A New Year

New Day ~ New Year

Today is June 1 and it's a new year at our house although you'd be hard-pressed to know it.  I slept in slightly and was pretty much completely unconscious early this am after a long night with the baby.  Not sure what was going on but she was up and down most of the night and of course when she went back to sleep I had had just enough of a "nap" to keep me awake until drifting back off and up she'd be again...  I'm sure it's short-lived, but whatever it was, I was one tired gal today.  So, not a great start and I needed about 3 cups of "joey" to get me going while I had dancing, bouncy children all around me asking when we were going to have our spelling test?  So first we decided to read; sit in the family room, cuddle up together and boy did we read:  history stories, chapter books, a nature book.  Then we tackled the other basics of school.  It turned into a long morning which went into afternoon but such is life and no one was harmed by that.  At one point I had all the children in one room listening while we read, although the older ones needed to filter in and out to take care of their pressing school needs.  I sat and savored that, while we were all there, together.  How much longer will I have them all here, under one roof?  I don't sleep well and struggle with "apartness" when one or more of my fledgings is out of the nest, even if just for a day or two.  I'm not sure how I'll do when Scott moves away to go to school or gets married or just goes to Boy Scout Camp for one week this month.  Yikes!  I'll still want all "my people" together the way it feels right. So I thoroughly enjoyed everyone sitting in one room today listening together, knowing that time is fleeting and flies through our fingers like a well-greased string.  And I was thankful for a great way to start an "official" new year.

At lunch everyone discussed that we were into a new month, June, so therefore it was the beginning of a new year, a new school year.  Yes, technically at our Covenant Homeschool, the end of one year is May 31 and the beginning of the next is June 1.  So everyone supposedly moved up a grade today but yet we were still working on the same books, reviewing the same concepts, and using the same curriculum as yesterday.  We work on and off in the summer and take breaks, but it's not really until sometime in August that I set a "start date" that is unofficial and we start back after some time off with new materials and make any changes in curriculum.  This gives me time in the summer to wrap up all loose ends, finish math books, etc.. and plan for the coming year.  Of course, I try to catch up on all my grading, filing, reorganizing, and occasionally move everything around just for fun.  Sometimes I don't think the children all know exactly what grade they are in nor does it really matter, we just keep going.  It's more of a label.  So, let's see, yesterday you were in 1st grade, but today you're in 2nd.  Really?  How does that work?  What works is that it is a slow process, of every day, doing a little bit more, then a little bit more, learning something new and little by little you've accumulated more knowledge, interest, or dexterity, especially related to new skills that require movement ( I'm thinking of all those piano lessons this last year.)  It used to be me explaining this to Scott or Sarah Kelly, now it was me and Scott and Sarah Kelly trying to explain this to the little ones who were all amazed that now they were in a different grade with just the turn of the earth in 24 hours.

This all made me think of the way our lives are like this in Jesus.  We struggle, work hard, pray, read our bible, talk and talk about how to live and we just keep plodding along, sometimes humbly, sometimes messing up.  We get enough grace to make it, one day at a time, enough to see us through.  We try not to borrow trouble from the days coming; we know that each day has enough worries of its own. And it's a daily deal.  Every morning I wake up I have to make a choice.  I have to choose to be thankful, rejoicing, happy, settled in Jesus, and peaceful.  I can make the right choice but I have to do it daily, each time I wake over and over and over.  And eventually I get some things right, do better at some skills (I'm working on gentleness right now), and move on to the next virtue. (In my case, I have a plethora of ones to choose from; let's see, patience, self-control, gaining wisdom, control of the tongue....)  I'm trying to teach the children math, science, love of reading, phonics, and so much more but what I hope to accomplish even more of is teaching them to love, cherish, honor, obey, serve, care, be responsible, giving, and many more character traits. 
Tonight one son was annoyed, highly annoyed by another son.  I said, we must all learn not to be annoyed by one another.  He was incredulous and said, "He ALWAYS is annoying."  I replied that we can choose to be annoyed by another's behavior and it's quite possible that if we choose to NOT be annoyed that we may find that we ARE not annoyed any longer.  Then, it hit me.  How often am I "annoyed" by one of my children's behavior?  This does happen.  Am I communicating annoyance?  Do the others see this and then are annoyed by their sibling?  Hmmm, something for my husband and I to talk about.  I'd like to think about this one some more, chew on it, and watch myself in the coming days so that I don't show annoyance and frustration.  This is very difficult and perhaps the hardest thing I have ever had to do, live my life in front of young ones who are learning to live theirs.  I can get scared and quit and make worse choices for my children or I can call out to God and ask Him to help me and give me wisdom.  I am not perfect nor do I profess to be, but I am forgiven and I know that God has given me enough grace for the day, the moment, the opportunity, and I am trying to use what he teaches me for His glory.  Hopefully this year I can teach my children this, there is forgiveness when we mess up, there is grace at the foot of the cross, there is always always love.  And somehow I think in my curriculum of life, this will be enough, just enough whether for preschoolers or high schoolers in our new year. 



Kelly, married to Jeff, is the mother of 9 children, 7 of whom are still physically living in her home on this earth.  She lives, loves, laughs, cries, and writes in her upcountry SC home with that awesome man she married who fathers all those babies ranging in age from nursling to, as of today, high schooler.