first day

Well, today was our first day of homeschooling. As I’m blogging, the girls are behind me relishing their art assignment….  scrapbooking today! I thought it would be a treat for our first day.

I had the morning all planned out. I realized two weeks ago that my sweet cleaning lady was scheduled to come on the first day of school. No worries, I thought. We’ll do some schooling at Panera while she’s here.

I got up at 5:00, enjoyed my bible reading, and was getting ready to exercise when my baby boy woke up at 5:59 am. I went up to see if I could coax him back to sleep… to no avail. As I rocked him in his room, I started to worry. The schedule that I had mapped out in my head was ruined. It was impossible to put together a new schedule now that Levi would need to nap at 9:00 am!!!

I began to pray… thinking back to what God has been trying to teach me. I needed to be flexible. I had to let go of my agenda. Instead of mourning the loss of my agenda and my plans, I needed to look for what God had planned for me today.

I sensed that God was assuring me that Levi would be wiped out by the time we got to Panera, and he would sleep in his stroller while the girls and I tackled lesson 1 in each of their math books. Seemed like a long-shot, a sure-fire miracle… but God loves to do those kinds of things.

I marched on through the morning… did my exercise with a little boy underfoot.  (I know that you would have loved to see that one.) Finished the last minute pick-up around the house in anticipation of my cleaning lady. Coached the girls through their bible lessons. Packed up the car… and we were off to Panera!

Levi was slow to slumber at our off-site classroom, but we were finally able to get through math. Afterwards, we enjoyed a little excursion to the Mission Inn looking for pamphlets to use in California History this year. We came home for lunch and each dove into chapter 1 of some great novels.

I think back to my crisis in the rocking chair this morning. If not for Jesus, I would still be there crying over my lost schedule for the day. I am grateful for His lessons in flexibility. I would have loved for Him to schedule that lesson on another day… but alas, I am growing and He is pleased.

Maybe since I passed the test today, tomorrow will be easier….