sufficient
i am writing this post from my parent’s house as my computer screen/monitor is on the fritz. it flickers like a sign on a creepy old motel. you know the ones that say OT L and have owners with names like norman bates. so these silly words of mine will have to be sufficient, for now.
i have nothing very exciting to report. i did make some delicious blueberry buttermilk pancakes for breakfast on saturday morning. that will have to suffice as my greatest cooking accomplishment this week.
i have a box filled with vintage-y, treasure-y hand-me-downs to go through. they were given to me by a second cousin-daughter to my great aunt who recently passed away. i see some pretty linens sticking out. linens with possibilities for market bags. the ones i have been waiting all summer to work on. the fact that i have all of the supplies will have to be sufficient, until time allows.
i’ve been going through coffee withdrawals. the headaches are really terrible. but since there isn’t anywhere i needto be this whole week, i am going to wean myself off gently. tonite i have a babysitting engagement. tuesday the teenager is leaving for a 3 day retreat. and except for catching up on laundry, i don’t imagine that this week has anything very exciting in store.
nana and my girl are reading the first four years out loud. i have one eye on my writing and one ear on the story. we are kinda sad that this is the last book. we checked out a bunch of books pertaining to laura ingalls at the library and are awaiting the little house cookbook to come. can you think of a better way to spend the rest of summer? cooking like laura and mary….
it got really hot here yesterday. i mean off the charts hot. but when you are passing the time sipping strawberry lemonade and reading piles of good books on a sheet laid out on the couch, there is really no room to complain.
i had the pleasure of perusing the pages of meredith’s book the other day while the kids swam at a friend’s house. it was great reading. and i was blessed enough to have an interest in Mary sparked in my soul again. it’s been a while since i’ve done enough for her. it seems that as the kids have gotten older we have done less. i am to blame for dropping the ball and i am feeling compelled to start fresh.
i don’t really want to say this out loud, but i am contemplating taking my kids out of charter this year. at least for the first semester. i miss being home. i miss their education being totally catholic. and after this move and the peace i feel in this home, there really is no excuse.
the world is a lot like an attractive vine. at first, the beautiful green leaves and tendrils are welcome in your homeschooling garden. in the case for charter it comes disguised as curriculum and art classes. and then slowly, its’ overwhelming presence begins to choke out all of the flowers-ie. virtues-that you have tried so hard to cultivate in your childrens’ souls.
it happens to the best of us. it happens when life hands you situations that make you feel like maybe you aren’t equipped enough to homeschool. it happens when life hands you a difficult teenager that you’d like nothing better than to get “rid” of by sending him off to someone else. someone else to deal with the algebra and english papers. it happens when he wears you down and ultimately you are tricked into sending him to real school. where he’ll become a real boy. if you’ve ever seen pinocchio, you’ll know where i am going with all of this…….
however, i forgot that i had the GREAT God on my side. and He is more than ready to step in and help me when i am weak. because it is especially when i am weak that He is strong. and “His grace ALONE is sufficient for me.’
just writing and thinking about this post has made me realize that there are times when sufficient is enough! i am not owed any blessings. i am not owed freedom from the mostly minor irritations that come my way. i follow a God that allowed His only Son to be nailed to a cross for my sake. and if that is not sufficient, well, then something must be really wrong with me.
so please forgive me if i owe you an email. you are all so kind and sweet to me. i am just really behind right now. my lurking on your blogs that are so dear to me will have to be sufficient for now. i have to go and play LIFE (pirate’s of the Caribbean edition) with my own father. i owe him a game since father’s day, when i was too tired. and yesterday was his birthday. so at this point, this is what his love requires of me. not exactly the afternoon of sewing i’d rather be doing. but it’ll suffice….
andeverythinginitsplace.wordpress.com 
I have also used gardening metaphors for homeschooling. As with my gardening, my homeschool year is begun with great enthusiasm. With equal delight, I peruse seed catalogs and curricula. I work hard planting and establishing a lesson plan. Then somewhere along the line–usually July/August for gardening and January/February for school–everything falls apart. The weeds and humidity overwhelm me outdoors in the summer, and the kids and books overwhelm me in the winter. And everything kind of falls apart.
I need to schedule in a winter Change of Method for these months. To take a couple months to school differently and maybe somehow keep us all out of the Doldrums. It is hard for me, as I’m a stickler for “finishing the books” (even now part of me panics because we finished the school year without finishing the boys’ math workbooks!). So the change has to come from within me.
I should have emailed you! Sorry for droning on. Keep the faith! God plus one is an Army!
See, the trouble is we do get fooled now and again by our teens/kids who think they know what they want and what is best for them. You have to make that decision, even if it makes them mad or disappoints them. It’s so hard to be the parent.
All three of mine will be in public school this year. Why? My husband is no longer on my side w/ home schooling because I could not get the kids to toe the line. They were lazy, even though I tried like heck to get them motivated . . . I think part of it is that Seton’s system is too boring. I should have put my own curriculum together . . . with FUN in there. But, with Seton it was so regimented that it was boring. Beyond boring. And, we would get the work done and be literally pooped. But, now I know. The reason I did not go with my gut instinct to build my own curriculum? My husband kept telling me I was too unorganized. Well, I am; and I’m not. It depends upon what it is. I am great about keeping important stuff straight.
But, there’s always more to it than I can put here, so please don’t think I’m laying the blame on him, because I am not.
Now we are putting them in school and I worry about getting them there from downtown Honolulu to where they’ll be going (closer to where we’ll live by mid-August) on time in the AM (Husband said he’d get them there); so now I’m going to be getting them from school. They get there about the same time, they leave a little more staggered. That helps . . . my girls school is the farthest from the other two. BUT, on Mon. the eldest gets out early; on Wed. the younger two get out early. It’s a mess! Plus, once we get to our home in mid-August, I have to decide if we’re going to use the bus system . . . which we have to pay for. For my youngest, I saw it would be about $123.90/year. No refunds. Nice, huh? So, yes, what will the other two cost? And, will it be better to pay it and let the system get them there and back so I don’t grow more gray by the day, or, do I continue to take them and back wasting time and money that way? I’ll probably cough up the money, but for one kid at that price, I’m thinking it will be expensive. And, the “discounts” don’t kick in until after the 4th kid.
I’m still going to apply for free transportation . . . I may get it, but I doubt it.
While sending my oldest away for the day to school is sometimes a thought, I know that I will still be dealing with the same issues when he comes home. I’m not sure my husband believes me on that point, but I KNOW it in my heart.
This ds is a social creature and getting his work done in a public (or private) school day would not happen … he hasn’t been able to develop the fortitude/conviction/drive (yet!) that it would require of him. So, I would be struggling in the evening to convince him to get his work done – when I’m the most tired and certainly not at my best!
While this is a trial for both of us at times, we’ll continue to persevere. I’ve been thinking, reading and praying a lot over the summer. I have a few ideas that I’m going to try. Tweaking the schedule, involving him more in the process, slowing down in some subjects, possibly trying block study for just this ds …
I look forward to every new year; my optimism has not been taken away. May our Lord continue to guide you on your path, too, Regan.