Heavenly Homemakers

Julie in Australia asked, “I am wondering whether you take time to yourself? You give me the impression that this is not a “need” in your life in so far as you obviously love spending time with the boys each day and your husband. However, how do you unwind? Do you enjoy time by yourself or do you find the time with your family is where you find yourself re-energised”

Oh yes…I am an introvert through and through. I very much feel the need for alone time each day. I spend a lot of time with people and I love it…but it does make me tired. 

I never get tired of my husband because he just isn’t home enough to get tired of. ;)    But my boys? I don’t need NEARLY the breaks from them that I used to need when they were all teeny tiny at the same time and hanging on my legs and hanging on my sleeves and hanging on my…well…you know…when they were nursing. {ehem}

When they were all little bitty, any quiet time I could get was wonderful and so, so needed. Now that they’re older and not so dependent on me, I don’t feel quite the need to “get away from it all”. Do you hear that, Moms of Little Bitties? It will get EASIER!!!  Wahoo!

All that being said…I do still need to have some down time each day (if possible) to just “feel the quiet”. I need to be able to have some time to not answer any questions or make any decisions or work anyone through an argument with a brother.

You might be happy to know that my “down time” is almost always my blogging time. My blog is my hobby, business, ministry and “down time” all wrapped up in one! How great is that?

When I’m writing…I am all alone in my own little writing world. Well, all alone except for all of you…but bless you…you are all incredibly well behaved and quiet. 

This usually happens for me in the afternoons while the boys have their reading time/play time/TV time. Sometimes I have a little more time after the boys go to bed and if Matt is working the late shift.

Crazy as it may sound…whenever I happen to have the entire house to myself (like if Matt’s at work and the boys are all playing at a friend’s house)…I almost always choose to work on my website or ebooks or articles. Part of that is because I always have work waiting for me and emails to answer…so a quiet moment means uninterrupted and guilt free work time. Plus, I LOVE it. Every once in a blue moon, I let myself read a good Christian fiction novel.   

I used to feel selfish because I needed some time to unwind all alone with everyone “out of my face”. I believe that if we take the “me time” idea too far…it does become selfish. But…if you are the kind of person (like me) who needs quiet and alone time to re-gain your energy…that’s not selfish. It’s smart.

So…what do the rest of you do for “down time” whenever you happen to have some?

Jen B asked:  Where did you get your mad cooking skills from? Were you always a wonderful cook?

I’ve just ALWAYS loved cooking. I was always looking through cookbooks and cooking magazines and experimenting with recipes when I was growing up. 

I come from a long line of wonderful cooks. My mom was a great cook. Both of my grandmothers were good cooks. My aunts are all wonderful cooks. 

My mom enjoyed cooking (although maybe not quite as much as I love it and consider it to be a hobby). I loved cooking with my mom and with my grandma. I shared more of my cooking memories in this post if you’d like to read more.

And no, I made many cooking mistakes back when I was a beginner (still do of course). Did I ever tell you about the first time I made gravy for Matt on our sixth month dating anniversary? He had to spread it onto his meat and potatoes with a butter knife. I am SO glad he married me anyway.

Kathy Shaner said:  Speaking as one who had years of the single life with a great career, then marriage at 40– I wonder what career you would have pursued if you’d gone that direction? Maybe I should know this after reading all about Laura, but I don’t. What ‘outside’ interests have captured your attention and might have launched a career if you hadn’t built a life with your wonderful family?

I got a degree in Elementary Education and taught first grade for a very short time in a Public School before our oldest was born.

Growing up, I always told my mom that when I grew up I wanted to be a mom, a teacher, a baker and a hair cutter person.

How great is it that I now get to be everything I always wanted to be when I grew up?! (Never in a million years though did I ever dream I’d also have a website.  That might have had something to do with the fact that computers hardly existed yet…)

I suppose if I would have continued in a career, I would have continued teaching school. That all seems like another life to me now…the days when I taught school. Good memories…but I’m so, so happy with what I’m doing now. Although, I will say…I miss having a janitor. :)

Becca Banana asked:  What do you wish you had known about marriage and/or parenting before learning lessons the hard way?

Oh my goodness sakes…how long do you have?

Regarding marriage…I actually am planning to write a little series addressing some of these things…so if it’s okay, I’ll save that topic for a few weeks from now.

What I wish I would have known about parenting? What I wish I could change?

I really, really didn’t know that my kids would be naughty very often. I really thought my  household would always be blissful and calm and my children would always behave and be clean and never have crusty noses. I was very organized and on top of things (before marriage and motherhood) and my children were going to be practically perfect except for a tiny little episode that they might have once every six months or so. And only then if they were sick.

Because that didn’t really happen (not even close)…I was pretty hard on Asa (our oldest) and didn’t always respond to his challenging two year old (and three year old and four year old) normal behaviors the way I should have. I sort of expected him to “perform”, if that makes any sense.

I wish I would have understood then that parenting is constant “Godly character training”…not “create perfect people so everyone will think you’re a great parent” training.

Also, when we started homeschooling I thought I needed to be a Nazi about schoolwork so that I’d have the smartest kids ever. I almost made Asa hate school by the time he was six. I backed off a WHOLE lot, and by the time he turned ten, I had finally convince him that it really was okay to miss a math problem or spell a word wrong.

Our schooling is SO much more relaxed now. Guess what? They’re still smart. Go figure. Of course, “smart” is relative. ;)

More Learning about Laura coming up tomorrow…