Thankful & School

The past couple weeks have been busy. Summer always goes quickly, but once August comes with the days full of canning and weddings and canning and "doing corn" and canning and vacation and birthdays and canning, it might as well be fall already.

*Maggie's 11-Month picture. Baby turns ONE in just 2 weeks.*

As I was peeling about my 50th tomato and starting to get tired of it I had a sudden "revelation" of thankfulness. Many parts of the world are suffering from drought. People are starving. And although I know in my head that this happens a lot, I had recently seen a photo of a little boy in Somalia that was near death from starvation. And here I was getting ready to complain that I have 100 more tomatoes to peel. I began to feel thankful in a way that I had not felt for a long time. Praise God that we have food to eat, that our bellies are full of good nourishing food, that I can feed my children. Perhaps this is what struck me the most. There are parents in this world who cannot provide food for their children. Such a basic part of life that I know I take for granted.

*Little Miss Abbey*

Anne likes to remind me on nearly a daily basis that she will soon be big enough to go to school. She tells me how she will put on her back pack and go to school and I'll watch her and she'll wave and then she'll go into the school building and "learn her lessons" and then she'll go out on the playground and then she'll come home again. I've had lots of discussions with friends and family about the whole school issue. We are still debating between public school and home school. Even though I have a teaching degree, I never really wanted to home school my kids. But then I think about Annie leaving and being gone all day and how we'd only see her for a few hours in the evening and on weekends and I'm not sure that I want that. Then this morning our devotions from Daily Light on the Daily Path shared the following verses:

John 17:15 "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one."

Philippians 2:15 "Blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world."

Matthew 5:13-14 "You are the salt of the earth,... the light of the world... Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."

2 Thessalonians 3:3 "The Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one."

There were more verses that spoke to this, but I think these best related to my current situation.

We were at a wedding on Saturday and in talking with some people I said something along the lines of, "I just want to move to where I don't have to see anybody else, and I don't want my kids to meet any bad people." And after I spoke those words the reality of it hit me. I genuinely want to protect my children from all the bad in this world. But if they are always living in my protective "Hess Compound" how can they be the salt of the earth and the light of the world? Part of me wants to say "I don't care! I'd rather have them be safe with me than to let them go!" But in my head I know that this is not realistic. I want them to grow and learn and become followers of Christ. And sometimes, they just can't do that under the protective eye of Mama Hess.

*Would you want to send this precious little one to school??*

So now I'm left with the preschool battle. Everyone else is doing it. What should I do next fall? Send Annie or teach her at home? And for those of you who don't have kids or only have really little ones, you pretty much need to sign up your child in January for the coming fall. January is just 5 short months away.