As I am looking out the window at the clouds beginning to roll in and the balmy breeze flowing through the trees, I am pondering once again the challenges of freedom.  With all freedom comes the challenges of making yourself choose to do the right things, when no one is standing there lording it over you!   So it is with homeschooling and homemaking.  Being an introvert by nature, I always enjoy working by myself and quietly going on about my business.  With a houseful of children and a husband who works from home now, I don't get very many opportunities to just go about my business by myself!  But, hey, this is what I love - there is never a dull moment around here.

Yesterday, as Amanda and I were sipping our coffee on the front porch and discussing the challenges of implementing a daily schedule in our home that is so given to interruption, we noted that when you don't have to get up and be somewhere early in the morning, it is much harder to get yourself in bed early and then get up early.  You find yourself  reasoning, "Well, we don't HAVE to be anywhere,  at 8:00am, and we don't HAVE to get everything done by noon, etc.   It reminds me of friends of mine during college who refused to take independent study courses because, they said, they would never do anything if a professor didn't give them assignments to which they were accountable.  I think this is the challenge that all "stay-at-home" moms face (since they don't have a job to get up and go to) and especially homeschooling moms.  It is up to us to get things going and work at making ourselves accomplish things and stimulate accomlishment in our children.  May the Lord God help us to do "with all our might" the things He has given us to do, and to have wisdom to train up our children to do the same.  May the Lord help all of us parents and children to work with all our might at our tasks, and in so doing, find joy and strength for race which is before us!