Why are Children God's Blessings?

My response to a wonderful article I read this morning on Women Living Well about Having Babies {in Opposite World}.

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Ever since I was a tween, all I wanted was to get married and have kids. 'How many?' Mom would ask me and I simply replied "As many as God will let me". I wanted a big, big family. Maybe not Duggar size, but bigger than the family of six my family was.

I, too, had met my husband in high school, and we married the weekend after he graduated college, and a few months later we were having our firstborn. We almost lost our son that day, due to dry birth and a plethora of things that made his heart rate almost stop and my body not even responding to get ready to give birth in the first place. But thanks to modern medicine and an emergency operation, we now have a healthy 6 year old laughing at the tv right now.

2 1/2 years later we had our second child, this time a girl, and though this time was not exceptionally horrifying giving birth, it was still through surgery. Oh, how I pined to have a girl. I wanted my firstborn to be a boy, and was happy that came true, but we come from large family of boys, so it wasn't a surprise. But a girl, that was a rarity. Oh, how I pined for her, even when the ultrasound claimed every time that the baby was a girl, I still wouldn't believe it until the doctor showed me as soon as she removed her from my numb body.

A boy and a girl. I was happy. I knew I couldn't, shouldn't, too difficult to have more. So a boy and a girl was an answer to prayer.

But still, deep down I felt terrible that my dreams of having a lot of children seemed like an impossibility, and that I felt less of a woman because my body wouldn't give birth the "right" way. I got a lot of negativity about not only having children younger than the world thinks we should, but also slack about how I shouldn't have had them (or have more) because I can't do it natures way (and extra kudos if it without medicine).

If the world was right, then they wouldn't be heading to H.E. Double Hockey Sticks in a hand basket.

(Now, I'm not saying that those who can give birth the natural and medication free should feel bad about their experience, or even more superior. I think that no matter how the child comes into the world, the fact is that a little bit of eternity now exists in the world.)

It wasn't until I spent some time alone with God that he healed my broken heart, and taught me how my two kids are a reward.

The fact that as I lay shaking on the operating table, with my arms stretched out, crying, and listening to the calming voice of the anesthesiologist telling me that it's going to be alright in one ear, and my husband giving me a play by play in the other ear, that moment was when I was completely vulnerable and completely not in control of anything. 

In that moment I went to God. I knew God was the only one who really was in control, and I was going to the source to make my plea. My plea for peace, for strength, for my baby. I remember praying in my head, telling God that I give all control to him and all I want is my baby, but because I know that he knows best for me, that if he took him home, it would be ok, because I knew I would see him again one day. But I really really wanted my baby with me.

As you can imagine, my son lived. The nurse came to me later and asked if they had told me the baby's APGAR score and was surprised that they didn't. She said he had scored a 9 1/2. She said that it really was a 10 (the best it can possibly be), but the hospital had a policy about not giving out 10s.

Translation: Not only did God give me my baby, but restored him to perfect health!

I also learned in my alone time with God, that in order for my son to have life, I had to sacrifice my body, my control, my every thing. I certainly would have given up my life to save his and it wouldn't have even been a blink of an eye to make that decision. God revealed to me that what  he allowed me to experience was the tiniest of tiniest fraction of what Jesus went through on the cross. It was then that the tears have not stopped flowing. The realization of how awesome, holy and pure our God is, and only seeing the smallest peek of all his glory, I can still scarcely take it in. Every time my mind wanders over there, or hymns that talk about salvation, even writing this post, tears spring up and I can not hide them.

Then came the lesson about my daughter. He knows my future. He knew that my husband was about to lose his job as a teacher and would have to struggle to find two jobs that would make our ends meet. He knew that my son would be exceptionally bright and unchallenged in school. He knew that one day I would be homeschooling my children and only seeing my husband three days out of the week. He knew my dreams, but he also knew what I can handle and that two children would be more than enough for me to handle. More. Than. Enough.

So God gave me the girl I wanted so deeply in my heart, so I wouldn't torment myself with the "if only" and "what if", or continue down the path to try to have a girl. Perhaps that would have been the wrong path for me to follow on my quest to have a girl and I would have suffered great losses. I won't know until I meet my maker, but I am sure of one thing; God spared me, and gave me my girl.

So why would the world say that children are a curse to young adults? Simple. Simple as simple can simply be. It's a huge secret that the world itself doesn't even know it's keeping, but I'll tell you, because I like you...

