Paper Towels and Shakespeare

Recently, somehow, we got down to our last roll of paper towels. There was much shock and horror, many questions about how the household would continue to function without such an important supply. Running to Walmart was not going to fit in my schedule for the next couple days, so I put too much faith in Amazon and “figuring it out” and ordered a large pack. We immediately started going through dish towels faster than my laundry pile could keep up.

When I began homeschooling years ago, Shakespeare wasn’t exactly on my radar. I had cute little squishy kids who would maybe care about advanced things like Shakespeare when they were about to move out of the house. That’s the time I’d tackle his writings, I figured. Maybe that’s also when I would begin to appreciate him.

But of course, as is the way with many homeschooling moms, curriculums and methods come and go until there’s finally something that works. For us, that has been Ambleside. A little late to the game but fully invested. And enter: Shakespeare. Le sigh.

We dove into the first play, reading aloud so I could skip chunks as needed. I did not anticipate how invested my older kids would get. Many days they rearrange the books in my Morning Time basket so that Shakespeare will be front and center, which always makes me giggle.

We got to the end of that first play, awaiting our late shipment of paper towels, as it were, and everything came to a halt. No lunch could be had when there was only a matter of pages left. Two kids fully engrossed and demanding to know the ending, one kid bored and scooting around in his chair, one hungry toddler enthusiastically causing mayhem. I read louder and faster and we laughed our way through the terrible ending, though my oldest was distraught.

When I closed the book and turned around, the toddler had dumped both jars of pencils and crayons and flung them around the room. Simple enough to pick up. I started warming up lunch. Then there were shrieks. Said toddler had gotten extra bored and made a pee puddle next to the workout mats we had on the floor. As I whisked him up to a bath, I told the remaining kids to stand against the wall and wait the five minutes for me to come back and give further instruction.

They obeyed, at least initially, then one got a little antsy and I came back down to the pee having been tracked around and underneath the mats. Mmmm. I added “hose down mats” to my mental checklist. Lunch first.

“MOM!!!”

The paper towels had arrived. Turns out, they were just in time.

Through wisdom a house is built,
And by understanding it is established;
By knowledge the rooms are filled
With all precious and pleasant riches.
Proverbs 24:3-4

Slowly we have been filling this little house with knowledge, through books I didn’t foresee reading and many that I couldn’t wait to get our hands on. Scripture always, daily, again and again. “Visit many good books,” Spurgeon said, “but live in the Bible.” The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We plod along and rub shoulders with others and look up every now and then to realize we’ve grown and matured again. These rooms have been filled with all precious and pleasant riches. Even without paper towels - but we can glean lessons from that, too.

The Moment Everything Changed

Where were you?

We now all have this moment. The moment everything changed.

In the middle of prepping food and overseeing schoolwork, I checked my phone. One notification caught my eye and I opened it to see a video of Charlie Kirk being shot. My thoughts swirled and my stomach churned as I stared at my phone. What did I just see? Was that real?

Quickly I learned that he had, indeed, been shot in the neck. The minutes seemed like hours as I waited to learn if he had somehow survived. Over and over I begged the Lord to work a miracle. Restore him. Please Father, please. God chose to take him home. I leaned on the counter with my head in my hands.

We all have this moment, and yet…we are not all one. We all have this moment, but we are worlds apart in the same soil.

Some claim equality and justice, while murdering babies in the womb and confusing what children they have left with ideas about gender. They say we need to come together, but the fruit of their culture shoots up schools and stabs innocent commuters.

Some desire freedom; freedom of speech, freedom to live. Protection of the innocent, from conception till natural death. The ability to have conversation and debate, to disagree and shake hands.

There have been some muddied up waters, but if this week has taught us anything - there is no neutrality. This is good versus evil. The beliefs of the Left lead to death and destruction. It is godless, demonic, wicked. The beliefs of the Right will likewise degrade unless they are anchored in truth.

Dear reader, I beg you to search your soul. You may hate what the Left stands for - good. But do you know Jesus Christ? Has He saved you? Do you know that apart from Him, your sinful self can spiral into justifying wickedness too? Every single one of us is born sinful, there is none who does good on his own (Romans 3:12). Our hearts are prone to unrighteous anger and hatred, bitterness, covetousness - “after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:15). If we do not have Him, if He has not saved us and made us clean from our sins, we cannot actually be good. The tether to morality is through Jesus Christ, there is no other way. We cannot truly be free unless we have been freed from our sins through Him.

“Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
John 8:36

There is righteous anger right now, I feel it too. Justice is a good and right desire. Justice is Godly. But justice can only be Godly if it is done in God’s ways. Friend, if you do not know Him, I beg you to repent. Get right with God. Know His grace and His peace that surpasses all understanding.

Each of us has to determine where we stand. For those of us clinging to Scripture and begging God to make sense of it all -

“Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness because of my enemies; make Your way straight before my face.”
Psalm 5:8

Psalm after Psalm resonates right now. I found myself asking, why? Why am I so wrecked about this? It sounds callous to say, yet Charlie Kirk isn’t someone I’ve spent time with let alone talked to. I don’t know him. Others have summed it up well: that he embodies what we seek to be. He was a brother in Christ, fighting for freedom of speech in our country, working harder than most to keep civil discourse alive and encourage young people to find truth. The more I learn about him, the more I’m inspired by how he lived his life. Everything was for Jesus. He humbly loved people so well. To have a man who has not gone after anyone, murdered in front of his own family…it is such a vicious attack that there is no going back. Everything has changed.

