Autumn and What I've Been Up To

I am happy that fall is here. It is such a beautiful time of year with the cool breezes and the glorious autumn leaves on parade. I already broke out my fall decorations and candles!

Some of you might have noticed that I took the summer off from blogging.  :) It wasn't really intentional. Days turned into weeks and weeks to months. Blogging takes time and I wanted to give that time to my family over the summer. My posts may never keep up with the pace of other "pro mommy bloggers" but for me, I prefer blogging when time permits and I have something to say. 

Anyway...

Over the Spring and Summer my husband has been working a few hours away from home on and off for weeks at a time and that took some getting used to. It certainly altered our home routines. I missed him so very much when he was away.  Our whole family got to go with him a couple of times which was really great.  And our 17yo worked with him several times. It was a resort town in the mountains and really beautiful.  But now that job is all finished and I am hoping there won't be any more out of town jobs that come our way for a very long time. But either way, I am learning to be flexible and adapt.

My children are more and more becoming not children anymore, but men. They are 14 and 17 and taller than me now. All their lives as they inch closer and closer to manhood, our parenting has had to shift. I had to ease off my mothering instincts and allow my husband to take the prominent role in their lives. That started around the time they hit 7. In medieval times, once boys were 7yo they went to live with the men completely apart from their mothers. I am glad we don't live in those times because that would be heartbreaking. 

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband and father to our boys. They are learning how to be men by watching him. Something to remember ladies, is that the more you honor your husband and emphasize his strong points, the more he will develop those points. But it must be sincere. Pray that God works this into your heart. Whatever we focus on will enlarge. The more feminine we are, the more we defer to our husband's leading, his wishes, his direction, his wisdom, the more of a leader he will become. The more tender he will be with you. If you've been in the driver's seat or had your hand on the wheel for a while, I encourage you to repent and let go. Trust God to lead your husband. (I speak to ladies in healthy homes  -  NOT where abuse is present). 

This year we are taking a fresh new path with our homeschooling. One I have never wanted to do, but am doing for my boys. We joined a weekly co-op. It is only 2 classes (chemistry and literature) plus an hour of P.E. at the end.  A total of three hours every week. I've never liked the idea of anyone else teaching my kids, but they are getting older and need a social outlet which can be SO difficult to find likeminded families to involve our children in. We are morally opposed to the modern church "youth groups" as they are usually a hotbed for immorality under the cloak of religion.

So this co-op we found is pretty awesome with very like-minded families. It is fairly small which is wonderful, too. It's nice that I already know a few of the moms in the group from our homeschool group.  No drop offs allowed and mom's teach one hour, help in another and have the third free. 

Our older son was ambivalent about joining but after the first day said he said he loved it. Both our sons thought the kids were similar to them and showed genuine interest in the things of God, seeking him, helping others in service projects and prayer together.  I was happy they liked it so much. My husband and I feel that it's a good social outlet for our boys. 

That same day we tried out another group for Christian teens in another local homeschool group. We'd heard about it for some time and since they have specific activities for teens, we thought we'd check them out.  That same evening was mom's night in our regular homeschool group. I had a wonderful time, but it sure made for one full day! 

So we went to the Presentation Day and I asked our boys how they liked it, bracing myself for the possibility that they might. 

(The kids were pretty worldly. It's not that we won't let our kids be around worldly people or worldly 'Christians'. It is that we are careful to guard which pools we fish in for friendships. We have exposed our sons to worldly people whenever possible and we discuss as a family the "fruit" that we see from them.  But we're looking for godly friends for them and you don't search for fresh fruit in a back alley, right? You go to a farmers market or a nice grocery store. Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. - I Corinthians 15:33)

Anyway, when both my sons answered that they did not like the teen group and didn't want to go back, I was quite relieved. And also proud that they are learning discernment to make wise decisions. I praise God for his great faithfulness to our family. 

So for this school year, we will keep our focus on our new little co-op and our wonderful homeschool group that we've been a part of for almost 3 years which we are agreed that when we found them, we struck gold. :-)

I have company coming for dinner tonight so I am off to get things prepared for them. But I will try to find more time to blog in the coming weeks. 

I'd like to do a series on keeping the environment of our homes healthier once our windows close from chill and we turn on our heaters so be looking for that!

Autumn blessings to you!