Wednesday, August 25, 2010

An Interview With One Of My Favorite Ladies

It is my great pleasure to introduce you to Teresa V., wife and mother-of-six extraordinaire!  As a wife for 26 years, mother for 25 years, and homeschool teacher for 20 years (and counting!), she is a lady whose brain you want to pick! In her spare time (you know she has oodles of it, ha!), she enjoys reading, guitar playing, song writing, and gardening. She is my mom.

My mom (grating cheese for breakfast!)
During our vacation at the beach, she took the time to answer a few questions of mine regarding life as a wife and mother.

Me: As a mother of small children, what was your biggest challenge?

"My biggest challenge as a mother of small children was trying to be balanced! Learning to juggle everything and to do it well with a Godly attitude was a huge effort! Moms like me are challenged to balance normal adult responsibilities (like paying the bills), the constant needs of running a household, the need to consistently discipline children, time to personally “refuel,” time with their husband, time to relax with their children (like cuddling and enjoying a read-aloud book together), and (in my case) time to adequately homeschool each child and nurse a baby intermittently!"

"Many times my husband would help me see when I was getting out of balance and would pull me away from all the responsibilities to just go for a walk with him. It was amazing how much could be accomplished through a simple walk, talk, and time of prayer. To maintain sanity, prayer was and IS essential."

Me: If you could give advice to the “younger you”--the younger mother--what would it be?

My Mom: "Now that 4 of our 6 offspring are adults, I clearly see how vital it is to pour into children all the “good” I possibly can during those precious 18 years, particularly the 1st impressionable 5 years. My husband and I chose for me to be a stay-at-home mom and to homeschool our children in order to do our best to train them in godliness."

"If I could give advice to the 'younger me' back in the beginning of this journey, the me who was (and often still is) too perfectionistic, I would tell myself to RELAX! I would encourage myself not to be uptight. Some things matter, but not to the degree that I lose peace of mind and peace with God. I’m referring to things such as getting all the laundry done, dishes done, kids clean, house clean, consistent balanced meals prepared, and so on. I would encourage more fun outings (not just “educational” ones) and less stressing over whether my children are learning enough or as much as other children. Time has proven that I don’t need to be an accomplished artist, scientist, musician, etc. for my children to blossom in the area of their interest."

"We simply need to pray over our children A LOT, asking God to expose their strengths and gifts, and that these would be enhanced with opportunities for growth. We have found that God is faithful to answer this prayer."

To be continued next week...

How would you weigh in on these questions? Many of you are mothers to young children--what do you feel is your biggest challenge?



Linked to: 
Wise Words Wednesday @ Trugars
Works For Me Wednesday @ We Are THAT Family
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10 comments:

  1. Thanks, Alicia. I don't think I could survive, as a young mom, without the wisdom of women who have been there done that.

    I find it difficult to balance and prioritize. I certainly agree that prayer is essential to knowing what to do, and what to do first.

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  2. First, your mom looks amazing!

    Second, what wise words about relaxing. I struggle to just have fun with the girls some days and get too caught up in keeping things in order. Thanks for posting is!

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  3. I consider stay at home mom to be one of the most noble, most previous and hardest jobs, too bad that nowadays it's a lot harder for the father to be the sole provider of a household with a few kiddos...

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  4. Great read! I barely keep it all straight with ONE little one!

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  5. @ Starving Student Survivor: I agree! I need to put more emphasis on prayer!

    @Kelly: I am so with you.

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  6. My biggest challenge is not wanting to do everything PERFECT (perfect mum, housewife, loving wife and perfect cook etc), because the harder I try, the more I get upset when it's not going the way I wanted... (and then I'm not so pleasant)

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  7. Love the advice of wiser moms. =)

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  8. What amazing mom you have ;) Very encouraging message especially with having two little ones and sometimes feeling like I have already blown it. Can't wait to read more.

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  9. Thanks for linking up! :) It was good to hear that your mom wanted to do more fun stuff with her kids; I need to keep a running list of fun things to do! (One of my empty binders is just waiting to be filled with ideas....)

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  10. Alicia, thanks for this wonderful post! It's so motivating to get advice from ladies who have been there and then some! I recently had the privilege of meeting a lady who had 6 kids while on a flight. It was so refreshing to hear everything she had to say. We exchanged information and I look forward to getting together with her in the future!
    I look forward to what other words of wisdom your wonderful mother has for us!

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