Monday, March 30, 2009
Clear the Stage
Friday, March 27, 2009
Which way is right?
I'm at a crossroad.
Since we've been married we have planed on allowing God to plan our family. That means that I have been pregnant a lot in our short five years of marriage. This has not always been easy. Honestly it's never easy, but it's been the best years of my life! I love having babies and being a mother. I know, without a doubt, that this is my calling in life. I know that God is and always has been equipping me as a mother. My current issue, however, is homeschooling.
Right now I can see my life as two very different paths.
One of those paths leads to me homeschooling our children. I was homeschooled as a 6-11th grader and it was, by far, the best thing that happened to me. It allowed me to find myself at a pretty young age. I loved being homeschooled and wouldn't trade that time in my life for anything. HOWEVER, this is not our reasoning for homeschooling. Our reasoning has always been that we'd choose to homeschool simply because we feel like we will best "train up a child in the way he should go." We don't want to give this HUGE task over to someone else(usually a total stranger) for the majority of the day, leaving us only the few short hours before they go to bed for the night. We'd also like to be able to use our faith as a hinge for all types of learning. Being homeschool would also allow us to travel and see things that we would not otherwise be able to see. I know that homeschooling several children at the same time would be difficult, but I also know that it is indeed possible. This path is going to require many personal sacrifices and a lot of really hard work. I'd also want Scotty to be able to help out, which would mean that he's need to have a job that would allow him to be home a little bit more, which is something that he'd like to do anyway. I am not in any way worried about the social impact of homeschooling. I was much more social as a homeschooler than I was when I was in school. I'm prepared to work on ways to get my kids involved with other children without them being in school. We already are doing some of these things now.
The other path looks much different. It's not better or worse. Just different. This path has our kids in school(probably public). This path would allow me to do more things like volunteering places and maybe even having a school-time job. I love having a "real" job and do miss this sometimes. However, I'll still probably have little ones at home for several more years making this more difficult anyway. The pros of them being in public school are mostly for me. I'm worried about the interaction our children will have with other students and teachers in public school as they have not been introduced to "the world" yet. I also know that my children are being trained NOW to go into "the world" and preach the gospel. We've always seen our responsibility as parents to be trainers of soldiers. Soldiers that will one day fight for what they believe in. I'm just not sure that my five year old is ready for that.
I feel like I'm standing in front of this crossroad with no map, no GPS. I've prayed and prayed and have no real direction at all. I'm asking that God will make the path clear to us. I know that when the time is right the decision will be clear. We'll know the right way for us.
Since we've been married we have planed on allowing God to plan our family. That means that I have been pregnant a lot in our short five years of marriage. This has not always been easy. Honestly it's never easy, but it's been the best years of my life! I love having babies and being a mother. I know, without a doubt, that this is my calling in life. I know that God is and always has been equipping me as a mother. My current issue, however, is homeschooling.
Right now I can see my life as two very different paths.
One of those paths leads to me homeschooling our children. I was homeschooled as a 6-11th grader and it was, by far, the best thing that happened to me. It allowed me to find myself at a pretty young age. I loved being homeschooled and wouldn't trade that time in my life for anything. HOWEVER, this is not our reasoning for homeschooling. Our reasoning has always been that we'd choose to homeschool simply because we feel like we will best "train up a child in the way he should go." We don't want to give this HUGE task over to someone else(usually a total stranger) for the majority of the day, leaving us only the few short hours before they go to bed for the night. We'd also like to be able to use our faith as a hinge for all types of learning. Being homeschool would also allow us to travel and see things that we would not otherwise be able to see. I know that homeschooling several children at the same time would be difficult, but I also know that it is indeed possible. This path is going to require many personal sacrifices and a lot of really hard work. I'd also want Scotty to be able to help out, which would mean that he's need to have a job that would allow him to be home a little bit more, which is something that he'd like to do anyway. I am not in any way worried about the social impact of homeschooling. I was much more social as a homeschooler than I was when I was in school. I'm prepared to work on ways to get my kids involved with other children without them being in school. We already are doing some of these things now.
The other path looks much different. It's not better or worse. Just different. This path has our kids in school(probably public). This path would allow me to do more things like volunteering places and maybe even having a school-time job. I love having a "real" job and do miss this sometimes. However, I'll still probably have little ones at home for several more years making this more difficult anyway. The pros of them being in public school are mostly for me. I'm worried about the interaction our children will have with other students and teachers in public school as they have not been introduced to "the world" yet. I also know that my children are being trained NOW to go into "the world" and preach the gospel. We've always seen our responsibility as parents to be trainers of soldiers. Soldiers that will one day fight for what they believe in. I'm just not sure that my five year old is ready for that.
I feel like I'm standing in front of this crossroad with no map, no GPS. I've prayed and prayed and have no real direction at all. I'm asking that God will make the path clear to us. I know that when the time is right the decision will be clear. We'll know the right way for us.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
So, after really thinking about it I've figured out why I felt the need to start over. I think that in the past years on Xanga I've become too attached to my "friends." I type up a post with them in mind then sit and wait for them to read and comment.
I've grown to really care for some of the people I've met in the blog world. Even going so far as to meet up with people I've never met in person. The problem is that these people know blog Leslie not Leslie. Although I've never painted an untrue picture of myself, people can only get to know you so well through a computer screen. It's caused me to feel like I need to keep up a proper image of myself even when it isn't REALLY who I am.
Who am I?
That is the question that I'm hoping to answer with THIS blog.
You'll see me raw. Honest. Real. Yes, there will still be a limit as to how much you can really get to know me, but here, I'm writing for me.
I've grown to really care for some of the people I've met in the blog world. Even going so far as to meet up with people I've never met in person. The problem is that these people know blog Leslie not Leslie. Although I've never painted an untrue picture of myself, people can only get to know you so well through a computer screen. It's caused me to feel like I need to keep up a proper image of myself even when it isn't REALLY who I am.
Who am I?
That is the question that I'm hoping to answer with THIS blog.
You'll see me raw. Honest. Real. Yes, there will still be a limit as to how much you can really get to know me, but here, I'm writing for me.
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