Two weeks into the new year and I have finally decided that I am okay with the change. (As if I had any say...lol)  I was really dreading the things that a new year would bring.

Home school wise it means the countdown has begun for finishing up the school year and there is no way we're going to get it all accomplished; family wise my oldest is starting cosmetology school and I'm really not sure I'm ready for her to start a new phase of her life; and personally, the new year is a stark reminder that I had let another year pass without dealing with the load of personal improvments I was going to make.

Here we are two weeks into January and my whole outlook has changed!  School is great!  After five years of hit and miss and planning and revising and planning again and revising again, something clicked and we have had the best two weeks of school we've ever had. 

Everybody is happy at the same time!  Homeschooling for us is a conviction from God so of course He is included in everything we do.  But it has taken five years of battling between a God-led education program and a state-led education program to come to our "happy place".

As a Christian, I am fully confident that seeking God first (Matt. 6:33) is the only way to handle any issue.  But as a parent of school-age children in middle class America, I am very aware of the state mandated requirements for education and a constant sense of not meeting those requirements.  I have read so many blogs about having a relaxed home school philosophy that I often felt I was the only homeschool mom that was uptight about getting a book finished on schedule.  And part of my stress came from extended family and friends who looked down their noses at home education.  I finally realized that I had spent the last five years trying to meet everyone else's expectations which were much higher than even state requirements.

Three weeks ago, God be praised, I lost the guilt I was feeling over not living up to those expectations and got it settled in my heart that if God wanted me to home school (which I know He does) then He would not let my home school fail.  As simplistic as that sounds, it was really that easy. (And yes, I am looking back over the last five years and shaking my head...)

My 13 yo still complains about whatever book I have asked her to read - most days she hates reading; and the 10 yo still wants recess and friends to play with, but neither is a mark of my failure - and sadly, they used to be.

I plan a week at a time and that becomes our loose schedule.  We start our morning with prayer and trust that if our schedule is interrupted its because God has a plan.  And we just pick up the next day wherever we left off.  Oddly enough, we have gotten more accomplished in two weeks than we had in the last month of school.

As for those other reasons I was dreading the new year...if God can straighten out the mess I had made of home school, the rest of it can be fixed too.

Its going to be a great year! 

Since I haven't touched this since June...figured it was time to change the blog.

I am trying to break myself of doing the subject searching for my highschool children.  I have millions, literally, of websites saved that I have previously checked out and our mission is not to hand out answers, but to teach them how to find answers.  That being said, I don't spend nearly as much time on the computer as I used to.

And I am much better as responding to emails than I am to initiating blogs, hence the rambling.

I would like to say thanks to those who commented previously.  I am trying to break out of my homeschool shell and connect with others.  It is just so easy to stay busy out here by myself and use that as an excuse for lack of communication.

Here's to keeping in touch...cheers!