More details will surface and time will tell what happens next. But mothers, may I attempt to encourage us all? The children we are raising need to know truth. They need to understand how God created them and the world. They need verses in their minds and hearts. They need to know that they are sinners, and Jesus is our Savior. They need to know that boys are boys and girls are girls because that’s how God’s beautiful design works. They need to know that God hates murder, and that it starts in the heart. They need to be taught that the tantrums they throw when they’re little will turn into violent rage later if they don’t know how to control themselves and submit to Scripture. They need to know that people are valuable because God made them, and He desires that none perish. They need to know that not everything in life is fair or equal, that God gives different gifts to His children and we are to rejoice in that. They need to know when to pick a fight and stand on principle, and when to walk away. They need to know so much.

Our jobs are not mediocre, friends. We help shape the future by the raising of our children. Lord willing, you have a strong husband to lean on who will cover you and lead your family well. I pray you do. If you don’t, I pray the Lord strengthens your hands and lifts your head, and may He provide you with such a man.

Draw your children to Scripture and help them understand it. Help them apply it daily - you will grow too. You can search things out alongside them. When they are caught in sin, resist the temptation to be easily frustrated and short with them. Help pull them out, as our Lord does with us. Give them the tools to grow into men and women firmly rooted in Christ.

May we raise children who make our Savior proud. May we seek to glorify Him daily. He is worthy of what we see as sacrifice. Someday, when we see Him, it will be the least we could have done.

“Only one life, ‘twill soon be past; Only what's done for Christ will last.”

C.T. Studd

Salt The Walnuts

I looked down at my once-navy shirt, now boasting a white flour band around my middle.

Oh yeah.

I thought back to a couple nights ago as bacon grease popped out of the pan and onto my shirt.

I really ought to use that apron more often.

Violin music floated through the air and I glanced over at one boy who was supposed to be finishing a task. My Procrastinator Professionale. He blinked. I nodded. He grinned.

I wrapped up the pastry dough and stuck it in the freezer. Hopefully I’d remember to take it out before it was too frozen for dinner.

There was a section of Brambly Hedge the other day that especially tickled me -

‘Look, my dear,’ said Mr Apple, ‘if the sea mice can manage to get the salt all the way up to us, I’m sure Dusty can sail downstream to fetch it.’
‘I can’t think of why we’ve run out,’ said Mrs Apple. ‘It’s never happened before. Perhaps I shouldn’t have salted all those walnuts.’
‘Stop worrying,’ said Mr Apple. ‘Look, they’re about to leave.’
(The Complete Brambly Hedge, pg. 193)

You don’t to have read the whole story to get the point here, though it might help to know that Brambly Hedge takes place in the world of rodents and some needed to sail downstream to Purslane and Thrift Saltapple to acquire more salt for their baking endeavors.

But how can the salt have run out? The walnuts, surely those darn walnuts. Shouldn’t have salted them.

Where did those rolls of tape go? Walls. Beds. Cardboard boxes. I should’ve known better.

How can there be no clean laundry? Simply, people kept wearing clothing. And I have not added any more to the washing machine.

How can this child’s shoes be too small? Well, dear me, he grew while I wasn’t looking.

These mice are so relatable.

Where no oxen are, the trough is clean;
But much increase comes by the strength of an ox.
Proverbs 14:4

It turns out that children are messy, keeping a home is hard work, and sometimes, to everyone’s shock and horror, things escape a mom’s mind. The trough could be clean though, think of it – cabinets with no fingerprints, walls with no dents, books with no missing pages. Imagine a day.

Yet those fingerprints came from nosy little babies and toddlers. The wall dent (which one?)? A child’s head, naturally. The books missing pages are often ones that have been read and re-read. Life without these memories would be sterile and void. We’ve all been made better by each season and situation. These little people will grow up to add to the Lord’s world in their own ways. What great increase!

Go ahead, make the effort. Do the things. Salt the walnuts. And don’t forget to pull the dough out of the freezer for dinner.

Merry Christmas 2024

Every year my mind swirls with thoughts of all kinds.

How challenging is it to ride a donkey for miles…while pregnant? Did the animals recognize this baby was special? What would it be like to birth your Creator? Thank God this only happened once - He only needed to come once - God came to earth as a man!

What is my response? Thankfulness, so much thankfulness, whether breakfast is on time or not. Thankfulness even if the tree is dead and gone, which it is, hanging on by a few needles. The tree that reminds us how our Creator spent His first days as a human in a manger, and was later hung on another tree - taking our sins with Him forever.

I hold our infant and think of Mary, what amazement she must’ve felt. I watch our older kids open their gifts and shout for joy, smiling big, and I wonder what God thought as He watched the shepherds and wise men excitedly search for His Gift. The best Gift. What joy!

Merry Christmas, friends. God is so kind.