What day is it again?

OK. I had the best of intentions to start this blog three weeks ago. I also had a lot of other plans. But it seems as though I might have bitten off more than I can chew.

I had plans of ordering the perfect curriculum, and integrating it into the perfect schedule. We were going to start homeschooling precisely on August 6th, 2007 at 8:30am. I had our subjects mapped out down to the minute. I even had scheduled breaks for "lunch" and "snack".
To make a long story short, we are still on last weeks' schoolwork, and I've all but thrown the schedule out the window.

We have chosen to home school for a variety of reasons. But I know I did not choose to home school my children so that I would be a raging lunatic, rushing my kids into blocks of time and staying up until the wee hours of the morning trying to pretend I'm an organized person. The truth is, I've never been too terribly organized and I don't see myself ever being a neat freak. And I think because of that, I am able to see past the black and white of things.

Don't get me wrong, I know we need some sense of order around here to make this home school thing successful. But I know that no amount of perfect order can replace the happy Mom my kids want and need me to be. I've got one chance at this child-raising thing, and I really want to give it my best. And sometimes, that means looking past the pile of dishes in the sink and the overflowing folder of schoolwork to be corrected.

Last week, we went to the library, we visited another church while Sophie attended a Florida History class, we made new friends at a book club, relaxed like normal people at a "mom and pop" coffee shop, and selected a pound of mashed potatoes and a quarter pound of chilled shrimp as an Ala carte dinner meal from the local market. And I can't forget the field trip to Tyler's high school to post bail on his cell phone which was taken away from him by the "dean" on the 2nd day of school. None of these things were scheduled, yet they seemed to fit in perfectly fine with our lesson plan for the day. Whatever it may have been.

Someday I know my kids won't remember page 36 in English as much as they remember playing domino's with me on an old coffee shop table. I know that Math Lesson 21 will pale in comparison to admiring all of the statuesque high school trophies that lined the dean's office wall. And who wants to worry about writing the letter "H", when you can use all of the words you have ever learned in your little short 5 year old life to laugh and catch up with a buddy in the hallway at church on a Thursday afternoon?

We will do just fine this year. I promise all of our work will be done, and our records in order. Our little greenhouse will nurture and protect Tyler, Sophie and Greyson for as long as it needs to. I just want to be sure we always keep things in perspective and not take ourselves too seriously. I think we're doing pretty well so far.