A New Season

For years my heart has wanted it.

For years I had my excuses.

They were lined out so neatly and I had convinced myself they were all very valid.

But you can only run from God's calling for so long before you get worn out. And your excuses are finally exposed as just that - empty excuses.

So several months ago we started talking about it. Pondering, what if-ing, considering. Convincing, dreaming, planning. And today it began.

I am a homeschooling mom!

I expected tears today (because everyone told me to expect it!) but the day went wonderfully. With the exception of one child (who will remain nameless) who will hopefully learn very soon that working quickly means finishing earlier, everything was great! I'm still figuring out the ideal schedule, but I expect that will take awhile.

I went through the day feeling several things over and over:

• I was made for this. This is my purpose.
• When is it nap time? (I imagine this is due to my 5 hours of sleep last night.)
• I am worshiping God in this endeavor.

This worship song has been stuck in my head. I love that as I am teaching my kids numbers I can worship God. I am so blessed that instead of rushing out the door to drop them off at school, I am cuddling with them on the couch while we read Scriptures and stories filled with moral goodness.

And once again, there's the matter of God ordering our steps perfectly. I can't tell you how endlessly I had searched and scoured the internet for the perfect curriculum to use. There's SO much out there. So much good stuff too. But nothing felt right. And I was feeling stressed out and nervous and thinking I had it all wrong and we needed to send the kids back to school after all.

A couple of days before our summer trip to Tulsa my cousin in Dallas mentioned a program she was starting with her daughter this year. I looked into it and it seemed promising. Then we found out there was a 3 day parent practicum right there in Tulsa. From then on it just kept coming together. It all seemed appointed.

This is a video explaining the program - Classical Conversations. Basically, we homeschool four days a week and one day a week we join other families for school. We're schooling based on the classical model, the "trivium".

One of my hesitations was my own feeling of inadequacy, especially when it came to classical homeschooling which involves Latin and some other intimidating things. But one of the speakers addressed that concern at the practicum saying that "homeschooling can be the redemption of two generations".

I'm so grateful. So excited. So content. So......tired!

Good night! ;)