Ramblings from a home schooling mom, part 4

Though it ended well enough, this past week was a challenging one, mostly in parenting-related ways

A few days ago, while commiserating with another mom about school-related issues at home, she made a comment, which has unfortunately mostly escaped me now, except for the phrase:

"RESOLVE TO ENDURE"

OK. I know there are possibly a few of you out there who read this and home school who just "love" it and every day is a glorious treasure (uh oh, my sarcasm is creeping out). Around here though, some days are treasures, but many of them are not.

Thus enters the "resolve to endure." For us, at this time, we are convicted that this is the best for our family, even though it is NOT an easy road by any means, and is subject to change. And sometimes that "resolve to endure" is what gets us through to the end of the day.

Yeah, I'd love to...

• have a break from my role of policeman, judge and jailer for a few hours once in a while.
• go to the bathroom by myself on occasion.
• spend uninterrupted time in prayer and Bible study.
• talk to someone on the phone for more than 10 seconds without resorting to the first point on the list.
• be able to go to the grocery store (Geoff would love that too, since he is delegated errand boy).
• clean my house...all of it at once...and then for it to last a few minutes.
• do something I really WANT to do.
• interact with other adults from time to time.
• not have to "crack the whip" all day to keep little people progressing in their education.
• get paid to work full time.

But for now, those wants and desires are set aside to hopefully build a lasting legacy in these three little people (though I often wonder if the long-term results are going to be any different than if I weren't home schooling them) and protect them from and prepare them for a world that is set against, and doing all it can, to undermine and cause them to question everything we believe. (Many people do this well without home schooling.)

The idea of "resolve" and what people can do when they have it was on my mind as we finished Moccasin Trail today - the sheer determination of the people going west in covered wagons and pushing, pulling, scraping, and whatever else it took, to get them over the high mountains into the Willamette Valley. Yes, some times parenting (and home schooling) is like that.