I want to remember these sick days fondly. Yes my house is messy, and the laundry pile is higher than usual; but my husbands needs are taken care of and the children's needs are taken care of. Everyone is happy and relatively healthy. One day when my children are all older I'll miss the warmth,cuddlinessness and unpredictability of sick days. I'll miss the late night feedings and cool rags. I'm sure to miss the Motrin, nebulizer treatments, and endless doctor appointments. I'll miss everyone piled up in bed with me reading books and listening to music. One day down the road, when that mom is missing from the fellowship because she is caring for her family, I'll say a prayer for her that she rejoices in ministering to her family in that way. I am tired and weary, but I am grateful to be home, taking care of my family. I am thankful beyond words that I get to care for their needs and not someone else. I remember when I worked outside of the home when my oldest was two. Working moms can't afford for their kids to be sick, literally. The boss has an attitude because you miss work, you have an attitude because you miss work. Most of the time the child can never completely heal before they have to go back to daycare because mom can't take off that long. I'm thankful that when I stay up all night, I don't have to be dressed and out of the house by 6am. I'm thankful that I don't have to rush their recovery and send them out of the house before they're ready. A company in my city actually pays a nurse to come to your home to care for your sick child so that you don't miss work. A day care across the street from the one I worked at, was a sick care center. Sick kids went there so that their parents didn't have to take off, and they stayed there until they were well enough for regular day care. I know these programs are lifesavers to the single mom who has no option, and I sympathize for them. All of these reminders fill my heart with gratefulness as I take care of Kason who has pneumonia and has I prepare to care of Kyle who will have a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy next month, and as I care for my husband who's come down with the flu.

I'm thankful for Praise Her in the Gates: The Calling of Christian Motherhood by Nancy Wilson. The fourth chapter is titled-When the Kids are Sick.

"When children are ill, it is a wonderful opportunity for teaching. You can model patience and cheerfulness to them when you get upin the night to comfort and minister to them."

"Mothers do have the capacity to make illness a happy memory."

"Sickness is a good time to teach them about compassion and mercy, as well as about he frailty of life. Use all these times for spiritual profit."

"When you feel crumy, you ought to be home. This is simply the golden rule when you apply it to your child. Sick children do interrupt our plans; that is what they are supposed to do. And we are to be interrupted cheerfully, even if it means missing church."

"It ought to be the business of every day to prepare for our final day." Crazy Love

Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him-Proverbs 22:15

We've been having devotionals on foolishness for more than a month. No Greater Joy's article Unbinding Foolishness came right on time. We're still working through issues of folly. I'll be glad when they're just a memory. Folly is hard to discipline, it's not mean or rebellious, it's folly-and it's annoying and usually always leads to something else.

Time Changer is an amazing Christian movie! My heart is so stirred after watching it. I realize how tolerant and desensitized to sin, I really am. I am convicted that the frivolous movies that I let the kids watch, in no way point to the Savior, and time is short. Time is so short the Savior is coming! I don't think enough about that, I don't think enough about the enemy and the war we're engaged in. I thank God for people who use their talents to edify the Saints. I pray that more and more young people will rise up and use their gifts and talents to glorify the King. This movie has truly convicted me and I can't wait to go to God about it.

We finally finished Hedge Fence. It was every bit as wonderful as I hoped it would be. We will read this book again and again over the coming years and I especially recommend this book for young boys. In this book a young boy Frank is writing letters to his cousin about his adventures with his hedge fence. After he got in a fight with his brother he huffed under his breath that he wished he had a hedge to keep him from doing wrong. An older friend overheard him and offered to send him a hedge fence once a month. The hedge was a scripture. Every month Frank couldn't see how that scripture could help him, but every month the scripture proved invaluable. Frank came to depend on those scriptures. He truly treasured them and contemplated often about them and he was ever so mindful not to "jump the fence". One thing I really appreciated about this book was it's applicability. Frank has problems real boys have. He gets made fun of, laughed at, and mocked for not following the crowd. The most memorable lesson for my son was "be sure your sin will find you out". Even today, he prayed that everybody will read this story and know that their sin will find them out. This book has been the spring board for so many good conversations. I can't wait to read it again and again. I just found it online FREE HERE I'll always love real books over ebooks, but I'm sure there are plenty of people who love ebooks. Enjoy. I hope to write a review about our newest read aloud Captive Treasure .

Last month we also read lots of Arabian tales. Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, The Three Princes, The Enchanted Horse, Sinbad the Sailor and so many more. My oldest read The Sword in the Tree which was an excellent book. It way exceeding my expectations. Now we're enchanted by knights, and castles. So most of our books for Nov. are about King Arthur, Sir Lancelot, knights, castles, Camelot, etc.

