The Thinking chair....

Once upon a week ago a family got back from a most glorious place.

Back home, tired, hungry and did I mention tired from all the traveling?

The scene above is what happens when the Dining room table is full of everything but our dinner plates. At least we ate together right?  Charly and Piper's little green table was very cozy for us.

Don't you just love the matching hats?  If you look closely you will still notice Nate wearing the bracelet Charly made for him. So tender!

Afterward Piper decided that her wardrobe was just too plain so she removed her cloths and added some dish towels.

The Monday after we got back I got a false start for cleaning but only made it across the bottom floor of our house, it was a great cover-up for our dinner guests later, which turned into a Wii/Snuggie party.

Anja kicked but at boxing while Keith *ahem* made himself cozy in the pink Snuggie while reading a first grade level book. Classic.

Some great laughs and a terrific meal later and our fabulous guests had to venture home, not after I showed them a piece of pipe Nate replaced to our bathroom sink that we drink water out of when brushing our teeth. Nice right?

To me it looks like a dead finger....perhaps it is.

Things were slowly cruising along as I tried several times to unpack our clothes, which BTW are still unpacked, and then we came to Wednesday.....oh Wednesday, when it all came down and I can't believe I am even putting this on here.

Still seems so unreal to me.

I had to go to church for a Primary meeting that night. Half way through the meeting I got all choked up and felt the strong urge that Nate and I needed to consider sending Charly to Public school....in Honey Grove! What does this mean? Why? What!!!?? After everything I have learned about why we SHOULD home school and now to be prompted the complete opposite! I didn't get it then and I still don't get it now why I'm having these feelings but when God tells you to do something you do it!

So here I am still thinking, which I have actually had a lot of time to do this by myself with all the running I have been doing.

In order not to feel like this is a failure on my part I am thinking positively about all the things that could come of this. Like maybe perhaps there are families who could benefit from Charly's testimony whom we wouldn't come in contact through any other way. For whatever reason maybe she is needed there. I don't know.

I have an appt. set up with the school Principal this Thursday and depending on how I feel after that, I would like to sit in on a class with Charly for a whole day before we make any decisions. And of course Pray.

What if this is all just to make clear to me that homeschooling is just where we need to be? It could be to clear up any questions in our mind that we are doing the right thing, but what if it's not?

I have only allowed myself to think of the positive of this and focus on families I know who have great well rounded kids who go to public school. 

Maybe this is what we need, maybe this is what we need to get our scripture study on a more regular basis. I just don't know. But like I said earlier, only thinking on the positive.

I'm nervous and scared and just confused. So I just sit (not in the yellow chair) and ponder and wait. That is all I can do right now.

On another note, my running has been going extremely well, I have been faithful to the program and after only two and a half weeks of running I can already see improvement in my stride and endurance. Saturday evening in the light rain I ran six miles, nonstop! Never in my life have a I ever ran more than 2-3 at a time, so this is a pretty big thing for me.

There may be a tiny kink in the plan this weekend when I go to NY. I'm hoping I can find a running buddy to do my long run this weekend, a seven mile.  I will do my shorts back to back this week and if I just can't find a way to safely run my long then I will just make it up next week.

Wouldn't it be great to run in Central park? Oh I so want to!

With it being 60 degrees outside today Nate and I were playing with the camera and my little fish-eye converter (some inspiration from a fellow photographer Kelly) I really suck at making art out of 'things' but Nate is better at it...he just needs to learn how to change the settings on my camera. Someday, LOL. Nate took these below and I managed to get the yellow chair above.

*Just to throw this in and to make things clear, I in no way am downplaying the importance of homeschooling and I still believe that kids don't need public school to be socialized or educated so please, please, please consider that with any comments you may have.*