4 hours ago
In case you somehow missed it, the Supreme Court made the decision today to overturn Roe v. Wade this morning. I was preparing myself for something crazy to happen after that leak a while back, for this decision to somehow not come to fruition. But despite my worries, the Lord was gracious to this country today!
I just feel the need to mark this day, the day Roe c. Wade fell! And Lord willing, the beginning of the end of abortion in this country. We’ve destroyed 60+ million babies in this country over the last 50 years. This country deserves judgement for that, but God has shown mercy to us. I didn’t think I’d see Roe v. Wade overturned in my lifetime, though I’ve prayed for it for years. In a year, there will be human beings alive who wouldn’t have been because of the Supreme Court’s decision today! Praise the Lord!
I'm so thankful for the courage and fortitude of the Supreme Court with all the pressure they must have been feeling after the leak a month ago. I'm so thankful that Trump got those four years to put some of those justices on the court. Some of these people are probably believers, many of them probably are not, but I'm amazed at how the Lord "turns the hearts of kings wherever He wishes" (Proverbs 21:1). God did that, through the actions of unexpected people, through everything that led to this historic decision from the highest court in the land.
I've explained about abortion to my kids. When it came up a few years back, I didn't need to do very much beyond just telling my kids (age appropriately) what abortion is, and they were immediately adamantly pro-life. Sometimes children are wiser than adults.
I told them about the Supreme Court decision today, and we celebrated and cheered! When I explained about what it all would mean, their immediate question was whether abortion would be allowed in our state, and with sorrow I had to tell them yes. Our state is wicked. We need to keep praying, keep voting for the pro-life candidates, keep defending the unborn. Then we prayed for an end to abortion altogether.
“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts. I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, And on Your wondrous works…The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, And His tender mercies are over all His works.”
Psalms 145:3-5, 8-9 NKJV
My hope and prayer now is that I will get to celebrate with my kids again when abortion is banned across the United States. Soon, Lord, please!
Tonight is for celebrating and telling the kids what God has done! Don't let anyone dampen the day for you, friends! Today is a very good day!
“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts. I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, And on Your wondrous works…The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, And His tender mercies are over all His works.”
Psalms 145:3-5, 8-9 NKJV
"This will be written for the generation to come,
That a people yet to be created may praise the Lord."
That a people yet to be created may praise the Lord."
Psalm 102:18 NKJV
(The desert above Carlsbad Caverns.)
First, I wanted to say that as far as I could tell, this is a very family-friendly documentary. I did miss the first five minutes because I was a smidge late to the theater, but there was no mention of any sensitive topics (like gender ideology, for example) in the parts of the film for which I was present.
I think the purpose of this movie, from my perspective, was to present a vision for how homeschooling can look, the freedom families have to do education their own way, to think outside the box and help their kids pursue their own interests and talents. We saw kids taking pilot-lessons at 14, raising ducks, exploring the woods, starting Etsy shops, interning on farms and in a chiropractic office, accelerating their education to graduate college before most finish high school, and traveling the country full time just because they can. Under all this was the theme that homeschooling is a way to build tight-knit relationships within your family and experience life together, and I thought that theme was very poignantly highlighted at the end of the film.
I thought the documentary in alot of ways was very intentionally balanced. I could tell they tried to include a homeschool families from a variety of backgrounds and tell their stories, giving them a chance to present their insights. We had families who had homeschooled for a month and some who have homeschooled for decades, young families and families that have graduated children. There was an emphasis on how children can learn at their own pace in homeschooling, so it was mentioned that children who need more time to learn certain concepts get that time, and can excel. To balance that out, we also hear from families who have students on an accelerated pace. We have kids who applied to college and won prestigious scholarships, kids who tested out of college classes by studying at home, and kids who are successful without attending college. There was also a focus on finding the individual talents or "smarts" (based on Kathy Koch's "8 Great Smarts" book), and we saw children in the documentary with a wide variety of talents and interests.
There are also obvious benefits in homeschooling to pass on your worldview to your children as a full time pursuit, and the documentary also touched on that aspect. Christian principles were mentioned throughout, while also discussing how a family of any faith could also see benefits of passing on their values to their children.
One way I thought the documentary felt a little imbalanced was that alot of families were showcased that did not have traditional job structures. There were several parents talking about owning their own businesses and how that gave them flexibility for homeschooling, and one family who bought an RV and traveled the country for several years (I'm not sure if it was ever mentioned what kind of jobs this couple had). One family had a dad who worked from home while the mom homeschooled, and I think that was the closest we got to the types of jobs that most people have - which are "9-5" jobs, either at home or in an office or job site. I thought it would have been nice to showcase a few more..."average" families, so to speak. Alot of us can't travel the country and give kids all these out-of-the-box experiences full time. You can give a child rich, and meaningful experiences in more local ways or through simple summer vacations, working within the limits that a 9-5 job structure would naturally place on an average family. Several of these families perhaps were working with a "9-5" job structure, but that fact just wasn't highlighted or mentioned.
