Recently, somehow, we got down to our last roll of paper towels. There was much shock and horror, many questions about how the household would continue to function without such an important supply. Running to Walmart was not going to fit in my schedule for the next couple days, so I put too much faith in Amazon and “figuring it out” and ordered a large pack. We immediately started going through dish towels faster than my laundry pile could keep up.

When I began homeschooling years ago, Shakespeare wasn’t exactly on my radar. I had cute little squishy kids who would maybe care about advanced things like Shakespeare when they were about to move out of the house. That’s the time I’d tackle his writings, I figured. Maybe that’s also when I would begin to appreciate him.

But of course, as is the way with many homeschooling moms, curriculums and methods come and go until there’s finally something that works. For us, that has been Ambleside. A little late to the game but fully invested. And enter: Shakespeare. Le sigh.

We dove into the first play, reading aloud so I could skip chunks as needed. I did not anticipate how invested my older kids would get. Many days they rearrange the books in my Morning Time basket so that Shakespeare will be front and center, which always makes me giggle.

We got to the end of that first play, awaiting our late shipment of paper towels, as it were, and everything came to a halt. No lunch could be had when there was only a matter of pages left. Two kids fully engrossed and demanding to know the ending, one kid bored and scooting around in his chair, one hungry toddler enthusiastically causing mayhem. I read louder and faster and we laughed our way through the terrible ending, though my oldest was distraught.

When I closed the book and turned around, the toddler had dumped both jars of pencils and crayons and flung them around the room. Simple enough to pick up. I started warming up lunch. Then there were shrieks. Said toddler had gotten extra bored and made a pee puddle next to the workout mats we had on the floor. As I whisked him up to a bath, I told the remaining kids to stand against the wall and wait the five minutes for me to come back and give further instruction.

They obeyed, at least initially, then one got a little antsy and I came back down to the pee having been tracked around and underneath the mats. Mmmm. I added “hose down mats” to my mental checklist. Lunch first.

“MOM!!!”

The paper towels had arrived. Turns out, they were just in time.

Through wisdom a house is built,
And by understanding it is established;
By knowledge the rooms are filled
With all precious and pleasant riches.
Proverbs 24:3-4

Slowly we have been filling this little house with knowledge, through books I didn’t foresee reading and many that I couldn’t wait to get our hands on. Scripture always, daily, again and again. “Visit many good books,” Spurgeon said, “but live in the Bible.” The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We plod along and rub shoulders with others and look up every now and then to realize we’ve grown and matured again. These rooms have been filled with all precious and pleasant riches. Even without paper towels - but we can glean lessons from that, too.