School year update for 2020!!

 

Boy howdy ya'll!

This school year has been crazy to plan!!  As many of you know, we do year round schooling, and it's constantly changing and varying year to year.   Some years we have friends with us, some are with private school, some have been with co ops, and others have been quiet and just us!  This year, however, was a HUGE change and it happened all kinda suddenly.  This is definitely not something we would have thought a few months ago, but God has truly brought together an amazing group and plan, and it has been coming together so smoothly!

So what is it we are doing??

Well, the closest things I can come up with is a pod school, or university model school/co op intense/momschooling as a group!

Thankfully we all live in a state where we have a LOT of flexibility with homeschooling, so we have more options to us than in other states.  A few weeks ago a mom asked me for help with homeschooling.  Now, this is nothing new, because over the years, I've offered a LOT of moms help.  What was different was they were willing to school WITH us a couple days a week.  This way we could share schooling, our kids could still socialize, and it evens out the burden on the moms, and we can encourage each other!  At first this was pretty awesome, but over the days, it quickly became more and more families.  In the end we ended up with multiple families and LOTS of kids! :)

I know a lot of people are looking at homeschooling and asking for help and ideas, etc, so if you have a group of encouraging mamas, this is what we are doing as a brief outline.

Twice a week (Mondays and Wednesdays) for us, we meet at my house and we split up the classes.  One mom teaches Bible, one teaches history, one teaches science, some do the prek/K, and the rest help with kid management.  We all use the same curriculum (I use primarily www.mfwbooks.com and www.masterbooks.com for math and grammar) so in that way it's more of a school than a co op.  We do ALL the subjects together, except math and grammar which are done one on one.  So also in this sense, it is more intensive than a normal co op. We are also not quite a private school because all of the moms are teaching it, and we meet twice a week.  On our off days (Tuesday and Thursda) we all do math and grammar at home.   For the kids who need more assistance I tutor them individually, and as a team we work through all the subjects.  On Fridays, we open a group event/fieldtrip/playday to the community.  We keep it mainly outdoors at parks, pools, splash pads, etc.  This allows for any moms to socialize and play and get encouraged who aren't necessarily needing the full time school help.  

As a team we have quickly developed some great friendships, and the children have been so much happier having friends over more!  They love learning together, they challenge each other, and they also have the connecitons they have been missing since the shut down all summer.  The bonus of this is having the off days with just our family, so we aren't burned out with people over 5 days a week!  For our family this is HUGE.  I teach music all day Tuesday and Thursday, so the kids have been doing their math and grammar quickly in the mornings, and then they have been playing and relaxing and having chill time the rest.  Friday we aim for the FUN friend day or a family day, whatever is more needed that week.

This has been a dream of mine for many years, but to watch it happen without us planning ot trying has been incredible!  It truly has all fallen into place quickly and smoothly, and it has been so encouraging to find a bunch of other mamas who all mesh well without drama!!  

I couldn't ask for a better group, and I cannot wait to see what further dreams and opportunities this presents to us!!  

Adventues in Florida!!

Hey ya'll!

I know this blog is kinda eclectic, but it IS all about our life.  Our adventures, our travels, and our homeschooling!

Covid has his my travels HARD!  Our trip to Big Bend had to be cacelled, then our epic two week road trip got downsized, but we still ended up with a great weekend in Florida!

My brother has an AMAZING fiance who is FROM Florida, so we went and spent some time with them and her family for a few days.  The kids and I thoroughly enjoyed time at the beach, sand, seashells, jet skiing, dolphin watching, and lots of family time!

Every vacation my kids beg to please stay home.  These boys are homebodies, and definitely don't like to disrupt their routine.  The sad thing for them is they have a mama who LOVES to travel!!  The gypsy soul in me runs deep, and although they don't love the idea of vacations, they always enjoy them while we are on them. 

Sadly we couldn't do Junior Ranger Badges as planned, which is our current obsession, but we did end up going to see the crystal beaches and ocean for the first time with the kids.

The family down there also took us on a dolphin cruise!!  This was a couple of hours of a very spacious boat, seagulls, dolphins, and amazing views!!

I am forever thankful for the opportunity and flexibility we have to travel and explore the world and make incredible memories as a family.  Memories made on salty air, high waves, clear oceans, and digging for seashells.  These are precious moments that we will have forever now!

Even if my kids don't always remember these things, I will.  

One day, when they grow up and look back, I do hope they look back with fondness and happy memories.

