I am sooo ready...

I am sooo ready to start teaching again. I told Greg that I felt as if the past week we have all been so disconnected. I feel like we have been going 100 miles an hour on our "vacation". Since we have had virtually no schedule the kids have been staying up later, watching more movies, going here & there with other people, getting a ton of gifts and arguing more. I am ready for a schedule, discussion, accomplishing "something" during the day. The kids were even asking when we were going to begin. We are going to begin on Monday.

Christmas was great. We got to spend time with my Mom, my Mother-in-Law & my brother and his family from Tennessee. One of the coolest things that we got to be a part of was Christmas Eve at our house. We invited our church, our family & some friends over to the house. We had tons of food, we sang carols and read some passages together. We had a really great time together. I am already looking forward to next year.

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

We have truly been blessed. There are several things that jump to the fore front of my mind as I think about the fleeting year.

1. I am glad that I have home schooled this past year. I am glad that I did not let the fear of the unknown overwhelm me.

2. I am glad that my 2 year old and 3 year old have been at St. Paul's during the day. We have seen significant growth in Lucy Grace since she began there last year. I think that it is so helpful for there to be more than just my eyes evaluating & teaching my children.

3. I am glad that we went to plays & performances together as a family.

4. I am glad that we have made a conscious effort to begin family worship and that Bible is not a "subject" but rather the Story that bleeds through all discussions and subjects.

5. I am glad that I have started learning history and that my girls have developed a passion for it also.

6. I am glad that I re-visited the idea of a private school for the girls. It was good for me to feel unsettled.

7. I am glad that we didn't have to "sign out" when our family decided to go to Waco and see friends for a couple of days.

8. I am glad that my kids appreciate a good cup of coffee. :) (decaf, of course.)

9. I am glad that we have met and become friends with other multi-racial families.

10. I am glad that I have friends to talk to who assure me that their kids are are going through the same "phase" that mine are. :)

God has been good to us.

Happy Holidays.

So it has been a while since I have posted. The chaos that accompanies the joy of the holiday season has certainly blown through the Fields' Estate and we are trying to maintain our balance.

I have experienced, what I would consider to be, one of the negatives of home schooling. We had a semi-crisis situation last week, where my baby, Zoe, had to get stitches. It was about 10 a.m. We had decided to take our studies on the road so we were heading to Starbucks to hit the books for a couple of hours...when the phone rang. Greg was on the line telling me that Zoe had cut her finger at Mother's Day Out and they could not get it to stop bleeding. The ironic thing was that the cut was more like a scratch. Nothing very deep or wide. We went to the doctor's office and wound up leaving with stitches and another appointment to test for a platelet abnormality. It was still bleeding after an hour! The negative that I spoke of concerning homeschooling has to do with the fact that the older girls accomplished absolutely nothing, as far as textbook "work" goes. Abby apparently thought that she was filming a documentary for Discovery Health based on the number of questions that she asked the doctor and the lack of personal space that she allowed anyone in the office, for fear that she might miss a shot or a stitch. I also found it difficult to manage the older ones, knowing that if I were following the societal norm - they would have been in school...and not in a tiny, hot, over-crowded doctor's office. :) I know that that is a mental "game" that I am going to have to not "walk through" every time something difficult happens. I in no way begrudge my children or their presence because of choices that we have made for them. It's just the raw fact that I don't want to deal with them when I feel that I have a more pressing "concern". This definitely reveals a lot about me and where I am in this process called parenting.

I have decided that I am going to have both of the kiddos tested in August before starting the new school year. (Achievement and IQ) I want to do this and my friend, Amanda has offered her services in this arena. I am also going to have them take the TAKS test for assessment...just for my own curiosity.

This week, my high school football team went to their first playoff game. They were sadly defeated. However, I felt that feeling of "connection". I got a call from a friend asking if I wanted to "meet up with everyone at the game?" I loved feeling a part of that and reliving in my mind all of the fun times that are a scrapbook collage of who I am today. I thought, "I want my girls to have these type of memories and feelings." I hope that they feel Fall and can smell Spring. I want them to remember the scent of room temperature chocolate milk that permeates the hallway that they walk 305 days of the year. I want them to taste public school tater tots and I want them to throw up in home room. I also want them to know the difference between virginity and purity, "home centered-ness" and feminism, living and Life. I want them to not always want to "leave the house" to go "do something fun". I want them to "be ready" to go away to college, not just 18 years old. I am not pinning all of these ideas against each one another, this is just how my mind works. One can obviously know the taste of public school tater tots and come from a very connected family.

I hope that we are making the right decision in staying the course that we are on. I see great benefits yet I often struggle with parental guilt and doubt. I have seen good fruit from this past year. I think, thus far, that the pros outweigh the cons, for our family. However, we all know how quickly & subtly the direction of the wind can change. I pray that I am flexible...not concerned with being "right" or "wrong", rather, listening to the Voice "saying, this is the way- walk in it."