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Homeschooling: A Posture of Flexibility and Grace

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The students working diligently. So proud of them. Today was our first day of school. Olivia is in 7th grade, Cecilia is in 5th, and Micah is in 3rd, and my goodness is this. mama. tired . No matter how much planning goes into the year, each school day has its own ebb and flow and even the most successful of days can drain a mama at times. Or a dad. Or both. Feel encouraged yet? No? Okay, let me start again. This will be my eighth year of homeschooling one or more of my kids, and to be honest, I'm pretty sure if I were to tally it up, I have logged a lot more failures than successes. In the day-to-day, and even sometimes year-to-year operations, I have spent many a day feeling like I just needed to put myself in timeout for an undetermined amount of time until I could come out with a better attitude because Lord knows I certainly wasn't helping anything when my tantrum over long division matched theirs! (Look, sometimes it's healthy to admit your occasional {read: freq
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I Hope We Never Go Back

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Photo Credit: Terri Corbett 2020. Wow. This year took the turn that no one saw coming. Life has been flipped upside down on all of us, and left us questioning, reprioritizing, and altering every aspect of our lives. Being forced to define what is and isn't essential - or rather, having someone else's definition of that forced upon us - has caused most of us to see our lives with a whole new set of glasses. And honestly, I hope we never go back. I hope we never go back to forgetting just how vital our first responders and medical community are.   No matter how you feel about the necessity of certain medications, vaccines, or practices, we have seen these incredible people putting their own lives as second priority in a spotlight they've never before been given. Modern medicine has become a crutch, and those in the field have moved into something we barely give second thought to, let alone take time to appreciate and even more, actually thank.  We as a society have taken for
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Today, I Am a Finisher

Time for a quick, very real chat. I'm currently sitting at my messy dining room table, surrounded by piles of clutter that needs to be tossed or put away, looking up at a kitchen that needs to be cleaned. This is what my house has become in a very chaotic couple of weeks. A deeper look tells me that it's not just the chaos of rehearsal season, homeschooling, or just life in general - however, a deeper look tells me it's a character thing, and one that needs to change starting NOW. Starting yesterday, really. Sure there is the clutter of this week's school pages, and dishes from breakfast and lunch. There are the shoes that got worn and thrown off in a rush to move on to the next activity of the day. BUT, there are also piles of books I simply haven't gone through, put away, gotten rid of... read . There is a tote overflowing crochet projects that are partially done. There are decorations lying out waiting to be arranged, and clorox wipes that simply never got pu
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Even When it Hurts...

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Today I served on our worship team for the morning services. I've been serving in this department in one capacity or another for over 20 years, and it's one of the greatest joys for me. I LOVE worship. I love singing. I love our team. And yet... One of the reasons I so easily fell in love with worship was that I was raised very closely to it. My daddy was on a worship team for basically my entire life until he passed away. Even after he got sick, even after he'd been through multiple rounds of chemo, he still faithfully served. It was something we did together and it made it mean all that much more to me. I'll never forget the first time I went on to lead worship after he passed away; I nearly didn't make it to the stage. It caused me physical pain to be up there without him at least in the building. Or alive. It took my breath away, and for many months - years, really - there would be moments where I experienced that same overwhelming sense of loss. I'
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I believe...but help me in my unbelief.

One of these days I'm going to sit down to type out what's on my heart, and it's going to be the wittiest, most lighthearted piece of blogging literature you've ever read. Maybe. In my dreams anyway. Not today. A few months ago I was in my bible reading plan, and somehow managed to simultaneously hit on the story of Gideon (in the Old Testament) and the story of the father asking Jesus to heal his son (in the New Testament). I've read both of those passages over and over again over the years, but something about them being presented to me in the same day just jarred me to the core in the best way. I've wanted/needed to sit down and write this for awhile but haven't quite been able to get my words out. But today I'll lay it out as simply as I can, real, rather than perfect. So these two stories: In the Old Testament, Gideon was selected by God to lead a charge against an enemy. He was scared. He doubted himself, and I think maybe he was a little uncer
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Maybe It's Not Writer's Block...

I've come to discover that the most frustrating thing in the world as a writer isn't necessarily a flat-out writer's block, but rather having a zillion words in your mind and the complete inability to get them down on paper. I can't tell you how many countless times this has happened to me in my book-writing journey. In my mind, I've practically finished, not just the book I'm currently working on, but the entire series! On paper? On my computer? I think I've succeeded in putting down maybe 25,000 words, tops? (For reference, I've found the best way for myself to make it through the editing process is to submit a manuscript that is between 85 and 100 thousand words.) So yeah, I'm not making much progress. And it is driving me insane! This year in our homeschooling, all three of my girls are at a charter school working with their teacher for a solid 3 hour block every single week. And at first I didn't even know what I was going to do with mysel
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A Few Words on Kindness

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  This is my Olivia Jane. She's almost 10, and most of the time has more energy and excitement than a solid dozen of me. My sister-in-law and I used to say that she could be enthusiasm for hire. Sure, when we're in the middle of adding and subtracting fractions, or that dreaded long division, she's not necessarily that happiest of children, but let's be honest here, not many are at that point. ;) In general, though, this girl is the personification of " joie de vie,"  or "joy of life." Sometimes it's aggravating, but in general, it's inspiring. My incredibly talented sister-in-law shot this. You should check her out! www.crystellemariephotography.com Enter the "tween" years, and all the fun life lessons that come with them. All of the sudden, my sweet, happy, tender-hearted girl has discovered meanness. And don't get me wrong, I'm not only saying she's fallen victim to it, but she's also turned it around on o
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