Utopian Plans vs Everyday Reality

I borrowed the title from one of my fave blogs, one of the few I actually follow, The Half-a-Hundred-Acre Woods blog. I get it through email, which I highly recommend doing if you want down-to-earth Godly homeschool inspiration! Anyway, I have corresponded with Brandy (love her name....loved the song by that name when I was a girl) a couple of times, and as I replied to her this morning, I realized that this is what I wanted to say in my own blog as this school year rounds to the finish. So rather than write it all over again, I copied it and will add it in for you all to read.

 {As for my next year of blogging, my *intent* is to blog every Friday, at least, to recap the week, if not more....I started the blog to try out blogging and basically to create a permanentish copy of the paper copy I print out for myself and put into our yearly scrap/slambook (I do scrapbooks old school, which since scrapping became an art medium they now call my style slambooking! Go figure.} 

So here's the aforementioned letter:

 Hi there!
Thank you again!!

This was so encouraging to read as this is the second year that things didn't go so well as I'd planned.
Sara's 1st grade year went fine. Then 2nd grade got started and went south around Christmas...the Holidaze!! ;)
We still got plenty done that "could count" as school but I certainly didn't hit her phonics or math quite as much as I had hoped
and not with the curriculum I had bought for that purpose. Then we powered through that leftovers of a good portion of it at the beginning of 3rd grade...though not all of it....determined not to let it happen after Christmas again, I determined to start the rest in January.

God's hand was on that...it turned out a dear CC friend had been doing a co-op with another friend of hers who suddenly decided to back, leaving my friend with all sorts of stuff ready and no one to co-op with. I jumped in and said I would co-op with her. She had wanted to do some of the same materials I already had so that was my contribution. We did this for months and then another family whom we had known for a long time asked to join....and while it seemed like a good idea at the time, it turned out very very different.

In the end to sum up without gossiping, God was at work and a situation manifested that revealed that this "Christian" family in out midst and hearts was not living biblically, but only picking and choosing what they wanted and re-interpreting scripture to suit themselves....and the outcome if that was a scene of violence and hysteria played out by one of their children with ours. And the parents blamed us for their daughter's behaviour! They left us, saving us from having to ask them not to return....though afterwards sent many emails still blaming us.

We put that past us and rejoined for more co-op....which was blissfully peaceful again....but found our batteries rather drained from the spiritual combat....we decided we would each finish out the leftovers over the summer at our own paces in our homes and rejoin in the fall, freshly charged.

For my friend, that has been great. For me, it only relieved a portion as you see I am living in an arena of spiritual combat....without going into gory detail, which I cannot share here, there are "issues" being played out here as well.
And it's not pretty. Sigh...after one house built on sand situation, I got promised rock but instead it was not even sand...more like quagmire.....and it's going down, slowly but surely, it is going down, and I am trying to homeschool through this, praying and praising God as much as I am able.....

..and this summer will be rough...I already feel it......but I am planning for her 4th grade year nevertheless and will be using some of what I had planned for her 3rd grade year...oh well.....I have been inspired by the concept of Festina Lente from Dr Andrew Perrin and by Leigh Bortins statement that you can never cover the basics often enough.....and you sharing your path has been very encouraging...so thank you for being so transparent!!!

I will be praying for you throughout the summer that your next year, as well as mine!, will be more tame and in line with your plans and His! While I doubt mine will be, cus I know who I am living with, I will have great hope for you!

And now I must ready for church..

Blessing to you in Him,

Cat

Cat Carter,
Sara's Momma