Lately things have been less than stellar at our house for the past month or so (which is part of the reason that I haven't blogged in a while).  My kids I think have Spring fever or have all just decided to be obnoxious at the same time.  I think a lot of it is me. I am tired and achy with the changes in the weather and my fuse is shorter than normal (and I am not the most patient person on the planet to begin with). There are days I get discouraged, and this afternoon was one of them.  I bought the Narnia DVD and watched it with the kids.  They loved it (and so did I).  I had started reading the Chronicles of Narnia to them, but I am not a good reader of long books so it didn’t work   I found out that the Focus on the Family radio broadcast of the Chronicles was on sale ½ price at my local Christian bookstore so I packed up the kids and headed out.  I also had a bunch of shopping to do, so I took all the kids into the super Walmart in the late afternoon (yes I am an idiot at times).  When we went in, the greeter talked to the little ones for a couple of minutes and then looked at me and said “You look like such a fun family”.  That made me feel really good.

As we walked around the store, my kids did a couple of things like saying things that weren’t nice and arguing. Some other people would look at the kids and roll their eyes, until they saw/heard me correct my children then they would get a smile on their faces.  Reminded me that correcting my children is a good thing even when it is hard.

As we were checking out, Little Sister started talking to the lady behind us.  The lady asked if they were all mine and I told her yes and the kids’ ages.  She told me that she had 3 kids and would never try to take them shopping.  I told her that I homeschool and really didn’t have much of a choice.  She was amazed that I homeschooled all of them too.  Little Sister and Little Brother became chatterboxes, Big Sister got sulky and grumpy that I wouldn’t get her a different snack than the other kids and Big Brother was just being a 12 year old boy (nough said).  I apologized that the kids were being disruptive.  She said that the kids were being very good and it looked like we had a lot of fun in our family.  I left the store with a smile on my face and encouraged. 

God knew that I needed to be encouraged, so He sent some angels to give me the encouragement I needed and remind me to have fun.

THANKS GOD, I really needed that.