Well, I just discovered how much the Georgia government has got it's little hands in my sweet little school at home! I have to write a letter of intent every year, send in a monthly attendance record to the superintendant, my kids need to have "grades", and I need to have them tested every three years starting at 3rd grade. Testing and labeling.....
I have mixed feeling about all of this. The first one is, very overwhelmed! In AZ all we had to do was write one, meaning a SINGLE, letter of intent, at anytime, notarized. And that was it. Now that is freedom!
The second emotion I have is outrage. Homeschooling, when left alone, has proven over and over to be a wonderful form of eduction. It is so frustrating, when what we do naturally is structured to fit the form so many homeschoolers strive to get away from! Even though I myself am not an unschooler, I have seen that even that philosophy of learning can flourish.
The third emotion is, compliance. If the masses need to be mollified with proof that we are actually doing something productive with our days, then I guess that will have to be fine. As long as I retain my right to school my kids in my own home, and choose my own curriculum, I will comply! And since we aren't required to send in any other information besides a letter of intent and (I think??) the monthly attendance record, this will all just serve the purpose of seeing how well I am doing at schooling the Anderson clan at home.
For now, I won't revolt!
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Resumen de Mexico
Cancun Mexico 2010:
Valium and drool sleeping on the plane (there and back), a romantic dinner for two at a French restaurant with (ironically) the best food of the whole trip, getting a beautiful silver bracelet from a new friend, blow drying my hair in 15 second increments (overheating blowdryer, hotel issued), dancing in the hot sweaty club de baile (could they not invest in a single fan??), Mango Margaritas starting at breakfast, white silky sand (that somehow ended up in the bed... and everywhere else!!), water the color of imagination, our own (mostly) private pool on our back doorstep, cigars and menthols, standing in the ocean feeding wild fish tortilla chips, running for my life screaming my head off because said fish starting lookin at me like I was a tortilla chip, swimming in the ocean, sitting on Pancho the bewildered donkey with a bag tied to his bottom to catch wayward poo, rediscovering John, coatis and iguanas, loving the Lombardis, drinking the water (with much regrets), never once calling home (scaring the crap out of everyone... sorry), buying junk so my family knew I was thinking about them (even if they didn't get a single phone call), losing my giant diamond earring, never once leaving the resort, sunburns sunscreen and sunglasses, eating and eating and eating again (gotta love those all inclusive vacations!), lost luggage, having the time of my life and at the same time so glad to go home.
Poor Poor Pancho...
We seriously look like movie stars from the '60s!
He is in the Whisper
I am reading through the Bible in a year, and although it has been a challenge, it has also been more than worth the efforts. My love for God's Word has increased by much and I am reading things that never really get touched on in a Sunday morning service. Things that Beth Moore will probably never write a bible study about. There is so much I have never noticed or heard of before, and as a student of God's Word for the last 21 years, (minus a hiatus of about 4 to 6 years) that surprises me! Not that I think I am some sort of "Biblical Scholar", I certainly do not! I'm just shocked at the amount of stories I do not recognize AT ALL! So, I highly recommend this goal.
Today as I was reading about the "god off" (think dance off or sing off) between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, I asked God if he would perform a miracle like that today. I pictured me in my head, telling all my friends that are unbelievers that I could ask God to perform a miracle with fire. I pictured myself fretting all day, wondering if God would show up. I found myself sure that the project would fail. Then I wondered what this meant about God, not to mention my obviously complete lack of faith. Doesn't believing that God could and would do something earth shattering, make it happen?? The Bible says that the faith the size of a mustard seed could move mountains! Sounds pretty earthshattering to me. But it also says not to test God. And here, like in so many other ways, God is once again outside the reach of my human comprehension.
Besides falling in love with God's word, and finding out how much I have never heard, I am also forming lots and lots of questions. I am not, however, losing faith by questioning, I am gaining faith. In the book The Knowledge of the Holy, A.W. Tozer writes "These forget that their whole life is enshrouded in mystery. They fail to consider that any real explanation of even the simplest phenomenon in nature lies hidden in obscurity and can no more be explained than can the mystery of the Godhead". Or really any inexplicable mystery of God. He goes on to say "This world after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle; wonderful, inscrutable, magical and more, to whosoever will think of it..... We cover our deep ignorance with words, but we are ashamed to wonder, we are afraid to whisper "mystery."
So, back to my "god off". Would God make a showing? I don't know (and I'm not planning to test my theory). But I continued to wonder, and so I continued reading. And as is the case with God's Word, the majority of the time, the best commentary on the Bible is the Bible itself! In 1 Kings after the fire of God consumed the offering, God speaks with Elijah and this is what He says: "'Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD' And behold the LORD passed by, and a great wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper."
It doesn't mean that God is absent if He doesn't perform earthshattering miracles in our lives. He is present in our lives like the whisper of a loving mother to her newborn child, like the whisper of a man to his young bride, like the whisper of the wind through the leaves in the trees. A whisper doesn't force our attention. However it does require stillness and quiet to receive it. So my question became, will I be still and hear His whisper?
Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God..."
Today as I was reading about the "god off" (think dance off or sing off) between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, I asked God if he would perform a miracle like that today. I pictured me in my head, telling all my friends that are unbelievers that I could ask God to perform a miracle with fire. I pictured myself fretting all day, wondering if God would show up. I found myself sure that the project would fail. Then I wondered what this meant about God, not to mention my obviously complete lack of faith. Doesn't believing that God could and would do something earth shattering, make it happen?? The Bible says that the faith the size of a mustard seed could move mountains! Sounds pretty earthshattering to me. But it also says not to test God. And here, like in so many other ways, God is once again outside the reach of my human comprehension.
Besides falling in love with God's word, and finding out how much I have never heard, I am also forming lots and lots of questions. I am not, however, losing faith by questioning, I am gaining faith. In the book The Knowledge of the Holy, A.W. Tozer writes "These forget that their whole life is enshrouded in mystery. They fail to consider that any real explanation of even the simplest phenomenon in nature lies hidden in obscurity and can no more be explained than can the mystery of the Godhead". Or really any inexplicable mystery of God. He goes on to say "This world after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle; wonderful, inscrutable, magical and more, to whosoever will think of it..... We cover our deep ignorance with words, but we are ashamed to wonder, we are afraid to whisper "mystery."
So, back to my "god off". Would God make a showing? I don't know (and I'm not planning to test my theory). But I continued to wonder, and so I continued reading. And as is the case with God's Word, the majority of the time, the best commentary on the Bible is the Bible itself! In 1 Kings after the fire of God consumed the offering, God speaks with Elijah and this is what He says: "'Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD' And behold the LORD passed by, and a great wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper."
It doesn't mean that God is absent if He doesn't perform earthshattering miracles in our lives. He is present in our lives like the whisper of a loving mother to her newborn child, like the whisper of a man to his young bride, like the whisper of the wind through the leaves in the trees. A whisper doesn't force our attention. However it does require stillness and quiet to receive it. So my question became, will I be still and hear His whisper?
Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God..."
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