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Home > Support > Family Life > I wrote to you several weeks ago concerning homeschooling, my soap business and my broken foot and getting it all done...
 
 
Question:

Dear Rita, I wrote to you several weeks ago concerning homeschooling, my soap business and my broken foot and getting it all done. I wanted to thank you for all your advice and prayers. Many people have advised me that breaking my foot was the Lord's way of getting my attention and slowing me down, so I could hear what he had to tell me.

I spent 8 long weeks in plaster casts doing almost nothing. The possibility of surgery hung over my head for a month as well, before I finally got some good news 2 weeks ago. I am healing and making remarkable progress and don't need surgery. I can even walk short distances without my crutches. Praise God I am getting well.

I wanted to let you know that I did a lot of praying and thinking and getting my home in order, literally. I organized recipe books, cleaned out drawers, anything I could manage to do while sitting in a chair with my leg up. I made up a schedule for myself and my now 11 yo and implemented it about a month ago. While we don't strictly adhere to it, it has given us a focus and a plan and tells us where we should be and when we should be there.

I wanted to tell you that the past month of homeschool has been so much easier and less stressful. We have a starting time and a finishing time and we are accomplishing more than ever before. We bought my daughter a kitchen timer and she is enjoying working against the timer to finish her assignments in a timely manner. No more sitting there doing math for 4 hours while I get stressed out cause I have other work to do.

If we keep our schedule, I will have quiet time in the morning as well as time to milk my goats and care for my animals, something I love to do. It is quiet time for me. I can think and pray while milking and some mornings I just sit with the goats and listen to the sounds of nature waking up! I will have time every afternoon for a tea break! I will also have 4 to 5 hours to work on my business each day. We also have reading time each night now as well. It is special time for myself and my 11 year old. After reading time, we have private time for prayer before we close our eyes for the night. By closing my shop, we will have the weekends for home projects (remember we bought a fixer upper house)and family time. We went to the zoo last week and had a wonderful time together.

I also made up monthly menus and a master shopping list. While this might seem obvious to others, it has taken me all this time to figure out how to organize meal time. I love to cook and finding the time to shop and cook was a very big stress in my life. I strongly feel that having a home cooked family dinner is very important. It upset me when I couldn't provide that. Now, anyone can look at the menu for the day and make dinner! What a blessing that is to have that help from my husband and my 17 year old daughter. Plus no more standing in front of the fridge trying to figure out what to make for dinner. Just look on the menu and there is one less decision to make. My shopping list is made up to the menus and is listed in the same order as the grocery store aisles. My husband is now able to do the shopping when I need him to. Something he never did in our almost 30 years of marriage!

I believe that breaking my foot has been a blessing because if I hadn't, none of the above would have gotten done or even thought about and I would have continued in my harried disorganized style, feeling rushed and overwhelmed constantly. I put my products into another shop and I have to say that I have made more money while having a broken foot that I did when I worked in my shop 30+ hours a week. I now am concentrating on my wholesale accounts and my website. Everyone is helping more as well and doing things they never did before cause Mom did everything. I have had to learn to let others do some of my chores and realize that the children are capable of doing much more than they have been. It has been a time of adjustment, of letting go, and of learning to work together. A lesson perhaps, we all needed to learn.

Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for you words of wisdom. I continue to S.O.A.P. in more ways than one! I love that and pass that along to others daily. I appreciate all the responses and advice you provide as your insight is so helpful. Bless you.

Answer:

Dear Mom,

I am amazed by all that you have managed to accomplish in such a short amount of time. This is surely a witness of the Holy Spirit's empowerment in all that you are doing. It is always a holy witness when we turn our earthly cares over to the Lord and allow Him to work through the challenges that we face.

I find that when I am overwhelmed by the day to day challenges and solutions to the challenges seem unattainable, I crave time in the presence of the Holy Eucharist. Just sitting quietly before the Blessed Sacrament is so curative and peaceful. It is as though the dear Jesus takes each concern and gently smooths the wrinkles away and brings me to the realization of doable solutions.

Thank you for sharing all that you are experiencing. Please continue to keep me in your daily prayers as I will you. Let us pray together a Hail Mary for all the intentions of those moms and families that will find themselves facing almost unbearable challenges today. St. Ann, pray for us.

Sending out a prayer,

Rita Munn

   
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