We Finished... For Another Year!

Another school year has been completed for the Mathews kids. And for mom. It's always exciting, and a relief, to count that last day. I get reflective each time we hit a milestone like this. I like to look back and learn- from my own mistakes, but mostly from God's faithfulness to our family.

This was a hard year. In a lot of ways. We moved. While I would say we are all adjusting well, I don't want to overlook the fact that it's been a major change that has affected our family and our "school". The first half of the year probably involved daily tears- math seemed to be to blame, but I know there was more going on in all of us. While I've always been a fairly confident and independent home schooler, I've missed my teaching cohorts, the fellowship, and "shop talk". I haven't yet found another group of home schoolers to commiserate with! The kids haven't made a lot of friends. I've worried about that. As confident as I am in the socialization of home schooled kids, in the end I'm a weak and fragile mom. I want my children to have normalcy, opportunity to thrive, and basic things like friends.

Yet God is faithful. We've survived math, and while it's still not anyone's favorite, we don't have the daily tears. The Lord has been my faithful friend and support when it comes to making decisions about school. Josh has been even more of an encourager and cheerleader. Our family has grown closer and more in need of just one another. I think we're all learning just how indispensable each one is to this family.

Because math plagued us the first half of the year, I began to get my first real taste of "This is hard!". And it was "hard" a lot sooner than I expected. I figured high school would get hard, not 3rd grade! For quite a while I felt very discouraged about this school year. But as it closes, I once again realize it was a great year. We all learned a lot, not just by the books. We grew closer together- perhaps because we had no other option! We are all we had this year.

I have learned that the road we have taken to educate our children is not a race. It's not about finishing first. My children are unique, brilliant, and anything but average even if they aren't at "grade level" in a particular area. They, and I, haven't failed if we've faltered. We haven't lost if others surpass us academically, athletically, or socially. My aim is to run, to finish, and to finish well. Not to leave others in the dust.

With that said, I believe we finished very well this year. We kept going strong, completing the "course work" I had hoped to. That doesn't mean we finished to the last page of math. We didn't, so we'll be doing math this summer. But we didn't get lazy and *I* didn't give up. By God's grace, I am a 5-year-veteran homeschool mom!

Today I read Psalm 126 in the One Year Bible and I can't think of more appropriate words to summarize our school year.

"The Lord has done great things for us,

we are glad...

Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy!

He who goes out weeping,

bearing the seed for sowing,

shall come home with shouts of joy,

bringing his sheaves with him."

Man vs Wild- Moosehead Style

It was difficult to find a title for this post. As I hiked across Moose Island today, I ran a bunch of them by Sara and she ran some by me. I thought perhaps an Olympic type theme for our camping excursion would be appropriate. Even as I type this, I still haven't decided what I'm going to call it. But I will say this- what happened on Moose Island will not stay on Moose Island. The story is so good, it must be told.


Josh had mentioned camping out on Moose Island, which is on Moosehead Lake in Greenville. His parents have a camp on the lake and he grew up vacationing there. I thought it actually sounded like fun, after some thought, and we invited our friends to join us. The plan was to stay two nights, Monday and Tuesday.

We arrived on the island around 1:00 and the kids got to work playing and fishing in the water.


Grammy and Grampy showed up shortly after...

The tent got set up...

And the tarp, which proved to be handy. (I love this picture. Like father, like son...)

Mister dipping his feet. He loved swimming around the beach.

My nephew came with us...

Brown-Eyed Girl discovered the rock chair...

The S-crew arrives! Josh went back to the mainland to pick them up at 3 o'clock. There was no shortage of excitement!

Two more tents set up...

This is all of us headed back to the island after having dinner at camp. The boat was very full. Josh gave us a rocking ride on the way. The kids wanted him to go as fast as possible.

That night, we roasted marshmallows over the campfire and lit sparklers. But soon, the wind picked up and we could see lightning way off in the distance. You never escape bad weather on Moosehead, so we didn't stress. We figured it would pass quickly. The forecast was good for Tuesday.

There were mild thunderstorms in the night and lots of rain. We stayed dry though. This is what we woke up to in the morning...

Things weren't looking so calm on the lake...

Here's everyone's reaction to inclement weather...

And this is the boat....

Swamped with water.

Josh was concerned that the engine wouldn't start, but the Lord was with us. Memorization of scripture really comes in handy in moments like this. Zephaniah 3:17 kept coming to me- The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save...

I will say, there were a few moments of fear, but overall, we were having a great time. The kids were being awesome and having a blast. But Josh had to get the boat unswamped and the only way to do it was give it some power and head out to sea so that the waves weren't crashing over it on the beach. This is a video I took to memorialize it...

He eventually got it drained (we have a bilge pump in it), but he had to moor it out off shore and swim back to Moose Island. The guys were whispering plans back and forth so as not to worry anyone. Josh S decided to hike across the island to see if there was a cove with more settled water so we could get everyone off the island. He found one about 10 minutes away and so we packed up the kids and hiked across.

I was bummed. I didn't want to leave the island, we were having fun, but the waves were relentless.

Grampy had come to check on us so he got in on the rescue mission.

This is the spot Josh S found for us to escape the island... notice how much calmer the water is.













Everyone gets into a boat. The choices were fast and wet in Josh's boat or slow and dry in Grampys. The older kids were thrill seekers to they chose Josh's. Sara preferred Grampy's.

We got back to camp safely, but not necessarily dry. We decided to keep an eye on the weather and the lake, praying the waves would die down. However, it soon became apparent that it was going to stay windy, even when the sun started coming out. The guys formulated a new plan to go back to the island and get all our stuff off while Sara and I took the kids to the playground.

The details of the rescue mission are pretty scary. The water had only gotten rougher out there, but the Lord was indeed with the guys. With the help of Grampy and brother-in-law James, everything was off the island and the guys were back at the boat landing by 5:30...

Here they come:

Sara said the boat reminded her of the Grinch Who Stole Christmas when he was taking all the presents on his sled... It was an adventure marked with the Lord's faithfulness. We actually had a great time. Thankfully Josh and Josh are very calm and level-headed and are grown-up boys scouts, so they kept their wits about them and their sense of humours.

What a day. Josh said he has had his fill of the boat and water for quite a while.