Eagles on 3...

This weekend I spent my time in one of my favorite places, coaching my favorite sport, hanging out with some of my favorite people!

Jordan and Abbee joined the HIS Eagles this season and I quickly got recruited to help coach. (What I didn't realize during the recruitment process was that by "help coach" they actually meant COACH the girls while we coach the boys! Pretty sneaky.)

On Friday, we took a 16U girls team to College Station where we played in an 18U tournament! That in itself would have been challenging, but our so-called 16U team is made up of half 15 and 16 year olds and half 13 and 14 year olds. (READ: Jr. High/JV versus Varsity!) The majority of our team played basketball for the very first time LAST YEAR! So, although we didn't win one game this weekend, the girls fought hard and had some beautiful moments that point to the fact that in a couple of years, we will be contenders in the 18U division.

Having no idea what to expect from organized homeschool sports, I was SO IMPRESSED by the teams we played against. They were incredibly talented and if no one told you, you would have guessed you were at a high school girls basketball tournament except for the fact that the girls were all playing in denim jumpers!

No. Not really!

Sports was one of my concerns when I was thinking about homeschooling, and this worry has proven to be completely unnecessary. The girls have made fast friends with their teammates, and have found a place to enjoy the sports they love to play!

As if all of the basketball fun wasn't enough, I FINALLY got to make use of the Aggie Student Rec Center that opened the semester AFTER I graduated! (It is AMAZING!) I can now let go of some of the bitterness that I have held on to the last 15 years knowing that my dollars helped build the center and I never even got to use it!

I'm looking forward to more fun with this awesome group of girls this season. Eagles on 3...

1, 2, 3, EAGLES!

Straight from the horse's mouth...

Although not exactly the way I had anticipated, the cat's out of the bag! The fact that I am home schooling my kiddos this year has been said out loud!! I know that every parent makes choices for their children based on their own perspectives, experiences, and what is right for their families at that given time. So, for anyone who actually cares, here's the scoop:

After 4-5 months of wrestling, praying, and seeking the counsel of friends and family, Wes and I have finally decided that this is indeed the direction that is best for us.

Because SO MANY of my friends are public school teachers and because SO MANY of my children's teachers have been AMAZING, I just wanted to say that this decision had nothing to do with a bad public school experience or unhappiness with the education our kids have received so far. It is exactly because our experience overall has been quite positive, that the struggle to decide was so difficult.

We arrived at this decision with one purpose in mind: to simplify our lives. Our lives have become so chaotic and busy that we are sacrificing the important for the sake of the urgent. So we are taking a year to slow down and focus on the important. Quite frankly, in a family our size, the demands on our schedule placed by the public school system are just more time than we are willing to sacrifice.

So, here we are, embarking on a totally new way of doing life. I am completely freaked out but totally at peace. I know there will be highs and lows and lows and lows; but, I have a feeling that we will not look back on the time we gained with our children and ever regret our decision.