Happy Birthday, Charlotte

Two years ago today, on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, my daughter was born.  She was 6 weeks early, but she was strong and came out fighting.  She offered strength and beauty, mixed with some straight Southern sass, to a broken world in need of the hope that can only come when a child is born.  She hasn't stopped fighting, smiling, or learning since that day, and I pray she never will.  We need her.  I love you, Princess.

Religious vs. Disciple

There is a difference between being religious and being a true disciple of Christ.

Our Gospel of Principles class was discussing the parable of the Good Samaritan on Sunday, and someone gave an uncomfortable but true account of the terrible things she saw "religious" people do in her country.  She aid the Samaritan was acting out of love, while perhaps the Levite and Priest were bound by religion.  An interesting thought.

Here is this:

James 1:23-27

25  But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
26  If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.
27  Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

This is important to remember.  I want to be a disciple of Christ, not just religious.  It is important to know - and remember - the difference.

The Brass Serpent

About the Israelites being commanded to look at the brass serpent:

Alma 33:20 But few understood the meaning of those things, and this because of the hardness of their hearts. But there were many who were so hardened that they would not look, therefore they perished. Now the reason they would not look is because they did not believe that it would heal them.

Would I have looked?  Goal for today: Pray for the strength to look and the gift of being healed.

Miley Cyrus and Homeschool

So, thank you Rebecca Thompson Dundore for your post of a blogger commenting on what Miley Cyrus' performance at the IMA's (which I thankfully missed).  It brought things together for me in a new way.

One of the common arguments against homeschooling is that children need to be socialized.  I've always thought this was a silly reason, but have been trying to put my finger on why for some time.  The underlying assumption is that children spend a lot of time with their classmates, so that children who don't have classmates are somehow missing out.  Then another home-school Mom threw me a bone when she said, "Sending children to school to learn social skills is like sending them to a candy store to learn about nutrition."  It's the quality of time children need with friends, not the quantity, that matters.

When I was grown, my Mom told me that whenever a teacher would get uppity at a parent-teacher conference, telling my parents what they should do differently (particularly when the child being discussed was my sister Crystal), my Dad has a unique way of responding.  He would say, in his calm-like-the-ocean way,  "Thank you for helping me teach my child."  He wanted to remind them that he was the one in charge of our education, not them.

I think this might just be huge.

School isn't FOR socialization.  Children don't go there to learn from each other.  They go to learn from a teacher.  They do learn from each other, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse, but they go to learn from a teacher.  From teachers - from adults.  As the blogger man said, "Kids need adults," not other kids, to be their role models.  Our problem is, adults are forgetting how to be role models and are trying to be kids instead.

So, some parents send their children to school so teachers can help them teach their children.  Some parents keep them home.  This is BY NO MEANS a judgment call on anyone's education choices.  I am just saying, school isn't for socialization, and parents are children's primary teachers, no matter how many other teachers those children have.

More to ponder for me...

Homeschool Infographic Makes Me Happy!

Source: TopMastersInEducation.com

Living the Dream

I love my hands.  They are turning into Mommy hands.  They aren't girl hands anymore.  They actually are looking more and more like MY Mommy's hands.  They are beautiful.  I want to behave so that my children see them as safe and kind an beautiful too.

Mommy's are some of the most beautiful people in the world.  It's a shame that the world tells us to "get your shape back" after birth, as if it is one of the first orders of business.  You see this gut - the one that makes me look like I'm still 3-4 months pregnant?  I worked HARD for this thing!  See this Baby?  The one for whom I am obliged to change my diet, my sleep schedule, my plans for potty-training her sister, and literally my whole world?  She is awesome beyond words, and worlds more than worth it.

I haven't always felt this way, but I'm growing.  Growing comes with growing pains, but I'll take it.  I'm living the dream I've had for myself since I was a child.  I'm a Mommy.  I stand with my mother, my grandmothers, and dear friends all over this great nation, raising tomorrow's citizens...it's a humbling thought.  I feel honored to be among the ranks of willing, committed mothers.

Summer Ends?

In my world, "Summer" is the name of the period of time it is most likely to be at or above 70 degrees every day for a week at a time. As such, the fact that any store within a four-hour drive from my current home would have an "End of Summer Sale" in August is laughable to me.