News and an Article

Well, big news today friends. We have decided to put our little home on the market.

I feel sure this is the right direction for our family, we both really feel a peace about selling and moving on...... though I think I'll always leave a little piece of my heart here in this place. :) It has been a beautiful home for us and many memories will be left here.

We are prayerfully considering a home we found a few days ago - a renovated cottage, pale blue and cream just like our current home...... though with the added bonuses of a big back deck, an extra bathroom, a couple of lovely little landings off the bedrooms, an internal laundry (I've never had one!), a bigger block of land, and pretty landscaped gardens- lots for the children to explore. We will visit it again this afternoon and measure a few walls to see if we can fit in all our furniture - I'll keep you posted! Exciting times. :) God is so good.

This afternoon we are signing papers on our house - and then heading up to the beach for a couple of hours to see friends and just breathe. I can't wait. Kids running free on the sand, conversation with a special friend of mine, fish and chips for tea........ Yay!

Stuart is out at work planning Term 4, my eldest two children are visiting their friends this morning, Will is asleep and I am procrastinating hanging the washing and doing the chores I am meant to be doing. :) The house is so quiet and it's nice to just sit here! I've been doing a little blog hopping and came across an amazing blog by a homeschooling Mama of 15 children - let me just say there's lots to learn and be inspired by over there!!

I've um.... "borrowed" this article for your interest, it was too good not to share. :) It can be found here.

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"Do you ever just get really weary of wondering what everyone else thinks about what you are doing? Do you ever just want to throw the towel in because your family does not look “right” to others?

It helps to know that we only need look “right” to God—Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Author and Finisher.

He is the One who has begun this work, He is its Originator, its Creative Expert, its Catalyst, Director and Refiner.

Lately this means we have a different sort of “curriculum”. Our days are all about how to run a “life”—how to conserve energy, clean a toilet, understand how food works and how to cut costs, how to iron clothes, etc.

Now I know we have been taught that these subjects should be relegated to the “home economics” category when we are trying to explain homeschooling to someone else, but I believe we have been conditioned to seeing our lives in an unnatural manner.

I love the enriching parts of education; the arts and sciences that enhance our lives. But every day living should be the focus of a good education, not erroneous information that is memorized and then forgotten.

John Taylor Gatto related how after speaking to a group of educated folks a young man asked him why, after years and years of formal education, was he never taught how to change a tire?

I remember well how my counselors in high school puffed me up—how I scored so high on my SAT’s I was told I could skip my freshman year—and yet when I moved out on my own I felt so inept! Dealing with a home, a husband and a new baby wanted to totally overwhelm me. I was like a rabbit, wanting to run at any noise or disturbance.

I was an educated ignoramus.

But my children are not going to be! They will know about how real life works, foremost! It is funny, but I have found that doing just such a thing causes all of the other educational disciplines to be worked in, like history (voting, citizenship, laws, etc.), science (electricity, bacteria, chemistry of baking, etc.), Music (creating an atmosphere, enjoying the Lord together as a family), art (setting a table, garnishing a meal, decorating a house), math (calculating how much money and paint we will need to recover the interior walls, how much rice for chicken teriyaki, doubling and quadrupling a recipe), reading and writing (researching how to build a shed including zoning laws, writing a convincing email or letter to a zoning official) and the list goes on and on.

If you are feeling stressed because of a messy, disorganized house, older children who bicker and fight, and younger children who scream and beg due to neglect, and it seems as if it is all due to your commitment to homeschooling, can I make a suggestion?

Take a few minutes and allow yourself to relax—it’s not supposed to be this hard, and if it is making you and your family miserable, it probably isn’t the right thing at the right time.

Change your focus, at least for a few weeks, and concentrate on all the areas of deficit. If it takes you an hour every day just to hunt up pencils for everyone, things are way out of focus. Clean up and organize. Build respect and discipline into your daily routine. Prayerfully format a plan for meals, laundry, etc. and work that plan until your house hums and purrs. Get your children intimately involved and trained to know what they should be doing and when.

Then throw in some basic reading, writing and math, but even these in small doses. All the while don’t forget the focus on making life hum and purr, and then add some extras that are simply creative and fun.

Don’t forget to consult with Daddy—he can see things you may miss and give you further insight and direction. I have benefitted greatly from the leadership of this great man in our lives.

And here’s just a little caution: don’t pattern your life after someone else’s. While you can glean some nifty ideas from what others are doing, don’t forget that your home and your life are totally unique, and that only the Holy Spirit has the right balance and plan for you and your family.

When you do things this way you will find the peace and purposefulness most only claim to enjoy."