Seasons of a Mothers Heart - Chapter 1

I have joined the Seasons of a Mothers Heart book club over at Home With The Boys. It not too late you can join too visit Home With The Boys for more information, Erin has an awesome blog. The book is written by Sally Clarkson be sure to check out her website I Take Joy or follow her on twitter. You can also follow tweets about the book by using hashtag #momsheart.

This week I read the Preface, Introduction and Chapter 1. The first few chapters focuses on Spring a Season of Renewal. This book has really been hitting home for me because it focuses on many of the issues I have been facing since becoming a mother and especially since transitioning to a stay at home/homeschooling mother.

Chapter 1 - Celebrating Life
Sally first starts by discussing how we must find joy and celebrate life. Wow why do I struggle with this, it seems so simple. Sally says that "If you will make the choice to "celebrate" life, motherhood can become a journey of joy." That sentence hit me hard. I long to have a joyful journey celebrating life with the precious children my husband and I brought into this world. After all that is why we chose to have children and why we made the decision to homeschool. In order to celebrate life we must find balance, which if your anything like me that seems very difficult to do when we have so many things we are focusing on like parenting, disciplining, household chores, wifely duties and homeschooling. So what is the answer? "True joy is found by living somewhere between the ideal life and daily realities. That is where Jesus meets me, where the Holy Spirit empowers, and where I learn to live the Christian life with supernatural joy," how eye opening is that?

Learn to be Content - Being content is definitely a struggle I have because I am a Type A personality, extreme planner and have some OCD tendencies. So if things are going as planned or organized the way I want it affects me negatively. I have known for some time that being content is something I struggle with and have been working on my contentedness prior to starting the book. So you can imagine how I felt after I began to read through the several pages of Seasons of a Mothers Heart. Was this book written for me? You mean I am not the only mother dealing with the issue of contentment?

Devotions:
Honestly it has been so long since I have done any sort of devotionals so I struggled with the end of the chapter thoughts section.

One thing that has happened recently in our lives was our move to Savannah being put on hold. I do not really enjoy the city we live in now and was so looking forward to living near the beach. But due to the current economic conditions my husband has not been able to find a job there. So over the past few months I have learned I must be content and be thankful for what we have. I have finally made friends (something that has been very hard for me in the past) and they all live within 1 hr of me right now. If we had moved in August as planned I would not be able to meet up with my new friends for the field trips we have planned this month because we would be 5+ hrs away. Many of these new friends have also been providing me with much needed support on our homeschooling journey.

Since quitting my job to be a stay at home/homeschooing mother we have had to cut our spending down considerably. I have been so worried lately that we will not be able to provide for our children the way we had hoped. But I know that God wants me to give thanks for the things we do have like food on the table, a place to live, water and power. And of course I am thankful that we are able to homeschool our children!!!! One prayer has been answered and we were able to find affordable sports for the kids to participate in. Gwyn is attending a Tae Kwon Do class for $10 a month at a local church and Rowyn got a scholarship for Upward Soccer.

I loved the idea about planning a fun family event - something out of the norm. So Sunday we are actually going to be attending a Jewish Nosh Festival. The kids will even be able to tour the Synagogue.

Quotes and Scriptures that really hit my heart:
-You have chosen to give up your time, freedom, comfort, and a "normal" adult life in order to live, learn, love and labor with your children at home.
-Philippians 4:13 -  I can do all this through him who gives me strength.- This is my new homeschool motto and will be placed on an index card so that when I am feeling down I can look at it and remember that I am not alone.

I am so excited to start chapter 2!