Even though I finished this book a few weeks ago it still lingers with me. I had a couple more passages I wanted to jot down and keep forgetting so I'm just going to make them into Words with Wednesdays posts.
In this passage Abby's daughter, Isabelle, has informed her mother that her and her husband won't be having children since she with children "you ought to have plenty of time and money for their development."
As a woman who loves being a mom and loves to homeschool, I find this passage such a heart wringer and I have spent many weeks reflecting and digesting this story. I can't say that I've come to any concrete answers, but it does make me aware of how much my reliance has to be on God and not on how good I feel about being a mother or how well I think I have homeschooling down..
Abbie Deal looked out of the window, down through the long row of cedars. 'To have plenty of time and money for their development.' Instead of the cedars, heavy with snow, she was looking into a sod-house where a little painted blackboard stood against the mud-plastered walls, seeing one shelf of books and a slate and some ironed pieces of brown wrapping-paper. The mother there was hearing reading lessons while she kneaded bread, was teaching songs while she scrubbed, was giving out spelling words while she mended, was instilling into childish minds, ideals of honesty and clean living with every humble task.
For a long time Abbie Deal sat and looked out at the cedars bending under the snow, like so many mothers bending under their burdens. But she did not answer Isabelle. Maybe there was no answer. Perhaps there was no argument. She did not know."
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