June

In early June, I could not exhale enough.

Aaaaaah.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh.

We finished school. 


I got over my sickness. 


The freezer is stocked with strawberry jam. 

I pulled off the picnic and field day; the baptisms are scheduled; the IEP is written.

Curricula are ordered and stacked in the school room for next year; Little League is over; a trunkload has been hauled to the thrift store. 

The summer stretches out before me.

Ears's new tie.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh.

A dozen things I learned this spring

Linking up with Emily P. Freeman again...



1.  Capeesh is a real word.

Photo by davide ragusa on Unsplash

Except it's spelled "capisce," and it's actually Italian.


2.  How to choose a restaurant.

Photo by Dominic Dreier on Unsplash

Jason and I, being of similar temperament, are endlessly plagued by the indecision that results in "Where do you want to go?"  "I don't know; where do you want to go?"


Until now!  15 years into the marriage, we've finally figured it out:  we take turns "giving parameters."  One of us sets parameters they're happy with--like "within a 15-minute drive; not Mexican; casual dress; good beer selection"--and then sits back while the other makes a selection and drives to the surprise destination.  Everybody's happy and the pressure is off.


3.  Jason is a Questioner....and I'm an Upholder.

Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash

I love the Happier podcast with Gretchen Rubin.  She often talks about her Four Tendencies framework, so I finally took the quiz, and Jason was willing to take it as well. 


I was less surprised that Jason turned out to be a Questioner than that I apparently am an Upholder.  Jason was 100% confident that I am, however, and over some time, I've come to agree it's probably true.


4.  My toothbrush wasn't the green one.

Photo by William Warby on Unsplash

Our toothbrushes got tossed in together when we returned home from Jason's birthday trip in April.  When I pulled them out, I judged from the two colors and was pretty sure mine was the green one.  Until I put it in my mouth.  Mine definitely wasn't the green one.  The green one felt really different.  But now?  Mine's the green one.


5.  You can add fonts to Pages.

Photo by Mr Cup / Fabien Barral on Unsplash

My goal in homeschooling is to produce children who are better-educated than I am.  Consider that goal met, because Jeddy showed me how you can download fun fonts from the internet and then add them to Pages on your computer, so you always have access to them.


6.  Tea makes me a normal human.

Photo by John-Mark Smith on Unsplash

A year ago I learned that I can drive after lunch if I drink a cup of coffee.  I guess it did take me a whole year, but I've extrapolated and realized that if I drink tea after lunch while sitting at home, I can (usually) stay wide awake to finish school and whatever else I want to do in the afternoon.  It seems that 8,000 years of human history has resulted in a nugget or two of common wisdom.


7.   Pastors get an honorarium for guest preaching.

Photo by Justin Luebke on Unsplash

I had no idea. 


8.  You can double-click the shift button on your phone for caps lock.

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

This I learned by looking over someone's shoulder who was typing on her phone.  I made a secret mental note (so as not to be naively excited) and tried it out later.  And then became naively excited.


9.  Allied resistance put bombs in dead rats.

Photo by freestocks.org on Unsplash

The Allies had a bunch of other weird sabotage ideas, but we learned about the exploding rats by watching this lovely Scotland documentary.  They would put the booby-trapped rats in boiler rooms, where the Nazis were supposed to find them and dispose of them by tossing them in the boiler--and boom.


10.  My cholesterol is still too high.

Photo by Lana Abie on Unsplash

Probably due to a combination of genetics and an inordinate love of cheese.


11.  If your stuff tastes like smoke, you could have a pizza or two in the oven.

Photo by Anton Darius | @theSollers on Unsplash

So every time we turned on the oven, it got smoky and smelled like something burning.  I finally remembered to clean when the oven was cold--and lo, there was a slice of pizza back there, completely black, that had fallen off the edge of an overloaded pan when I heated up leftovers one day [see #10, above].  Well, that explains that.


