The Sun Hung From a String

I know I've said this here before, but all of my titles are Owl City lyrics. Heck, the name of this blog is an Owl City line. I just absolutely love Owl City's music. Primarily his first three albums. The last one (All Things Bright and Beautiful) kind of got a little rockish. Still good stuff, but not the wonderful noises of the first 3 albums. And yeah, I just wrote wonderful noises because I can't seem to nail down his sound... 


Lately I've been reading a ton of blogs on quiverfull families, homeschooling, the courtship process, etc. Mostly women's journeys in retrospect now that they're older. (For those who don't know, quiverfull families are those that believe in absolutely no birth control methods, and trusting in God for their family size. Aka, the Duggar family.) The quiverfull/homeschooling movement was something I was really into when I was like, 15-17. And I say movement because they are movements. But they don't have to be. You can homeschool your kids without there being so much hubub about it, and just educate your children and not have 425,598 different (passionate) reasons why you've decided to do that.


I am not quiverfull minded (I was recently asked this) and I do plan on homeschooling my kids. Although I like the idea better of just hiring tutors all day, or just putting them in a homeschool school, haha. (They really have those, you know.) I don't want them in public school, but I don't want the emphasis being homeschool. Does that make sense? I want them to get their education from all sorts of different venues. And I think that's great! I want my kids to explore the world, not be indoctrinated (whether that's by public school, or by a very strict homeschool agenda). I don't want to create ideological clones.


As for the quiverfull movement (which the general public has seen now thanks to the Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar family), I used to be 100% of the same mindset. Being on birth control was simply not trusting in God. Children were blessings, and rejecting His blessings was an act of taking control away from Him. I simply do not believe this anymore. We know that God can work through birth control, obviously. I am also of the belief, however (and therefore am aware) that He respects our freewill. If we are purposely trying to prevent something like children, He will respect that desire. Sometimes! 


Now I am personally against birth control pills, for medical and some moral reasons. I am against any birth control that as abortifacient elements in it. But I have no problem with other kinds. My thing is being OPEN to children. That's a huge thing for me. Out of 6 kids, I was the only one not planned. And it's a weird feeling. Especially when you have 3 older siblings and 2 younger siblings and YOU were the only one not planned... I don't ever want any of my children to be "accidents." They can be surprises (even couples trying to conceive get surprises) but not accidents. Children will always be welcomed into my uterus home. That doesn't mean my husband and I will be trying to get pregnant 24/7 until I'm 47 years old. Just that it will never be an "oh, crap" moment. 'Cause that's your baby, yknow! So that's my big thing. Openness. Because you never know what may happen, or what God wants to do, and having a sucky attitude towards your child is sucky.