{in-between-weeks thoughts}

Hi there!  I have a couple of thoughts that I thought I'd share in an unscheduled post.  

This whole home educating thing... it's about so much more than just educated my kids.  It's really about character development.  

It's easy and tempting to blow off character flaws in your kids when you don't see your kids that often (ie: the kids spend 7+ hours at school).  Or when you don't have to deal with the flaws day in and day out for months on end.  I know this from personal experience.  I would endure summers and be SO SO grateful when it was time to send the kids back to school.  Because I couldn't stand the kids by the end of August.  I couldn't stand them anymore because the kids had these annoying tendencies (habits) and character flaws that were incessantly in my face and seemed to never go away.  "Great!  School is starting.  Let someone else deal with my kid for 8 hours a day.  Better them than me," is how I felt.

Now that we're homeschooling, I can't let these bad manners and habits and flaws stay alive and well.  For my sanity (and everyone else's sanity here at the house), we have to confront these issues, help the kids see their sins, and encourage them to repent and change.  

This also goes for me.  I need to be on my knees, asking God to show me my flaws (sins) so that I can repent and change too.  For example, my recent snarky-ness with the kids has no place in our homeschool.  That kind of attitude/language does not foster an encouraging environment in which the kids can learn.  

Now that the kids and I are going to be rubbing elbows with each other for 6 hours a day Monday through Friday, we all need to gauge our weaknesses and flaws, repent to Jesus, and change. 

On a lighter note, we ran by the library this past Friday and I caught the boys sweetly waiting for me.  Jack so adores his big brother.

We also had to pick something up at Sears that I had ordered online.  On our way through the store, Claire and Jack were hypnotized by these massaging recliners.