One of my favorite authors is Karen Andreola.? She writes encouraging books both fiction and non-fiction for homeschooling mothers.? Ms. Andreola brought the term ?mother culture? to my world as I read the chapter by the same name in her Charlotte Mason Companion.? In simple terms, it means for a mother to take a little time each day to take care of yourself so that you will be able to properly and lovingly serve your family.? She writes on her website, Moments with Mother Culture?, ?To take part in Mother Culture is to feed herself with the Word of God, with ideas from books, nature, art, music, etc., taking care to keep growing spiritually and mentally.?
She also shares from her own personal story, ?As a young mother and new home teacher I longed for advice about how to fulfill my roles of; wife, mother, homemaker and home teacher. It was so perplexing that on some days I was desperate for advice.?? Who has not felt like her?? In our hearts, we want to be the best mothers.? We want to run our homes smoothly, enjoy schooling our children, have nutritious home cooked meals, and cheerfully serve our families.? Mothers raising children at home regardless of their ages can wear down easily.? I have had many days when I cried out, ?Calgon, take me away!?? (Yes, I know I am dating myself.)
If you ask any honest mother, they will also share their struggles.? Parenting is the hardest job in the world.? Mainly because it is an investment, which takes years and decades to see a return in your time, energy, work, and love.? Each year comes with its own troubles and triumphs.? Each child has his/her own personalities and challenges; therefore, the more children you have, the more interesting your days are.? It is also more difficult to spend one on one time with each child, not to mention your husband.
As you give and serve, cook and clean, love and teach, you can deplete your internal bank.? You can be buying time on credit, if you will.? One must stop to recharge.? If I let my computer die, it takes much longer to restore its battery.? But if I see that it is getting low and plug it in, it does not take long for the battery to operate fully charged.? Therefore, mothers need to recharge daily in order to keep going as close to full capacity as possible.
I find it interesting that Ms. Andreola used the word ?desperate? to describe how much she needed advice because a good friend of hers, Sally Clarkson has just co-written a book with Sarah Mae called, Desperate: Hope for the Mom who Needs to Breathe.? It is a fantastic book that was recently released.? I devoured it early last week.? I was so greatly encouraged by this book that did not give formulas for success or tell me where I was going wrong.? Instead, the authors encouraged me to be myself, confident that God will equip me for the job of raising my five unique children.? God entrusted them in my care for a reason, and with Him? all things are possible (Matthew 19:26)?
If you have children at home, I highly recommend this book.? Reflecting on the book?s message helped me rediscover some things about myself that I really enjoy.? In the midst of being overly practical and the busyness of life, I had neglected myself to a certain extent.? I was not recharging my batteries often enough by simple things.
I have always loved Celtic music.? My husband bought me a wireless speaker which connects to my phone by blue-tooth.? I downloaded some of my favorite music and have been playing it softly in the background throughout the day.? Frankly, it puts me in a good mood so I am able to weather small storms of attitude, misbehavior, or disobedience in a loving, grace-filled way instead of blowing my top and sinning against my children.
The first time I played my music, my oldest son called from his bedroom, ?Mom, what kind of music is that??? I thought he did not like it and was going to complain and try to get me to turn it off.? To my surprise, he wanted to download it onto his iPod.? He loved it!? So as I filled my cup by surrounding myself with beautiful music, I was also able to share my love for this genre of music with my son.? It was an indirect result that I had not expected.
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Source: http://www.texashomesteader.com/2013/01/21/desperate-for-mother-culture/
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