Getting off the Wheel.

Here I am, finishing my ninth week of a sixteen-week semester. It is Kickin'. My. Behind.

Oh, I'm doing well--I have an A in every subject so far. This past week I had four tests, three of which I have grades for: 92, 92, and 92. (I'm in a rut, but a *good* rut!) But I can't seem to get the hang of doing school and doing home along with it. I can do dishes and laundry. And supper about twice a week. But forget dusting and bathrooms. I do have two teenagers, but they are working alot, and I don't see them--I think we need a family meeting or something!

I've heard this is normal for non-traditional students. After all, it's been a long time since we've been the ones studying this hard. I expect next semester to go a little more smoothly. One of my profs says we are looking toward the goal, keeping our eyes on the prize: December, when we have three weeks off. That's when we can go to coffee with a friend, fold laundry, whatever. That made me feel so much better--others are in the same boat as I am!

Still, I feel as if I was on a giant hamster-wheel. I really needed *something.* And yesterday one of my friends on facebook posted this Bible verse:

"Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days." Ps. 90:14

Man. It doesn't take much to get me right back on track. I really need to "sing for joy" and be "satisfied with His love." And it is there for me, for the taking. Do we really realize that? I think I want to say that again:

I can have that (being satisfied). Just for the taking.

I am "singing for joy" today.

A Birth, A Wedding, and a Death...

"'When I was a child I heard an old minister say that a house was not a real home until it had been consecrated by a birth, a wedding, and a death . . . . "

--L.M. Montgomery, Anne's House of Dreams

Anna shared this today over at Pleasant View Schoolhouse, and it made me think about the home I grew up in. My first thought was that it might be difficult to find many "homes," with the way our culture makes families move over and over, through the years. Charming and I had ten homes by the time we had been married ten years. Now it is up to twelve, but next month we will *celebrate* twenty years in this house!

My parents lived in their last home for 42 years. There were two births (one a stillbirth), two deaths, and five weddings from that home, as well as four First Communions and Confirmations. Toward the end, there was a grand 50th anniversary celebration.

Remember the old poem? "It takes a heap o' livin' in a house to make it home?" by Edgar Guest?
The poem sounds kinda corny nowadays, but the sentiment is good. It seems that today "home" is a place to change your clothes on your way from here to there. Even homeschoolers joke that they are "car-schoolers," going from one enrichment activity to another.

We have had two births and two weddings in this home of ours. Thankfully, no deaths, unless you count my parents. But we did most of the raising of six, and all of the raising of our last two, here. I have several neighbors that have been here longer than I. I am a blessed woman.

Will share more on this later. Gotta run for now...