Satan doesn't want us to have more children.

Surprised? 

More children means more of Gods blessings, more of Gods rewards and goodness on the earth, more opportunities for God to show his love to us, and more people to spread Gods word to others.

How devastating would it be if no one in the world could have children? What would people do if they realized that the entire human race was to end in 100 years tops, because everyone was suddenly sterile?

There would be no hope for humanity! 

That is how children are a blessing from God, they are our future, they are the hope in the world.

This is why people get upset when a child is abused, or worse yet, killed. Why would anyone want to kill the only hope we have in this world that we can physically hold in our arms? Satan and his demons of course.

I love my kids. They are my life. I look back as what my life was before them, and it was nothing and empty compared to how filled and blessed my life is now. So many times in just the few short years they have been alive have my children amazed me, made me laugh the deep laugh, and showed me glimpses of Gods love. Sure my kids frustrate me, they make me mad, and they don't always do what they are told, but what am I fighting against? Bingo we have a winner! You're right, Satan and his demons.

Fight the good fight. Love on your children. If you and your spouse are feeling the yearning of a child, know that God will take care of you. Go watch In the Womb and be amazed at life and how it's a miracle that the body can even get pregnant. If you unable to have children, consider adopting, or even just being a foster parent. There are so many children in the world right now who are tossed aside and need stability and love. Maybe your home and your heart is where they need to be?

Be the light in the world, give the world God's hope.

With Love,
Emily

Plant Study- Part 2

So let me tell you about the rest of our plant study! 

Week 3: Stems and Trunks

In this week we talked about the different kinds of stems and tree trunks. There are special stems like the dandelions plants whose stems have that icky sticky white stuff called dandelion milk or latex, woody stems like roses, and then there are vine like stems that run along the ground and grow a new plant every few inches like the strawberry plant. There are other kinds of stems too, like the underground tubers, crawling vines, and even cactus (also known as a succulent)!

With the tree trunks we talked about the tree rings and how you can not only count how old the tree is by counting the rings, but also know when there was droughts or an abundance of water by how thin or thick the ring is! We also talked about the different kind of bark on the trees, how some is really thin like birch, or scaly like our oak and mountain ceder, and how cinnamon is a very tasty and spicy bark!

Craft: Leaves and Stem

The kids cut out their own two leaves and a stem and we added it to our growing plant on their doors. Looks like the two baby leaves that you see when the seed first sprouts!

Week 4: Leaves, Flowers and Fruit.

Yeah I know I said that I was going to have my plant study take up 5 weeks instead of 4, but the kids blasted through so much so quickly we finished it a week early! Ah the joys of homeschooling. Schedules are flexible!

Craft: Flower

I cut out their circles and petals, but they got to glue it all together. Don't you just love the bead "seeds"?

Added it to their doors with some more stem.

And we are done with plants! 

Doesn't it look great?

We sure had fun with this study and I hope that we have inspired you!

With Love,

Emily

Organizing the laundry/craft/homeschool resource room Update!

You may remember when I first started this blog, it was about decluttering. Remember the laundry room?

Remember the blanket over the bookshelves?

Want to see what's under it today?

TADA!

I love the plastic shoe boxes. I wrote on an index card what was in the box and voilà! instant organization.

I love how I can grab a box or two of what I need and go. Then when we're done, it goes right back into it's home and the blanket covers it back up again.

Now to keep my 3 year old artist out of it is another story...

With Love,

Emily

Plant Study- part one

So as I mentioned earlier, we're homeschooling now! It's been three GLORIOUS months and it brings back so many fun memories of when I was homeschooled back in the 80's/90's.

My method of madness to teach my little ones is a mix of Charlotte Mason/eclectic/anything that gets the lesson in their head/with a dash of Montessori, because we don't want computers to take over the child's imagination completely. I have learned so much about who I am as a teacher and how incredible my kids are, just from trying so many different things to figure out the best way to homeschool for us.

Pinterest is my bestest best friend!   I have found pretty much any kind of inspiration needed for just about any subject, just from following the brilliant teachers and fellow homeschooling parents out there.

Yeah, I also like to make up my own units. I know I can buy units that already have everything in it, but at this point in time, I can't really afford to buy them, and I'm only teaching 1-2 grade and preschool. I think I got this.

