Day 5 - The "Home" in "Homeschooling"

The word "home", the color yellow, one of my favorite authors, and the peace of the countryside... This picture says it all.

Home.  It is somewhat essential to the word "homeschooling," yet why do I struggle to actually be home during the week?  Activities, errands, ballet, piano, playdates can easily distract me from actually being "home" to "homeschool."  I don't know if it's a struggle for other homeschool families, but it has been for ours.  

Last year, we had our homeschool group on Monday mornings, piano on Tuesday afternoons, church on Wednesday evenings, ballet on Thursday evenings, and random field trips on Fridays.  For some, this may not even seem like much, but for our family, it just got to be too much.  So this year, we cut out piano.  Not much, but every little bit helps.  Next year, our schedule might be totally different.  As a morning person, I have found the mornings to be more sacred.  On the days that I give up that time, very little gets accomplished.  

A few years ago, I was impressed by a passage in Titus referring to the older women in the church teaching the younger women "to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind..." (Titus 2:4-5a)  At the time, I really struggled with being home on a consistent basis.  If I got overwhelmed by the housework, then off we went to Target.  But as I was busy running to and fro, taking my children to important activities, I was frazzled!  I was not self-controlled.  I was not kind and I truly believe it was because as a stay-at-home mom, I wasn't home.   I truly feel blessed to be home with our girls and do not take it lightly or for granted.  I pray that "home" will always be for our family the nicest word there is.