Day 1 of Homeschool---Dreams vs. Reality

I think a lot of people who actually want to homeschool have a picture perfect idea of what it will be like in THEIR house. ha! I know that even after homschooling my kids for 5 years prior to this, I still get this picture in my head. This is the year. I will be organized. They will follow my schedule. They will do the chores I assign and life will be great. 

I always have this happy picture of myself helping my kids with their work and we are smiling and enjoying our time together. 

I work tirelessly to make sure everything is set up just right. That they can find their books and know where to turn in their work to make for minimal interruptions of myself and the hubby while we are trying to work. 

These are actual pictures from my house! 

If you like our bookshelf, I highly recommend it! The cubes are bigger than the normal size and it comes in a variety of colors! https://amzn.to/2RPulTj 

But this is reality. It is messy. It does not always go smoothly. Sometimes it does though. It does not always come with smiles. Sometimes it does though. It does not always come with good attitudes. Sometimes it does though. It is so so hard but so so rewarding. When your kids are home with you all day, you learn things about them that you just do not know when they are at school all day. You learn how they learn. 

This year is not what I planned but I am determined to make the best of it, enjoy as much time as possible with my children and to obey what God's plan for us is this year. We will need His grace and mercy, patience and forgiveness for sure.

"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it."

                                                                            -Proverbs 22:6

Share |

Not My Plans

This was not my plan but here we are. I realized recently that really this is the theme of my life. 

I know I am not alone in this at all but I cannot even begin to tell you how done I am making plans for myself. It's a little bit sad really, because I absolutely LOVE to make plans. To the point where my friends actually nicknamed me the "Cruise Director" for a while. 

I digress. This year has been a challenge to us all, navigating the ins and outs of reality and what our futures will look like. 

For those of you who don't know us, Tom and I homeschooled our kids starting when our oldest, Keira, who is now 12 and going into 7th grade, was in pre-school. I thought I would always homeschool our kids. I had always wanted to and really felt that it was the right thing for our family. 

Well, two years ago, I started having some health issues, really strange things that I won't even go into here. I had swollen lymph nodes that would not go away even though all tests pointed to negative, among other very bothersome things. We got to December 2018 and I felt like I was literally going to lose my mind. My kids were not cooperating and I just didn't want to be around them anymore. I loved them, don't get me wrong, but...well....I was just done. 

We started looking into some private school options and long story short, they started at a WONDERFUL, AMAZING private Christian school in our area in January 2019.  Surprisingly enough, my health issues basically vanished. It was completely stress related. They continued there last year until...well...COVID. 

So, this summer, Tom and I were just thinking and praying, and of course the schools had no idea if they were even going to be allowed to open and if so, what that would look like. The longer it went without knowing, the more headaches, stomachaches and pure exhaustion I felt. Finally, one Friday, I said to Tom, "We need to make a decision. I need to know if we are homeschooling or not because if we are, I need to make plans." That was it. he said homeschooling it was and the decision was made. 

So here I am. Surrounded by new curriculum and knowing that God's plans are best.  

I can rest in His grace knowing that this is what He wants for our family this year. I have no idea what next year will bring, because, clearly, my plans make God laugh! Now we are just praying that God will bless us through this craziness and that somehow, we will come out of this closer to each other and the Lord.

Share |

Writing through the Bible

Back in February I accepted a challenge to write out scriptures each day of the month that had to do with Love. The link is here. It was life changing. Now, I will say that I enjoy writing. Not just writing as in coming up with words, but writing as in hand writing things. Most of time it is much more practical to type (which I also enjoy) but when I took this challenge, it really made me think.

I have been reading the Bible for my entire life. Although I have never managed to read it from front to back, I am sure that I have read the entire Bible in some order. However, I have often read entire chapters without really stopping to think about what I had read. So, when I had to write out each word of these scriptures, it really gave me time to think and mull over each word that God gives to us. I was able to really pray and think about each word.

So I made a decision. I started in Genesis a few weeks ago and will continue as long as it takes to write out the entire Bible. Yes, I know this sounds crazy and I anticipate it taking several years. But I can only imagine how valuable it will be for me.

Today I am in Genesis 11 and I can already see a huge difference in how I am able to think about and pray about these chapters that I have read so many times in my life.

I don't have a real purpose in writing this other than to hold myself accountable to it. Maybe every once in a while I will share something I have thought about differently or something the Lord is teaching me. For now though, maybe it's just to challenge you to come up with a way to read the Bible in  way that will change your heart. A way that will open your eyes to new things and let Him change you through it.

Have a blessed day!

Share |

Praying With a Broken Heart

Our home bible study group is going through a Bible study on Prayer right now. It is very interesting and amazing how sometimes something as simple as praying can make us so uncomfortable and so vulnerable at times.

Last night, one of the things that we talked about was how we can pray for the things going on around us. When we don't know what to pray about, it can be as simple as reading the newspaper headlines, or walking around our neighborhood and praying for things we see. Someone also brought up the quote, "Break my heart for what breaks yours." I have heard this a million times but I just never really thought about it in terms of my prayer life.

I am often saddened by the news, worried about the world, hopeful for my children's futures...etc. But, I really don't think I have ever let God "break my heart" like his is broken from all of my sins, and the awful sinful things happening today around the world.

So last night, I decided before going to sleep (at some horribly late hour might I add), that I would look at the news with new eyes and pray for the things happening around me. I wanted to pick something local, something nationwide, and something international and pray with my heart broken for the people.

Oh my.

What a night in the news. I was only on my phone for 15 seconds and had seen three different stories that took me down hard!

A local family who had fallen into a ravine at a State Park a bit south of us....and while five people had been pulled to safety, their two young boys, ages 6 and 9 were not found. 

A mass shooting in Orlando, Florida where over 50 people were killed and more than 50 others injured.

And horrible news about the suffering that is happening in Syria. 

We are tempted at times to turn away, not look at the pictures. But, somtimes it takes looking at those pictures and trying to put yourself there to let your heart be broken for the people in all of these places.

These stories could involve topics that we all may disagree on politically and the reality is, it doesn't matter what you think about homosexuality, or muslims, or ISIS, or gun control, or war, or what families choose to do on their Saturday. People are hurting and these are all people that God created. He loves them. We need to love them.

These are only three of the headlines that I saw as I skimmed articles last night and prayed, and prayed, and prayed  while I let God break my heart in a small sampling of a way that his is broken with each of these things.

Get on your knees. Pray alone, Pray with others. Gather together. We live in a time and place where, at the moment, we are still free to do that.

Surround these people with God's grace, His mercy, His love, His comfort and His care.

Let your heart be broken and know that each and every prayer is heard.

And, when your kids ask what those pictures are on the phone, computer, and TV. Don't just shrug them off. (I am also not telling you to try to let young children see and hear things that they cannot deal with on purpose...but it happens) Teach them to pray. And if they are scared, share this quote from Mr. Rogers that I have seen flying around on Facebook.

Because....there are a lot of evil things going on in the World today...and there always have been. But, there can be a lot of good too. 

So join with me and pray. Pray for the things we see going on around us. Pray for the people affected whether you know them or not. And let Jesus break your heart and heal it in a way that only He could possibly do. 

Share |