Best Laid Plans

I'm a planner, and a list maker.  Always have been.  And as a former classroom teacher, my 'bent' is to make a schedule and then adhere to it with rigidity.  The bell rings and it's over, or it's lunch, or time to change classes, or whatever.  Therefore it stands to reason that one of my biggest challenges as a homeschool mom has been in letting go of THE BELL.  I have at times drifted, and reverted back to my former way of thinking and tried to make the kids stick to a very strict time schedule.  THIS NEVER WORKS.

"Ok kids, we are stopping right here in the middle of this exciting history lesson to...yes, you guessed it, have our handwriting lesson.  Forget Alexander the Great, get your pencils."

It just doesn't work.  Never has and never will.  And in truth, why would I want it to work in that manner?  The short answer:

For my own ease.  To make ME feel better.  Because crossing things off MY list makes ME feel like I've accomplished something.

But have I?  Have I really?

Yes, in life, my children will have to be on time for work (I require them to be on time to our schoolroom now), and yes, they will probably have times in their lives when they are required to follow someone else's bell.  But, right now, RIGHT NOW they are privileged to learn at their own pace.  When phones ring, cars break down, family members are sick, or LIFE just happens, it's not the end of the world.  When we are really enjoying the day's science lesson we are not required to 'finish up' so we can move on.  We CAN do just one more experiment or take a spur of the moment walk.  Do we always?  Nope.  In fact, most days we go with the flow of our schedule and plan.  But we CAN change if we so choose.  Education is integrated with life.  As it should be.

I am writing tonight because I am/was frustrated with our day not turning out as I planned.  Not EVERYTHING got checked off MY list.  On days like today I need to be reminded of the goals that Ben and I wrote years ago.  They are pasted into my planner and always will be.  We should probably revise them someday, but for now they give our home(school) a strong spine.

• Have a relationship with Christ
• Study and understand God's Word
• The ability to think for themselves
• Do anything or be anything
• Know how to find answers to questions
• Have solid relationships with others
• Question things
• A college education if required for their desired profession
• Be creative
• Be inventive
• Be men and women of character
• Appreciate music, art, and literature
• Cooperate with others
• Derive self worth from God not man

When I bring today's events into the light of our lifelong learning goals, my mind shifts.  Just as when I focus on heavenly things vs earthly things.  I can relax.  Still having a goal ( read plans/lists :), running for the prize, but resting in the knowledge that when things don't go as I planned they ARE going as He planned.

 Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.  Proverbs 19:21

So tonight I am taking off my former classroom teacher hat and replacing it with my forever homeschooling one.

This happens often.  

Rocks of Remembrance

God has taken me through some pretty rough times. Nothing that is uncommon to man, but from my selfish perspective, some rough times. Thing is, He has always walked with me. He is sovereign, and for whatever reason, He chose those trials for me. To grow me, to mold me, to take this stubborn clay pot and shape it closer to the image of His perfect Son.

He has also poured out tremendous blessing upon me. Not for anything that I have done, but because He is a loving Father who loves to give good gifts to His children. The fact that I am one of His children is proof of His abundant lovingkindness (and patience:)

In Joshua 4, God commands the Israelites to set up a memorial of stones to remember what He had done for them in crossing the Jordan.

"Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean?' tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD.

The stones were to serve as a reminder, a conversation piece, of what God had done for them.

I thought I would share a picture of my 'Rocks of Remembrance'. Each one has a special meaning, either of a trial that God taken me through, or a blessing that He has bestowed.


I hope that as this little bowl sits out on a shelf, it will be a beautiful reminder of where God has taken me and how He as never left me nor forsaken me. I also look forward to the days my children say "Mama, what are those rocks?" It will give me one more chance to tell them of God's faithfulness.