Homeschool Moms' Retreat

Last Saturday was our 1st annual Lighthouse Moms' Retreat at the beach!  Two dear ladies, Michele and Ingrid, planned and hosted the one day event for 11 of us at a beach house on Topsail Island, about 2 ½ hours from Raleigh.   A few of us decided to go down the night before and stay at a motel on the beach, to make it a bit more of a getaway, and allow us to arrive by the start time of 8:30am without having to wake before the sun!  It was a wonderful day of fellowship with both old and new friends, glorious worship on the beach, encouragement from scripture, creative activities, good food, and emotional refreshment.

Ingrid reminded us that we are not just moms, wives, teachers, home managers, etc, but we are  daughters of the King, and beloved by him!   Our WORTH comes not from how well we teach spelling or clean the house or manage our budget, but our worth comes from the fact that we are God's creation and  his precious children.  Michele taught that our BEAUTY isn't measure by our weight or our haircolor,  our wardrobe or our words, but from our relationship with Jesus Christ.  This was a very good reminder for all of us women. 

Late September is a PERFECT time for a beach retreat!  The weather was gorgeous.

Ready and waiting for us to arrive!

almost there!

Singing along to praise songs and worshiping with scarves and flags on the beach!

We made all-natural skin care products from coconut oil, apple cider vinegar, honey, salt or brown sugar, cinnamon, probiotic powder...

We were a wonderful mix of brand new homeschool moms, seasoned homeschool moms, and even a couple of retired homeschool moms.  

One of our activities involved choosing 5 stones or shells and writing 5 words that the Lord was impressing on you to release or embrace.  Later, we had some time to do something creative involving those words, or even to just rest and meditate. I chose to spend that time with watercolor. 

Ready to Start a New Homeschool Year.... Oh, Wait.

Here it is, the middle of August.  This week, my husband and I finished our stint as Tuesday morning breakfast cooks at New Life Camp, an overnight Christian summer camp here in Raleigh where my kids have been campers and counselors for the last 20 years. The temps are back in the 80's instead of high 90's.   My Facebook newsfeed is full of posts from my homeschool mama friends already starting school, or for those wringing out the last few weeks of summer for all their worth, planning to start school in the next few weeks.  WalMart and Target are full of back-to-school banners and bins of Crayola markers, glue sticks, spiral notebooks, binders, and backpacks.  My favorite homeschool bloggers are posting all kinds of advice about Getting Started and Easing into the School Year and Surviving High School and Planning Great Field Trips.   And for the first time in 23 years, I am not making lesson plans for a child of mine.

This is my first "new school year" as a retired homeschool mom, and it feels... weird.   Bittersweet.  Surreal.  Suddenly the relentless rush of days of feeding, clothing, planning, teaching, chauffering, tending, counseling, and otherwise raising children has skidded to a halt, and I find myself wistfully thinking back over the years as though flipping through the pages of a scrapbook, catching glimpses of co-op classes and piano lessons and waiting at band practice and reading aloud on the couch and full calendars and a messy house.  The messy house remains.  But I've rolled over into a new season.

I am still teaching other people's children this year,  so I am making middle school geography lesson plans.  My youngest will still be home working this fall before moving away to start college in January. I feel incredibly grateful and have no regrets - except for all those things I wish I had done better.
I am adjusting, but am not quite there yet.