I started my MBA this week. I'll blog less and less and less and less. I'll do everything less, I guess. Glad I got my reading in before school started. I read the hilarious yet very informative Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America . Find out what happens when I guy lives off of McDonalds food for a month! You'd be amazed. As a church we read Crazy Love This book I will have to read again, it really was too good to soak it all up in one read. This guy is truly consumed with a passion for Christ. I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I love books and I really enjoy picking my own books, so it's honestly hard for me when we read the same book as a church, for some reason I almost never care for the book. This book was very convicting! As was our book last year American Idols: The Worship of the American Dream.

In family news: My baby almost has one tooth!!!!! My darling daughter is a ballerina, my oldest son is having date night with Dad, and my middle boy is practicing medicine. That boys loves blood and medicine. I overheard him asking my husband if he could touch his blood. My husband got hurt at work last week and had to get stitches. Stitches are no match for my four-year old Doctor who would have sewed them in himself if we'd let him. Ha!

I wrote a paper for school earlier this year titled Women and the Work Life Balance. It was a very interesting study. Here are snipets of my paper...

Women have a unique job. In addition to childbearing, childrearing, domestic, and familial duties; seventy two million women also work full time. (US Department of Labor, 2008) The demands of maintaining so many roles are often dizzying. Consequentially, there is an urgent need for balance in the lives of these women. The Work-Life balance describes the balancing act between work and personal life.

Angela Thomas-Jones advises women to be realistic about trying to achieve the work life balance. She asks women to accept the fact that they are not home for eight or nine hours and when they get home they can’t possibly compensate for those hours lost, that would equate to working two fulltime jobs. “At some point one (job) will need more attention than the other. If you realise this then you can decide about your career and family trajectories.”

The 20th century gave way to the Superwoman or what may be better known as the Superwoman myth. Women gained the right to work full time, but their childrearing and home keeping duties did not disappear. Instead women found that working full-time was in addition to marriage, childbearing, childrearing, cooking, cleaning, laundering, gardening, etc. Instead of women having one full-time job as wife and mother; women now have two full time jobs; wife/mother and career woman. This is the crux of the work-life balance; women and their pursuit of juggling two full-time jobs.

At the onset of the Women’s Liberation Movement women thought that “being successful required becoming a man…success was about the male definition of money and power…”(Belkin, 2003) Today, “when women talk about success they use words like satisfaction, balance, and sanity.” (Belkin, 2003) In fact, “seven out of ten working women tell pollsters they would stay home with their kids if they could…”(Bennett’s, 2007) Many women started asking, “What happened to all the self-fulfillment we were supposed to feel? …What’s wrong with me? I have everything! Why am I not happy? Why am I so tired?”(Carter, 1995) By the end of the eighties women began to understand, “we were being used. We were lawyers, doctors, judges…but we were still swabbing out the toilets at home!” (Carter, 1995) Women are the ones caring for sick children in the middle of the night and taking off from work the next day. Women still do almost all the housework and children’s homework. “None of this sounds much like real freedom…women seem more burdened and vulnerable than free.” (Bruno, 1998) “Women use phrases like “torn apart, ripped in two, to describe their lives…”. (Berg, 1986) What is there that makes combining a job and motherhood so terribly hard? (Berg, 1986) The answer according to Berg: “Guilt, the excoriating interface between our two roles…insistent guilt.”( Berg 1986) Working women feel guilty about working long hours, too tired for sex, too tired for housework, not spending enough time with children, missing important milestones in children, childcare arrangements, quality time vs. quantity time, etc. Working women are bombarded with guilt, and there is no end to all the things working women feel guilty about.

It was just fifty years ago that women coveted the role of working outside the home, yet today seventy percent of them would choose home. Not even a century later most women bemoan their positions and many women are opting out of the work-life balance for a semblance of balance. Now that women have it all, they are finding out that they don’t want it all and it isn’t worth it all.

Well most of this week has been consumed with nursing two sick boys. My oldest and my boy twin are sick with high fevers. We've canceled school for the rest of the week and we've moved into the den. We have lots of blankets and pillows and good movies and good books. There is lots juice, soup, and tea. I've been taking Airborne (which works very well). I actually had a cough at the beginning of the week that's all but gone now.

In other news by youngest still has no teeth at 10 months and we has almost no appetite for real food. Vanilla wafers is about the only thing he eats regularly. However, I am constantly taking carpet fluff out of his mouth, as well as every other non-food item he can get a hold of. I'm always wondering if he has some kind of vitamin deficiency or if it's just normal baby grazing. The other one's never had it this bad.

I signed by sweet girl up for ballet. A homeschooled teenage girl is teaching the classes very affordably! She'll start in a couple of weeks. We explained to each of the children that as an opportunity presents itself they'll all get to do a special activity, but most likely not all at the same time.

I'd like blog more regularly...perhaps when all is calm again.