Excitement is building...

God is soooo amazing in the ways He works.  I have been struggling all summer with the thought of going "back to school."  I don't know if this is common for homeschooling moms.  An internal battle waged inside of me all summer as I kept thinking about what my life would be like if we would send the girls back to the public school.  Selfishness rearing it's ugly head for sure!  The Lord, in His gentle and tender way, reminded me that all my thoughts were not based on reality.  See I kept thinking I would be able to minister to the people around me more and better, my house would be cleaner, and I could even possibly make some money to contribute to the family doing something I love.  However, the Lord showed me that I probably would just fill up my time with being at the school with the girls.  While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, the girls would not see their dad, and I wouldn't be doing the things that I had originally set out to accomplish by sending them back to school.  Another aspect of my struggle was with my growing disinterest in our schooling option.  Last year we had enrolled the girls in an online charter school using the K12 curriculum.  The curriculum is seriously A.MAZ.ING!!  Amazing!  I love it and the more I learn about homeschooling curriculums, trends, and philosophies I love the K12 curriculum even more.  So what's the problem?  Well, it has nothing to do with the fact it is a public school option or statewide test requirements.  It has everything to do with the fact that we have to be so tied to the stinking computer.  It is difficult to explain but there are no printed teacher's manuals so I couldn't plan.  Now I admit I am pretty flexible.  When I taught I wasn't the best planner.  Shocked?  Well, remember I taught special ed.  Everytime I would plan I was often frustrated because every single day was sooooo different due to various reasons.  I am sure you can imagine.  I just followed and focused on the IEP goals for the year.  This worked well for me and my personality though.  :)  UNTIL NOW, when I am the general ed teacher for my own girls.  One week last year, I decided to plan the whole week of lessons.  OUCH!  I had to click through like 30 lessons to just get the plans written out and then after all that work I had to reclick through all those lessons to enter in all assessment information.  UGH!  The tracking, administrative, and "clicking" became so cumbersome and tedious it completely overshadowed the joy of teaching my girls.  So...can you see why I was not getting so excited for this school year?  Plus I had heard rumors of how the program was changing for more 'teacher' interaction via the online classrooms.  While this isn't horrible I just didn't want to have to mess with it.  I have been praying about "leaving" K12 and really have felt peace about doing so through my prayer time but was waiting on Scott.  I knew to traditionally homeschool would be an investment compared to the free program provided by K12.  God is so cool in how He works though.  Over the course of the summer He kept bringing people into my path that would talk about their own homeschooling experiences, sharing their favorite curriculum picks, and some even offering me a chance to borrow their copies of curriculum.  WOW!!  I had talked and shared my thoughts with Scott off and on but just this week did he finally agree that I could move away from my dependence on K12.  Again, I love the Lord's timing!  I have learned not to force it.  So, I have been busily trying to pull things together and the teacher juices are getting all bubbly inside of me again!  :)  I have been crazily working in our school room.  My mom laughed and told the girls, "Teachers have to go in and get their classrooms ready each year.  That is what your mom is doing."  Ahhhh....it made me feel so happy!  I have purchased some curriculum and began to piece together in my mind what we are going to do.  I have a few friends who are going to loan me some things I can use.  The excitement is building!  In fact, I have not been able to go to sleep at night and waking up early all week because I am getting so excited! 

PRAISE THE LORD!! 
PRAISE HIS HOLY NAME!! 
He is smiling down on me!

PS:  If you homeschool, I would love to know what curriculum you use!