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God Knows When Homeschoolers Retire

June 7, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Every Days are for Homeschooling

I worried about homeschool retirement.  What will I do when the kids no longer need me to do all the things a parent-teacher does?

Yet when I probed my heart, the bigger questions, the scarier questions were:

Will God know where I am when I don’t know where the kids are?  Will He still be actively involved in my life even though I’m not homeschooling?

 

And the Scariest Questions of All

Will He still care about me and have something for me to do?  Or was my life designed solely to raise children and now that I’m done, I’m … done?

I shouldn’t have worried.  But I did.  And I’m thankful I did.

I’m thankful because He taught me I could talk to Him about my worries.  And I’m glad I started talking to Him early in the worrying process.

 

God started answering my fears before Big Fear had a time to set in.

 

Here’s What He’s Done So Far …

 

  • On the morning of the last day of homeschool co-op, an opportunity to teach children’s church came up.

 

  • Two days after my daughter’s official graduation …

Graduation Homeschool Style

… two of my sisters  – the very two that were at the beginning of our homeschool days and at the end of our homeschool days – met spontaneously at a natural food store as we stopped by on the spur of the moment to get dairy-free milk powder for smoothies.   I grabbed the one sister dragging her to meet the other sister, ecstatically declaring,  “You have to meet my other sister!”  Did I mention one lives in Arizona and the other in Florida?  :-)

 

  • Just a few minutes ago, within moments of posting on Facebook  that I had just completed my daughter’s transcript and I am on my official one-year sabbatical, the phone rang:  “May I come by in 5 minutes and drop off a few bags of yarn for you?”  Yarn?  Yes, please!  And thank you!

 

And More …

      And that doesn’t even include the conversations and ideas sparked* by the cane I used this week to get around, as we showed off Florida’s attractions to my sister and great-niece!

Sister and Great-Niece @SuzBroadhurst

 

Homeschoolers: Share Your Retirement Fears with God Now

Ask Him to plan your steps.  Ask now.  And He will make a way later.

And know that God will still know who you are after the diploma is signed and the transcript is printed.  He knows where you are and who you are.

A beautiful side effect of raising your children to find their gifts, their talents, their joys, and their weaknesses, is that we mamas get to find the same things about ourselves along the way!  Just in time for homeschool retirement!

Enjoy the now and look forward to the future! 

God is in it all, if you invite Him to be!

* More info coming soon!  Be sure to sign up for email updates!  Look just under my photo and bio blurb at the top of the page for a little box, From My Home to Yours.

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Homeschool Sisters: Beginnings and Endings

May 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Every Days are for Homeschooling @SuzBroadhurst

The day the UPS truck delivered our first box of homeschool curriculum, my sister was visiting from out of state, with my great-nephew.

The day after I intend on handing my daughter her high school diploma, the very same sister will be arriving with my great-niece.

And after the last Mom’s Meeting of our homeschool co-op, a sister in the Lord sat with me, listened to me, cried with me, and loved me.  And my children.

God knows we need sisters along the homeschool journey.  Sometimes from far away and sometimes from just around the way.

Just Around the Way @SuzBroadhurst

  • Some sisters will challenge us.
  • Some will bug us.
  • Some will drive us to our Savior.
  • Some will make us laugh.
  • Some will help us laugh at ourselves.
  • Some will reach deep in us and pull out wisdom we’ve gathered, but haven’t yet applied.
  • Some sisters will just hug us when we’re crying, and we’ll remember the scent of her perfume.
  • Some sisters will be there when we begin.
  • Some sisters will be there when we end.
  • And some sisters will be there all the way through.

When homeschooling ends, many of us will still have sisters.  And brothers.  And daughters.  And sons.  And husbands.  And pastors.  And Sunday School teachers.  And Bible study leaders.  And neighbors.  And librarians.

Here’s one of our favorite librarians with my children (in 2010) standing in alphabetical order:

Our Librarian 2010 @SuzBroadhurst

But some of us have lost loved ones along the timeline of kindergarten through high school.  And we feel their loss because we wish they could be with us as we celebrate.  

Like multiplication tables, memories of loved ones aren’t forgotten easily. 

Neither are emotional connections to shoe holders, it seems.

REALITY CHECK:  Don’t be surprised when your teens clean out their rooms and bring you memories from their childhood to coo and giggle over and you don’t cry.  But when they bring you a silly plastic shoe holder, your throat constricts and you feel tears welling. 

Over a shoe holder?! That probably never once contained a shoe?! You will wonder why it, of all things, made you get teary.  Maybe it’s the everydayness of the item.  The realization that the everydayness of life is about to change.  Forever.

And on that note, maybe I’d better go pour concrete.

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Homeschool Pre-Retirement: Two More Down, One to Go

May 24, 2013 By Leave a Comment

 

Out of the Box @SuzBroadhurstWhere have I been for these past two weeks?  Fulfilling dreams.  And loving it!

