Little Successes

Since we are in Survival Mode, I am learning to find joy in Small Triumphs.  Really, when I think about it, the fact that I feed 7 people 3 times a day, every day, is in itself a small miracle, especially given the fact that I rarely get to a grocery store without extra people hanging all over the cart, begging for gum and asking if it's time to go home yet.  So when I'm feeling discouraged about how little schooling we are actually doing this year, I try to console myself with that: "Hey, at least we're all eating!"  Considering what we went through with Zaden in the fall, this is indeed an accomplishment!

But alas, there is more to life than filling our stomachs.  And while it seems we have been "doing school" for months on end, we have, in fact, barely finished week 6 of our Sonlight curriculum.  So completing schoolwork is not exactly something I can crow about.  Since this is a huge part of my current job description, it would be easy for my type-A persona to panic about how useless I really am.

Today, however, I have accomplished Something!  I paid bills!  Even the power bill, which apparently got overlooked in October, resulting in a few dollars' late fee added to the hefty October/November statement.  So, yay me!  Our finances are up-to-date!  Even better, I have enough money to go grocery shopping tomorrow!  (And I'm going alone, thanks to my friend Shirley!)

Other recent Small Triumphs include:

• Writing the Easter Christmas letter
• Ordering pictures to go with the letter
• Stringing Christmas lights around the house, a la dorm room fashion (I neglected to tell the girls that if they wanted lights ON the Christmas tree, they should go on BEFORE the ornaments)
• Finding 4 pairs of Tobin's underwear in the laundry last week (previous scores included 1 and 0)
• Realizing that Lucan is saying "please," "thank you," and "you're welcome" without being prompted
• Hearing Charis say that her favorite thing about Christmas is giving presents to other people
• Listening to the older 3 quote Psalm 103 from memory
• Hearing Kenna pray for Mommy's back to feel better
• Discovering that Tobin is becoming a bit of a neat freak--whoa!  How'd that happen?!

Really, when I think about it, I realize that the true successes have nothing to do with academics and everything to do with character.  True successes involve our relationships with each other and with Jesus.  Maybe it took a season of chaos to help me REALLY learn what it means to lean on Jesus...and even what it means to be a homeschooling family.