I do think the focus on this documentary was on imaging how homeschooling could look, exploring all the possibilities, but in some ways which I mentioned above, I think it missed the boat a bit on giving a realistic day-to-day picture. This is a movie to be inspired by and get ideas from, but my encouragement would be to keep in mind that the documentary was still very much a highlight reel. Most days are not going to look like the bits shown in this film, and some days are downright hard, but that doesn't mean you are doing homeschool wrong, and it doesn't mean what you're doing is not worthwhile and meaningful, even if it doesn't always look exciting.
I'd recommend this film for those who are curious about homeschooling, new homeschool families who want to get inspired, and for family members that may be skeptical to help them catch the vision. This is not a movie that I would call a thorough "apologetic" for homeschooling, it is very much about offering inspiration and helping you think outside a traditional school structure.
For experienced homeschool families, this is a chance to get a little inspiration and a chance to support a great homeschool film. I didn't learn a ton from this documentary, and I know from my own experience that there are hard days being the scenes to balance out a lot of the exciting opportunities showcased in this film. But I did find myself tearing up seeing the strong relationships within these different families, and remembering that what I am doing in homeschooling is investing in my own family in the best way I know how. That reminder was certainly worthwhile to me!
If you want to see the film in theaters, tonight is your last chance! You can learn more about it here. I don't know of any plans for it to be released online, but I imaging eventually it will be available in other formats too!
- Last week we decided to visit one more National Park for the month, and we took a trip to Great Sand Dunes National Park. We haven't been there for a few years. The last time we went, Georgie was still a baby and cried every time we let her feet touch the sand, but somehow we didn't even make it as far up the dunes as we did last time. We hiked the first short hill, played for a couple minutes, climbed back down and staked out a claim near the water. Every year in May and June, the snow melts off the surrounding mountains and creates a gentle river right in front of the dunes. It's a great chance to cool down and play in the sand without getting your feet burned. We've been particularly enthused about visiting and revisiting National Parks because we got a family National Parks passport book. I may do another post about this, but it's a fun project for us!
- My kids finished their library challenge early this year, mostly at my urging. Last year we finished the challenge in July, but all the finishing prizes were gone, which was rather anticlimactic. This year I pushed them to do a few activities and played audiobooks for them until we reached the 500 points, wondering why it was so difficult for us to finish last year when we flew through this summer. Regardless, they did receive a finisher prize, which were tickets and a free meal at our local aquarium! So that activity will be going on our calendar sometime in July, I'm sure.
- Tonight I am going to see "The Homeschool Awakening" in theaters, a documentary about homeschooling by Kirk Cameron. I think it should be interesting! I know of several people in the documentary already, and I've heard Kirk Cameron speak at homeschool conferences before - but I like to support these kinds of films, and it's fun to go with some homeschooling mom friends! I will report back (possibly on Instagram, or a quick post here, I'm not sure) what I thought about it!
(Unrelated picture of my boys hiking around outside this morning.)
- This week is also my birthday, which is fun and everything, except for the fact that I have jury duty. Now, if you've been around for a while, you may remember that I have always wanted to get picked as a juror - I want to see how the process works, do my civic duty, etc. I'm very interested in it (and well aware that I'm in the minority on this)! I have been notified of jury duty twice before, and was so disappointed when my court days were cancelled. So the fact that my third chance at jury duty happens to be on my birthday is leading to very mixed feelings. Would it be really cool if I finally got a chance to be a juror? Yes! Would I prefer not to spend my birthday in a courthouse? Also, yes. Why must the judicial system do this to me? Let's be real though, it will probably be cancelled again anyway.
- With prices of everything going up, and no indication of this slowing down, I've decided it's time I take cooking at home a little more seriously. I used to really enjoy trying new recipes before I started having kids, and then it was a whirlwind of pregnancy and baby phases on repeat for the next 10 years, and I didn't really have the mental energy to give it another go. Cooking is actually not something that comes naturally to me - I'm more of a baker at heart. But we need to have good enough things to eat at home that we aren't tempted to drop by the store or a restaurant for an easier meal, and I suppose it's my job to make it happen. My goal is to try to make something from scratch every time I have a day at home, and to branch out and try some new recipes while I'm at it. So far, that's been African peanut stew (yum), chocolate chip cookies, and caramel apple pie (what did I say about being a baker at heart?). Next up, I'm going to try Joanna Gaines's biscuits and gravy. I always felt like Joanna Gaines was a little overrated (unpopular opinion, right there), but her cookbook has been fun to read through so far!
- Our local homeschool conference is also this week, and it looks like it's going to be a good one! Ken Ham and Allie Beth Stuckey are a couple of the speakers, and there is going to be traveling display of a life-size tabernacle (based on the tabernacle in the Old Testament) as well. I intended to have alot of next year's curriculum ordered earlier in June, because I don't want to be tempted to buy things I wasn't planning on at the conference, but at this point I'll probably wait until after the conference to see if there are any special sales I should take advantage of. Homeschool conference curricula halls are dangerous places. I am hoping to buy more little "Sermon Notes" notebooks which I found there last year, as well as this book for myself, which I'm sure will be there as well. I guess if I can save a bit on shipping, that's a win!
