In the beginning...

Well, let's not go quite that far back. Let's just go back to when we started homeschooling...again.

Ed and I had been homeschooling our children, Brandon and Hannah, prior to moving back to Illinois to build a house on a couple acres we bought from my folks. When we began construction--yes, I mean we--we knew I couldn't devote all day every day to building our house with my dad and teach the kids effectively.

We knew we had been called by God to homeschool our children. Our son had already spent two years too many in public school and we did not want to go "back to Egypt". Ed prayed. I prayed. We prayed. (This is where submission is a beautiful thing, ladies) I gave over the discernment to my husband because I was too emotionally invested in the answer. In the end, we decided that sending the kids to public school temporarily would be okay. Christian principal. A couple Christian teachers. How bad could it be?

Fast forward two years. The house is completed. Brandon, now 13, has had more detentions than I can keep track of. His tics--he has Tourette's Syndrome--are at an all-time high. This one-time gifted student is no longer being considered for the gifted program because of his behavior and grades. He is begging to come back home. So we bring him back home to start his 8th grade year.

Hannah, now 10, is content to be at school (she is a girl, after all), but she doesn't like the thought of her mom and brother running around the countryside doing all sorts of cool stuff without her, and she asks to be brought home mid-school year. So Ed prayed. I prayed. Hannah prayed. Art teacher was given the principal's blessing to play music with explicit lyrics. Hannah came home immediately after volleyball season. :)

So, here we are. The summer of 2010. The kids will be entering their 9th and 6th grade years at home. Ahhhhhh. Free at last. Now, let's start living again!