This Is the Motherhood I Envisioned

This was a lovely, calm week. Several times I thought to myself that this is what I envisioned motherhood to be before I was experiencing it. And why isn't life like this more often? What can I do to make weeks more like this one and not like other weeks?

Every day we stuck to our routine. I was able to exercise each morning and we started school on time (9:00), if not early (8:30).

We finished school on time each day (11:30).

I had a good and simple meal plan this week and I was able to make our meals at home. I wasn't taking us out to eat (except for a planned lunch with pals!) or having to pack picnic lunches.

Mary's happy cheeks are covered in blueberry juice.

After Quiet Time each day, we managed to do our daily assigned family chores, so the house was neat and decent. (A little focused housecleaning as a family team each day does wonders to keep up the home!) And then I had time and energy to do sweet things with my children, like the day we played Boggle, Jr.

Twice we baked muffins this week--just to make tea time more cozy! And we enjoyed a lot of reading aloud this week: We are in the midst of "Imagination Station: Showdown with the Shepherd", "King David and His Songs," "The Indian in the Cupboard," and "A Little Maid of Massachusetts Colony."

The children strung a rope and a dismantled swing from the jungle gym to the climbing dome to serve as bridges.

The weather was refreshing in the 50s and 60s so the children enjoyed a lot of outdoor play in the afternoons, plus I got a lot of needed pruning done.

The girls take art class while John takes chess class. This week we made St. Valentine's cards for a girl fighting cancer and learned about corporal works of mercy.

We only went out for two events this week: our every-other-week science class and our every-other-week art and chess classes. (Piano lessons are in our own home.)

John drew me a Road In Heaven. He emphasized that it is a road  in heaven, not a road to heaven, because the road  in heaven is beautiful, while the road to heaven is filled with sacrifice.

A sparkly picture by Mary

I got the joy of meeting a girlfriend for coffee on Saturday, with only my one baby in tow. She and I had realized we haven't conversed alone, without all eight of our children around, in about six months--and that's too long!

In the evenings this week, the children went to sleep so easily and sweetly. By 7:30 each night, I'd find myself with free time.

Free. Time.

FREE TIME, PEOPLE!

I sort of didn't know what to do because I didn't have an exhausting, long list of tasks that could never ever get finished. I did not burn the candle at both ends this week and I was as rested as a mother-of-four-with-a-cosleeping-baby can be.

What's the deal?

I think the week was so calm and lovely because I didn't run to and fro. We stayed home and we stuck to routine. I'm not even one to particularly over-commit: I hear what a lot of my mom friends are doing here there and everywhere and I would collapse in a heap. But even in my life, I could probably stand to do less, to stay home more.

I used to travel the world. I've been to something like 23 countries. During my single 20s, I went here, there, and everywhere. And I may do so again when I have older children in middle and high-school, who are really branching out into the community, or when I have an empty nest. But these are the young years and I am finding a home-focused life so good for us all.

Maybe it's my personality. Maybe other personalities thrive on going here, there, and everywhere.

Coincidentally, I read this week a thought-provoking blog post "The Courage to Rest" over at Conversion Diary. This mother of six young ones describes her epiphany of learning that we all need to structure our lives by a Rule of Life, and that the rule needs to be simple, honest, and providing of enough time. Read in her post about the simplicity of Mother Teresa's nuns' Rule and ponder it.

Now, I have long had a routine--a Rule of Life--here in the home. And this week showed me that when I live by the Rule, we have an exceptionally calm life that is nourishing to our souls. Do the duty of the moment for the time allotted, and then stop, moving on to the duty of the next moment.

Of course, it can't always be this way. We experienced no illness this week--praise God! My husband was gone half the week on business travel, but not the whole week. This was an ordinary time, not, say, Advent or Christmas season (busy!). And we have young children: we are not nuns. Children are little walking Wild Cards and there is only so much one can or should do to routenize them. One doesn't want to go to extremes and treat children like they are grown adult men and women who have made the decision to live the highly structured life of a religious.

That said, order to one's day, week, and life is good and calming for the soul. May I make weeks like this more the rule than the exception!