Sprint

I keep waiting for things to slow down, but this stage of life is simply at a sprint.  These days, every minute is filled, and the minutes that aren't filled with something planned are filled with things like trying to keep the house in a livable condition.  Once the kids are in bed each night I drag myself through more "to-dos" then crash onto the couch, much too late, to try and just be still next to Justin for a moment.  My body literally aching with fatigue, we sigh into one another to enjoy a show that only gets interrupted a minimum of 3 times by children who need water, forgot to say "love you to the moon and back," or are bored as they wait to fall asleep.

Despite the physical exhaustion, this is a beautiful, cherished stage of life.  Our children are all still young enough for pretend and puddles, and some are old enough to buckle their seat belts and wipe their own bottoms :).  Home school has been a wonderful decision.  I am pleased in many ways.  I get the best parts of my children's days; when they have energy, focus, and a desire to learn.  I get to watch them be excited about writing and history lessons.  I get to witness Vera's hunger for math, which keeps her book pages turning long beyond what I've asked her to do for the day.  I'm familiar with each child's strengths and weaknesses.  There is a lightness we all feel now... more peace and freedom.    

In pictures, here are some of the treasured moments of the last week of home school and outings:

My younger three played in the rain and made mud pies while William was in his karate lesson.  We brought home dirt-caked clothes and beautiful memories.

We took a trip to Chattanooga to meet the new cousin, Boaz, and visit Justin's sister and her family.  William and Vera were thrilled to hold their baby cousin.  Playing with cousins is always a joy, and they didn't want to leave... so we went back later that evening to share dinner together :).

Chattanooga is between my house and my friend Kelly's house, so we met in the middle to play (since we hadn't seen each other in, I don't know, over a year?).  It is life giving to see a dear friend!  Thanks to phones we get to talk every week, but getting to chat in person while watching our kids play together was a huge added bonus.

Kelly and I started our afternoon by the Tennessee Aquarium. At first I thought I'd try to keep my kids dry (I didn't exactly have decent changes of clothes), but eventually we gave in to the water.  They were soaked and happy.

Then our kids slid down this hill on cardboard 'sleds' for 2+ hours (with a playground break tossed in)!  Talk about a fun P.E. class ;).  They started out sliding solo, and by the end of the afternoon they had mastered the 4-kid-blob slide.

Another heart-warming moment this week was having my friend, Sophal (William's godmother), and her daughter come over to do a sewing lesson with us.  William decided to design an embroidery that says "I believe in the Lord," with a heart and cross at the center.  He is doing an excellent job and later decided worked on it in the car during a long ride.  Vera worked on sewing a heart.  Silas spent a few minutes sewing yarn around the outside of some paper before he was ready to stomp about with flying machines and action figures.

On Fridays we go to our church's school to join in their activities as a co-op.  I've been helping to teach science to Vera's class, so today we went to the zoo to classify the animals (we went to the reptile house, so they classified a LOT of reptiles).

In the afternoon I substituted for the art class and gave a lesson on color.  The kids got to mix up different colors that they used to paint sticks.

Tomorrow is apple picking, Sunday is teaching Sunday school, Monday is a home school group trip to the water-treatment center, and after teaching birth class next Tuesday night, I will take schooling to the beach for a unit study on the ocean (with sand castle breaks).  Life is sprinting indeed, but life is good.  

It is all a balancing act that I am still figuring out.  I do need to learn to say 'no' to some things.  I'm not very good at that.  I do have to find ways to refresh... like now.  Right now I'm sitting outside in the dark on a rocking chair to write this while I hand over bedtime reading to Justin...this is my way of reflecting and sharing.  Thanks for letting me share with you Grandma, Kelly, Kristen, Mikki, Jenny, Mom, some past Bradley students, some childhood and college friends, some family, my mom's friends, and all of you who take the time to let me say 'hello.'