Homemaking With Intention

Over the past 2 years we've been settling into a relaxed homeschool routine, my little family and I. Its been a beautiful and sweet journey.  Not at all perfect, but full of blessings! When we left the school setting I knew I didn't want our learning experience to be like a school at all. I didn't want desks and name tags and stress. I didn't want rigor and regiment. I didn't want tests and grades and 'you're out of time' for that lesson. I've worked hard to have just the opposite in our home. After all, I firmly believe the most important part of homeschooling is the *home*. Home is where we feel loved and safe and confident enough to talk about the hard stuff. And boy, there has been some hard stuff as the kids have grown up a bit! I want the majority of our learning to come from life lessons, from Holy Spirit whispers and from good books read aloud. Of course we have curriculum that helps us learn to read and write and do math. We have books

This morning I said some words I should have only thought. I have a habit of letting things slip from my lips that I should keep locked tight. A secret you've asked me to keep? Well, that's safely locked away. No worries there. But when I get frustrated with my kids, phew. Who knows what's coming out. I hate it. And I'm working on it for sure. I'm glad to say that there are quite a few times a day where I think something but my wicked tongue stays still. Progress, I guess. But this morning I said something I immediately regretted. The day was still fresh and new. Kids in pjs where piled high on my bed. Baby blankets and stuffed animals they still hold dear were tucked all around us; remnants of their little years that I know will be all but gone soon enough. And then it happened. One child asked another for a back scratch and the other child refused. Not a big deal? Oh yes it is. It's not about the back scratch, it's about the heart issue inside the chil

It's been a very wet year here. Lots of rain and snow. It makes for a muddy, yucky horse field. Last night I went out to feed the horses and count my chickens before I close the coop up for the night. In the dark, I made a poor decision to try to walk through the deep muck instead of on the 2 by 4 that I placed a while back. The one that would keep me out of trouble! I thought, 'if I walk fast it will be fine!' No amount of walking fast would save me. My boots got stuck and I couldn't move. My feet slipped out of my boots, I lost my balance and I became one with the muck! I dropped my flash light and my phone. I pulled and pulled but my boots wouldn't become free! I wasn't until I stopped pulling, humbled myself by kneeling in the mud and gently wiggled my boot free that i was able to get to that 2 by 4 that would be the only thing solid enough to walk on. Sometimes we think, 'I'll just take my own path and walk fast. God won't notice or mind.