What’s My Purpose?

I get up each morning about 6:30 am {sometimes it’s closer to 7 am} and promptly feed the cat. After I start my coffee, the computer is turned on. I really love the early morning although I am *not* a morning person. I cannot seem to actually function until about 10 am.

I open my email first, then the TOS homeschool review crew forum, and facebook. In that order. The TOS homeschool review forum generally takes the most time but my email seems to get full quickly. Facebook is really just a time leech, but almost every day there are at least two verses that I can read that someone else has posted {yes, that does make me feel better}.

Breakfast, if it isn’t just coffee, is generally made around 8 am. By this time my kids are starting to stir. I can hear their beds creak as they stretch and turn over. I know they are contemplating whether they should get up or wait until I tell them to get up.

It would be great to say that I have the kids’ schedules all planned out –for the week –before the day starts {well, before the week starts would be even better to say} but it isn’t true always. This morning I had to quickly put together ds’s day. The rest of the week is still blank but for Bible reading and his verse.

All that to say, I have a routine {of sorts} and it is comfortable.

Yesterday –or was it the day before? –I started reading my Bible again. You may recall I said I would read the Bible in 90 days. Well, I did not. I got stuck in Proverbs {after I’d read Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon- a bit backward, eh}. So I’d decided to use my Christmas gift KJV Study Bible to get back into reading my Bible every day. I’m beyond reading it in a set time frame- I just want to read it.

I’m in Isaiah now, chapter 8. But what really struck me this morning as I read is I do not say, “Here I am, Lord; send me.” (Isaiah 6:8)

At church on Sunday, in adult Sunday School, we read 1 Peter 2:11 “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.” We did go through all of the verse but what I keep thinking about is ‘strangers and pilgrims’.

If we are strangers and pilgrims it means we do not belong here. This is not our home. But I’ve become so comfortable here. There is nothing wrong with having things –but could I live without them? I wonder if my comfort with the things of this world have made me less likely to say, “Lord, here I am, send me.” I will be honest though, I’ve never said that in the first place. {I could say that homeschooling is a time when I said it, or when I’ve submitted to my husband even though it went against what *I* wanted…but I mean something big –like in Isaiah’s case}

I don’t mind living with less- I never had much growing up and it’s only been the last few years that I’ve felt like I have the ‘luxuries’ {that is a relative term, I’m sure}. Anyway, my point is- what is my purpose? I am to bring glory to God through my very existence. But just ‘being’ feels like so little to be ‘doing’ for God. The trees and rocks themselves proclaim God’s glory- and they cannot talk or move!

*Gulp* In Sunday morning service, the pastor talked about Paul’s willingness to participate in Jesus’ suffering as well as the great benefits. That is what I feel I need to be ‘doing’. But the thought of suffering isn’t appealing to me at all. I do not want discomfort. That is why I do not say “Here I am, Lord; send me.” Which brings me back to my original question – what is my purpose? It’s been on my mind every day for days now. I’m very glad that it’s been lain on my heart but I will admit that I’m nervous to hear what the answer is –what it is that I’m meant to do.

I feel something is on the horizon. I trust God in all things {that quickening of my heart at the thought of change doesn’t mean I don’t trust} and will continue to trust him in this as well.

Here’s My Plan…on Planning

So, I originally figured out the entire school year for both kids. But I did that the first year…and the second year. Not that those were bad years but they definitely didn’t go as planned. Well, I didn’t just ditch my plans altogether, I just altered how I implement. This year, in an effort to continue Lee’s independent learning and to start Fox more on that path, I purchased planners for all three of us. I posted about my planner already. I actually preordered both mine and Lee’s High School Planner (4 years) at the same time. I wanted to find a similar planner for Fox but at the time I ordered ours, I didn’t see a more ‘boy’ planner. Fortunately, not long later, I did find one from Home Educating Family Publishing. So here are the kids’ planners:

 

Lee’s is a full size (8.5x11) with 340 pages and Fox’s is 6x9 with 180 pages.

Lee’s has much more in it than does Fox’s but I think he would just be overwhelmed if he had one like that. Lee was quite overwhelmed when she first got hers. It has tips for college planning, keeping records, credit hours, subjects, requirements for college admission (basic, you’d need to check out the particular college of interest for more information) and quite a bit more. You can see more of her planner here. When the book is open flat, there are two weeks visible. She has chosen to use just one column for assignments and the second column for ‘other’ things (chores, expectations, paper route).

This is her first year of really planning her own weeks. She did attempt it last year (successfully, I might add). Here is what she will be going off of to plan. I will also be helping her until she gets it down on her own.

Fox is more basic with a weekly layout as well as a month at a glance. Have a look at the planner he has here. There is a full page layout for notes alone. So at the end (or they have it at the beginning, I would choose to use it after) of each month we can record what worked well and what needs an adjustment. The link will take you to a virtual planner, you can preview the entire 180 planner.

There are boxes to check off (or as he likes to do, fill them in- completely) as they are done. For the first week I actually wrote in all his work for each day on it’s own line. For the coming weeks, he will be filling in the days on his own (well, not on his own really, we will go over all that is to be done in the week). I have put together a very simple chart for him us to use when planning his weeks. I did learn from last year (or was it the first year?) to only plan out each week in detail (as in page numbers).

This is for the first 12 weeks plan. It will have to be altered a bit for the second 12 weeks and the third 12 weeks. And yes, I customize the font for each child- the one that they like more. Fox likes Chiller and Lee likes Papyrus.

And to keep one final bit of tracking (because sometimes one of us will miss something and then no one knows what was done), I have both of their daily assignments in my planner and then I check it off when I have made sure that is has been completed. This way it makes sure that if one forgets to mark a subject done (or if they happen to forget to do the assignment somehow) it won’t get over-looked. You can see a preview of the planner here.

And that’s my plan…on planning. We are all a bit of planners but not follow-through-ers so here’s to working extra hard to make sure it all works

Weekend Plans

I'm guessing I won't be 'here' this weekend because I am going to be busy. Nothing major. Just usual.

The following paragraph I wrote before this one but it doesn't mean that those things are more important than what I am going to write in this paragraph but I admit I feel a wee bit guilty for writing it second. I hope to be able to spend some just relaxing time with the kids and dear hubby this weekend. I feel that perhaps we are all feeling the blahs? maybe. Lee is almost always down on the weekends because she has no friends to visit here in town. Fox found out he cannot go to his friends either this weekend. Dh is a little down in the dumps lately but for other reasons. And I have my 'weekend' headache. It hasn't been around for awhile but it seems that it always hit me on Friday or Saturday. It might be a melancholy weekend but I hope not.

In addition to having general every day life to deal with I have a 3+ page paper to get done by tomorrow night (oops, did I forget about it?!), have some Spanish to study, have kids' school schedules to get figured out (only going with one week at a time from now on), would like to cook some stuff for the freezer, and of course will have church on Sunday (I hope we can make ourselves go to both morning and evening). I also need to make sure that I have all of my handouts for my creative writing class ready for the first class of co-op on Monday.

And there are those other things that need to be done but honestly I don't care if I get to ;) Like the downstairs bathroom or mopping the kitchen floor. Nope. Don't care. I would like the sink to fixed finally. My job didn't work so I had to pass it off to dh. Fortunately, the dishwasher soap I bought not long ago (and on sale woohoo!) works great and smells good. So the sink really isn't that big of a priority either.

Mostly, I am going to try to focus on my family. My lovely little family. 

Hope all have a great weekend.

And here is a photo from Christmas that my mother in law took while we were in Klamath Falls, Oregon. I like it :)