What it Takes...

School for my family is a politically correct situation I suppose, who knew that choosing for each child what would be appropriate for him or her would indeed mean we would homeschool one, private school one, and public school our older two. This year our son will be a junior in the local Christian private school. His request, his choice after two years in a public high school. He found the larger city high school to be overwhelming and missed the comfort of being in school with mostly folks like ourselves with the same personal boundaries. Our youngest is a seventh grader this year and she's homeschooled. Her learning differences would be defined as gifted/ld in a public school due to her dysgraphia and dyslexia...but with one to one instruction at home she maintains gradelevel work and advances well. As a young child she was diagnosed as ADD without hyperactivity...and as we have grown with her we realized she is very food sensitive to carbs and a few other items. As we rearranged when she eats sugar and carbs we found that sleep patterns and learning patterns corrected......a much more worthwhile choice for our family then continuing to medicate her, which we did for two years.
Today I am working at home on several projects that are as varied as my life is at times. There's a project for inner city children in Texas to help develop an equestrian program for a 501c3 organization. There's work with a garden writer who has a new book coming out in January....another project with tweens for afterschool curriculum for B2G, Becoming God's Girl. ...then the regular 8 of our own blogs/ministry/updates I work on weekly and now returning to the professional blogs I update weekly, biweekly, or monthly.Sometimes I just want to squeal and throw my hands up, but the truth is I am extremely thankful for this business I work from home. The truth is writing is a passion for me, and even if its on a given topic or area, I enjoy writing it all.
The house is slowly getting more organized. After the yard sale several weeks ago, I continued on the find items a home or it leaves mine quest. Each month we have designated a weekend to simply be about organizing. Its showing!!! How much more restful is my home when I utilize what I have regularly and find new homes for that which was only stored most of the time.
The weight loss continues. I am officially at 78 lbs down now. I tried on clothes upon arrival home the other day from Dallas for the Fall and was stunned to find that the two wool skirts that had been my marker for a benchmark now fit and are flattering to wear. Wow, that was October's goal!! I am still doing just as I did before, heavy load of protein in the mornings, avoid sugar and carbs, and only eat what truly tastes amazing to me. While I was on the road in Dallas I ate decadently for dinners, was so concerned I would pay for that choice, but I had lost 2 lbs upon arrival home....and I was so thankful!
On the parenting front our oldest has been married for 4 months now and seems happy. Our college boy is working from home this summer and returns to school in about 4 weeks, our high school junior is officially driving now and his dad has provided a truck, and our tween has turned into a 5'2" sweetheart over the summer. I love parenting these children and would wish for 4 more if I were to choose.....Dh continues to work very hard daily, lately working 10 hour days five days a week on a project....we are in a new period of life as a married couple and it is a path we are having to find as we go....it is a happy life.
A friend of mine mentioned the other day that their life cards are played close to their chest....and those words keep echoing in my mind....the truth is I don't play my life cards privately....and I don't think I am sorry that I don't. One of my truths is that I am very open about who and what I am...perhaps to my professional detriment, but I am indeed very transparent about what I think, feel, and do for a living....perhaps in business it would be wiser to contain more and share less...but the truth for me is, I'd prefer to put my cards on the table and be clearly about who I am. The second truth I have learned about me lately is one that simply reinforced what I already knew....as much as I could enjoy and do enjoy financial success...growing people is what I do....and if I am to make a choice, I'll choose people every time over money.....thankfully most days I can do both.

Enough rambing for today....can you hear that God is shaping me again? It almost as though the vessel I thought we were shaping is back to being a mass of clay again.....and we shall see where He leads in this new vessel he's creating...

God is good!