Sisters (anonymous)

(This was sent to me via email by a wonderful lady named Mrs. Alice.  I doubt she wrote it because of the way she worded her first comment of it being "Not new but lovely nevertheless."  I must agree with her sentiment.)

Sisters

   

A young wife sat on a sofa on a hot humid day,

drinking iced tea and visiting with her mother. As

they talked about life, about marriage, about the

responsibilities of life and the obligations of

adulthood, the mother clinked the ice cubes in her

glass thoughtfully and turned a clear, sober glance

upon her daughter..

"Don't forget your sisters,' she advised, swirling

the tea leaves to the bottom of her glass. 'They'll

be more important as you get older. No matter how

much you love your husband, no matter how much you

love the children you may have, you are still going

to need sisters. Remember to go places with them now

and then; do things with them..'

'Remember that 'sisters' means ALL the women...

your girlfriends, your daughters, and all your other

women relatives too.. 'You'll need other women. Women

always do.'

What a funny piece of advice!' the young woman

thought. Haven't I just gotten married? Haven't I just joined the

couple-world? I'm now a married woman, for goodness sake! A grownup!

Surely my husband and the family we may start will be all I need to

make my life worthwhile!'

But she listened to her mother. She kept contact with her sisters and

made more women friends each year. As the years tumbled by, one after

another, she gradually came to understand that her mother really knew

what she was talking about. As time and nature work their changes and

their mysteries upon a woman, sisters are the mainstays of her life.

After more than 50 years of living in this world, here is what I've

learned:

THIS SAYS IT ALL:

Time passes.

Life happens.

Distance separates.

Children grow up.

Jobs come and go.

Love waxes and wanes.

Men don't do what they're supposed to do.

Hearts break.

Parents die.

Colleagues forget favors.

Careers end.

  

BUT.........

Sisters are there, no matter how much time and how

many miles are between you. A girl friend is never farther away than

needing her can reach.

When you have to walk that lonesome valley and you

have to walk it by yourself, the women in your life will be on the

valley's rim, cheering you on, praying for you, pulling for you,

intervening on your behalf, and waiting with open arms at the valley's

end..

Sometimes, they will even break the rules and walk

beside you...Or come in and carry you out.

Girlfriends, daughters, granddaughters, daughters-in-law,

sisters,-in-law, Mothers, Grandmothers, aunties, nieces, cousins, and

extended family: all bless our life!

The world wouldn't be the same without women, and

neither would I. When we began this adventure called

womanhood, we had no idea of the incredible joys or

sorrows that lay ahead. Nor did we know how much we

would need each other..

Every day, we need each other still. Pass this on to all the women who

help make your life meaningful.

I just did. Short and very sweet:

There are more than twenty angels in this world. Ten are peacefully

sleeping on clouds. Nine are playing. And one is reading her email at

this moment.

(I guess I should point out that I am not the woman of 50 years that added these tidbits.  Haven't reached that milestone yet.  I agree with them though.)

Homeschooling Differences

I subscribe to dozens of blogs, online newsletters, and facebook fan all kinds of homeschool related items.  It can be quite entertaining to see all the various takes on those of us who keep our children at home instead of sending them to public or private schools.

What parents who send their kids to school, or folks that have no children, seem to miss is that no homeschool is like any other homeschool.  My neighbors unschool.  I just saw online an article that slams that philosophy relentlessly as near negligence in parenting.  Frankly, the young lady next door that just had her 14th birthday is the only babysitter I have ever hired.  After living beside these "crazy unschoolers" I know that she was better qualified and mature enough to handle my five with no concerns than most "normal" kids.  (More on "normal" in other posts.  Trying to stay on topic here.)

I do not school at home by any stretch of the imagination.  My hubby is a teacher.  I spent all my time in college working towards a teaching degree.  I even worked as a teacher for 2 1/2 years.  There is no way having my five sit at a desk for 45 minute time periods doing worksheets would teach them anything.  I wish I had known and understood what I do now as a parent back when I did teach.  My classroom would have been radically different and my students would have had fond memories of field trips to the playground to follow bugs, paint rocks, and barely any memory of silly repetitive worksheets.  True, my students now have workbooks to practice math and writing skills.  They also have businesses.  My eldest son runs the snack machine at our business.  He is responsible for making sure it is kept stocked.  My second son is more willing to try new things.  He will find plush animals or toys that would appeal to our customer base and stock them.  Both have jobs to do within our business having to do with stocking, store upkeep, and customer interaction.   We go to the zoo.  We go to museums.  We go to the library. We go to the park.  We read.  We play games.  We go to family functions.  We go to the local university for the occasional lecture series.  We do all this and more.  We do it on our time.  If there is going to be something of interest at noon across town, we load up and go.  I do not have to provide an excuse to a teacher.  I don't have to worry if our trip out of state will keep them out of school for more than the 10 allowed days per school term.  If my husband gets extra time off and wants to spend time with our children at a movie, we can go.  No homework for hours after hours at school interfering with his ability to have conversations about physics or video games with our kids.

