small homeschooling update and a field trip

For six months now I've wanted to write an update on homeschooling here - how it's been going, what we've been doing, how we do it, etc.. But I can't seem to find the time.

I really should have set up the computer in Mommy's room so I could blog in peace - because everytime I sit down to write something, someone starts talking to me, asking me questions, needs something, starts whining or fighting, or someone rings the doorbell (unexpected, as always). Our house has turned into an revolving door. I can't seem to finish a thought, let alone a post. Forget about being alone.

I haven't found a balance yet between being a homeschooling mom, a wife, and now missionary. It's too much most days and something usually gives. Right now it's the bathroom, it hasn't been cleaned in weeks, and I'm not sure when I'll get to it. Someone said they are surprised I post as much as I do. I try to post as much as I can because, selfishly, it's fun - and, in my "free time" (haha, whatever) I'd much rather write and play with pictures than clean the bathroom. So the bathroom will remain dirty for a bit longer.

Crocheting I gave up on. Reading, too. Blogging is my only poison now. Don't judge.

This week, now that our car is fixed, and after a long day (all days seems long), we took the kids on a field trip to the Observatory overlooking the city. Another benefit of living in the largest city in Patagonia: a Ford Dealer AND an Observatory. Sweet. There is even a Museum of Fine Arts here, and the Patagonia Symphonic Orchestra. The circus is also in town. Who knew?

Through the Observatory telescope we were able to gaze upon three planets: Jupiter, Venus, and Mars.

We could see Jupiter and the four largest of its 64 moons; even the colored bands on Jupiter were visible.

We saw Venus in it's blue and orange, crescent glory. {Venus waxes and wanes like the moon. The cooler gases in the southern hemisphere are blue right now, indicating it is in winter; the northern hemisphere is orange, indicating summer}.

When we gazed upon a glowing red Mars, we could also clearly see both of its moons.

It was awesome awesome.

When I feel like I'm failing my kids in their home education, unable to get to all the things I want to do with them due to being pulled in so many different directions, I try to remember that they are doing a lot of amazing things. They are also learning Spanish and doing missions with us along the way.

Here in our neighborhood we've been dubbed the the "weird Americans" that teach our kids at home {Tony is quick to point out, "Hey! I'm not American! I'm from here.}. We are also the only homeschoolers I know of within a 10 hour radius. To our friends back home, we're probably weird, too: our homeschooling probably  doesn't look anything like theirs, at least not as of late. We are weird here, there, and everywhere. I didn't expect that to be challenging to me, what others think of us, but it has a little bit. Sometimes I deal with it well, sometimes I don't. Most days I just pray God will pick up the pieces I drop.

It's a hard life, a crazy life - but a good one, a blessed one. Even amidst the seeming chaos of our days, as we still struggle to find normal and firm up what we are actually doing and where we are going missions-wise, I don't know that I'd want it any other way. My prayer is that this life and path we have chosen in obedience to God's Word, He will use for good. Not just in the lives we hope to reach for Christ, but in our own children's lives. We often pray that this crazy missions life we live will draw our kids closer to their Creator and Savior, not push them away. It is a delicate balance I can't say I can even pinpoint most days. Sometimes I feel only God's grace can push us off the fence upon which we teeter daily, push us from the side of crazy over onto the side of safe and sane and saved.