Unfortunately, although the haze cleared, everything I cooked for a while after that came out tasting smoky.  I thought I must have missed some crumbs so I poked around in there again.... and lo, a second piece of black pizza.  Points for cutting back on the amount of pizza I actually ate that day.


12.  I know why someone would want to kill a mockingbird.

Photo by Suzanne D. Williams on Unsplash

Sorry, Atticus Finch, but when you are awoken at 12:46am by a blasted bird singing outside your window?!  I'm not convinced it's a sin to kill a mockingbird. 


And I'm not crazy either--apparently this is a thing. 

Photo by Robbin Huang on Unsplash

What did you learn this spring?

The thing

May is the month of


     - trying to get across the finish line of the current school year,

     - getting curricula and plans all in place for next school year,

     - Little League,

     - clearing out the house for summer,

     - end-of-year recitals,

     - beginning of work on this year's Vacation Bible School,

     - and making massive amounts of strawberry jam.

Caleb, after walking one mile, and Lizzy, after running 3 miles.

Normal life also just goes on, which this month meant finishing up a comprehensive evaluation at the local school to see if Caleb might qualify for speech services there; graduation and planning an end-of-year field day and picnic for our support group; a doctor appointment wherein I learned that my cholesterol is still too high; and a 5K to benefit the local pregnancy center that our whole family participated in.

And I'm exhausted, and that could have something to do with my dropping into bed yesterday morning with a chest cough and not getting out of it yet. 

Caleb very willingly accompanied Daddy to the quarry to pick out more rocks for the sand pit. 

And buried among the calendar cluttered with events was one more meeting--one more thing that required emails back and forth, preparation and follow-up at home.


Except it wasn't just one more thing.  It was the thing.


God has been merciful, once again, to our little family.  He has reached into our world and claimed two more of our children's hearts for Himself.  Ada and Lizzy requested, and were granted, interviews with our elders to profess their faith, and are now scheduled to be baptized and become church members next month.

It looked like one more appointment, one more set of logistics to figure out.  But, oh Lord, give us eyes to look behind the curtain at the angels rejoicing, and the cosmic glory of young mouths confessing the Savior.

And evermore be this merciful to our family.  Draw our children's hearts to Yourself when I am too busy to even talk to them.  In my weakness, while I lie and cough and drink my chamomile, impress them with the Lord Who would not break a bruised reed--Who is enough for me when I'm not enough, and is enough for them at every age.

Wordless Wednesday

I have a plan

Not much causes me to lose sleep at night.  I enjoy sleeping too much for that.

But worrying about the education I'm providing for my kids does.

Especially when reality isn't matching up with my expectations.  

The end of the school year is fast approaching, and instead of that bringing elation, I'm panicking.

The list of lessons as yet incomplete is disproportional to the time left.  

You know, there are as many ways to homeschool as there are personalities that do it.  I'm thankful for my organizational nature that makes it so much easier to plan and execute school.  

But I'm also neurotic when I'm called on to be flexible.  

What are the benefits of homeschooling? one might ask.  High on any reasonable list will be "flexibility" and "ability to teach to each child's learning pace." 

But my plans, my beautifully laid out plans.....

Snack: the part of baseball that Caleb loves the most. 

My forte is making detailed long-range plans.

Setting aside detailed long-range plans to adjust to the actual world of reality:  not my forte. 

Especially when I thought I could recycle plans--figure it out once and multiply by four--it's discomfiting to realize that what worked for Children A and B doesn't work for Child C.  And even once I figure out Child C, none of it works for Child D.  

And so I'm bleary-eyed late into the night, trying to peer ten, fifteen years into the future and wondering how to reconcile it all.  

And this morning I'm yawning and remembering that this is the point where I need to trust God, Who planned all these things from the beginning with deliberate care for me and my children--A, B, C, and D.

You've been lost in the wind

And the rain of a storm at sea

The waves are crashing over your back

And you're crying out for Me

But as the ocean rages

I am sleeping in the boat

But I have a plan, I'm holding your hand

And I'm keeping you afloat

~Caedmon's Call, "Never Gonna Let Go"