Do I know families that are more structured?  Yes.  I know families that buy boxed curriculum each year and follow it precisely.  Even then, school doesn't last from 8am to 3pm like at the usual institutions.  They do their workbooks. Read their assignments.  Follow the prescribed day's activities.  They learn right on the publisher's timeline and use their expansive free time to pursue other interests.

The majority of homeschoolers I know do everything differently from every other homeschool family I know.  Even when they purchase the same curriculum, they go about completing it differently.

Eclectic, classical, Charlotte Mason, unit studies, lapbookers, notebookers, the list goes on and on for different titles for homeschoolers. There is a reason that we each chose to teach our children at home: So we can teach them as individuals, not as an age group.  If you ask each parent why they do this, answers will swing from one end of the spectrum to the other. 

My answers have even changed over the years.  After having Blue Eyes in a pre-kindergarten, we realized hubby would get to see him for about 30 minutes each school day.  At the time, he had Fridays off.  We would pick up Blue Eyes at nap time and head off somewhere.  We had to wait until after lunch so that the days would not add up.  Too many absolute absences equaled removal from school and we were trying to get him "properly educated".  Hubby missed the boy.  So my first answer for why was so that he could spend time with our children.

Now it is along the lines of God telling us in the Bible that we should raise up our children in the way that they should go.(Proverbs 22:6)  My 10 yo and 9 yo are most of the way through a pre-algebra program.  They read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and The Time Machine in the last couple of weeks.  My 6 yo loves to read and asks for math pages whenever she gets a chance.  My 4 yo builds and runs and talks and draws and gets to be a boy.  My 2 yo joins in everything she can with gusto resulting in various adventures and messes.

It's loud.  It's quiet.  It's organized. It's chaos. It's running over with extra kids.  It's just us few.  It's our school.  Even with a schedule, it is different everyday as we learn and discover together. 

One of the best things about homeschooling is our differences.

Have a blessed day.

Snow Days

It's been quite a while since I have posted.  The holidays simply got too busy to handle everything I wanted to do.  Plus, after my reminder at Thanksgiving (See Not Finished Yet) I decided my priorities could be adjusted. 

For the first time since 1882, Georgia had snow on Christmas.  It was beautiful and fluffy.  I've been in New York to see "real" snowflakes so I know these were tiny little crystals.  They still coated the world in a layer of pristine white.  It was a reminder that Jesus was born so that He could wash us whiter than snow.  Just a little, "Hey down there, don't forget why you are celebrating."

Needless to say, other adults were complaining about the drive home, slushy messes to come, but all I could think was my memories of wishing and praying for a white Christmas as a child.  I grew up due west of Savannah.  We hardly ever got ice!  That changed recently.

This past week has been an exercise in Northern Style Living.  As I now live due west of Atlanta, we were in the latest snow and ice storm.  I still don't like the thought of driving but I have obligations out of the house starting Tuesday. *sigh*  No school for the whole week for university or grade schools.  I laughed at facebook posts concerning what to do with trapped in the house kids.  I loved posts of kids on cardboard sleds.  I even got the princess to give it a try.  Singular.  I don't think she liked going that fast without a serious braking system.  I assured her she would go no further than the tree line.  She did NOT find that an enjoyable thought.  If only I'd been younger...or at least had another adult home to call the ambulance. :-)

Sad news for the week as well.  My cousin passed away.  She was only 55.  Although she had lost 200lbs, the damage had been done to her liver.  I don't know the name associated with the condition.  I just know that when she began to deteriorate, things went down hill rather quickly.  Thank God she was a believer and we have no doubt that we will meet again.  She left behind two sons.  The second one she raised with her husband but the first she was forced to give up for adoption decades ago.  Unwed mothers were not always so prevalent. My first thought was that now she knew what happened to her little baby boy as well as sadness because if he finally learned her name, it would be followed by his learning of her death.

Well, this seems rather disjointed.  Not such a great start for 2011 in my blog.