Homeschool Convention April 22, 2011

I recently heard some moms talking about convention. One was so excited about coming
while the other had never attended and just wasn’t sure it was worth her time and money.

As I thought about her statement, my mind wandered back to my first convention. I was
excited about starting on a new journey with my children and wanted to know everything
I could about this great adventure called homeschooling. I too, was concerned about the
cost. After all, I had quit a job just so we could homeschool, and we were down to one
income. On top of the registration, I was going to have to get a hotel room, and meals.
Would it really be worth it? Only by going could I find the answer to that question.

When I walked through the doors, I was like a kid in a candy shop – so many choices and
I didn’t have a clue where to start. I began by walking the aisles of vendors and soaking in
everything they had to offer. I made notes of things I really liked and would go back and
forth between vendors comparing one curriculum to another and I had only made it down
the first row. By the time I reached the third row, I was so overwhelmed I was almost
in tears.

That is when a friend spotted me.

I think she could tell I was rocking on the edge and she took the time to sit down with me
and help me look through my lists and gave me some great veteran homeschool mom
advice. It was like a burden had been lifted. Just knowing I had a friend that was on the same
page was comforting. She suggested I take a break from the vendor floor and attend some
of the workshops. She even suggested a couple she thought would be helpful. They were
amazing! I had a new sense of confidence and was encouraged just knowing that I was not
in this alone.

That was 15 years ago, and I haven’t missed a convention since. My kids have
all graduated from our homeschool and are almost all out of college now but I still come to
convention. I will always be a homeschool mom and there will always be new families at
convention that need a friend to come beside them and be their support as they begin the
same great adventure I did 15 years ago.

Yes, the cost of convention made me hesitate coming that first year, but the encouragement,
confidence, and help I received was far more valuable than anything I could ever have paid.
So I encourage you, don’t just look at the cost of convention registration and let that be your
deciding factor in whether you attend or not. Look beyond the cost to the value of what you
will receive in return. It far outweighs the cost.

Things I have learned from my garden April 8, 2011

I have two gardens. One is strictly flowers, and the other is veggies and fruit (since tomatoes are officially a fruit). This morning, as I was out digging in the dirt and planting yet more tender seedlings into the ground, I saw something that I didn’t expect. It was in my flower bed. Last year, for Kate’s wedding, I planted a LOT of flowers. I bought a lot of perennials because I just don’t like to spend money every year on something that isn’t coming back. What I discovered, is that a lot of the plants I was expecting to see peeking through the dirt were dead. Nothing. Then I noticed several green shoots covered by the bark. When I moved the bark back, I could not believe it. Pansies! With blooms on them! Now,pansies are considered annuals, meaning they die and do not come back from year to year so how…why are they here now?

I just sat there for a few minutes and pulled the bark and dirt from around them so they could be seen. As I sat there, the Lord began to show me some things about my garden.

1) I don’t always get what I expect.

Pansies were the last thing I expected to see in my flower bed. The mums I knew would be coming back, were dead. The dahlias, the cannas, the phlox ground cover that I had spent hours and hours nurturing, fertilizing, and pulling the weeds away from – all dead. These plants are supposed to be hearty and come back year after year, but they didn’t. These are the plants I invested the most time because I wanted them to thrive. I am sad that my cannas, dahlias, and other perennials did not survive the winter, but I am amazed at the pansies. I didn’t do anything to the pansies but plant them in the ground. They weren’t coming back the next year, so they really didn’t need much attention. The pansies were a nice, unexpected surprise to an otherwise disappointing discovery.

I don’t always get what I expect out of life either. There will be times I am going to be flat out disappointed. I may study extensively for an upcoming test and feel confident I will ace it, and then not do as well as expected. I may work harder than any other employee at my job and be passed up for a promotion. I may be the best choice for a new job I am trying to get, but someone else is hired. There are also times, that I have messed up and received mercy instead of punishment. Times when I deserved to receive a reprimand and was shown grace.  No, but we don’t always get what we expect, nor do we get what we deserve. When we choose to live a life of sin, we deserve death. But Christ showed His love for us even though we were still sinners, and He died for us. We didn’t deserve it. It wasn’t what we expected, but it was the gift he gave us. Do we extend that gift on to others or do we give them what they expect and deserve?

2) Run with the blessings, even the little ones.

The pansies were a little blessing. I could have focused on the disappointment and fretted about the lost perennials, but what good would that do? Is it going to bring them back? No. Is it going to make me feel better? Duh. That’s a  no-brainer. Focus on what I have, not what is gone, or lost. I have pansies, that were not supposed to be here! How awesome is that?  Whatever is good, think on that . Whatever is lovely, think on that. Whatever is noble, think on that. Run with the blessings, don’t trip over the disappointments.

3) There is always good, we just may not have uncovered it yet.

Just walking past my flower bed, I could not see what was coming up under the bark mulch. It wasn’t until I got down on my knees and began moving what was on the surface did I find the pansies. These tiny little white, purple and yellow flowers were just waiting to be uncovered. Sometimes we have to dig, to put out an effort to find the good in things…in people. Even those we are closest to, sometimes bug us the most and we just need to move some of the dirt and peel back some of the bark before we can see the good. When we have been hurt, and disappointed in someone, it is hard to find something good about that person. We might just have to get on our knees and do some searching to get past the disappointment and discover the good once again.

I love working in my gardens. It kills my back. It makes me hot and sweaty and itchy. It makes me tired, but I still love it. We all have gardens, a place where seeds are planted, watered, fertilized, and nurtured. A place where we invest our time, our money, and our lives. There will be some disappointments, but there will also be blessings and wonderful surprises hiding under the surface.

Where is your garden?

Something old, something new… March 24, 2011

Usually, when you see that phrase, you think of a wedding. Well, in this case I am the something old and this whole blog thing is something new. I have never blogged before. I do have a Facebook account, but I don’t usually post long notes on my wall. But, I find myself now with a lot more time on my hands and in an effort to fill them with something other than a Route 44 Diet Dr. Pepper and some Baked Lay’s, I decided to try my hand at blogging. I don’t know where this will take me, or if anyone else will ever see this besides me, but none-the-less, here I go, off into blog land.