When Church is hard

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So often in my blogs I write about the importance of my spiritual walk with God.  Yes, that is always true for me first and foremost, but sometimemeans not being in chuch. 

Wait.   Before you riot against me.  Let me go into more depth.  I in NO way am saying that church is not good or not helpful, but lately I've had to reform a LOT of what I learned growing up in church and how I needed to take care of me.  

Growing up we learned to never miss church ever, unless we were about to be hospitalized level of sick.  Suffice it to say, we rarely missed church.  Now this is not bad.  I don't think people who never miss church are good or bad, but you have to realize, that for some people during differeny periods of life, church is not always the answer.

Do you know what I learned from never missing church?  I learned how to fake being happy.  I learned how to be socially appropriate.  I learned to "say the right thing" but when I acutally needed help I didn't know how to ask.  I learned that everyone would pray for you, but rarely would they sit with you when you cried and fell apart.  I learned that the importance of living up to others expectations was more important than being happy and taking care of my own mental health.  

Did I learn about God?  Yes I did.  I ended up getting saved.  I learned a lot about the Bible, but sadly what I learned more was that Christians would judge, attack, and disown each other quicker than anyone.  Do you know when I truly learned about God's love?  When I lost my children.  When I had a husband with incurable auto immune diseases.  When I had friends talk behind my back and hurt my testimony.  When the "church" people deemed I wasn't good enough for them.  THAT is when I learned about GOD and His love and grace for me. 

My aim is to always teach my children to love others and show grace always.  Do you know what Jesus never did in HIS church??  He didn't trash talk those he disagreed with, He sat with the sinners, He reached out to those who were hurting, and He actually went against those that spouted the laws and legalism of the day.  Sadly I think that so many Christians focus so much on what others think and want to fit in with, that they forget to show love and grace to others.  When we focus on people instead of our BIble and God, then so much gets twisted.

I've had a hard year.  Hard due to anniersaries.  Hard due to really sinking in the fact I will never have more kids.  Hard also because several women I was VERY close to have stepped out of my life.  These women were the ones I cried to, loved on, and sacrificed a lot for.  What hurt was when they started listening to rumors about me, instead of coming to me, and allowing friendships to die because of it.  It hurts when people don't want to hear about Mira.  It hurts when people won't hang out because I have a husband with chronic health issues.  It hurts when people would rather walk away then sit and be there through the hard times.

I don't blame them.  My life is hard.  Every few months we have MAJOR crisis and emergencies.  I mean, really, our life doens't lead an easy one.  

Back to my original point.  Lately I haven't been at church because it's been hard.  Like, really hard.  Hard to show up when I know my husband's health won't allow him to be there too.  Hard to show up knowing that my ASD child is completely altered from COVID to be ina  good church routine.  Hard to see the ministries I've been plugged into be altered and changed to where I"m no longer needed in them.  Hard to smile and pretend it's okay.  Hard to not smile and then try to explain to 100 different people how much our life can take a toll on us.  

So I took a few weeks off, and you know what?  It was truly healing for me.  It let me spend extra snuggles with my kids. It let us watch church from our home without the hustle and bustle and stress of three kids mostly by myself.  It let me cry and praise and worship without worrying about what everyone else might think.  It let me really dig into my Bible and reset some of the hurts from my legalist childhood that I had to deal with.  It let me mourn the friends who have walked away.  It allowed me to truly REST on a Sunday and not be burning myself out with 10 different ministries and constant rushing of a Sunday.  

I still grieve friendships, even though I don't blame them.  I still pray for those who I know will follow the preacher over the Bible.  I still try to show as much grace and love to others no matter what happens to them later in our lives.  I will continue to nurture my children in the Bible and teach them to love their local church and people.

Yes, we are getting ourselves plugged back into church slowly.  We are readjusting routines, and we are learning to heal and grow as a family.  We are learning the importance of church, but also the importance of a break when it's needed for our mental health.

As a friend recently told me, "Church is for YOU, not you for the Church."  If the church only cares about you when you are doing for them, but they can't minister to you when you struggle, then guess what?  You are not in a healthy church.  Do you know what's healthy in a church?  What's healthy is when a church loves on you, ministers to you, and doesn't care what you contribute to them.

Find God's love.  Find a true church.  Find people who will love you for you!

If you have to change for a church or friends, then they aren't true friends or churches.  I hate how long it takes me to figure some things out, but I"m thankful that through our trials, that our kids can learn to heal and take care of themselves too!