Little Bird

We drove for hours yesterday. Hours that felt like days. We were driving home from our annual September vacation refreshed from time spent together without distractions and exhausted because we have a 6 month old. We arrived home in time to attend chuch. After a quick breather we hopped back in the car and drove the short distance. I spent the service wrangling Harper in the back. I tried her in the nursery, but she wasn't having it, so we sat in the back. I managed to listen to most of the sermon even as Harper climbed all over me and fussed on and off. Our pastor was speaking on Philippians 2: 1-11 - specifically the idea that "in the Kingdom of God the way up is down." (This is a side note, but this idea in particular struck me: When Jesus came to Earth he came as a helpless baby. "The One who created language couldn't speak." Isn't that an incredible thought?) I was making notes on being a servant, on helping others and avoiding self-promotion,

A couple weeks ago I read One Beautiful Dream by Jennifer Fulwiler. In her book, Fulwiler talks about the tension between being at home with her kids and her desire to write and have a career. Fulwiler talks about the idea of a "blue flame," something one is compelled to do, which made me think about my calling. The idea of finding and understanding my calling has been rolling around in my mind for a long time. There are always echoes of that famous Mary Oliver poem, The Summer Day, running through the background of everything I do. It ends: "Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" After finishing One Beautiful Dream I wrote a quick post on Facebook about finding my calling, which led to an interesting discussion about whether or not one's calling should be easy. When I read Fulwiler's book I extrapolated that if one is driven to do something it should be easy, when

It's so hard to find the time to write. Today was really good. I decided to write about it because I want to remember it when the days are long and difficult. This evening the really good got really hard, but I'm still going to write about our day because it had many elements of my ideal homeschool day. Homeschool has been hard. When we initially set out on our homeschool journey our sweet Harper girl was not even a consideration. But the Lord had different plans for us and now I find myself with a busy 6 month old (she is pulling to a stand!!) and a full time teacher mom job. Harper girl "helping" with the laundry This post is about how I homeschool with 3 kids, only one of whom is doing lessons right now.  Ainsleigh goes to preschool 3 mornings a week. She'll be 5 (!) at the end of October. Bennett just turned 7 (!) and is my full time homeschool buddy. Harper hit the 6 month mark on the 1st of September. During our school time Ainsleigh has a spe