Vacuuming the school room

We've been working like maniacs trying to get our house ready to list.  It's exhausting and overwhelming work but the upside is that it effectively kept my brain busy so I didn't have time to think too much.

The school room was the last room we cleaned because it was a holding area for stuff from every other room that needed to be dealt with.

When we were finally done and I was vacuuming the school room, I started to think.

I taught my children to read, add and subtract numbers, and to love history in that room.  I comforted Braeden when he wailed because he had to learn the intricacies of English grammar.  I comforted Emma when she couldn't form her letters more perfectly than humanly possible.  I comforted Mark when he had to...have school.

I cajoled them to do their best, I applauded their efforts, I snapped at them impatiently when they weren't paying attention, I read to them, I saw lights go on in their minds when they grasped concepts.  It all happened in that room.

I felt like I was vacuuming sacred ground.

We will have a school room in our new house.  It is just a tiny bedroom down a hallway.  It won't be the centerpiece and heart and soul of the new house.  The other two go to public school now and Mark is almost done being homeschooled so we don't need a room like that anymore.

Life's about changing.

I will remember that school room though.  It was the backdrop for the refiner's fire of my mothering.  I taught my children there but I know I learned more than they did.



P.S.  I added some pictures Braeden took on his hike with friends if you want to scroll down and look at yesterday's post.  The pictures put a lump in my throat...