It is frustrating, you know. Like many careers that leave employees frustrated, Mothering involves many mindless jobs that repeat themselves day after day only to be undone and redone again the next day. Dishes, which we go through three dishwashers full of per day at our house, leap to mind. Laundry, floor sweeping, vacuuming, and basically all cleaning jobs are high on the list.

With small children, diapering is a big monotony particularly when the child you diaper doesn’t enjoy that activity and takes every opportunity to cry at you every time you plop him down on the bed for a change. This has been Henry’s reaction for 90% the changes I have given him since he was two weeks old. You can add that up yourself if you’re so inclined. Having someone yell at you several times a day for trying to clean the poop off their own butt gets a mite discouraging.

Even more depressing than the actual work itself is the feeling of being useless. I used to have a very sharp, curious mind. Every class I attended, I did well in. In every company with which I was employed, I did very well and was often promoted quickly. I loved getting report cards and performance reviews because someone always saw my hard work and rewarded it with whatever was appropriate.

Motherhood isn’t that way. Many days I feel like my lovely brain that I was so fond of has been spackled over with peanut butter. The manual labor that I do requires no talent or training, which makes me interchangeable with anyone else around who can throw dirty clothes in a washer with equivalent competency. Because this labor is so menial, why would anyone bother complimenting it or even noticing it? Congratulations Mom, you have just swished your toilet for the 1000th time. We are throwing you a ticker tape parade and sending you to Disney World! Somehow you don’t see that in the newspaper too much. This is probably part of why I like website building so much. It gives my mind something to do which keeps it sharp(er) and other people see the finished product and say “wow.”

The other day when I was driving home Dr. Laura came on the radio, and she read an excerpt from a book called The Invisible Woman. I am not going to retell the entire excerpt because you can go read it yourself here, but the very short version is that Wifing (not to be confused with wi-fi) and Mothering is much like Cathedral building.

The great European cathedrals took decades or more to make and many times the craftsmen worked their whole lives knowing they would never see the finished work. Their names aren’t stamped on the building; no one knows who they were. What they saw was the beauty that their work would become. Their joy was the delight in doing hard work unto the Lord and knowing that He sees it and values it even when no one else does either of those.

I like that. Some days when I’m cleaning up the milk spilled on the floor after cleaning up the juice that was spilled eight minutes ago, I have a hard time remembering that my work is important. This is why I’m writing it down. So if any of you ask me what I did this week, instead of getting a dissatisfied look and a “changed diapers” response, I think I’m going to start answering that this week I was Cathedral building. Then you can have the blank look and hopefully I will more readily remember that building little temples for the Holy Spirit is what I’m doing as opposed to, say, neverending janitorial work.

Rachel

Today Amy emailed me these pictures that she took of the kids at school (Zera Hall) over the last few months. They’re so cute!

Apparently the blue frosting was very blue.

Studying India.

The schoolroom.

Anika being her usual charming self.

Trinity loves school.

Georgie loves Dragons (and school). I think he bought the book from the school store.

Thinking hard.

Thinking less hard. This picture cracks me up. Trinity is the queen of goofy faces.

Three of our happy children. Amy printed a copy of this for me and sent it home with the kids. It’s sitting on my desk so I have my children smiling at me all the time. Hmm, I think I need a frame. I love this picture.

Due to financial restrictions, the kids will no longer be attending Zera Hall as of the end of this term (April 10th) and I will be homeschooling them from then on. Amy has been extremely gracious about the whole thing, but this has been a frustrating time for me. The kids have been with Amy for three years now, love school, and have been flourishing there. Taking them out is a great grief to me, and although I am starting to look forward to homeschooling them here, I have very mixed feelings about the whole thing.

The children themselves seem to be reacting fairly well. The girls are excited about not having “the long car ride” home before they can start on their homework (we live seven minutes from school). Georgie is a bit more suspicious of the whole notion, but he pretty much starts that way when you tell him he will be doing anything new or different. I think once we get going, they will probably all miss Mrs. Hayes whom they love very much.

Amy is actively looking for new students now, so if you have daughters in the K-4 age range and are looking for all the benefits of homeschooling without actually having to do the schooling yourself, Zera Hall is the place for you. Amy is a truly wonderful teacher, and you will be delighted as we have been. It has been our great joy and honor, Amy, to have you teach our children. Many thanks.

Rachel

Kyra’s educational voyage began today, and boy was she happy! She’s been asking me to start doing school with her ever since her nap schedule dropped from every day to every other day a few months ago, and as I was browsing through my computer stuff today I discovered a whole stash of old alphabet printables that I had made up ages ago when I got started with the older kids.

After rummaging around downstairs for a binder and printing off all the tracers, Kyra and I put together a school book for her and she sat down next to me in my room and did school while I worked on my computer. She’s four and a half. School at this age is not terribly consuming, and I’m pretty sure I can keep her busy with tracers for a few weeks until I get going with the big kids next month.

We started today with tracers for her name. As soon as she can do that, we’ll move on to the alphabet. Here’s a couple of pictures of my happy new student:

Yes, fancy desk and materials, I know. She seems thoroughly happy to be sitting on my bedroom floor right next to Mommy with the bathroom stool for her desk. So congratulations, Kyra, and welcome to school!

Rachel

Well, this week we are practicing our epidemiology lesson. If, say, a baby boy gets sick and feels so lousy that he wants his Mother to hold and comfort him while he coughs germs all over her face for several days in a row, she will undoubtedly get sick. This was the premise of last week’s lesson. We are now into the lab portion.

Experimentation has shown that said Mother will, indeed, get sick under such circumstances. Unfortunately, baby boy is still sick and has managed to also infect two sisters so now I have me and three children under age five sick. It’s really delightful and is involving much wailing and gnashing of teeth (by me).

On the plus side, my massive website upgrade is nearly done, which makes me indescribably happy. I was hoping to get almost everything wrapped up this week but have been somewhat waylaid by the aforementioned illness, so my timeline is off by a week or so. It’s very depressing since I was looking forward to returning to my native habitat and leaving the confines of my bedroom office where I have been sequestered now for far too long.

Maybe a handsome prince will come kiss me and sweep me away. Oh wait, that already happened. Guess that’s the virus talking. Anyway, hopefully next week will bring good work news and a family returned to health. Guess I should go wipe Henry snot off my sleeve and take a nap.

Prost!

Rachel

Wow, who would have thought? Apparently a new book has come out detailing a shocking new way for women to be happier, use their big old brains, and solidify their place in life. And that would be by….. staying at home supporting their husband in his work. And who do they hold up as the best current example of this? Michelle Obama! And hence the absolute ire of the feminists.

Now please forgive me if I am wrong here, but isn’t this pretty much what we Christians have been saying for, you know, ever?? Of course, when we say it we’re a bunch of old-fashioned women whose overbearing husbands have gotten the better of us and are stifling our creativity and smarts by making us stay home and do dull things like endless piles of laundry.

When some new book babe comes out using the First Lady as her best current example of this type of thinking, then wow! this is all new and brilliant. No wait, I should amend that to read Democrat First Lady. This is only new and fresh if you’re a liberal. Republican First Ladies would no doubt get the aforementioned old-fashioned description.

Ha! I guess if you read it that way, it is new and newsworthy. Only the headline is wrong, so I shall rewrite it correctly:

“Liberal women finally discover what everyone else has known for millenia: Standing by Your Man makes everyone happier.”

Here’s the article:

‘Quit work to help your husband’, says a controversial new book that has infuriated feminists

I really enjoyed the article. It was the funniest thing I’ve read in weeks.

Rachel