Homeschool Road Trip 2016/17: Rest Stop

It’s Thanksgiving break.

Already.

It seems like just a few weeks ago we started this school year, fresh and ready for the challenges, even though I myself wasn’t too sure of my footing. But here we are close to the halfway point, pulled over in a rest area for a few days.

So….what are rest areas, really? When I’m on a road trip I don’t actually stop too often at them. Maybe if the coffee I’ve been drinking won’t let me drive the remaining 40 miles to lunchtime. But for the most part I think of rest areas as rife with ne’er-do-wells waiting to prey on road-weary travelers catching a few winks (exactly how many horror movies involve gruesome roadside murders?) and vending machines that charge too much for stale donuts (wait the 40 miles till lunchtime, it’ll be worth it). I’m suspicious of them, I guess says it best. I don’t feel like I can really “rest.”  It’s a misnomer, this term “rest area”--to me anyway.

And I guess I feel the same way about this little week of rest in this homeschool year. Yes, it’s a week for thanksgiving and for extra sleep. It’s a week to break into holiday baking and make plans with family. A week to enjoy a wonderful meal with the people I love most in the world. I’m supposed to be able to let down my guard and….rest.

But I don’t feel like I can really do that, because rather than pulling out the map and realizing how far I’ve come since setting out that first day of school, I’m analyzing the places where I could have made better time. Kicking myself over side trips that, in my opinion, have cost us Important Progress. Agonizing over stretches of road where I dozed and took my eyes off Lesson Plan Road. Where is the oomph and eager expectation of what God is going to do this year? Like on any road trip, the out-of-the-starting-gate August school bravado does wear thin as the miles tick by underneath the wheels.

But God told me back at the start of the journey, in Homeschool Road Trip Rule #12 (see here), “I’ve gone ahead of you every single mile. I’ll clear the way before you and bring you safely to the end of the trip.”

More importantly, Jesus IS rest. In Matthew 11:28-30 He said, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is weary, and My burden is light.”

Jesus knew about the importance of rest stops. There are many examples in the gospels of Him going away alone for periods of time, and in one notable story He led the disciples away after a busy season of preaching and healing so that they could rest and eat and debrief their experiences with Him.

So, real-world rest stops might really not be the place to let down my guard, roll down my windows and fall dead drooling asleep...but taking some time to shut off my Usual Routine and debrief with Jesus is a safe biblical choice: pull out the map and get His progress report on my journey so far.

He’ll perhaps tell me that the field trips we've done so far (a Sea World family trip, a couple of scenic photo shoots with my budding photographers, a train trip day to the California Surf Museum, a day exploring the history of Balboa Park and the San Diego Zoo, and a first-time hike in a nearby national park) went far to make educational memories.

Maybe He'll remind me of His faithfulness to answer longstanding prayers. For example, one son finally got free learning disabilities testing at the community college in which he is dual-enrolled; he is now eligible for a host of special accommodative services and took advantage of priority registration to sign up for two more classes in the spring. Said son was also blessed with two amazing professors who made the transition to college, as a 16 year old dyslexic student, gentle and welcoming. Other son has nearly completed a full range of testing by the school district to finally determine the complex road map that is his brain :-) and--bonus faithfulness--this testing has given us the opportunity to show the IEP team what being in the world and not of it looks like. I have sensed strongly that we are a curious anomaly to these folks and that this story is not yet over; we are not the weird, sour, rigid people they imagined homeschoolers to be, and they are clearly drawn to us. It's possible that He'll say these areas of progress make up for some of those rabbit trail days I'm more likely to look at.

However, Jesus will probably tell me that texting or Instagramming or could-have-been-done-later-in-the-day grocery store/bank/doctor's appointment trips during school hours breaks His caution that “driving” is the most important thing I’m to do this school year. It's ok, Lord, I need to hear that too...and while we're at it, can we review the Homeschool Road Trip Rules?

Lastly though, He will likely surprise me with a perspective I’m missing and help me readjust the route to "lunchtime," aka Christmas BREAK (as in, where we will actually pull off the road, shut off the car, pause the journey, and do something different for a few weeks).

So, if you need to GPS me, I'm pulled over here at the Matthew 11 Rest Area just to catch a breath.

Hey, only 40 miles till lunch.

BOOK REVIEW: Crossing the Waters

Lately I've found myself spending more time in the gospels than usual, slowing down to read them through several times before moving on with my journey through the Word. I've wanted to look more closely at Jesus, so when I saw Crossing the Waters, by Leslie Leyland Fields, I grabbed it as an intriguing book. And it is.

As the matriarch of a large Alaskan fishing family, Fields lives on the water. She faces practical challenges inherent in this life she has chosen, such as storms, scant fishing grounds, and an often-seasick youngest child. In this book, she explores how the waters in which we see stories take place in the gospel speak to spiritual issues. Making connections between events in her physical life and those the gospels speak to in our spiritual lives, she takes us along on a sort of "thinking aloud" journey.

What I enjoyed most about the book was the way Fields flashes back and forth from what she is doing in the moment (for example, cleaning nets) to Jesus and the disciples doing something similar (for example, cleaning nets). She muses as to what Jesus was actually trying to convey in His parables as she "walks them out" in real time. She even takes us on a trip to Israel and intersperses her thoughts and Jesus' words as she goes out on the very waters that He traveled.

If you are yearning for a closer look at the gospels from a unique angle, this might be just the book you are looking for. For more information on the author, go here.

I received this book free of charge from Tyndale Publishers in exchange for a fair review.

BOOK REVIEW: Fraying at the Edge

Second in "The Amish of Summer Grove" series, Fraying at the Edge delves deeply into complex issues of living faith on both sides of the line that separates believers from unbelievers.

Picking up right where Ties That Bind ended, Ariana Brenneman has agreed to live with her biological Englischer parents for one year so that the midwife who mistakenly switched her and the Brenneman's daughter at birth will not be prosecuted. Her father, a vehement atheist, seeks to broaden her worldview by insisting she experience situations that her Amish world would refuse; his hope appears to be that she will "come to her senses" and realize faith is silly and unappealing. Her mother, with whom she lives during this time, has remarried; she also gets to know her sister, who likewise does not understand Ariana's faith. Ariana tests out new ideas and activities and filters them through the Word and ways that she loves and to which she yearns to return. She also filters them through Quill Schlabach, her longtime friend now living in the Englisch world...but this is complicated by her feelings about what she perceives as his abandonment of her at a critical time in her life.

Meanwhile, Skylar Nash, the Brenneman's biological daughter, has to fulfill her part of this agreement: she is to live with them for one year in order to avoid going to rehab for her prescription drug problem. Angry and rebellious against what she feels are ridiculous Amish ways, she attempts to continue running her wayward life without the family realizing she is still using drugs. When her life crashes, she learns that her Amish family really do love her...because Jesus really does love her.

What I liked best about this book was its honest look at the deep issues of faith. Do we believe because it's something we've always been told, or is our faith real enough to transcend the allures of the world? Can we be in the world and yet not be of it? Can we truly love those whose beliefs are different--even hurtful and destructive? The book doesn't end with easy answers; Ariana is unsettled when she returns to Summer Grove. I am looking forward to seeing how she processes these issues of faith in the next book.

I received a copy of this book from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers free of charge in exchange for a fair review.