Okay, so who else?

I try to remind myself I can’t do everything but the sneaky spirit continues to creep in.  I want to enjoy my kids, have a grateful spirit, and find joy in my bone-tired body.

I once heard "You know you are over the target when the enemy is firing without ceasing."

That would be me.

I’m over the target all right. 

The call to homeschool four?  Yep, I was right on there.

Learning balance?  Yep.
Learning to leave the school room whether the lesson plans are done or not?  Yep.
Did I say I hate lesson plans?
Oh, yea, I think I did.

So this coming week Monday is a light day.  Friday is a field trip.
School only three days!  Yippee.
Grace?

Oh yea, grace.
Aren’t we supposed to apply that to our own lives?

You know I thought homeschooling was about the kids.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha……ha, ha, ha. 
Kids?
Yea, right!!!

I think God is a lot more concerning with my character right now than he is my kids. 
Eeeek….what have I gotten myself into??  It’s not supposed to be about me is it?

UPDATE
God is so good and knows just what our souls need. 

As we begin to experience some of the effects of the hurricane that’s been in Florida we had a wonderful and blessed soaking rain today for about an hour.  We were reading when we heard what sounded like rain and looked out to see it pouring.  So what does any good stressed out homeschooling mom do when it rains? 

Well, we ran out in it, of course. 

We jumped in puddles, splashed mud everywhere and got soaking wet. 
It was wonderful and just what I needed because I’ve just been taking life way too seriously lately as I feel all the pressures of being a homeschooler of four and a mom. 

The rain reminded me that God is in control of everything and the rain was so welcome because we’re in such a drought.  We haven’t had rain in so long….weeks and weeks and weeks.  So just like sunshine after rainy days we rejoiced in the rain and played.

I could feel my spirits lift as we played in the rain today.  Any neighbor watching probably thought we’d lost our minds!  But boy was it fun. 

Real life struck again later as we ran errands.  All three boys are on their beds for bad behavior now. 

"OK Lord, I’m ready for some more rain!

The thing that tends to freak me out the most is the Abeka lesson plans.  There’s so much to go through and so much I have to decide to teach or not to teach.  There is almost an overabundance of material.  It’s not the most user-friendly  lesson plans I’ve ever seen.  I’m going to call them today for some help.

Okay, now that I’ve gotten that out…….
Who else is freaking out?????
Alyssa?  Nancy? 
Please tell me I’m not the only one.

You know the hardest part of the day?  Getting baby girl to quit.  Quit working, quit talking, quit singing, quit carrying around her preschool book saying "I want to do more, mama.".  Finally at 1pm I said "No more!"  I don’t want to do any more school work!

The boys were done by 11am after starting at 9am.  We did Bible, Language Arts, Spelling, Writing, Math, and Times Tales.  Times Tales are working so well for my oldest son.  He’s already learned  four of his upper times tables.  We were struggling with remembering them but now we’ve found what works!!

Whew.  I feel so grateful that today went as well as it did!  We prayed for the morning.  God was good.

So as I’m reading through some of the comments I read something to the effect of "if you want to make God laugh tell him your plans."  God laughing….now don’t think of the evil snicker of a villain but think of a wise and loving chuckle of a daddy totally amused with and in love with his child.  You know, like when your 4 year old tells you he’s going outside to get in his rocket ship to go to the moon?  Or your daughter tells you she’s going to be a cheerleader and you chuckle at the dreams of your children…..

That’s how I see God….chuckling at my plans and my dreams because He loves me so much and knowing He has something FAR BETTER planned for me. 

On this particular day weeks ago I first read the quote about God laughing at our plans on Pioneer Woman’s blog, then in the afternoon I was reading a book and read the exact same quote.  That evening we were watching Evan Almighty and Evan is telling God (Morgan Freeman) his plans and God (Morgan Freeman) begins to laugh. 

Okay, by this time I’m sitting up and paying attention.  I’m thinking, "Okay Dad, you got my attention, what does this have to do with?"

I never got an answer from Him but felt as if it had something to do with school this year.  Maybe the boys would actually go to school this year.  Maybe I’d only be homeschooling one?  I just didn’t know.

Well I found out at the end of last week.
Baby girl, who I planned to send to a half day K4 program this year, is now going to be at home with "her boys".

It’s actually been a hard and emotional decision because the teachers she was going to have were just THE BEST.  Our 6 year old had them in K4 and they are just amazing women who really love the kids in their classes.  Our 6 year old son had a wonderful experience with them and I love them dearly. 

When I got a letter in the mail with less than a week before Day 1 of school from a teacher I’ve never met or heard of I was very confused.  After lots of phone calls and tears later I realized that in my heart I had wanted baby girl to have the same experience our son had.

God had other plans. 

So after much talking and lots of crying on my part we’ve decided to homeschool baby girl for K4 along with her brothers who will be in 4th, 3rd, and 1st grade.

I’m always amazed at how God so often lets me know something unexpected is coming down the pipeline of life.  And I admit, I go through a time of "Oh my gosh, what’s going to happen that He needs to warn me about?"  But then I remind myself that I have a Dad who loves me more than anything and has my best interests at heart.  He knew this would be an extremely emotional experience for me, that I’d grieve the loss of 2 special woman (teachers), that the principal of the school would hurt my feelings and there would be no compassion for my feeling/needs/wants, and that all this time I’d be PMSing too. 

"Lord, thank you that you know me so much better than I know myself!  Thank you that you love me more than all the stars in the sky and the sand on the beach.  Thank you for knowing it was going to be a bad week and sending me a message that let me know THIS is your will for me and my family this year.

My crazy son trying on his GIRL cousin’s glasses at Zaxby’s……

The youngest of the boys……never without his light saber.

"Oh no it’s looking pretty crazy around here!"

"I guess if you can’t beat them you join them!"

"I just need to make sure I bring in the reinforcements….Pocahontas and Cinderella!"

I was impressed with their new Abeka Academy but it was pricey!  About $1000 per kids.

If I bought the teacher kit and the student kit I was going to spend about $500 per child.  Again, YIKES!

So I sat, burnt the last of my brain cells on their order form, and put together what I’d need for the kids next year.  I had some things I already planned on using so I wanted to fill in the gaps.  I ended up spending about $500 on all three boys which felt like a huge accomplishment. 

Then off to the lake to defog my already taxed brain. 
Ah, thank goodness for the lake.

On a side note my dad asked for silhouettes of the kids so he could paint them.  I thought he wanted a true silhouette so this is what I ended up with but he actually wanted profile shots.  I liked this one though and wanted to share it with you.

Here’s our middle son, complete with his AUBURN hat!

If I had to do it over again there are times I wish I’d kept our K5er home.  I think a full day was too much for him.  A half day program would have been better.  But we persevered (which was very hard) and he graduated, complete with cap and gown, last night.  It was one of those few sweet moments in parenthood when your heart just bursts with pride over your child’s accomplishments. 

Both children that were in school this year will be at home next year.  Our son who was in K5 is ready to be home but our rising 3rd grader wants to go back to school.  I’m praying very hard that God would change his heart towards next year.  I’ve felt that the Lord wants them home for this coming year.