Ahhh, schedules!

I love schedules. I love having a plan. I am good at scheduling things. There is just one problem. Life doesn't happen according to a schedule. Every semester since my third kid was born I have used Managers of Their Homes and made a monstrous schedule that I loved, even though i have never fit in everything I wanted to fit in. Then about a day before the implementation I freak out wondering if I am crazy? Where is the time for playing dollhouse, and painting, and nature walks, and building blocks, and board games, and trips to grandmas? Why do they have to change and grow up so stinking fast??? AAAAAAAHHHHH! And then I talk to God some more and He assures me that a schedule is a good thing, but IT IS ONLY A TOOL. I am not supposed to be a slave to it. If I am, I will lose my mind and lots of great memories. So I trudge forward, and realize that tools are there to help you focus yourself. Life without a plan is chaotic (and I LOVE orderliness). But life that is a slave to a plan is not really living at all. It is a stressful mess for everyone.
So as tomorrow approaches I am going to look at the lovely plan (that I am still tweaking, by the way) and let life happen, and teach the kids, and make time to play with them, and follow their interests. School in the form of homeschool does not happen only between 9 and 3. It extends into evenings of game time and family baking and bike rides, and sometimes into late night documentaries or stargazing. It may be an early morning dog walk with a nature journal in hand to sketch. Maybe it is when you are about to have a cool lesson on China complete with making jade bead necklaces and eating with chopsticks that grandma and great grandma decide to come for a visit, so you can include them or put it off and go with the flow. Either is acceptable and none of it is scheduled. So what if we end devo and decide to go paint our bible lesson instead of do math first, or if we decide to just spend the afternoon reading some cool books instead of learning about quarter notes and paragraph structure. Maybe that lesson on medieval times prompts kids to dress like knights or Robin Hood and they act out medieval life in the yard for a day or two. Good! Kids need to learn by living, and I need to see that and photograph it, because in the blink of an eye, these precious years will be over, and they will be grown. And they will learn much and build relationships and memories that will last.
So here's to my schedule! Thanks for being there to help me be accountable, but also for being flexible enough to let us live a joyous life together!
Ready, set, GO!