Life moves at breakneck pace around here. ..I know this is the same for most households with kids and working parents and so forth. Our work-at-home, school-at-home structure is still very new to us, and calling it a structure at all might be a stretch. It usually involves the girls waking us up around 8am – which I know is L-A-Ate compared to the time some other toddlers wake up, or compared to people who actually have to get the kids somewhere in the morning and be off to work.

However… it is also our propensity to stay up late, usually working. And lately, the kids have been staying up later, probably because we end up finishing dinner around 7:30. It’s a cycle we’ve yet to break, or even really try to, because when we’re on the road, we eat and go to bed even later.

So anyway… Rod and I have worked out a tentative sort of schedule, that Mondays will be a family day off as much as possible (Don’t be hatin’… Sunday is typically a big, long work day for us and Saturday is spent traveling). For the rest of the weekdays, we take turns working and being with the kids. That’s about as structured as we got…

And the school stuff is…fitting in…which is what started my panicked rant one (hot) afternoon (when Rod had turned off the AC). I started to check with Paige on how she was feeling about her assignments because we weren’t taking more structured time to DO school.

Apparently, when i said “do school,” I clenched my fists and had the Crazy Eyes.

Paige laughed at me, and in her not-quite-17-years-old simplified wisdom, reminded me that part of the reason we have chosen homeschool for this season of our family’s life is because we don’t have to follow a schedule.

OK. Fine.

A few nights later, I had dinner with BFF-Jen, with whom I endured student teaching *5* years ago (unbelievable) and who is still teaching, now tenured and Master-fied, high school English, drama, and journalism. She was talking in passing about traditional block scheduling, which involves students taking certain subjects over one semester, and the other subjects the next.

Can you hear the ‘DING’ ? I did.

So… after discussion with Paige, we decided that right now, she will work hard on her Thinkwell Physics and Pre-calc classes. We will continue with Bible study, Spanish, writing, and ACT prep. But we will hold off on American Lit and history until she finishes the math and science.

We like that idea.

Meanwhile, we just built in a stay in St. Augustine, FL (Even I remember this from grade school social studies… The country’s oldest city! Ponce de Leon!) during our upcoming Orlando vacation… So we *will* use that to study some early American history.

Because. We. Can.

I am still nervous about homeschooling – next post will be about Miranda and Kaity’s foray into Kitchen Table Pre-K. But there are moments that remind me why and how it works for us. Paige is in the kitchen taking her first Physics test right now; I asked her if she wanted me to pray with her beforehand, she said yes, and so I did.

I mean, wow, we have so much freedom to learn and explore and balance and discuss and honor our faith in this school…  That won’t just show up on an ACT score. It will show up in life!
Photo: Paige & her friend E during our ‘back to school’ dinner!

Now, we were wizzing by on the motorcycle, but we weren’t going so quickly that I couldn’t read and process that comment. I know that Labor Day was not initially formed so that we could have a “last official weekend of summer,” a handy deadline for open beaches and white pants and the general free feeling of days when the sun shines longer. But honestly, I am a bit fuzzy on the origins of the holiday (reading up here). That said, I enjoyed the idea of praying for unemployed, felt bad that it never occurred to me, and made plans to act on that.

Just minutes before, I’d made a comment to Rod about a church sign  down the street. The sign there is one that literally changed my life 2 years ago when it advertised the moms’ group to which I belong. I have written about how that group has made me a better mom, a better wife, a better Christian. I often talk about how it brought me to women who have become dear friends, like sisters, to me, and how their children and mine love each other.

It’s a powerful sign.

Which is what I said to Rod as we passed it. That sign is in front of a big church, on a busy street, in a fairly prominent area. It had the power to draw me and several others I know inside its doors for a life-changing, God-honoring experience. But sadly, at least today, it bears a fairly unintelligible “witticism” that will certainly cause people to ponder it for a moment but really has nothing to do with honoring God or letting people know what they might find inside the church.

Too bad. It’s a powerful sign.

I am a writer. The power of words is never lost on me. I do drafts of everything I write, even Facebook statuses sometimes. I have, on several occasions, had to go back and delete something I posted in the name of social networking fun or pointedness, because I know how much words can distract OR destroy people.

Earlier in the summer, on the first morning of our blood/sweat/tears event, I posted a very simple line from an old hymn, one affirming what I wanted that day to hold more than anything. (The line, in fact, was “All to Jesus, I surrender”). Moments later, a “friend” posted her own status, clearly mocking mine, as she had done in the past. Words have the power to distract.

