Wednesday, September 14, 2011

A Word of Thanks

Today was an awful day! No, seriously! I had no patience, we skipped our walk and I think I've yelled at pretty much every kid at least once -- and one of them, way more than that. 

But there's something especially sweet -- even on the hardest of days -- when after finishing up the last "class" of the day (much later than we should have, but everything got pushed off because of ... well ... life), one child cleaned up her school supplies and then paused to look back in my direction to say, "Thank you, Mama, for teaching me today."

Awwwwww!  I mean, come on.  All the hardships and temper tantrums (mine) and stress are so worth it to be able to hear that.  If my kids were in public school and I had hours to myself for la-di-da-whatever, I'd never get to hear those words.  Love. It.

After yelling at one son for a while today, who accused me of pushing him away (I finally dropped him at the library for a couple hours to research a topic and so we could all regroup), I was able to say how blessed and thankful I am that I get to spend every day with our kids.  I got to express to him that I homeschool because I love him.  Because I want to have him near me.  (In the meantime, he'd gotten quite mouthy and it just wasn't helpful for the rest of the kids to have him around for a bit today.) 

I love all our kids and I want to be part of all their lives.  That doesn't mean I won't have frustrating, awful days ... but I'm still so thankful for homeschool and time with them and especially those moments when they surprise me with a word of thanks of their own.

No comments:

Post a Comment