- Speaking of conferences, there is also a free online enneagram conference going on this week (analyzing the enneagram from a biblical perspective), and this online "life skills camp" for kids that I might let the kids watch (though probably only a few videos, because glancing at the first day, I think many are geared toward older kids).
That's all for now, but I'm hoping to get another post up later this week (assuming I don't get picked to be a juror for a 3-week murder trial or something). Wish me luck!
Currently...
Celebrating...The end of the school year, and to mark it our crazy mountain weather dumped 1.5 feet of snow on us, with several other smaller snowstorms in the last two weeks as well. It put a damper on our summertime feelings, but I am very grateful for the moisture. The grass greened up significantly since that big snowstorm, and before that it was scarily dry. Here's to hoping for no fires this year!
Trying...to recover from our Memorial Day weekend trip, which was so fun but also took all my energy. We took a road trip to New Mexico, to see a couple of the National Parks down there - Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands (with a brief stop at Guadeloupe Mountains National Park in Texas, and Petroglyph National Monument and the Manhattan Project National Historical Park on the way home).
My kids especially loved Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We saw Mammoth Cave with them last fall, and I think Mammoth Cave was a good starter cave - Carlsbad was the ultimate goal though, and they were ready for it. We walked over two miles of trails inside the caverns, and the kids were fascinated with all the formations. Clarice frequently reminded us "Don't touch the formations!", and Georgie quietly walked through the trails and occasionally declared that she was "kind of freaking out". But no one was too afraid, and we all enjoyed the adventure! We also enjoyed watching the bats fly out in the evening, while marveling at the inability of some people to understand what "silent" means. Any little noise can spook the bats and prevent them from flying out of the cavern, and yet still people were fiddling with bags, opening food wrappers, knocking around water bottles and allowing their children to cry without taking them away from the amphitheater. I'm proud to say our kids were silent and still though, and we did get to see a little flurry of bats anyway.
White Sands National Park was also impressive and a little mind-blowing - the sand stretched for miles, and if you didn't know better, you would think it was snow. We tried going in the middle of the day, but if you are going to visit this park, this time you want to be there is 7-9 PM. The light turned pretty, the wind died down, and the park was relatively quiet! Here are a few photos, but these are just the ones I took with my phone - when I get my big camera photos edited, perhaps I'll share more.)
We came home to 3 inches of snow on June 1st, which thankfully melted off immediately. I can't be too bummed about the incongruent weather when I see sparkling water trickling along the road and quenching the dry grass. We even had some flowers springing up despite the cold!
Giving...some thought to sharing the homeschool posts I promised a while back. I intended to write a few homeschool-related posts in March, but for some reason March and April became extremely busy. Maybe it just comes with getting older, but I find myself drained alot more easily in recent months by too many days out of the house or excessive socializing. I have thought of myself for years as an "ambivert", leaning toward an extrovert, but the pendulum has seemed to swing back to the introverted side for right now.
May was a little frantic because my dear friend moved away to another state (yes, I cried a few times), we were trying to wrap up school, and then I immediately had to start switching out the kids' clothes from winter to summer and prepare for our trip.
All that to say, my homeschool posts never got written, but I hope to rectify that soon. I still have some ideas swirling around in my mind, and I may even make a rare foray back to Instagram to share a few thoughts or curriculum videos in the next couple months! A couple people have specifically asked me what we've been using for language arts, so that's the first topic on my list.
Wearing...I really can't decide what to write here. I'm still wearing long pants (the snow, you know), but with sandals, wearing my hair curly (which I like better now that my hair is longer), wearing this eyeshadow palette (so light and pretty). Wearing this body spray (smells like summer laundry), this lip oil. Wearing out my earbuds from listening to a bunch of chic-lit audiobooks (thanks Katherine Center and Chanel Cleeson).
Taking...charge of the budget. I have been a little lazy about my budget over the last year, but in 2022, with this ridiculous inflation, there is no more wiggle room for that. My method is to plot out every event I have going on each month on one of those little $1 monthly planners, estimate how much each event is going to cost me in gas, eating out, etc, and then work around that. I've also gone back to our repertoire of cheaper meals so I can stock our pantry a bit each month, as so many people seem to be doing. We already have quite a good amount of noodles, grains (for flour), oatmeal, rice, and dry beans - this month I want to stock up on sugar and coffee. You can make all kinds of things with those essentials!
Reading...alot of fiction, especially on audio, and it's been great for getting out of my reading rut. I think I was just getting bogged down in too much nonfiction - my brain gets tired, and then I don't want to read at all. Re-finding my fiction/nonfiction balance has been good. I just got The Lost Man by Jane Harper from the library, so hoping to start that this week, and I finished a bunch of books in the last couple weeks, so a book roundup is coming!
Watching...this amazing video about fractals. Apparently the solutions to certain mathematical equations can be graphed, and when they are, they create amazingly complex shapes that repeat themselves for infinity. You have to watch the video to fully appreciate how complex and crazy this is. It's amazing to me that God hid these incredible shapes in math, for goodness sake! It reminds me of this verse:
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9
Indeed.
How has the start to your summer been, friends?
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