I Can't Do It On My Own

Things here are not just busy....they are a bit disorganized. In fact it's driving me crazy.

I had all these great intentions to get all these projects done around the house this summer...and...well...I had great intentions.

Now, in just a week and a half we start school again. Thankfully I have managed to get our school lives mostly together. You know, books and curriculum ordered and received. I still need to work out a daily schedule and some kind of rubric of expectations for Son.

Can I admit here that I'm feeling just a little...errr....overwhelmed? Not totally overwhelmed, just a little.

I really want to do an excellent, consistent job in educating Son and Daughter. I want to make sure that we cover as many bases as possible and that they will be able to stand on their own two feet when the time comes.

Sigh.

I think that every parent and every homeschooling parent struggles with many of the same feelings and questions I'm struggling with right now. And those are just the parenting concerns.

As a wife and mom I have a whole other list of goals I want to accomplish that concern the running of our home. Housekeeping goals, menu and feeding goals, gardening goals,...the list just goes on and on.

I want to be able to do all things well. I want to have a well oiled machine running here in our home in which the schooling and housekeeping are smoothly integrated. In which the kids recognize and do their part to keep it going.

I see in my minds eye how I want things to look and run and then I look at the reality and there is a minor gulf between the two.

And then....

And then I get down on my knees and I pray and I give it all up to Him. Because I recognize that I'm trying way to hard to do it in my own strength. I'm trying way to hard using my own feeble brain and my weak, weak muscles.

I realize I can't do it on my own.

Again.

This is not the first time I've had this revelation. Oh no. I've had this revelation at least a hundred times in the last year alone. Yet it's a lesson I keep having to go over again and again. Praise the Lord He is patient and willing to teach me again and again.

And since I'm learning my lesson yet again, I have decided to take a blogging break. I know I only manage to post once a week but right now I can't even do that in a timely fashion. So I'm going to give myself a break. One less thing on the plate to worry about, so to speak.

So...for the next six weeks...I'm taking a break from blogging. My idea (I refuse to call it a plan) is to return to the bloggy world around the beginning of October when hopefully things will have returned to some kind of predictable pattern and we are settled in our school routine.

Thank you for continueing to check up on me this summer and I hope that you will come back this fall. I really and truly appreciate every visit and comment I receive from all of you. And thanks for allowing me this time.

I will lift my eyes to the hills -

From whence comes my help?

My help comes from the LORD,

Who made heaven and earth.

Psalm 121:1~2

As The Chicken Turns

When we last left our lovely flock two new chickens had joined. One was learning the meaning of pecking order and the other was enjoying immediate acceptance. Apparently there was more going on than just mistaken identity.

You see we thought the reason the others accepted the new Barred Rock was because they thought it was the missing bird that Chewy, our dog, had sent off to poultry heaven. Now we're thinking that it may be because she is really a he.

What do you think? Believe me it was no easy trick getting this picture. However, please note the large crest and floppier waddle than his more feminine kin.

He can certainly give you quite the evil eye but he seems to be a really rather docile bird. He has yet to crow but I'm worried it might happen any morning now.

We do have a contingency plan in place for him to go back to his original farm and trade him for a her. I'm putting it off it until we know absolutely, positively for sure though because Daughter gets so attached to all of the birds. She gets big sad eyes whenever I say we will have to relocate "Joseph" aka Josephine to his farm.

Boy am I a soft touch.

But really. We can't keep a rooster here in town. We value our good neighbors.

So what do you think? Have I got a rooster or a hen here? "Joseph" is the bird on the far right. Doesn't his comb look a.lot. bigger than his hen friend standing next to him?

Cockadoodledoo!

Stay Tuned....

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by and checking in on me today. I'm afraid that I have to postpone a more lengthy entry until tomorrow (Thursday) because I'm not actually at home today. I'm at my dear friend Shawna's house visiting and enjoying her new farm. You can check out some of her pictures here.

So stay tuned or come on by tomorrow sometime and I will have something more to say!