It's been a long couple of months, and writing this post tonight is no guarantee that I'm actually back.   LIfe is still a bit unsettled to say the least.  But the computer is up and the internet is wired, and I have a moment of quiet.  

In the past four weeks we moved into our new home, I began homeschooling all three boys, and my husband started a new job that is both exciting and all-consuming.  We were supposed to be settled into the new digs weeks before the start of school and Matt's career move, but the work on the house went over schedule (and over budget) and I didn't get my books unpacked until the second day of school.  These are the facts.  When I look back over this overwhelming list, and know the myriad of stressful items I'm not including, I realize that God has been very near my heart in the midst of all this.  For the list above truly is a list of facts; our circumstances, and even our blessings, but they could have easily become my grumblings.  

Four weeks into our home and our first school year together and I see so many gifts that this season of transition has afforded our family.  Simple blessings that could be misinterpreted as curses.  Because I was not settled in "on time" I did not have the chance to fill out my lesson plans as intricately as I had desired (truth be told, I barely had the dates inked onto the calendar by our first day of school).  Instead of pushing the boys to achieve my school expectations, I am getting to know their abilities and interests in gentler more patient ways.  So many families take their children out of school only to recreate the traditional school classroom at home.  I didn't have time to hang all of the wall posters and prep hours of work those first few weeks, and found that learning at home doesn't have to look the same as it does at the school house on the corner down the street. And for that I am thankful.

Even our overdrawn budget is a blessing in disguise because it reels us back in and allows us to talk again about what our priorities are and what is superfluous where material things are concerned.  And the work on the house that never got done at all, or needs to be touched up again, it's a reminder that this isn't really home.  This is a resting place for our little family as we learn together to set our minds and our hearts upon eternity where our forever home awaits.

It seems everything is a lesson these days.  Each joy and every challenge.