Just Keep Swimming....

The past three months have been very busy.

The past week has been crazy.

The past three days have been.....

Around and Around and Around

When I was a child, our county fair was the highlight of the summer. It was typically the largest event for our rural community, and every kid I knew looked forward to the rides and the cotton candy and the 4-H ribbons. 

The Promise Was...

For unto us a Child is born. 

 Unto us a Son is given.

Words of the prophet Isaiah.  

Words sung in Handel's Messiah. 

Words printed on Christmas cards.

Words for a Nation in darkness.....

Promise to a World in despair......

Behold the Brave and the Mighty

The Brave One is not the biggest, 

nor the strongest, 

nor the greatest.

The Perils of Procrastination

Well, I promised this post to my

 friends on Facebook.

Back in May. 

Delays in the Journey

I have a Motto:    

If you don't do something
 at least twice, 
it just isn't any fun.

Eye Trouble

I have read that,
 babies are born near-sighted
 and they can only see the distance
 from Mama's arms to her face.  

As they grow, their vision will usually sharpen 
and they will see things in the distance that they never knew existed. 

For some reason, that tendency to look at what is nearest becomes a habit with us in life.  

when you want to disappear.........

I have wanted to disappear.

Into the mist.....

Out of my troubles.......

Turn inward. 

Focus on only the necessary.

Leave these virtual pages 

as sort of a phase I went through...

a whim...

something I could not complete.

Teach Me to Number My Days...

Teach me to number my days...

because they are flying faster than the 

speed of sound...

Winding Down, Gearing Up, or Just Plowing Straight Ahead

May is nearing an end. 

Co-op is over...

field trips and gym days, nearly so....

graduations are happening......

book sales have started. 

My school room is spilling into the dining room as I clean up and clear out and try to figure out what to keep and what to store.  Intead of feeling the excitement of nearing the end of a school year, we will have to keep going a bit longer with a shorter break this year. To me, it feels like October...and I'm still unsure of what I'm doing.

The Power of Words

For the past month, I have been thinking about the power of words. Encouraging words, discouraging words.....we all know their power. 

But what I have discovered is the odd way in which it sometimes does not matter where the words originate.....and in others.....

well, it makes all the difference.

What Does Age Have to Do With It?

     The last few weeks have been very hectic in my household. 

I mentioned earlier that my children were participating in co-ops this year and that this was really something we had not been able to do much of over the years.  

All of this running around is beginning to tell on me. 

 I'm feeling it and I'm not liking it.

      Last night we had two committments back-to-back. They were both quite fun, but I was definitely feeling the fatigue of it all. 

Then a conversation about the fact that I was wearing my contacts instead of my glasses 

(no-line bifocals.....did I really just admit that?) 

was the cause of not being able to see what I was doing, 

led to one of the mom's mentioning that she did not want to get bifocals yet, 

which led to another mom saying something that caused me to say.....

"You're not even thirty yet are you?" 

"Not 'til next year"....and then the first mom mentioned that she would be forty soon..... Sigh.  

I'm the old mom. I'm forty-six. One of them said, "Oh, but you have so much wisdom!" 

     This morning the thought came to me that when I had my first child, 

this "not 30" mom was 4 years old and that

 when I began homeschooling, 

she would have been about eleven! 

Yikes! 

Why does my mind insist on conjuring up these facts for me?  

 Forty-six doesn't really sound too old, but I can remember when I was the youngest mom in nearly every social situation.

 I started my family in my early twenties and I kept it up.....so, now my "littles" are the same age as these mom's "olders". 

It's disconcerting to me, especially since I feel older than I suspect that I should.

     The fact is, eighteen years is a long time to do anything (especially homeschooling) and I am finding that sometimes it is just a matter of will to get this gal to keep going. 

At the same time, my "babies" are not babies at all, they are "tweens" and teens......geesh! 

Am I that old? It's weird because I'm doing things with other moms whose "oldest" kids are the same ages as my "babies".

     I understand that I have emotions that want to surface when I see these young moms with their "littles"......

What do I call my "littles" since they are no longer little?

I realize that I'm in a new "stage of life" (I really don't like that phrase at all) and that it won't be too long until I get to the "grandma stage" and all the wonders of grandchildren.  

But for now, I'm still one of the homeschool moms driving her kids to homeschool group activities and wanting nothing more than a long uninterrupted sleep.....for say...... a week for starters.  

For example, this last week alone we have left early in the morning and not returned until late at night several days in a row which has led to another time-tested reality that I'm really beginning to feel the full force of its existence.

      I have stated and will re-emphasize that I am a Homebody.....

I like to be home. 

It has been a long and established fact that when a person is not at home all day, little faeries enter the house and wreak havoc everywhere.  

They unmake beds, throw dust all around, pile up trash and throw clean clothes and dirty clothes in baskets together and dirty up the sinks.  

You would think that the old stories about elves finishing the shoemaker's work were true ones, but I'm sorry to say they are not. 

There are only wicked faeries who come in and mess everything up especially when you have to be gone for several days in a row. 

Of course, they also eat all the good things in the pantry and fridge knowing that you will be too exhausted to shop for groceries and will settle for toast or whatever odd thing you can concoct.

     I did find the energy to make a list of all the cleaning duties that need to be accomplished to get things back in order. 

But, I'm afraid that is as far as I've gotten. 

 I know all about the wonderful websites that will organize your life in 15 minutes a day, but I am not wired that way. 

I have to go all out and get it all done or it will nag at me. 

I'm not talking about entering the dark recesses of the closets in this house, 

oh no, 

I'd just like the clutter to be out of sight and I don't have the stamina to look at it much longer.

     It is another known fact that clutter is simply "visual  noise".  I don't tolerate noise well these days and everything in my line of vision is 

simply screaming.

 It must be stopped! I suspect that much of the fatigue I'm feeling is the actual drain of seeing so much to do and trying to muster the energy to attack it. 

Talking about what needs done is not always helpful, but writing about it in a public forum just might do the trick. 

 I seem to work better under pressure.  

If you'd like to come over for coffee,

 I am sure that I'd find the energy to clean it up in a heartbeat.......

but I'd still be exhausted and pay for it with aches and pains later.

     I know that I have to come to terms with this "stage" of life.....

I'm in my forties......

I haven't been the young mom in the group for a while.......

I know that I may have more wisdom now than when I was younger, but I can't always remember exactly what it is and I definitely don't want gray hair to prove it.  

I know that like every other stage of life, there are survival techniques that must be implemented.... and for now, I have to work out a better arrangement for staying on top of things if we are to be running hither and yon all the time. 

I know that you have to grow your own "good faeries" who will help you keep things in order and training them young is of vital importance. When my good faeries grow up and leave I will be in big trouble!

 Along with age comes health issues. We can't ignore them. We can't wish them away. We have to learn to work with them and try not to be bitter about what they take from us, like our feeling of youth. But such are common to Man. 

So we have to push on.

     Thankfully, the activities for this semester are winding down. I am glad. Because we all know what is lurking coming up around the corner.....Thanksgiving and Christmas! 

     I think  it is time for Home Ec.....where are those dusting rags??

What's My Assignment?

Several years ago, my husband sent an email to me about a woman who told the Lord that she would do anything and go anywhere that He wanted. 

Of course, she was thinking about being a missionary to the other side of the world or making huge sacrifices in some other significant way of service.
 The Lord told her that He wanted her to be in charge of a group of people , none of whom the world thought very important, and that she would not get paid or noticed. She eagerly agreed and wondered where He was sending her. He told her it was where she was already. At home. 

Her "people group" was her children. 
She was disappointed.