Later that same week, after some, ohshallwesay, drama of the southern gospel nature had taken place, I became a little obsessed with the negative words being said by some people I’d believed were our friends. It didn’t matter that what they were saying wasn’t true or fair or even that not a lot of people were listening. What mattered to me, at the time, was that those words hurt to the point of depression, discouragement, and doubt… because words have the power to destroy.

Thankfully, they also have the power to lift, to enlighten, and even to change someone’s eternity.

~~~> Enter Leo.

Leonardo is an interpreter in Bogota, Colombia for Compassion International. We met him on the first day of our recent trip. I was sitting near the front of our bus with Anhi, and he was helping me talk to her. In the midst of that discussion, I learned about how words changed Leo’s life. It went something like this:

I was translating letters for Compassion while I was in college. It was my dream to study in the United States, but I had gotten my girlfriend pregnant, and that wasn’t going to happen. I remember that in translating so many letters, I kept reading about a future and a hope. I wanted to know the Jesus those sponsors talked about. And now I do.

Leo’s smile when he talks about this story will light a city block, as it will when he speaks of his now-wife, his three year old son, and their baby girl on the way.

There is power in words… to change a life!

Among the many mind-blowing, heart-growing experiences we had in Colombia, many which encouraged us in writing as often and as intentionally to our sponsored kids as possible, Leo’s story is one I share in the first minute of talking about our journey. The people writing those letters had no idea who would be reading them, and if they were like me pre-Colombia, they’d probably never thought about the life, frame of mind, or needs of the interpreter. But I always will now…

There is power in words, a power that makes me check mine more carefully (most of the time, Italian temper being taken into account) in light of all the instances recorded here.

There is power in words.

How will you use yours?

> To learn more about Compassion International.
> Write to your sponsored child online.
> If you live in Chicagoland or NW Indiana> more information about Moms & More.

Click here to view this photo book larger

How can you resist a FREE photo book?

…especially from Shutterfly, who has the prettiest ones!

I can never resist, so when these offers come around, I am all over them.

But there is always a catch, somewhere…

This time, the catch was my own slooooow internet and crazy schedule, but thankfully, Shutterfly extended the deadline by one day.

So I’ve been working all night on it, since the babies went to bed, pausing to help Miranda after she through up her quesadillas and ice cream. (Note: She headed for the bathroom, though. NO puke in the bed! THAT is a milestone…)

I was greatly relieved to discover that the deadline is midnight PACIFIC time!

I had decided to make the photo book all about this year’s Branson GMC so we could have it with us at NQC, which meant I had to pillage Facebook for great pictures, and I found a lot, and I had to narrow them down, and…

I finally finished.

I put in the promo code and saw the wondrous “$0.00″ pop up.

Then I looked at the estimated ship date.

And I weighed the wisdom of spending extra on expedited shipping, since we leave a week from Sunday and the convention starts the 13th.

Turns out, it didn’t matter.

It will not get here in time.

So, here it is. And thanks anyway, Shutterfly, because seriously… it’s a pretty book. And it’s free!

(Disclaimer: This is not in any way, shape, or form a compensated review…)

In the past 4 months or so, Kaity’s little peeps have become very important to her. Because of this, and because of  the possibility that her next birthday will be in Nashville, we decided to throw her a half birthday celebration.

She chose the cuisine, very specifically: (that would be cheese, crackers, chips and “macamole”, and BLUE cake…)

She chose what activities we had: (there was some outside-playing and some upstairs-in-the-bedroom rable rousing as well…)

And she beamed like a 30 month old ray of sunshine when her sister and her friends sang to her.

Our baby of the family surprises me every day with her intelligence, her wit, her temper, and her fierce love.

Happy Half Birthday, dear Kay-kay!

Friday…
- was our first Moms and More leadership meeting of the year, which involved playtime for the kids and sweet Paulie falling asleep on my lap right at the conference table.
- the afternoon/evening was a mixture of preparations for Saturday (keep reading), baking chocolate pie with Miranda, and cooking a big dinner (steak fajitas, Spanish rice, homemade salsa & guacamole) for our family – including Josh and his girlfriend Kirsten.

Saturday…
- was the baby shower for GINA & JERRY – my sister-in-law and brother, who after several long and frustrating years, to which I relate all too well, are expecting MY BABY NIECE in just seven weeks! Mom & I threw the shower, and it was lovely to see 1) Gina, who is truly one of the sweetest people I know, getting shown so much love and 2) my own cousins, aunt, Gramma, whom I do not see nearly as often as I would like. It was also great to catch up with Gina’s mom and the wives of two of her brothers, who all live in Texas.  The girls and I left the house at 10 in the morning (we were EARLY for shower set-up…mark that down!)…Rod met us after the shower for dinner at G&J’s, and we got home at 10pm!

