September is the month to…
Walk out all of the plans I had for school in shoe leather, and to understand what is actually working and what is not. With a few weeks under our collective belts, I can fall out of love with what looked so beautifully simplistic during the summer. It is the consequence of loving to plan; sometimes I have to use an eraser.
September is another month to garden.
This is the first year that I have actively started a fall garden. Most years I simply let what outlasts the cold weather remain until the next spring (i.e., the kale and collards), and then get back after it. Now that I have bought carrot, onion, spinach, chard, and other seeds for all things cool weather, I find myself rushing the summer season—in Texas. HA-larious, and I know the Lord is laughing heartily. Honestly, for all the lessons my dirty hands and nails have taught me while toiling amongst the plants, I could start another blog devoted solely to life lessons in the garden. (“Belinda Grows in God”? “Growing in Christ”? Obviously I have thought about this waaaaaayyyy too much. But then again, who knows what life after this homeschooling journey will hold)?
September is the month to read more, given that for the first year ever, we have little or no evening commitments that keep us away from reading and books. I have even made commitments to myself to pick up a book more often. Ideally, we would digest together Homer’s Iliad during the day, and then spend a few moments with Tolkien’s Hobbit at night. But…I finally realized this week why I get frustrated because the reading schedule almost never happens as I planned. While we are working our way through school,
She is also learning to drive. AND,
We are familiarizing ourselves with the PSAT. Again.
So, as I thought through this blog post (and she joined her dad and grandmom for a trip to the beach), I decided to show us both grace. My MIL’s dementia is advancing; everything else will still be here.
September is yet another opportunity to travel and support our growing young man. After a summer stint with the illustrious Dance Theatre of Harlem, God has blessed him tremendously with an internship while he completes his degree. He is now a (small) part of a professional company; praise God from whom all blessings flow.
September would also be the month to serve, except that we keep hitting closed doors in our efforts to give back. We thought originally to tie our gardening efforts into some local education outreach program. Apparently, 15 is an awkward, in-between age in which you are no longer a small kid, but not old enough to work out your passions. Our numerous phone calls to various programs who were allegedly seeking volunteers went largely unreturned. Long story made short, we were also very excited about working with Gigi’s Playhouse, but after all of her training, they could not match our daughter with a child! So we have prayerfully returned to square one. After all, this is homeschool, the haven of convenience, flexibility, and self-made learning, yes? Stay tuned on this one.
Many thanks to those of you who will occasionally write and say something like, “Thank you for sharing your journey with us” or “I’ve been following your family since…” I would love to hear about your September, and about your school year. What are you doing that has you particularly excited?
