We have had a VERY busy year as you can tell from the fact that my last entry was in January!!! We took up a quilting class so that my youngest could make a Depression era quilt for her school project.  WARNING!!!!  Don't do this if you don't intend to get thoroughly addicted to quilting!!  The three of us are goners!

The EXCITING news is that after a few very hectic weeks of finishing projects, having a performing arts/project fair, two weeks of natural horsemanship clinic, visiting relatives out of state (and getting the flu while there) and having our year end evaluation done, I'VE JUST SEALED AND STAMPED OUR EVALUATION AND LETTER OF INTENT FOR NEXT YEAR AND AM MAILING IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  What a great feeling!  Although we continue through the summer in a natural, classic way and do a couple math lessons a week, for all intents and purpose we have fulfilled our legal requirements! Actually, we did more days than the law requires because we were in the middle of WWII and didn't feel we should leave our boys overseas fighting while we enjoyed a vacation.

One of our most exciting and interesting projects this year was the girls Depression book.  They interviewed either in person or by mail, people who had lived through it, made recipes and meals from that time period and compared costs, studied and talked to people who were children living through the Great Depression and many other aspects.  Their book includes entertainment of the time and at least one great invention of the time: The Tollhouse cookie!  (That is the infamous Chocolate chip !)

It is such a wonderful feeling to be able to close the 'official' planner and move on with other interests if only for a while.  I Praise God that we are still able to choose homeschooling for our children.

Recently I was in a group with ladies that were extreme contrast in beliefs.  One is a 'career woman' who flies a few times a week to various offices for her work.  The other end of the extreme was me, the homeschooling, farming, gardening, stay at home Mom ( CAREER WOMAN!).  One comment that came up was "What needs to happen in our lives to make us happy with our situation?"  As others were commenting on promotions, retirement, pay raises etc... there was much laughter and commenting until I said, "Nothing, I'm extremely happy and content."  There was silence, strange looks and discomfort.  I did think about adding a comment like, "But someone handing me $2000 to spend at a homeschool book and curriculum fair would give me a little thrill....."  but I decided to leave it at that.

It seems that while these women are racing around trying to find happiness it's sitting right there in their homes waiting for them.  Why has our culture fed into the lie that you have to have an outside career to be happy?  I have to wonder and ask my Lord to show me where I have blindness but I praise him for pulling me out of the "career" mode years ago and bringing me to where I can spend time training my children for HIS Kingdom.

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Posted by KayinMaine