One of my coming-of-age "ah-ha" moments happened late one night in a restaurant.  It was more like a super-club really; upstairs above a bar on Sunset strip.  I was waiting tables because too much time had passed since my last acting job and I needed money for rent and the basics.  So I grabbed a job waiting tables, knowing I'd only be there as long as it took to get me to the next string of acting gigs that would allow me stay afloat a while longer.  

It was on this night as I hustled back and forth between tables, with a tray of drinks in one hand and a table's bill in the other, that a woman at a sunken velvety booth waved me over and asked, "Are you an actress?"  I stopped and looked her fully and unapologetically in the eye and said, "Yes, yes I am."

She slammed her fist on the table and exclaimed to the man across the table from her, "I told you so!  I saw her running around here tonight and just knew she had to be an actress!"  I assumed they were tourists.  Not the locale fare.  "Would I have seen you in anything?"  she asked with great hope.  I rattled off a number of shows I had appeared in over the past two years, all small guest spots that weren't very memorable.  She looked a bit disappointed really.  Then she said, with the sincerest tenderness, "So, how long are you going to give it?"

"Excuse me?" 

"You know," she went on to explain, "acting... how long are you going to wait it out for your (air-quotations) "BIG BREAK?"

I had never thought through my answer in this way before it came out of my mouth in that next moment, but I said, "Are you asking me how long I'm going to give me to be me?"  She looked confused.  "You're asking me how long I'll give myself to be an actress before I simply choose to be something else?  But you see, this is me.  I don't doubt it will look different in different seasons of my life, but I will always be an actress.  I'm sure of that."

As I walked away I thought to myself, "Oh, I should have told her about my recent spokesperson role on a late-night infomercial for a men's hair replacement system."  I was getting recognized from that job A LOT.  That would have impressed her for sure!

Back then I had no idea how true my own words would echo in my heart and mind to this day:  I'm not in Hollywood anymore, and I'm not going in front of movie producers or casting directors like I had been back then... but I'm still an actress.  It looks different today than it did back then but even now, as I sit here typing out my story, I'm the same gal I was that night.  I'm not on stage but the crux of the matter is that I am, and always will be, a story teller.  I write here, I tell stories to women's groups with the hope of transitioning into the Gospel message of Christ - the Greatest Story of all!  

I'm continually surprised at how God has brought be out of Hollywood (Egypt in many regards) to bring me into this new land (a metaphorical Canaan, I suppose).  All of the skills came along with me, from acting coaches or lessons learned on Independent films that shot 18 days straight with little time for sleep or anything else.  God has brought it all with me and is allowing me to use it in thrilling ways in this present season of my life.  

What does this have to do with Home Schooling?  Well, tonight a dear friend of mine came over with her kids.  We had dinner together then let the kids pile on the couch for some Phineaus and Ferb episodes while we caught up with each other.  After sharing a bit of the ups and downs from my first semester of Home Schooling she asked me, "So, how long are you going to give it?"  Okay, maybe she didn't say it that way, exactly. I think she said, "Do you see yourself Home Schooling beyond this year?"  Whatever her exact words, my heart response surprised me.  As with my realization 15 years ago that I am an actress to the core, so I realized tonight that I am my children's greatest teacher.  It's a solid fact within. 

As with my acting life, I realize my role of teacher may flux, change and morph from year to year. Today I am Home Schooling through a public charter program that gives me a lot of support as well as class days for my kids.  Another year I may choose to venture out completely solo or take advantage of more nearby or online resources... but the truth of who I am to these little ones will stay the same.  I can't guarantee how it will look over the years, but I have come into my own as i've begun leading them into their own.

Wow!  I like that.  

I have come into my own as I've begun leading them into their own.

What an exciting place to be.  Realizing how God made me.  Who I am.  Embracing it.  Embracing me. Embracing life.  Embracing them.

Home Schooling this morning... Brody looked up all the verbs in the Literary Masterpiece, "The Gingerbread Man."