Sketch: At Home Mom

A quiet morning at the neighborhood playground.  I hardly got any sleep last night because I gave into the temptation and drank some fabulous chai.  Not so fabulous when I was still tossing and turning at 3:30 AM.  An hour later I was forced to admit that the attempt at sleep was completely pointless and I got out of bed so that at least my husband could sleep peacefully.  I made quiche and little jam tarts with the left-over crust for breakfast.  Now we’re here.  The kids are busy at play.  I’m enjoying listening to the whir of the cicadas, the birds and the tree frogs.  I love a Virginia summer.  The trash men are here too - I can hear the tired engine and steady beep coming down the cul-de-sac.  The kids love to watch the trash men.  My littlest baby is snugly tucked in the stroller, gnawing at her toes.  I have my coffee, journal and a pencil and I’m sure I must look like the half dead.  But as I said, what does it matter?  I’m sitting between two long rows of townhouses and no one is here.  No one ever is.

Make Straight My Path Oh Lord

Routine?  What routine?  I would love to have one but am still struggling to find anything that can bring order out of the chaos of three children under three and my perpetual lack of sleep.  In my most recent attempt to find a morning routine I happened upon a fantastic podcast from divineoffice.org.  I listened to it first while they were still in their rooms and then prepared a few projects to keep their interest while we listened to it and I prepared their breakfast.  The projects really helped them stay occupied - the last couple of days they were not very happy to listen longer than a couple of minutes.

The hymn was "Morning has Broken":

Morning has broken, like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for the springing fresh from the word

Sweet the rain’s new fall, sunlit from heaven
Like the first dewfall, on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where his feet pass

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the one light, Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God’s recreation of the new day

I had worksheets for the children to color in with picture of blackbirds.  They colored them as I was getting their breakfast ready.


Today the reading was from the book of Tobit:

Tobit 4:15a. 16a. 18a. 19
Do to no one what you yourself dislike. Give to the hungry some of your bread, and to the naked some of your clothing. Seek counsel from every wise man. At all times bless the Lord God, and ask him to make all your paths straight and to grant success to all your endeavors and plans.

I had some leftover black paper so I cut out several rectangles and scattered them in the center of the table.  When the kids came down for breakfast, before we listened to the podcast I showed them how to "make the path straight" for the motorcycle.  (They think motorcycles are pretty cool since their Uncle has one)

Today the focus has also been on the color black and the rectangle shape so we did a few worksheets and went on a walk to gather rectangle pictures (I didn't take pictures of other people's windows and doors - thought that might freak them out).  While the kids watched a short episode of Kipper the Dog I put together a printout of the rectangles we saw.  My three year old liked this a lot, but the two year old couldn't have cared less.

For snack we had rectangle crackers and cheese.  After nap time we flipped through our art book and looked for the color black.

I'm clinging to the hope that God will make my paths straight even though I feel lost in the chaos of teething, the terrible twos and potty training.

Not every day is like today, some days are much less ordered.  Somehow when I was a teacher I felt much more in control of the schedule.
 
Any thoughts or suggestions?  I would love to hear if you have a favorite morning routine.