Typical conversation in our house:
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Intervention
This may just be the year that homeschooling does me in. I’ve had to call in reinforcements (my husband) to help me with not only our eldest, but our two youngest.
Let me preface my rant by saying that I have three beautiful and creative children and I love them dearly. But sometimes, love isn’t enough – grace is required. I am very thankful to be swimming in God’s grace today, because I would probably have drowned a long time ago in the vast ocean that is called homeschooling.
I live in a house full of emotional children who raise their voices in frustration and resort to crying instead of digging their heels in and trying to learn. I am not very tolerant of those tears, either. Lord help me, I don’t want to raise a bunch of whiny quitters. But I’m seriously at my wits end. Every time I make the attempt to throw out a lifeline or an aid, one of my children rejects the help and continues to flail and flounder.
Of course, I do take full responsibility for this. I am quite sure they are simply modeling what they have seen me do (as far as raising my voice – I don’t typically resort to crying). And I hate it. I really do, because I know that they are all capable of so much more, as am I.
I think a homeschool intervention is needed. Or a summer break. Something…before I lose my everlivin’ mind.
These are things many homeschoolers don’t talk about, because it makes us look bad. Well, it’s no lie that every day is not a picnic when you homeschool…your kids don’t always love it, and you certainly don’t always get everything done that you set out to accomplish.
However, I do not believe this is a homeschooling issue so much as a heart issue. I’m not sure how to get our family back on track and get our attitudes right about homeschooling and loving one another.
/rant
I’m feeling some frustration and in dire need of a new point of view. Anyone out there with any ideas?
I’ve done a few blogs, yes.
One of my spiritual gifts is mercy. (Don’t laugh – it’s true, and no one was more surprised that me.) I have a hard time saying “no” to folks…and had taken two orders after my queue closed that I’m now smacking my forehead for taking. Although I need to earn the money, (My friend Kelli recently told me that the majority of designers surveyed, worked over 50 hrs a week and made less than $20K a year – I can testify to that!) I also need to be more available to my kids. My husband might like it if I actually cleaned the house once in a while too. 🙂
I haven’t updated my portfolio in ages…will get to that once I’m finished with my queue…only have 7 blogs left – I can’t believe I don’t have at least 20 in queue. I have to tell you – I have no idea how I’m going to manage it going forward. There has to be a way to keep it down to 1-2 per week, which is really all I can do and do right. I don’t want to do basic design anymore. Anyone can do that and you can find over 300 blog designers on the web who do the same thing. So I’m not sure what the future holds.
That said, here’s a few I’ve done recently, as well as some before and afters:
Living My Best Life (Before and After on Blogger):
Especially Heather (Custom Design, WordPress):
Jumpstart (WP Design):
Lisa B’s WP Guides Blog (header only – WP Design):
Literarily – Before and After (WP Header):
Literate Housewife (Custom Design, WP Before and After):
It’s Always a Production -Restyled Blogger (widgetized, widened, added third column):
Faith Co-op (WP Private Homeschool Multi-Author Blog):
It’s My Life…(Custom Blogger Before and After)
Did you know I’m also doing custom Twitter backgrounds?
Simply Amusing (wonder who this is?)
MarianLadyBug:
Totally Inappropriate. I. Can’t. Stop. Laughing.
An ode to technology
There are some things in life that although they are not really necessities, you become so dependent upon them that you literally have a difficult time functioning without them.
I am a lover of all things technological. Computers and phones and gadgets are such wonderful tools that when used properly and not abused, can enrich lives and bring people closer together.
I have a very deep and abiding love for certain gadgets – my cell phone is one of them. I rarely use it, but just know it’s there if I want to use it — it gives me such a sense of security. Weird, isn’t it?
In fact, I’ve had one for so long now that I don’t even remember what life was like before I one with me 24/7. I mean, how did I ever manage those late night trips to the Mart that Mister Sam built? For that matter, how did I manage to feel confident about doing anything any distance from my home in my old beat up ’96 minivan?
Yes, I’m totally waxing nostalgic tonight. I’m feeling a tad bit blue because I can’t find my cell phone. Anywhere. It’s el-gone-o. No where to be found-o. So in honor of my lost cell phone, I shall now write a poem:
O Cell Phone, Cell Phone! wherefore art thou Cell Phone?
Deny thy hiding place and reveal thyself to thee,
Or, if thou wilt not, be but found my love,
I shall no longer be phoning my friends.
And I might have to drink some poison to get over it.
Okay, that last line was a joke.
Sort of.
Sigh.
The end.
Prayer for Repentance
This prayer burst into the public consciousness back in January of 1996, when the Rev. Joe Wright, senior pastor of the 2,500-member Central Christian Church in Wichita, was invited to deliver the opening prayer at a session of the Kansas House of Representatives.
On that occasion he offered the following “Prayer of Repentance” (which was not entirely of his own crafting but rather was a version of a prayer written in 1995 by Bob Russell, who had offered it at the Kentucky Governor’s Prayer Breakfast in Frankfort).
I think that today, given the situation our country is in and given what we are about to be going through in the next decade, I feel this prayer is even more relevant. I just love it and wanted to share it with someone else in the hopes that it will be a blessing.
Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and seek your direction and guidance.
We know your Word says, “Woe to those who call evil good,” but that’s exactly what we’ve done.
We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values.
We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of your Word and called it moral pluralism.
We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism.
We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building esteem.
We have abused power and called it political savvy.
We have coveted our neighbors’ possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us O God and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.
Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of Kansas, and who have been ordained by you, to govern this great state.
Grant them your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of your will. I ask it in the name of your son, the living savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen.