Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Please be kind...REWIND!

    Remember those catchy reminders on your VHS tapes from the movie rental store? For those who don't remember, back in the day, you actually could drive to a building, see and touch hundreds of VHS titles to rent and watch on your own VCR. Don't know what a VCR is either? Well, I'm sure you can Google it to catch you up to speed, so I won't bore you. For the rest of you, you'll appreciate the humor of the title post. Recently, it was one of those days, in which that particular phrase kept running through my head.
  Really, climbing back in bed and trying to start the day over, seemed the absolute, best option. It really would have been kind to just rewind my day!
   Have I mentioned that this year I'm homeschooling completely alone? Not that you usually home school with a group of folks. Would that even be homeschooling? For four years we've home schooled on some level. Starting with a part-time parent partnership, then a co-op that was quite far and then this summer I was helping to plan a co-op that would meet at our home once a week. Before this school year began we had to bow out, much to my dismay and even though that was the right step for us, it's been a difficult decision to walk out.
  Each year has been a mix of blessing and stress, and the last few weeks have been no different. What a gift to have the honor and joy of staying at home to with my 3 kids, but what a draining task it can be as well. 24-7 training, teaching, guiding and loving (un)conditionally. Not to mention the menial tasks of housekeeping, cooking, and life do not get put on pause.
  Teaching 3 students ranging in personality and strengths and crossing the challenging years of ages 6-9 is no small task and I'm still certainly trying to figure it out. Some would suggest I need to relax the schedule a bit, others would recommend to add a reward system, and even more would give an honest assessment that maybe another would be the best to teach them. No doubt I've thought through this all and made adjustments based on good advice and wisdom.
Still the bad days happen. Is it because I teach my kids at home? Not really, I think. It's parenthood, it's life really. We all have those days in every season of life that we long to stop, rewind and begin again. Still, today is a new day. "Tomorrow is always fresh with no mistakes in it." as so wisely stated by Muriel Stacey in Anne of Green Gables. So, I claim this promise each day, "Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning." Lam 3:23 NLT