preparing for school & pouring out

Daniel took the kids out this afternoon I turned up the music




and worked on this all afternoon.

I feel ready, very ready to start on Monday.

Do you ever feel ready to take your children's education into your own wavering hands?

Well, no. But I'm so grateful for the opportunity, this overwhelming, exhausting opportunity to pour into their little lives.

Yesterday was their first library class and before we left the house I said:

You guys need to--- actually, you know what is required of you, so I'm not going to tell you. What would you tell your kids if you were sending them off to a class?

They loved this brave new approach and told me:

sit quietly

listen

be respectful

raise your hand if you have a question

{Well, this should be an uneventful class.}

When will I learn that my children don't DO uneventful?

The first thing I noticed upon JD's departure from the class were the Crayola marker tattoos upon his arms.  He even had one peeking out of his sleeve, fd style. 

Tattoos are just not my hill to die on; however I am quite sure that the literary class on peace was not the place for body artwork.  I filed it under the address later section of my brain.

Cambria tattled as soon as we got in the van.  Jacob drew on himself, Mo-om.

I'll talk to him later, Cambria, but this is not really your business.

I do believe Jacob blinked in surprise that I wasn't going to ream him immediately for the misbehavior.

Before later came, he brought up the subject himself, alone in the van with me and Eli.

Mom, I shouldn't have done that at the library.

Me:  Well, Jacob, that just wasn't the place.  The artwork was supposed to be happening on paper, not your arms.  [internal struggle to keep my words brief] [i do wayyyyyy too much talking]

Yep.

Huummmmm. And we drive on.  End of story.

Well, not quite the end, because the next time I saw him, he'd carefully washed all the marker off. 

That is the end. 

Why do I overthink stuff with him?  I overcomplicate almost everything.  But those days when there are just simple, calm fixes to the issues. . . I wanna dissect every part of the experience and figure out what worked and copy it again!

This is the part of teaching that I dread, the constant barrage of training and counsel and pouring in (from my broken leaking pitcher).

This is why I need to fill my mind with the truth of the Word, the knowledge and wisdom of others and encouragement to keep going.

If I'm empty I don't have anything to pour.

God, please fill my heart.