We’ve had a good morning…very happy to be back into some kind of routine! Biblical Womanhood is hosting “Make your Home a Haven Monday”. I highly recommend that you to visit her site for more encouragement on making your home a haven!

I thought I would share a bit with you about our morning, what we accomplished and what we did to make our home a haven!

I’ll skip some of the morning stuff and get right to the fun parts!

8:55 Started laundry with Malachi’s “help”

9:00 Began the kids on their school work. Elias (5) ate his breakfast in the schoolroom at his desk (hey, what’s homeschooling if you can’t be flexible?!)

Asa (10) and Justus (7) wrote in their journals about their weekend, then started their math.

10:00 Malachi (3) brought in the Lincoln Logs, immediately dumped them right in the middle of the room and began to scatter them everywhere (yes, it was loud). Then he immediately decided that he didn’t want to play with Lincoln Logs and went to go get something else out (nope, I don’t think so, buddy)

It literally took 45 minutes of disciplining and taking Malachi back to pick up the Lincoln Logs before the job was actually done. He was being quite stubborn and had decided to win the Battle of the Scattered Lincoln Logs. Fortunately for him (although he didn’t think so at the time) I knew that I would win the battle. He finally realized that he wouldn’t win, then went and picked up the Lincoln Logs in about 2 minutes and then stood up smiling. We talked more about obeying Mama and he apologized and we hugged and he is happier than he was before. 

In the meantime, Asa and Justus were trying to get their math done (key lessons learned in math today:  patience while you’re waiting for Mom to be able to get over to you to answer your questions and working diligently in a room with lots of background noise)  Justus got very frustrated and let me know about it, which almost started the Battle of I need Some Attention and I’m Not Getting Any and I’m Not Happy About It, but after a conversation about how Mama has four boys and all of them need her at once and can’t always have her at once, he decided to choose patience.

10:45  Helped Elias with a page of math, a page of phonics and did a reading lesson.

11:15  Malachi and Elias played together; Mom and Asa and Justus had a science lesson. Today we started learning about our nervous system (the nerves in my system were close to being shot after the Battle of the Scattered Lincoln Logs). 

12:00 I switched out the laundry and ran downstairs to start making potato soup for lunch. Asa and Justus worked on more assignments while I cooked.

SO, was my morning productive and was my home a haven?

At times it did not look like a haven (with Malachi’s Lincoln Logs all over the already “busy looking” school room) and it did not sound like a haven (when Malachi was determined NOT to pick up the Lincoln Logs or when Justus did not want to wait for Mama to help him). 

But I believe that each of my kids learned important lessons this morning, most importantly the lesson learned that Mama wins the battles around here. And through all of the crazy circumstances of the morning, the kids know that they are loved enough to be taught life lessons. So yes, I do believe that my loud and messy home was a haven this morning.

And now, we’re off to read together and do some cleaning chores together for the afternoon.

And I think I will bake a Chocolate Pound Cake that I’ve been hungry for. Because, I’m pretty sure that having something chocolate in the house to eat is always a great way to make your home a haven! :)