Spring Break

this past week was Spring Break and our family headed up the coast to the Pismo Beach area to "camp" in a trailer and enjoy the beauty of God's creation in this part of our state where we have never really had the opportunity to visit. I'm wishing now that I took more pictures and though I did take a couple, we were mostly too busy enjoying ourselves:

exploring the Oceano Sand Dunes

we did it all: hiking, beach combing, geocaching, and tide pooling
at Montana de Oro State Park

The weather was less than ideal most of the week (though the day we spent hiking at Montana de Oro was perfect for those few hours), and we spent a lot more time than we'd anticipated hanging out in our rented trailer, playing games and reading. The kids had a little room to themselves at one end of the trailer with bunkbeds and a tiny table and bench seats where they were happy to draw and read and make up silly games with their stuffed animals together while Wes and I got a lot of reading done! While I love the exploring-a-new-area part of vacation, I'm really just super happy with a new book and some quiet hours to read in a space that isn't my never-ending-chore-filled house. Wes powered through his first-ever reading of To Kill A Mockingbird and loved it (I love that

book cover image from
amazon.com

he loved it!) while I was scouring the pages of my own copy of Educating the WholeHearted Child. After skimming my borrowed copy (thanks Lynz!) last week, I knew I would like the Clarkson's framework for homeschool, but once I had the chance to really get into the nitty gritty, I am even more confident and excited! The concept of WholeHearted means not just book learning, but also building family relationships and seeking Christ throughout the years spent together at home. I am glad we have these months to prepare our house and our hearts to home educate and we aren't jumping frantically into this transition because there are several areas of foundation that will be nice to have in place before "teacher" is officially added to the list of ways my children know me. One area in particular that will take some getting used to on my part is relating to my children in sympathy instead of strictness. I am not now, nor have I never been a super compassionate person and even in my current, thank you Jesus, not-so-angry state of mind, I am probably still shorter with my kids than they would prefer from their mama. I am thankful for the conviction I felt when reading this chapter and my prayer is that God will continue to soften my heart toward Leila and Cameron, to remind me to stop what I am doing and meet them where they are, and humble my spirit to respond to their many demands and interruptions, and how to ask engaging (not accusing) questions that will, in love, draw us closer together and closer to Him.