The Bag-by-Bag Concrete Patio is coming along as quickly as degenerative disc disease will allow.  Smile   I have two more bags waiting for mixing and pouring, but the key word the last few days has been: waiting.

While I’ve waited for the back to agree that 50-lb bags of Quik-Crete plus the needed water isn’t really that much to lift and pour, I’ve been fulfilling another dream come true:  Relocating art supplies from a very VERY crowded laundry room to my lovely home-built-by-my-husband, She Shed Art Studio.

The one thing I haven’t been doing lately has been taking pictures of these energetic projects.  But I’m thinking that will happen either before or after my sister’s and great niece’s visit.  Maybe even during!

Insert @SuzBroadhurst

Let’s see, what else has happened these past two weeks? Something with pictures?  Oh we did go to the wedding of dear friends from church!  And since their wedding was near our favorite Greek town in Florida, we stopped at Tarpon Springs for gyros, a bring-home-supply of the best pita bread ever, and sweet times along the sponge-diving boats’ waterfront.

And I did get pics of Tarpon Springs!  Here are a couple to whet your Greek appetite:

 

Growing Up Greek-esque @SuzBroadhurst

 

One day, I would love to gather all the photos of the kiddos as they grew up alongside this ever-present sponge diver.

 

Tarpon Springs @SuzBroadhurst

And one day, I’m going to buy a lacy kitchen-something from the Greek lace shop and not “think about it while we walk.”  Mainly because by the time we get back to the lace shop at the end of our day, the shop has closed, and the lace lovelies peer at me through the slightly sea-sprayed glass window with rather Velveteen Rabbit expressions.

And that, my friends, has been what’s happening here.  What’s been happening out there?

 

REALITY CHECK:  I’m not sure when (or if) I’ll be back down in the Tarpon area.  I’m finding that traveling – which used to be not only my joy, but my escape – is no longer a dear friend of mine.  More and more, I am finding being a homebody is just fine with my body.  As long as I don’t lift too much wet concrete.   Smile

 

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First Three Weeks of Homeschool Pre-Retirement

May 9, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Out-of-the-Box

 

I haven’t officially retired because my girl hasn’t officially graduated yet, but I’m sure warming up to the idea!  Here’s a synopsis of how I spent my first three weeks after homeschool co-op ended forever for me as a parent-teacher.

 

First Week

That first week was a tricky one to maneuver through.  Lots of emotions and all wanting ascendancy.

I took this advice:  Ride the emotions like a wild horse.  The horse will buck, lean, kick and canter, sometimes all at the same time.  Just hang on and soon enough the emotions will settle into an easier ride.

Ride On @SuzBroadhurst

So, finishing touches on course summaries, tidying of the transcript, grading of a couple of electives. all were completed while riding a wild horse of anticipation of the end.

Until the …

 

Second Week

A norovirus-like stomach bug decided it was time to visit, kindly (ha!) emptying my soul of all need to worry about what I was going to do in retirement.  I really didn’t care what I would do, as long as I got feeling better.

And feel better I did by the ….

 

Third Week

Feeling better after a week of … well, never mind, let’s just say:  Feeling better, and anticipating my eldest sister and eldest great-niece’s visit in early June, I began the process of looking at my home through the eyes of a non-homeschooler.

Through the Eyes @SuzBroadhurst

Slowly, it dawned on me:  I am a non-homeschooler.  Or will be in just a few weeks. 

The organizing bug hit me and I got to sorting and clearing out.  Organizing beats crying.  Crying only offers a headache and organizing actually accomplishes something.

Of course, I’m not nearly done, and probably won’t be before my sis gets here.

This is a long-haul project, sorting through 13 years of homeschooling in our cottage, plus all the memories — and hoped-to-be-memory-making supplies — I brought along from our previous residencies.

The laundry/craft/supplies/curriculum/stationary/memories/hope chests/files storage room is still in flux, as the art shed is still in its final phase of completion.  But the church directory, monthly files, birthday card organizer and crochet patterns are organized!

Baby Cowboy Hat @SuzBroadhurst

Fiddling with paper instead of tearing up over the end, I’ve also been finishing up a couple of Bible study books I started mid-school year.   And …

 

I’ve been playing with concrete!

I’m building a Bag-by-Bag Concrete Patio outside my kitchen door near the bocce court.

Would you like to see pictures?   (You can sign up for email updates – upper right of the page – so you don’t miss the post when it comes out.)

While the concrete dried, I pulled out the heat gun …

 

Heat Gun Meet Citrus Kitchen

I’ve also been heat gunning, sanding and painting my second kitchen drawer.

Sis, keep in mind when you visit, we are in kitchen-color-transition mode.

I’ve been playing with several color ideas over the course of time and you can probably find echoes of each color-adventure in our little cottage kitchen.  But at least the drawers match now!

And those matching drawers – a year-long goal completed – bring us to the end of Week 3 of Pre-tirement.

I wonder what Week 4 will offer!

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