on homeschooling

i couldn't say it better than this....

SO please go on over to A Holy Experience and read her post on "Why would anyone be crazy enough to Homeschool?"

here's an excerpt from her post that speaks my heart:

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the problem today is that ‘parenthood is no longer lasting as long as childhood‘ — that our children need parents to be intimately involved, moment-by-moment, not till they are only four years old and leave home for school and possible peer dependency, but they need us to be parents until they are fourteen years old and older…. “We need to hold on to our children and help them hold on to us. We need to hold on to them until our work is done,” writes Dr. Neufeld“We need to hold on, not to hold them back but so that they can venture forth.”

Where two or three are gathered, there He is also. What I love most about the homeschooling lifestyle is that we are all together, in all our glorious mess, day in and day out. We are not time-torn or fragmented. We are gathered. There is no dichotomy between God and secular: we are making a one-piece life. This works for us. We are real, transparent, and growing –sometimes painfully– with each other, season upon season, and God is in the center, bathing us sin-scraped ones with His Grace. That’s rich.

Because homeschooling is this magnificent crucible, to reveal impurities and sinfulness and brokenness. It keeps us on our knees. Homeschooling often hurts and disappoints. You cry and wonder if you are insane to try to educate these children, to disciple these little hearts, while laundering, cooking, cleaning, managing a household, and still being a wife, a sister, a daughter, a missionary in your community, a servant to Christ and in your faith community. And He smiles and say that He walks with you, has grand and glorious purposes, and He understands radical and crazy!

Homeschooling is about going higher up and deeper in, for you learn to sacrificially love in ways you have never loved before. You come to know your own heart in ways you never imagined, the souls of your children in intimate, very real ways.

For you will be together, making memories together, laughing together, crying together, praying together, and asking forgiveness together. Throughout your day, you worship God, together. And you learn to die-to-self together. It’s about doing hard things… together. And there will be no fragmented scraps of learning, home-life, friends, work, God.

We keep homeschooling to weave a one-piece life – hallowed threads of parenting, love, pain, education, growing, stumbling, creativity, forgiveness, wonder, sacrifice, and God all woven together.

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...ahhh, I am refreshed!!

sisterly love!?

look what i came across on the white board one morning...

oh the joy of siblings!

on life

i am here
i have been wanting to blog
nothing profound
life is happening

mother's day is around the corner
six years ago
the flutters of life began in me
and
on mothers day
we took "the test"

on mothers day
six years ago
i found out
i would soon join the ranks
of blessed women
who were called
to raise
the next generation

and today
six years later
as number three explores
kicking and squirming
i sit in silence
reflecting on His faithfulness

this IS my calling
He DOES want me
we HOPED to expand
and
after sixteen months
many tears
and much hope
we ARE expanding
my family...figuratively
me...literally!

my brain can still not comprehend
but the scans prove true
the miraculous gift
of growth
inside me
of strength and health
Thank you Jesus!

tiny flexing hands
perfect pouty lips
delicate feet
with 10 tiny toes
oh...the view

six years ago
on mother's day
the joy began inside
the naive joy of "motherhood"
unaware of what's to come
but expecting the best

and now
six years later
the joy continues
no longer naive
very much aware of the rollercoaster
that is "motherhood"
but i AM called
this IS His plan for me
and number three
is proof
of His faithfulness
of His love for His children
and added blessing

what deep joy
what persistent hope
what a blessing
motherhood is my calling
i am not perfect at it
many days i am certain
my children deserve better
but we press on
seeking His face
leaning on His grace
we unite as a family
to become better in spite of our failure

six years ago the flicker of joy ignited
and now...as this little one grows
bigger and stronger daily
so does my joy
in the blessing of three lives
that have been given to me
who are my calling
that make me "mummy"