Another life change

This picture was taken my way out the door to take Gracie to school last Friday. Her class was having an Imagination Celebration and they were allowed to dress up for the day. She picked out one of her bumblebee costumes to wear. It was a cold morning so she had her little cape on too.

What was special about this day was also that it was her last day of preschool.

Jason and I got to looking at the “state of the union” recently and realized that there was a real possibility we could come up short on the amount that we will need for our travel expenses for our two trips to Ethiopia if we didn’t figure out how to save some more money.

In looking at everything, we made several decisions and changes and one of the things that came up was Gracie’s preschool tuition.

I’ve always thought preschool was a must. No ifs ands or buts about it. But, going to preschool full time 5 days a week in the area where we live is quite expensive. We’ve had her in school for a little over a year now. She has beyond loved it and I have had the opportunity to be a little more productive in my work at home during the day.

But, I had this thought: “We are asking God to provide. What if he has already provided, but we’re just using what he’s provided for something else?”

Wow.

Some might think it’s not a big deal, but it was a hard decision to make. I’m already maxed out in the busyness department and I just doubted that I’d be able to NOT have her in preschool every day.

It really didn’t take long, though, for us to realize that we needed to set aside those funds for our adoption expenses and preparing for our new daughter.

But, my feelings about preschool being very important haven’t changed. So, I’m homeschooling her for preschool. I want her to have every opportunity to be ahead of the game before she gets to “big school” as we call it in our house.

Today was Day 1 of our homeschooling adventure and it was a GREAT day!

Here’s a picture of her from this morning doing a counting activity with beans and muffin tins.

I have adjusted my daily schedule to allow 2 hours each day to do school with her. We have a special area set up for school, we have a schedule and are even going to do “specials” each day such as Art, Music and Bible time.

This is requiring quite a lot more discipline on my part than I’m used to, but it’s a good thing. Not only is keeping her used to her schedule important, but keeping myself on a schedule is helpful to me as well.

I usually spend far too many of my days doing either house upkeep OR office work OR stuff with the kids but rarely can figure out how to do everything in the same day. And I’m always behind on everything.

This weekend, Jason helped me get caught up on all the housework  so that I’d be ready to tackle this new adventure today.

And it was an amazing day! I can only hope that we have many more days like today. In addition to spending 2 hours doing “school”, I made time to do a little housework, a little office work and even worked on stuff I need to do for a retreat this coming weekend. Gracie loved every minute and is enjoying her “home school” and being home with Mamma.

So… wish me luck! It dawned on me today that I will not have anymore child free days for many, many years. I thought I’d have until school got out for summer to be able to really catch up on things that I want done before the baby comes home. Like scrapbooking and some other organizational things around the house. And maybe even enjoy some “me” time- like going to the gym at least a few days a week, running errands in peace, stealing away a piece of an afternoon to have a quiet lunch date with my husband, taking an afternoon hot bath before the kids get home or even taking the occasional nap while I can. BUT… plans changed. And that’s ok. I truly believe that God created me to be a Wife and a Mother above all other earthly things and this latest adventure is a direct extension of that calling.

No matter how tired I get or how overwhelmed I might feel, I will not slack or give up. I will continue to give my all to my family. I pray for God’s guidance each day and I know that I will not succeed if I don’t keep my eyes on Him first. He’ll give me the strength to prevail!!

I’ll end by saying that in spite of all the super duper “kraziness”, I love my life!