The Huge-ish Life Decision

The last week of July there was a lot to do. Casey was preaching at a camp at HBU. I was trying to catch up on chores and such since we had been away at camp for several weeks. I had get us ready for New York, try to visit the Hubs a little bit in Houston, see some friends that I'd been missing, AND see a friend and her new baby boy in the hospital.

Well, in the midst if all of this, Casey and I were having some serious conversations about Braelyn's school. We really loved the school she was at last year and had enrolled her for her Kindergarten year. But we started to question our decision, mostly due to finances. See, there are a few really important things that we are trying to save for. A house being one of them. And we just got to thinking that we couldn't save the money we want to save AND send Braelyn to this school. We went around and around, weighing our options (not arguing, just thinking things through ;). Thursday afternoon (this was July 28th), Casey was at HBU and I was driving back from seeing my friend at the hospital. I called Casey and the school conversation came up. With tuition being due on Monday, and leaving for New York on Monday...we had to make a decision. When we hung up...my life was on a whole new path. The homeschool path.

Now, if God doesn't have a sense of humor, I don't know who does. It just so happened that the very next day a two-day homeschool conference was being held in The Woodlands. So I made a few phone calls (to prepare myself for the onslaught of information that was sure to assalt me upon my arrival, of course), I made a strict vow not to cry, and I went to bed early.

Friday I had spent a long time in the Classical Conversations booth. I had been familiar with the classical education approach for a while and it appealed to me very much, but I did worry that maybe I liked it more for myself as the teacher than I did for Braelyn as the student. But, I went to several sessions about CC and went home that night and did a little research. I went to the CC website to look for the groups in my area (the CC group meets once a week, plus field trips and such) and my eyeballs nearly fell out of my face because leading one of the groups was my good friend Melanie B. I clicked her name and began typing away an email explaining our crazy situation. Being the sweetheart that she is, she met me at the conference the next day and we talked for several hours about the program and homeschool in general.

In a nutshell, I went Friday morning with virtually no idea what I was going to do as far as philosophy, curriculum, HS group, nothing. And by Saturday afternoon I had a plan, a curriculum, a group and a certainty that the Lord had orchestrated it all.

So...there it is. In a matter of about 3 days we became a homeschool family.

I got a loose outline of my HS plan on Saturday and then put the whole issue (and all of our other life issues, quite frankly) on a shelf in my brain.

Went to church on Sunday.

Packed suitcases.

And left for New York on Monday morning.

I have never in my life been so ready for a vacation. EVER.