I Heart Fall @Nelson Academy

Fall is my absolute favorite season.  The weather here in Hotlanta is finally cooling down.  Today was Friday, which is always a little more laid back than the rest of the week.  We finished up the necessities and headed outside on the front porch.  We brought out a little kid's table from the basement, our Handbook of Nature Study, magnifying glass, oil pastels, nature notebooks, and of course the girls brought their dolls and stuffed animals.     

We gathered some leaves from trees in our yard to color, and are in the process of choosing which tree we are each going to watch throughout the seasons.  We keep getting distracted and haven't actually chosen one yet.  We found one leaf with an insect's shedded skin on it.  It was like a little white skeleton.  We are going to take it the Nature Exchange at our Nature Center.  The kids earn points when they bring in things like this, and they use the points to buy other stuff, like rocks, shells, or animal teeth.   

We did our coloring with oil pastels.  It's the first time we used them.  I think regular crayons would have worked better for coloring leaves, but they will be great for other drawings.  The color shows up really well.  This is a kids' set I got from Dick Blick.  

You can see the three trees right in front of our house.  Two are pines, and I think the other is a white or live oak.  While the girls went off and played, I sat and sketched my front yard.  I wanted to write out the names of each tree for future reference and include a picture of their leaves.  The girls saw me doing that in my own nature journal, and then wanted to come back and draw some more on their own.  I love that!  I love doing things in my nature journal, but I so easily get caught up in just doing things to prepare them to do an activity that I often don't take time to do it myself, even though I enjoy it.  I realized again today, though, that the best way to get my kids interested in nature study is to be interested in it myself.  And I am!  I will admit I'm a little intimidated because I grew up knowing so little about nature (hence not knowing what trees are in my front yard...).  I was outside all the time, though, and I loved it!  Now I get to share that love with them, and they get to learn while they are at it.


We used our field guide for trees to figure out which leaf went with each tree.  Evie traced her leaves and colored them.  Kylie just drew hers.  I laid a page on top of my leaf and shaded it.  As I said, I would suggest crayons for this in the future.

It was a fun day had by all.  One of those days I am really grateful we get to do this homeschool thing!

A New Grip

I was flipping around on blogs the other day (somehow I got off track from the email I was intending to respond to...Dear Jesus please teach me how to be a mom and focus on one thing at a time...), and I came to A Path Made Straight, by Elise, here.  I really like this blog, and the verse she uses as the theme really caught my eye:

"So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees!  

Make out a straight path for your feet 

so that those who are weak and lame 

will not fall but become strong."

 Hebrews 12:12-13 NLT

I love this verse, and I had never seen it in the New Living Translation before.  And I so needed it that particular day.

Why, you may ask?

Because I was tired of doing dishes.  Again.  Tired of mediating arguments.  Tired of constantly confronting selfishness and unkindness.  Tired of little girls crying over what I felt were very small, insignificant things.  Tired of always thinking about what the next meal would be.  Tired of looking at my kitchen floor and it's plethora of dog hair and that sticky spot I just stepped on.

Daily life was feeling a lil' bit meaningless.  Without purpose.    

"So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees!"  

A new grip.  I needed a new grip.  I needed to let go, wipe the sweat and dirt off my hands, and  refresh my grip.  This was not the time to give up.  

A new grip on why I am doing this.  Why am I staying at home?  Why did our family choose to homeschool?  Do all these little things really even matter?  Do they even make a difference?  

I take a "new grip".  I grasp again my purpose here.  I hold it and look at it, re-focusing my eyes and my heart on what He is calling me to do.

I see the incredible, and at the same time frightening, potential for influence in the lives of my girls.

For a moment, I feel its heavy weight.  Then, I remember with relief that He never asked me to bear it alone.

That said, it is my responsibility to hold it with Him.  I am accountable for my part in these little lives.  

And I see so clearly that it does matter....it all matters!

It was like God gave me a little "snap out of it!" slap on the head.


Make out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall, but become strong.


These two little souls are depending on me.  They are depending on me to know how to be strong.      


This may sound dramatic.  But I am finding that it cannot be overstated.  I think in our world and in our culture today, we have been so diligently trained to develop ourselves as individuals that we literally (and conveniently) forget how our actions impact others.  We choose not to remember that we are responsible for that impact.  I can throw no stones here...I do it too.  The truth is, I am not just an individual on an island and sometimes I don't like that.


I am responsible for my influence on these children, and anyone else my life touches, for that matter.

Peter was inspired to write that we have everything we need for life and godliness.  If God put that in His Word, then it's true.  I have everything I need.  But I have to ask Him.  I have to seek.  I have to follow and obey.

And when I lose sight, which I will, I need to get a new grip.  To stay the course.  To not grow weary of well-doing.  

These two little people who spend all day, every day with me are watching everything I do.  
Even if they don't realize it, they are learning how life is supposed to be lived... from me.

They see how I talk to my husband, how I talk to them, and even how I talk to my dog.

 They see how I treat my own parents.

They see how I navigate my relationships with friends and neighbors.

They see how I handle my own sin and imperfection.  They see how I handle theirs.  They see me at my worst moments and my shining moments.

When they think about how to walk with God through these Shadowlands, they will picture me and their Daddy.  They will try and do it like we did.

They see all of it, and they are taking it all in whether they want to or not. 


A little frightening?  Yes, I know!  Thankfully, God promises that if we are walking with Him, His grace makes up for what we miss.  

Keeping the sink cleaned out at the right times shows my girls diligence.  When I do it without complaining it shows them how to be content in all things, and that work can be joyful and does not have to be drudgery.  It demonstrates the power of doing all things unto the Lord, and the joy found there.

And sometimes, leaving that pile of dishes in the sink so I can sit down and play with them shows that they are a priority over things.  That they are more important than my list.  This is so hard for me.  But it matters that I do this.  It speaks volumes.  

What about the selfishness?  I mean, do I really have to deal with it every time?

My 'new grip' says that every time I hear one of my girls giving in to selfishness, it is an opportunity, not an annoyance or an inconvenience.


It reminds me that this is the whole point I am here....to teach and train and direct and gently nudge... and sometimes give a firm push.  

As I remember this, my perspective shifts.  I can honestly say thank You to God for giving me another opportunity to teach my girls that selfishness is a prison.  Selfish people end up very lonely, and very unhappy.  (Can I just quietly mention the irony of the fact that when I don't feel like dealing with their selfishness, it's because of my own selfishness.  Apple.  Tree.  Jesus, help us.)

I am able to see that it is a holy privilege to be the one who gets to teach them how seek forgiveness, give forgiveness, and ask God to help them live His way.  I get to give them the chance to "try again", and see what it feels like to think of others first.

They get to experience the rewards of doing life His way...and in that they get to experience Him.  And isn't that the whole point?

Although our words and what we directly teach our children are important and should be done intentionally, they are not what most determines their future path.

It is not words.  It is not teaching.

It is who we are.  


More of Him, less of me.   


Let us, who have been given the privilege of raising this next generation, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty strength!   Let us get a new grip with our tired hands, strengthen our weak knees, and make a straight path for our feet.  It is God's way to teach the next generation to do the same.

It is the way these young ones, who come to us weak and lame, do not fall,
but become strong.