Here's the deal. I am a traditional, orthodox, practicing Catholic. That is first and foremost in the mind of me and my own domestic family. When I look across the diocese I see a new religion everywhere. I don't pretend this view is infallible, but I've formed it slowly for decades, and its how I see it from my Okie armchair.
As I said before LINK, I want to write blog posts about the Catholic Church here in Oklahoma. I want to see it purely for what it is at present, the good, true, and beautiful, as well as the bad, false, and ugly. I'm an "idealist-realist."
All this said, I want to reach out to and inspire my fellow Okie Trads in particular, and that very much includes our local homeschool mothers. So here is my tribute to them.
Homeschooling Mothers Rock!
Imagine a man who works two jobs yet finds quality time for his wife and kids and to pray the family rosary. I have to admit, that's a challenge to imagine. How many men are like that just here in my local area?
But flip over to the other side of the coin. In fact there are dozens (if not dozens and dozens) of mothers across just my own diocese who also work two full-time jobs, yet also make time to pray with the family, if not be the one to kneel down at night with their children and be the spiritual leader of the nightly rosary. These women are heroes.
Two jobs? Yes. Its doubly heroic. While most modern women shun the life of a domestic engineer and homemaker in favor of careers, these bold, superhuman souls have embraced the traditional life of matrimony, a word which means "motherhood." And at the same time, they are able to summon the talent and courage to provide a holistically authentic Catholic education for their children themselves, which they certainly are not getting in public schools or your average postmodern parochial school. Their work is a silent, at times thankless job.
Imagine rising early to feed husband and children, organize the household's share in daily chores, and then settle into a day of lesson planning, grading, lecturing, academic discussions, and field trips, all the while doing the laundry, cleaning the toilets, frequenting doctors and dentists, and finding time perhaps each week to meet with other homeschooling mothers in the diocese, for shared "coop" classes and healthy socialization.
Dear Homeschool Mothers here in Oklahoma and far and wide, I salute you!