My Ebenezer

Last Monday was our first day of school.  Rather than making lunches, gathering supplies, finding lost shoes, and racing out the door by 8:15am, we first did some household chores and then went to school at 9:30am right in our very own home. :)  We began with prayer, some Bible verses, and a hymn, and we ended a mere 2 hours later, just before lunch.  Noah couldn't believe it was so short.  "I'm done already ? I love this!" he exclaimed. And so do I.  Homeschooling is nothing like I thought it would be. I thought I'd hate teaching; I love it.  I thought Seth would demand constant tending to and my undivided attention; but he was manageable as long as I kept him busy with us doing similar work.  I thought I could kiss my housework goodbye; instead I got more done this last week than I used to when we were on summer break!  We had a mercifully peaceful week, and I think it was a blessing from the Lord, a gentle affirmation that this was a good decision.  I

We were at Noah's soccer practice the other night and I was running out of Ways To Keep Seth Occupied.  We had already kicked his ball, played "chase," caught a tiny frog and let it go 86 times, gone through my purse, watched people, run off the field and into the parking lot (oops! That one wasn't supposed to happen!), and sung some songs ("The Wheels on the Bus" is great because there are like a thousand verses).  Are you tired yet? I sure was!  But we had 25 minutes to go, and so I went with a game I like to call, "Make 'em Laugh." The object of the game is to make him laugh so that I will keep from crying. It worked. :)

I was so thrilled this morning NOT to send Noah off for his first day of school.  The public schools in our area started today, but I thankfully did not have to pack up a lunch or start the hustle bustle routine of finding shoes and loading a backpack.  I also did not have to wake Seth up from his nap to go pick Noah up at 3:15pm (IS there a worse time to leave the house when you have a napping toddler?).  So far this is what I love best about homeschooling: that I get to decide when Second Grade starts (next Monday, for those of you wondering).  For now, we're enjoying one more week of summer vacation.

I blinked and this summer is almost over.  I can't remember a summer that was more jammed full of birthday parties, trips North, Vacation Bible School work, visitors, and so on.  We are staring down a week of family camp at The Wilds, and then I have one week (one. week.) to do my final preparations before I belly flop dive into homeschooling.  I'm white-knuckled on the edge of that diving board, with deep fingernail prints in the palms of my hands.  The board looks higher from up here.  Nervous?  Who, me? And so I'm praying lots of things: that I won't turn Noah off to the joys of learning, that I will not stink at teaching, that I will keep my cool, that I will be able to handle both teaching Noah and corralling Seth, that this will be fun and one of the best decisions we have made.  Those are tall orders, seeing them there in print.  I'm thankful tonight that my God specializes in tall orders. :)