Before our first baby boy was born, it had never entered my mind to think about being a housewife, let alone a homeschool mom. As we all know, having children changes us. Holding our new son, I knew that I couldn’t bring myself to leave him to go to work every day.
I didn’t know that from that first thought, that I was entering The Creative Life.
The first idea of The Creative Life came as I had our 5-year-old, 2-year-old, and newborn son, loaded up in the car to go to the grocery store. On the way, I had the radio on, and James Dobson was speaking. It seems that the only thing he said that day was, “If you’re bored at home with your kids, then you’re not doing it right.”
Well.
From that day, James Dobson’s words constantly replayed in my mind until they became my very own mantra and challenge. I began to see my role in the home not as someone stuck in the routine of meals, chores, and schooling, but as an ever-changing and interestingly busy job. There has never been a day that has been like another. There are new happenings in the life of a housewife and homeschooling mom every day. Teething, baby walking, running, getting into everything! Learning to read, add, subtract, multiply, divide, and do quadratic equations! Learning history I missed in school, reading new books, drawing new pictures in Art. Drives to therapy, co-op, church, field trips, walks outside…just add your own list to mine, and you’ll get what I’m saying.
We homeschooling moms live The Creative Life every day. We are making, doing, going. I found the title for what James Dobson was talking about that day on the radio as I was reading through one of my favorite book series, The Fairacre novels. In Village Diary, the author, Miss Read, wrote about one of her busy housewife characters:
Mrs. Willet is small and pale and yet she is ‘always on the go,’ as she herself will tell you. The fact that she can do so many things, and takes enormous pride in doing them well, is, I think, the secret of this apparently inexhaustible energy. There are so many different activities to engage her, that when she tires of one, there is another to which she can turn and get refreshment. From turning her heavy old mangle in the wash-house, she will come in and sit down to stitch a new skirt. She will prepare a stew, and while it simmers on the hob, filling the little house with its fragrance, she will practice her part in Mr. Annett’s new anthem, ready for the next church festival. And – this perhaps is the most important thing – she sees a satisfying result from her labours. The clothes blow on the line, the skirt is folded and put away in the drawer ready for next Sunday; Mr. Willet will come in ‘sharp-set’ and praise her bubbling stew; and, with any luck, Mr. Annett will congratulate her on her grasp of that difficult passage just before the basses come in.
It is a creative life. There is something worthwhile to show for energy expended which engenders the desire to accomplish more. Small wonder that the Mrs. Willets of this world are happy and deserve to be so.