The day also included the Passing of Kelly’s Maternity Clothes. My two totes of preggers-wear are about to embark on their 5th term…2 for 1, one for my friend Maureen, one for Gina, and now on to my ‘baby’ cousin, who is expecting in early Spring! We also just found out that my other cousin is expecting, which means that this very special picture could potentially hold 16 Capriotti women!

Sunday
Any Sunday we get to be at home is special. I love being at my home church. Today Kaity asked to go to “Mommy’s church” (regular service) rather than “her church” (the nursery). I obliged, because honestly, I love having my kids in the service with me, at least some of the time. She was great through most of the service, which also happened to be great. There was an extended time of prayer and worship, and I felt peace about some things that have been nagging at me…mainly, the lack of sale on our house. I am not in a hurry to move away – in fact, a weekend such as this makes me second guess that decision quite a bit, because there are SO MANY people I love here – but I am anxious to move to a smaller, more manageable, less expensive place…and I am really anxious to move from the chaotic limbo of having a house for sale in this crazy market. Anyway…I know that TIME, not just all time, but our time, is in His hands.

After church, Paige went on a zoo trip with the youth group, and KK request CHILI’S! for lunch (where she discovered a fondness for buffalo wings… no surprise there from our little spice girl). After that, we got ready and headed to the kiddie party of the year, our friend’s MESSY party!

The kids roam excitedly from messy station to messy station – flour, paint, shaving cream, sand, and dirt – and also have a few pools and a sprinklers to splash in. They love it. Today’s turnout was great…plenty of kids and for the most part, all of them playing nicely together. As a bonus, my three close mommy-friends and I were all present with our husbands, and while we restrained from trying to “set them up,” we were happy to see them chatting and contemplated taking a 90210-esque picture of the 8 of us, which of course never happened.

Once we got home and everyone was steam-cleaned, we watched Parent Trap 2 (horrid movie, really) with the girls before tucking them in. Rod made a Walmart run to get a Tombstone Pizza (gourmet…) and then we watched The Great Outdoors.

I loved this weekend.

Tomorrow some good friends are coming for a quick visits. We have two weeks left before our September trek. We’re getting our homeschooling in order. We’re almost ready for NQC. And we have exciting ideas for continuing to promote Compassion throughout all our ministries. It was a hectic week last week… it was a wonderful summer weekend!

Oh yeah – and just a few years ago, I got my teaching certification for high school English.

So..why, exactly, have we decided to homeschool Paige this year?

The funny thing is that not many people have asked. Most people assume it is because of our life – namely, all the travel. For some part, that is true. However, we value Paige a lot more than our “work,” and so there is no way we would “yank” her out of public school after 11 years just to support our lifestyle. We have too many other options to make a decision solely based on that.

Back in the spring, a few days after a particularly stressful road trip with Rod, the little girls, and me, I was walking through the house wishing: “I wish we could find a college-aged person…who would be comfortable staying on the bus with us…who would work for food…”

And the next minute, Paige was standing in front of me, waving her hand…

I actually resisted for awhile. Paige has the ability to Absolutely Shine in a variety of situations, but like many American Teenagers, she is also very astute at staying in her room with the door closed for inordinate amounts of time. I worried worry about her growing stagnant, lazy, apathetic…

And then slowly, we realized together that the risks of bad habits developing “because of homeschool” are the same as those that might develop “because of public school.” The real connecting piece, in any of it, is how involved we stay as parents.

So you will not find me shouting from the rooftops, or from Twitter, that public education is bad. I still have my teaching certificate, and I don’t discount using it again someday. I am the product of a public school system that even 15 years ago was considered “not good enough,” and not once was I unable to accomplish something due to a lack of education or sense.

You will also no longer find me saying that homeschool kids are weird, awkward, overly pale, or most likely to live in a van down by the river. I have been absolutely blessed to have marvelous families in my circle of friends who for various reasons have chosen to homeschool – Renee, Sharona, Julie, Maureen, Martha, Deanna, Sarah, Amy… I’m talking to you… and I adore all of their children. None of them are any weirder than mine…

And finally, you will not find me discounting the “secular” educational resources that are available to us because we are a Christian family. That particular bandwagon is one I was very recently introduced to…and one we have immediately opted to stay away from. I cannot discount the existence of dinosaurs because I believe in the Bible. I have been to the Field Museum. I have seen Sue’s skeleton. I believe God made a huge, intricate creation with a history that cannot be summed up in a Bible story. That is one of the reasons why homeschool is becoming a real, appealing vision to us, rather than a solution. Why not combine the best resources – classical information, scientific facts, and the Bible – to give our kids all the knowledge we can? If we train their minds and their hearts, they are going to arrive safely at a Good Place. We cannot force our faith on our children anyway… what we can do is safely and sensibly provide them with all the resources we have and encourage them in their educational journey.

