Our family has A L O T of celebrating to do this week! Well, at least mom and L do anyway!
Most of you know the struggle we've had with pottytraining our strongwilled child. I started trying with her last summer thinking she was ready. I thought we would have all summer to work on it and she would be wearing panties and using the potty before school started and I had to go back to work. Well......summer came and went with nothing, much to my disappointment. Friends told me to just wait on her and that she'd tell me when it was the right time. At school her teachers were helpful and understanding. They tried to work with her, but unfortunately we didn't have the consistancy we needed since she had three different teachers (or more...I think I lost count :/ ). I will give credit to Ms. Kylie though. We loved her and she is an awesome teacher for that age group! I'm incredibly thankful for her patience and kindness towards my daughter.
Fastforward to this summer. I decided I was going to bite the bullet no matter what! Thinking I was doing something wrong I downloaded a book to my Kindle appropriately called "Training the Strong Willed Child". I won't begin to tell you what a joke the advice in this book was. Let's just say they haven't met MY daughter. After researching online and finding that I had tried all the advice out there, that I agreed with anyway, I resorted to bribery! Suckers, chocolate, ice cream. We even bought her a little swimming pool. She still wasn't interested but she was at least beginning to show signs of trying. Then last weekend we took a trip to KC and left D for a few extra days to have some special time with Gram. We returned home with just L and the hopes that this was my opportunity to focus solely on her and pottytraining. Tuesday I stuck her in a pair of panties. She even sat on her potty chair for a while and just watched tv for a little bit. We had a little bit of luck with that. She had a couple of accidents through the day but nothing that couldn't be easily cleaned up. Then that evening we had a BREAKTHROUGH OF MAJOR PROPORTIONS! She actually told me that evening after dinner that she needed to "go peepee"! It was music to my ears. What made it even better was that she didn't want to sit on her potty chair. She took me to the bathroom, sat on her pottyseat and went in the toilet like she'd been doing it all along!!! The next few days I was worried and feared we might not have the luck we'd had the day before but she surprised me. She actually made it to the potty most everytime with only a few accidents. The impressive part was that she told me everytime she needed to go. After she stayed dry all day Friday, though she convinced that she is serious about it now and finding pride in her accomplishments. She walks around saying "I'm a big girl princess", a title bestowed on her by her daddy!
Amazingly just after less than a week she's wearing panties at the house and pullups outside---and staying dry!!! She even told me she needed to go a couple of times at church this morning and did it both times. This mommy is happy---happy for her! Most of all I am proud for her and thankful that I can clearly see the light now at the end of the tunnel called Pottytraining!
So I guess it's okay to post my big news now that those who needed to know first know (if that doesn't sound like a mouthful)....
I resigned my teaching job at the beginning of last month in order to stay home with the kids AND (just wait, it gets better)...
HOMESCHOOL!
I can just hear some of you now--- "What?!", "No Way!", "Really?!"
The answer is yes! We have decided to follow God in faith and obedience in a new direction for our family. I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited!!! My heart has always been with my family and I always wanted to be a stay at home mom. However, I never considered homeschooling as a part of my future. God, like He always seems to, had other plans though. When I was in middle school I knew I wanted to be a teacher one day and as I went through high school I realized this was God's calling for my life. So that is what I pursued as I started college. Then I met the man of my dreams and we got married, (Aww!!!), I graduated with a BS in Elementary Education, got a job immediately out of school and started my teaching career I had so long dreamed about. Eventually D and L came along.
I love teaching. I love the spark in a childs eye when they finally get "it" and knowing that I helped them to realize whatever "it" is drives me. For the past 4 summers though the desire to stay home and be with my children as grown stronger and stronger. They are my first priority after my relationship with God and then J. I love my family fiercely, but we never felt like it was the right time. Then last summer J and I committed to pray about it during the school year.
God finally revealed His plan to us in April. He began to provide in ways we hadn't seen coming and as J and I were talking about it for what seemed about the millionth time one evening we realized God was answering our prayer. J asked me "Hasn't God called you to teach?" This btw is a question he asks me every summer when we have this very same discussion, but it was as he was asking it that God put in my heart that He had called me teach OUR children.
I am honored in more ways than I can say, yet I know this is how it should be for us and I don't know if we will always homeschool but I do know that I'm not going to look ahead but instead obey God in the present. God's timing and perspective of His plan and our lives is perfect!!! So much more clear than ours---this is what keeps me grounded and unfearful of the crazy thoughts going around in my head telling me I can't do this or I'll mess up my kids! Then there's the fact that He has put so many other sweet homeschool friends in our path with the knowledge and experience to help guide us down this road.
So here we go...School starts August 1st in our house, exactly two weeks from today!!! Please be praying for us and we'll keep you posted on our adventure!
Have I mentioned just how much I. love. summer?! There are so many things about it I don't think I have enough time to mention all of them. So I'll just tell you my all time favorite thing which is being with my family---being a wife and mother. I don't care what anyone thinks. Being a housewife is God's ultimate calling for my life. I am filled with so much joy when my kitchen is clean, laundry is done AND put away, things are organized, my kids are happy, and Josh can walk through the door to dinner waiting on the table and us with smiles on our faces (even if it has been a CrAzY day in our house). I know this doesn't mesh with society's current idea of what a housewife should be---I've known for a long time I was born in the wrong decade---but I do know this is what God wants for me and my family and not just during the summer but every day of the year. I am so blessed to be the manager of this family and I am honored that God has blessed me with the titles of "wife", "mother", and "homemaker".
