Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.
--William Butler Yeats

Over the past decade of homeschooling my tribe, this Yeats quote has become a source of comfort and inspiration for me when the going gets tough. If you’re like me, you have more than enough buckets to fill! Buckets come in all manner of shapes, sizes and disguises—menu planning and grocery shopping, vacuuming the carpet…again, walking the dog, weeding the garden, scrubbing the bathroom—you get the idea. Any number of things that need done on a regular basis in order for life to run more smoothly is like filling a bucket.

The problem comes in when I view my homeschool as just another bucket needing filled. There have been dry seasons when I have looked at my children ( and my husband) as buckets—diligently doing my best to fill each one with good things—biblical truth, knowledge, healthy food, whatever their particular love language might happen to be. Honestly? It’s an uninspiring and exhausting effort. Human buckets are filled with holes and it seems that no matter how effectively I try to keep them filled, everything just leaks back out again.

When I look back at these frustrating seasons, I can see a pattern that unfailingly repeats itself. It is the pattern of focusing on accomplishment and checking things off of my list. Math facts, book reports, measurable progress, tangible goals, portfolio fodder and standardized test scores are all drops of water aimed for my half-full bucket. It is during these times, when I’m trying to replicate public school in my dining room instead of resting in the knowledge that homeschool doesn’t have to look like school at home, that I question my reasons and effectiveness as a parent and a teacher.

That is when God graciously reminds me that He is not in the bucket-filling business and being a full bucket is not what I am created for or who I am called to be. Filling buckets quenches fire, it’s frustrating, tedious work that generally leaves us feeling tired and frustrated. The alternative to filling buckets looks a little different. It’s messy, sometimes even chaotic. It involves inspiring my kids to want to learn for themselves and creating an environment in my home that prioritizes people and relationships over things….even clean laundry sometimes. It involves creating a hunger in my children for understanding God, the world He created, and the purpose He has for them. It means teaching them to ask all kinds of questions, even difficult ones, and then helping them find the answers—persisting until they do ,even when the answers aren’t neat, tidy or in the back of the book. It involves teaching them to ask “Why?” and being willing to say “Why not?”. It creates messes, but it also lays the foundation for memories and relationships.
As a homeschool mom, I believe I’m called to be a fire-starter instead of a bucket-filler. It’s my God-given role to facilitate something in each one of my children’s lives that isn’t meant to be held in a bucket ( or hidden under a bushel). It’s my role to encourage, support and inspire them to step into the roles that God created for them. They were designed to have lives that impact the Kingdom, lives that spread truth, passion, mercy and the love of Jesus like wildfire—lives that aren’t complete just because the bucket is full.

Don’t get me wrong. Math facts and spelling rules are necessary, just like table manners and tying your shoes and two years of a foreign language if you want to get into most colleges. I am pro-academic excellence and higher education and mastering skill sets in all required subjects. I’m just saying that if I spend my life ladeling facts and information into my kids’ heads like an old-fashioned bucket brigade, then I’m missing the point.
A bucket can be filled…and sit…full… until it stagnates. A fire starts with a tiny spark and then grows until it is a force to be reckoned with. Yes, it has the potential to be dangerous and destructive if it isn’t controlled, just like our sweet children. But fire, when it is well tended, has the capacity to bring energy, heat and light into a dying, cold, dark world.

I don’t know about you, but in my homeschool I am ready to strike the match.

It's a blog ,eat ,blog world....

January. For a month that heralds new beginnings, it's my least favorite. There are so many exciting things that need attention, so many opportunities, but I feel like I'm stuck in my cave waiting for the spring thaw. Left to myself I would blog....read a bunch of blogs.....eat....read more blogs....eat ( chocolate)....have a cup of coffee to switch things up a bit......and read some more.

This year is my fortieth. Not that this is incredibly significant to me, other than the fact that I think I should have made peace with myself by now and have some idea of how to settle in to life authentically. Honestly living. Engaging the culture I live in the way I am designed to do---with compassion, courtesy and grace, but without apology at the same time.

It's been an interesting week full of paradoxes---worship and doubt, excitement and hesitation, confidence and uncertainty. As I am sorting through teenagers applying for early entry to college classes, finding community in my community, figuring out how to portfolio for the first time in our homeschool journey.....I'm feeling a bit like the new girl in class---wondering if I've got something stuck in my braces and if anyone is gonna ask me to sit at their lunch table.

If I'm honest with myself I'll recognize that I've already been issued the invitation of a lifetime.

