Letter to Mommy's With Little Ones

Dear Mommy of Little Ones,

You can do it!  In fact, not only can you do it, you can do it well!

I remember the days mine were wee ones.

Days of walking Brianna in circles around our house while she screamed for hours.  It didn't help her any, but I did not know what else to do.

Days of eating Ramen noodles for almost every meal because I could not bring myself to get dressed enough to go out the door and to the store.  Then there were the days when I did make it to the store but by the time I got the groceries in the house, I had babies crying for my attention and I was exhausted so except for the fridge stuff, they stayed in the bags on the floor for about a week.

 

Then there was the mound of dirty clothes!! We were in the military when my first two were young and we had a basement where the washer and dryer were.  Since I did not have to look at the laundry it tended to accumulate like a mountain of sand!!  In fact I remember my mother in law coming after my second daughter was born and I put blankets over the mountain to hide it.  I guess I thought I was pulling one over on her, but I'm pretty sure she knew!!

I also remember having pretty severe postpartum depression. I was pregnant with my third when I saw on the news a lady that suffered from postpartum depression and ended up committing a heinous crime against her children.  I called my doctor the next day telling her that I was afraid of my depression coming back after my baby was born.

I remember the times I lost my temper and yelled in a voice that I know crushed my girls.  I remember the look on their faces when I did it...a mix of fear and complete sadness.

There were days when my frustration led to unsavory words slipping out followed by days of little girls repeating those words!

You see, I want you to know that I've had those days too and I've messed plenty of days up!  That's how I know you can do it.  Sometimes it might feel like you won't. And sometimes you might feel like you can't.  But kids are flexible!!  And though they might remember some of those days and bring them up whenever they want to tease you, they  mostly remember the other days.

Those days were full of laughter (they forget the messy house).  Full of picnics (they forget that we only had money for pb&j sandwiches).  They remember the stories that you read to them (they forget the times you fell asleep while reading them).

Best of all, they remember that you love them.  And in the end, that love covers a multitude of mistakes!!

I know it probably does not help you much for me to tell you that your kids will grow up so fast and you will look back on this time fondly.  So I won't (see how I snuck it in though??!!)

But what I do want to tell you is that you are doing a good job.  The dirty house, the less than healthy dinners, the days staying in your pj's....they are just a season and frankly they don't matter.  Just love on that sweet little one and don't worry about doing it all perfect.  God's mercy and grace extends to Mommy's too!

Our Journey Through Math!!

Once upon a time there was a red-headed little girl.  She had so much trouble in school because she saw and wrote all of her numbers backwards.  She tried so hard, but was frequently frustrated.  The subject that caused her the most grief was math.

She would work and work on math but she seemed to always struggle with it.  No matter how hard she tried she would end up missing most of the problems.  This frequently led to tears.

She struggled and struggled and finally got through Algebra 2.  Her mom was tempted to call it quits at this point as she had enough math to graduate with, but her parents had this belief.  You see, they thought that, though you might not LOVE every subject, everyone should be able to appreciate them all, especially math.

They prayed and prayed about what to do.  They did not want to make her hate learning by pushing her on in math, but she still had not found a way to appreciate it. 

The next school year, after praying about it a LOT, they decided to do geometry again.  But instead of the standard curriculum, they tried something different. And they talked to the rambunctious red-head and listened to what frustrated her so much and they all made some changes. 

That school year God did something amazing!  He started to open her eyes and change her heart regarding math.  It started with less tears and frustration and ended the year with enjoyment.  She went from walking the long way around a math book to reading library books on math for fun!

Now, believe it or not, she is getting ready to go to college and pursue a math and computer science degree! 

As her mom and teacher, I wanted to share this with you because maybe you have a child that struggles in math!  I would encourage you to find out what it is that makes math difficult and try to tackle that.  I also want to let you know not to give up!  I can’t imagine what would have happened if I had just let this go and allow her to be “done” learning math.  She might have delayed or missed learning about a special gift God has given her.

Now, I’m not saying that we are all going to be brilliant in math or any other subject, but what I am saying is that math is God’s language here on earth.  It’s His patterns and creative fingerprint.  We should have knowledge of it and we should find joy in it!  Sometimes it just takes a little change in our perspective!!

Last year, she decided to write a spoken word for a church fine arts convention.  We wanted to share it with you!!