The one and only Andy Williams died today. I loved his voice as a child. It seemed to have a quality and an essence that I'm challenged to put into words. His Christmas shows had me spellbound. Here is his recording of "Moon River."

From the perspective of pure numbers, here's a picture of homeschooling, compliments of the HSLDA, Homeschool Legal Defense Association.
Via: DegreeSearch.org

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

One of the wonderful parts of homeschooling is the opportunity for trust to develop between child and parent. Here, they can share their frustrations and insecurities. 

I don't always have the answers, I don't know why summarizing a story is hard for one, but not for the other, but I can encourage them and say, "You know, I don't know why it seems hard, but we're going to get this. Let's keep trying! You can do it." In doing this, I teach and make every effort to reflect God's heart toward this one He created. What if they never *get it*? I truly believe it's going to be alright. The Lord will give us the wisdom we need to go another way if that's what's best. This brings His peace to both of our hearts as a result. 

It's not always been this way. I've had to learn that this is His response for our household in this hour. It could be another exhortation altogether tomorrow. As I draw closer to the Lord today, He is able to help my heart hear the words He would speak were He sitting there with us in person. This is my on the scene testimony for today.

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God, My Father.

Praying for Strategy

As a mother, I try, try, try to never discipline out of anger. Anger erases the margin of perspective that is required to keep the God-honoring approach to child-rearing. I've asked the Lord for a portion of desired wisdom today:

in the midst of anger. Frustration. 

Because my emotion is still a bit on high, I've chosen the "all-day cleaning and school tomorrow" approach for my son. The momma button has been pushed, and this is the best I know to do.

The principle of honor and mutual respect, especially between brothers and sisters, is high on my list of how our day ought to go. When one transgresses, especially if they physically hurt the other, then my world stops, and the deeper training begins. There is scripture, there is prayer, and I do all of these, but  sometimes it just has to be an unpleasant day for the one who commits the offense. As I go, I pray for my own heart to be firm with a shade of tenderness at the right time. This one knows my love is there for them, but for today,  discipline will be the brightest color on the page.

My prayer:

"Jesus, give me wisdom that glorifies you. Work in the life of this one to bring about Godly sorrow that leads to repentance.  Amen."

Read THIS (at your own risk provided you're not homeschooling). It is one of the most succinct and compelling articles on homeschooling that I've read, and it's written to non-homeschoolers.

Here is one of the more convicting paragraphs I've read in a long time:

1. I think the Bible encourages us to admonish one another. We are a BODY. We are members connected to each other. What we do affects us all. My choice–your choice to educate our children is HUGE and it is not an isolated choice. If my hand is injured, the rest of my body suffers from it. I believe the church universal is crippled, largely, because of our choice to let the state have such a powerful influence on our children.

My heart has been so torn this week as I've viewed many "back to school" photos on Facebook. I share a measure of excitement and pride for the parent and the child, and  yet have an accompanying sorrow that goes along with it. This article says nearly everything to explain the reservations and concerns I would share with someone who is not willing to consider and pray about homeschooling, or who has the desire and willingness to homeschool but is battling serious fear over the matter. (And how I could write on that matter!)

If you are able, take some time to read the comments left after the initial blog post. It may answer some of your own questions.  From the comments, someone shared an acronymn of the word fear that was worth the price of admission, and it is:

F-False
E-Evidence
A-Appearing
R-Real

While I Was...

Thank goodness homeschooling is a marathon and not a sprint. In fact,  after having viewed some recent Olympic event highlights, I'd call it more of a steeplechase-type marathon . So, while I was under the influence of a short night's sleep and seemingly caffeine-free coffee, things were still buzzing and humming around the house. God's grace led me to observe the following, which I've attempted to capture with the camera.

 Someone was reading about weather.

 Someone was reading about Christians under the weight of communism.

 Someone was reading about Captain John Smith, born in the 1500's. (But were they upside down when they were reading, or was the photographer sleepy???)

Someone did some fancy baking in the kitchen with no help from Mom!

( Note: this is Bethany's cooking apron that she made a couple of years ago. I don't know if you can see it or not, but it highlights countries where Christians are persecuted for their faith.) 

I love it that all of this happened without much direction from me. It's not a day I want to repeat as far as hands-on teaching goes, but it does bring me comfort to see that my children know how to be productive and choose things to do and books to read that are worthwhile. It's o.k. to not be 100% every single day. For that, there is grace!

Observing Her

Bethany loves critters. She loves the kind that creep, crawl, purr, bark, and cluck. She loves them all, truthfully, and if she had it her way, we'd have a farm where she could spend her days enjoying all that God has made.

This is a stock photo of the baby bird we found.

Yesterday, we found our 3rd bird of this summer season. It was under a tree limb which had broken off during a wind storm. It was obviously a little baby that couldn't fly. Bethany found a box for it to stay in until we could get it to our favorite bird rescue organization, Fallen Feathers. Using her Birds of Arizona Field Guide, she was able to correctly identify the fledgling as an Inca Dove. Her thoughts were confirmed by the volunteers at Fallen Feathers. This was an Inca Dove.  Fallen Feathers is about 30 minutes from our home, but were it not for that, they would have a new volunteer in Bethany.

We love this guide!

Bethany also has her Daddy's navigational abilities. She's grounded. While that's not a good term as a pilot, which is her Daddy's profession, it's a strong compliment for a 12 year-old girl. We were on our return trip home from the bird rescue home when I decided to explore an alternate route, also known within the confines of our Honda Pilot as  "creative driving."  The children always know that when I use that term, I'm probably not 100% sure how we're going to find our desired destination. When we got to a certain point where railroad tracks paralleled the street, Bethany said, "Let's take that road. Railroad tracks go near the park where we have homeschool park day, so that should take us close to home." I took that as my cue as her idea made perfect sense.  Guess what. She's got a built-in compass. Based on my own lack thereof, that will serve her quite well.

 So, here I am, momma to two, one of which is Bethany. Though she's sure to have a few of my attributes and characteristics, she's so like her Daddy. He's a navigator, she's a navigator. If he doesn't know how to do something, he tackles it anway. If Bethany doesn't know how to do something, she works at it until she has it.  God put some wonderfully special things inside my little blonde package of a daughter, and daily life unwraps one special detail after another. I have the best seat in the house, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.