Oh yeah… and we can pray for them.

During Paige’s first school life, she played the viola and the clarinet,she sang in several choirs, including the one that took her to Europe a few months ago, she learned Spanish, she volunteered, she made the honor roll repeatedly, and…

She decided there are now other things in the world she wants to see and do.

Paige’s junior year of high school will include more Spanish (which she would not have had ‘schedule room’ to continue with in public school), more music, more volunteer work, Bible study, more writing, website design, on-the-job training with Branson Gospel Music Revival, fine-tuning her skills as the Best Nanny Ever, as well as college prep classes in English, Physics, Pre-Calculus, and U.S. History. She will have physical education. AND…she will travel extensively as part of our ministry team.

I am taking a deep breath. I cannot convince myself it’s the right thing. But I can see with my eyes of faith how good it will be for Paige and for our family. And seriously, looking at it on paper – and considering I wasted a lot of my junior year of high school on a Dumb Boy, I think she’s in for a great ride!

Sort of Wordless Wednesday

“Close to my soul and yet so far away… I’m going to go back there someday.”

It’s not just Colombia.. it’s the people I met who truly found a way into my heart.. it’s the singularity of purpose and hope we shared during our time together.. it’s the openness around us that is usually so rare in our cynical everyday world.

“There’s not a word yet for old friends who’ve just met…”

So I will settle for the pictures , the lyrics, and some sweet, forever kind of memories.

During the last 18 months or so, my real-life adventures have far outweighed my imagination, and last week in Colombia beat them all. Since we got home Friday night, we have been blessed with captive audiences – family AND concert audiences – who wanted to hear about our experience, see our pictures, and ask us questions. Even I am a little astounded at how much I now *know* about the work of Compassion International… but I am not surprised at how excited I am to share it.

I cannot possibly sum up the events, feelings, learnings, meetings, experiences, heartbreaks, and inspirations of last week. I imagine that I will be pondering them, writing about them, reliving them for a long time. I am still waiting for that A-HA! moment when everything becomes clear… all of the changes in our lives this past year and a half. But my new friend – mi amiga nueva? – summed it up so beautifully on Wednesday night, during our unforgettable dinner with Compassion’s ‘cream of the cream of the cream of the crop’ Leadership Development students. One of ‘the Vivianas’ told us in Spanish (with such animation that she was EASY to understand!) how she tells God what she wants to do, expecting Him to answer, ‘Oh, of course! Of course!’ But our dreams are all about HIS TIMING.

God knows Rod and I – and Paige, our newly blogging champion of a daughter, FYI – are itching for the Next Chapter. It’s not just about moving to a new place (because that is such a bittersweet, complicated step)… it’s about how all this stuff we’ve been doing comes together. And the answer to that is… just wait. We’re going to have to wait on God’s timing to know what the big picture is for us. But in the mean time, we are so, so, so fortunate to have many projects, many opportunities, many spinning plates, to keep us productively occupied. And now that we have been on a Compassion trip, an international adventure… our thirst for travel has grown immensely. Indeed, Lord, enlarge our territory!

Meanwhile, as I sit here about halfway through Joan Wilder’s adventure, complete with rugged Jack T. Colton, great one-liners, and a lot of action (and such a pretty Kathleen Turner!), I have to admit: I am still entertained, but really, I am just watching this silly film to feel a little closer to Colombia tonight. A week ago right now I was just arriving, and now I am missing it terribly. There is family there who feels so far out of reach (which makes me eternally grateful that The Vivanas have found us on Facebook. YAY internet!!)… there is a city there whose chaos and colors and flavors make my home street about as boring as a pile of dirt.

My adventure did not involve gunshots (THANK GOD!), crocodiles, treasure maps, or cartels… It was all about children, young adults, servants, hope, and results. It was about showing me that one person can make a difference, so I can show as many people as I encounter. It filled my heart with humility and graditude, and it filled my life with new people to appreciate, honor, and love.

Yesterday during a visit with our son (Yes & yay!), he asked me if our trip changed my life. I said YES – for I am changed in every way–not in a dramatic “let’s throw away all our possessions and set up a 3rd world mission” kind of way, but in that my perspective of EVERYTHING has shifted. If one person can make a difference, then God, let it be me every chance I can have.

But in our final project visit today, a simpler message shown loud & clear:

Dios te ama ~ God loves you.

Yes, He loves us all.

~Leaving for the airport at 4am.

~ Love a child here.