For the month of April we have been discussing about plants. Hey it's spring time!

I split April up into 5 weeks. Yes, I know there are only 4, but the last week runs in through Tuesday, so I took that whole week for our Plant study, because I really like plants.

Week 1: Seeds

We talked about Seeds. Big seeds, little seeds, hard seeds, soft seeds, cone seeds, pod popping seeds, little microscopic seeds... What's inside seeds? How do they germinate? What are the three things they need to grow? Read stories about seeds, looked at pictures of seeds, planted seeds, pretended to be a seed growing into a plant, counted seeds in math time, and watched videos about different kinds of seeds!

Craft:
So I found this little craft on Pinterest and thought PERFECT. It shows very simply the seed coat, the food and the baby plant. Everything the plant needs to grow is all in the little seed. I loved the verse,

 Genesis 1:11 'Let the earth bring forth grass and herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind whose seed is in itself.'. 

Now we don't have too much wall space and I like to have what we are learning to be at kid eye level, so we make a huge project that goes on each kids door. This is our seed planted in the soil, water, and warmth (from the sun). What a way for them to remember not only the verse as we memorized it for the week, but also the three things a seed needs to grow!

Week 2: The Roots

We learned about how the roots sense gravity and grows down to anchor the plant, and how the roots acts as tiny straws to drink up the water and nutrients from the soil.

Craft: Straw Roots

This craft I came up with on my own, because I couldn't find what I wanted online, and I also wanted to make sure the kids are reminded that the roots are like tiny straws that drink up the water just like how we use a straw to drink. 

It was really easy, a small handful of straws cut into thirds, glue and construction paper. Draw the root system with the glue and place the straws in "connected" order! 

Once dry, we added it to their doors.

Experiment: Celery and white carnations

This I also found on Pinterest, celery and white carnations in colored water! 

 After a week: The celery in the red water looks like it's dead (but hey, red and green are on opposite sides of the color wheel and we all know that when you mix complimentary colors together, you get brown.), and the one in the blue water looks almost spooky healthy!.. Except for the tinge of blue on the edges of the leaves.

The idea of these experiments is to teach the child that as the roots drink up the water, the water goes through the stem and out to the petals and leaves, that's why we can see the color of the water in the plant! And it's pretty.

It's was really fun watching the kids excitement as each morning comes and the first thing they do is check to see how much more color is in our plants. It's a bit like Christmas time and they are looking for Lucy our Elf on the Shelf every morning.... except the plants stay in one spot and don't get into mischief. 

With Love,

Emily

Homemade Carpet Cleaner

I've lived in this house since the summer of 2009, and I have never washed the carpets. Needless to say I really need to shampoo them after having a baby and toddler grow up in this house and dropping/smearing any kind of liquid/gooey substance into the carpet,  and spot remover has been my best friend... until I couldn't afford to buy more.

So after going some time without carpet stain remover, (hey I homeschool now and I'm not actually interested in staring at the carpets), I decided that enough was enough. So I looked on pinterest and google and found many bloggers posting about dawn 'the-miracle-of-life' dish soap and hydrogen peroxide.

Really? It's like magic? MMmmm hmmm... sure.

Ok, I thought it a try, because as I said before, I can't really afford the actual store bought stuff anymore.

So the recipe I used is:

1 part dawn 

2 parts hydrogen peroxide

And the recipe for those who don't want to do mental math today:

1/2 cup of dawn

1 cup of hydrogen peroxide

(small batch)

Ok so here we go!

This is a test I literally did last night, so the pictures are kind of a funny color, but it's well worth the effort!

Spray on your concoction, use an old toothbrush (do I really have to tell you old? Not like you are going to want to use it in your mouth again..) and gently agitate the spot, wait few seconds (about the time needed to find the towel that thought you brought with you to the test) and then blot the spot!

As you can see, the spot in the lower part of the picture is GONE. Really, truly, GONE!

Yeah, I didn't think it would work either, given that it took less than a minute to clean a spot that's been there for at least a year. But it really does work, it really only took less than a minute, and now you can clean up some spots around your house too!

Word of advice: store the concoction in a dark place. Hydrogen peroxide needs to be kept in the dark (hence why it's in a brown bottle) because the Hydrogen is H2O2 will turn into H2O when exposed to too much sunlight. 

With Love,

Emily