The people I love, I call to account---prod and correct and guide so that they'll live at their best. Up on your feet, then. About face! Run after God!'
Look at me. I stand at the door. I knock. If you hear me call and open the door, I'll come right in and sit down to supper with you. Conquerors will sit alongside me at the head table, just as I, having conquered, took the place of honor at the side of my Father. That's my gift to the conquerors! Are your ears awake? Listen, listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches.

Way back in the day from high school latin class, I remember that Janus was the Roman god with two faces who stood in the door, looking ahead and looking behind. January fits that bill pretty well---I tend to look back on the things that have happened, that should have happened and wonder what's next. At this moment, I'm feeling that time is too precious to squander in my January funk.....I want to live a life of substance right now---not a life of glory, but a glorious life. One that resonates with truth, honesty, laughter, mistakes that have been learned from, compassion freely given---a life that is listening to the Wind Words....excuse me, there's Someone at the door. I'm pretty sure He's inviting me to sit at His lunch table.....it isn't with the popular crowd, but that makes it all the more significant....

Singing in the rain
Jake saves the day
Outer Banks
Audubon Swamp

Thanks for the memories, 2007!

Making noodles with dad for Thanksgiving
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Christmas in NYC
Times Square
Ice skating at Bryant Park


Hello 2008!





As excited as I am by the feeling of a fresh new start every January, you'd think that I would remember I get one every day.....Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness!" Lamentations 3:22-23 exclamation point, mine.

Some ladies I enjoy on a homeschool message board that I frequent way too often inspired me to choose a word to focus on for this upcoming year. I chose grace.

Grace is usually defined as "unmerited favor". I am not the queen of dispensing unmerited favor....I tend to give love in return, to offer praise for a job well done, to respond in kind. This year I want to freely give, to be the person who loves in spite of circumstances, hurtful words or bad attitudes. I want to be an example to my children of how to love my husband, them, my parents and my neighbors without a motive or agenda. My desire is that I'd be more giving to those I live with and love the most than I am to strangers....in short, I really want to put my best face forward where it really counts---in the trenches where I tend to be most lax about what people think.

I want to be a reflection of the lavish grace that has been poured out on my life by a beautiful Saviour who knows no boundaries.....my heart is to have that same grace for others this year--in my words, my actions, my responses and my offerings.

2007 was a full year, full of joy and hope and a few disappointments and losses. I am determined to focus on those things that are beautiful, worthy of praise and of good report...while honoring the sad things without being consumed by them. With that in mind, I'm looking back at the past year with thanks and looking forward to all that God has in store on the threshold of this new year.

Olympics....Homer style

The youngers recently completed Homer Price as one of their studies for Beyond Five in A Row. Usually, we end a unit and have a review or a special dinner, but we didn't really *do* anything when we finished our time in Centerburg.....

However, the oldest, who finished with Beyond and FIAR some time ago, is in an ancient history cooperative class. These boys are unearthing ancient Greece right now, and decided to host a day of Olympic games for their younger siblings. After the opening procession, we were visited by several Greek athletes before the opening ceremony. We then competed in world class olympic events ( the wrestling got a little out of hand in my family :-/) that would have made Homer, Uncle Ulysses and Uncle Telemachus proud.....Say! If only we'd had some doughnuts!

Berlin and Sugarcreek

We recently took a day trip to Berlin, Ohio, just to spend some time as a family and enjoy an Indian summer day. The kids were glad to have a school free Monday, Jeff was glad to not be at work or on a flight to points unknown, and I was simply glad--- I'm becoming more grateful and thankful for simple pleasures lately.

So, here's to surprise summer days in October, sweet apple cider, and days spent enjoying family.

The learning curve...

is pretty steep when it relates to me and technology. I've been banned from my own blog for months because I couldn't remember the password, and apparently was too frustrated to follow the instructions for resetting it.

I've just recently decided that I need to do something about my caveman-technotendencies. As recently as last night, when I discovered that I had inadvertantly deleted my camera's memory card which held all of our family vacation pictures. I hadn't downloaded them. I cried.

It wouldn't have been so bad had I not deleted last years vacation photos as well. Obviously, its a problem.

But no more! Today, I recovered my password. I am learning to digitally scrapbook ( as wonderful as those paper creations are, I'll never ever get it done....I'm more craft-challenged than I am techno-challenged.....in fact, at this point, I'm wondering what I am capable of!) I am saving the photos in my hard drive to cd and I'm researching video recorders. I feel like a techno-debutante!

Hey, while I'm at it, I might go really crazy and join a blog ring!