My early morning quiet time has been... not so quiet lately. There's a sweet toddler with a beautiful smile that wakens with me and interrupts my reading and prayer time with piles of books plopped into my lap. And when I reach for her and we pull the afghan around our shoulders, she leans back and sighs contentedly.
I've given up feeling like I've a right to alone time because, you see, just today we finished our tenth year of home schooling. And that little boy who first toddled to me with books and then I taught to read and do his sums? He's entering the tenth grade. And there's also a seventh grader, and a third grader, and a first grader, and it all just moves so very, very quickly.
So if I've learned anything at all these past ten years, it's that Evangeline won't always be an early riser. And some day, I'll have taught her to read by herself, too. And then she'll out-sum me and out-sleep me and probably outrun me and I can have all the quiet time I want.
But for now? I read a paragraph to myself and a book to her. I read another line to myself and then head up the search for a favorite baby doll. And when Quiet Time is over and the hour has come to waken the rest of my children, I help her fold her hands and we pray over the day together. Because every. second. counts.
I've given up feeling like I've a right to alone time because, you see, just today we finished our tenth year of home schooling. And that little boy who first toddled to me with books and then I taught to read and do his sums? He's entering the tenth grade. And there's also a seventh grader, and a third grader, and a first grader, and it all just moves so very, very quickly.
So if I've learned anything at all these past ten years, it's that Evangeline won't always be an early riser. And some day, I'll have taught her to read by herself, too. And then she'll out-sum me and out-sleep me and probably outrun me and I can have all the quiet time I want.
But for now? I read a paragraph to myself and a book to her. I read another line to myself and then head up the search for a favorite baby doll. And when Quiet Time is over and the hour has come to waken the rest of my children, I help her fold her hands and we pray over the day together. Because every. second. counts.
See how loved she is? Gideon and Eliana are even better at cherishing every second.
4 fellow travelers shared:
I just love this. I also really appreciated your comments on Elizabeth Foss' most recent post. So encouraging!
Oh, Elise. You have such a good heart. My children stretch from almost (gasp!) fourteen on down to 18 months. We also have five children. I am just over forty (that, too, is just shocking for a girl who feels just-as-naïve as she did at eighteen!) However, I find myself sitting in the fullness of my moments more than ever before. The baby's skin, the way she gazes at me like her one-and-only, the back-up-the-truck sweetness of her coming to my lap with a book. Ah! How I will miss this time, when it is all past. (And the fourteen-year-old...oh my! Puttering around with my own Little Woman, who flips pancakes and soothes baby sisters and speaks of what the Lord is teaching her...how do you store up this kind of bliss?) Praying for your ordinary and full moments.
I love this Elise, that children aren't an interruption, but a joy...Somehow my youngest turned 5 on me and I'm trying to savor the little moments too...We've been homeschooling 9 years, they are growing up all too quickly.
My children are 12, 10 and 10 and I remind myself of this so very often! When I feel put out, or like I can't get a moment of quiet, I try to remember that FAR TOO SOON I will have all the quiet "me time" I could ever want...and boy will I be missing my kids! Thinking of that makes it easier to love the noise and "interruptions" and savor these fleeting moments...
By the way, I started following your blog when you were pregnant with Gideon and I can't believe how big your little ones have gotten, and how grown your young men are! You have a lovely family. God bless!
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