The other day we did it. Stacked their bunk beds up (not that Xoe will sleep on the top yet–she’s been camping on the floor for the past two nights) and turned the nursery into a school room.

And you know, I gotta say–I love it.

See, I’d been kinda panicking at the thought of getting started with home schooling this year, even though I knew it was what I wanted to do. Much of it was apparently rooted in the fact that I had no good place to DO this schooling. But as soon as I considered making the nursery into a school room . . . wow. I was actually excited.

So on Tuesday I put Xoe’s new desk together (all by myself), moved a bookshelf in, organized the bedroom into a mish-mash of boy/girl kid stuff (other than the pink curtains, it was fairly neutral anyway–being very Pooh-ish), and Xoe and I had our first day of school.

It was so much fun. I decided to start with the Five in a Row system and got the book that will take us through kindergarten, and which I can also use with Rowyn. FIAR basically guides you through using actual kids books as your basis for subject-learning, by reading the same book each day for a week and looking at different aspects of it. So, for instance, you’d read a book about a panda–Monday you’d then study bears, Tuesday you’d study China, Wednesday you’d look at vocabulary words, etc.

At the pre-school/kindergarten age, it’s not so much academic as just looking at different aspects like patterns and rhymes, and then trying to incorporate it into your day. We’re also doing some basic letter/number stuff, Bible stories, coloring . . .

My highlight thus far was when we were reading about Adam and Eve eating the apple and sinning, and I explained how that meant they couldn’t talk to God like they had before, because they’d disobeyed him. And she piped in with, “But now we can again, because Jesus died and took the punishment.” A close second is that the American flag is important “because it reminds us of our country and Jesus, because he and God made the world and gave us our country.”

I’m having a blast getting a peek into the mind of my sweet little girl. And my adorable little boy loves being in what was formerly Xoe’s room, and also loves the school room, where he plops down on his belly with paper and a pencil and goes to town. Overall, a great solution–and a new adventure.

It seemed an appropriate day to muse (not for the first time, I know) on Love–and to share some of the awesome pictures from our gorgeous beach wedding. =)

That feeling that Mom and Dad will always be there, always encourage, always believe in my dreams–even when those dreams defy convention (like when I get engaged at 17 and married just before I turn 19).

That we have friends and family willing to travel hundreds of miles to share our Joy. And that after traveling all day, they’ll put more hours into decorating the rental house hosting our big day.

Thank you most of all for the man who bends over backwards to make my dreams come true–who not only believes in them with me, but who chases them down for me when my legs begin to fail.

Totally Worth It

As conference season warms up, I’m tickled to be a stop on the official ACFW Conference Blog Tour. This is the only conference I’ve had the pleasure of attending thus far, so I can’t really compare it to any others out there. But I can share my excitement and some of what I’ve taken away the two years I’ve gone.

As the wife of a mathematically-minded man who runs three different businesses, things in my house tend to be measured against the Worth It scale—you know what I mean. We spent X amount on this, which led to Y number of sales. Was it worth it? We invested so many hours of work into the project, which led to this much turnaround. Was it worth it?

It didn’t take long to realize Conference had no place on this scale. My first trip, we scrimped and saved and took our family of three out to Dallas. I went to classes, had appointments, made connections—my hubby watched our almost-two-year-old in the room. He wanted definites to come from it—contracts, advances, royalties. I got something much, much better.

First, I met the woman now my agent. Totally clicked with her, and she took my proposal home with her. Two months later, I got that first exciting call as she asked—ASKED!—to represent me. (As if I was gonna say no, right?)

Next, I met an editor who did not end up buying my book, but who took it to committee and fought for it—which she said she doesn’t often do for books she requests from conference meetings.

Naturally, I learned a lot about craft, about the industry, about marketing.

But that wasn’t the best part. The best part was the people. Never in my life had I been in a room so full of people I knew instinctively I could trust. Though arguably we were all there to compete for only a handful of spots those editors and agents had open, we were not competitors. We were sojourners, traveling together on different branches of the same road. Compatriots. Colleagues. Friends.

I got to meet my critique partner for the first time in person. I met a young woman who was pregnant (as I was) carrying a red leather bag (as I was), who has since become my best friend and another critter. I met a sweet woman with a gentle disposition who also joined the critique group a couple months later. When we all met up again at ACFW last year, it was like a family reunion with sister, mother, and grandmother (they chose their own designations, I didn’t assign them!).

Have I seen a monetary return on these investments? Um, no. But my life will never be the same. Nowhere else have I ever found what Anne Shirley (of Green Gables) would call such “kindred spirits.” Nowhere else have I been surrounded by so many like minds. Nowhere else have I gotten to immerse myself so completely in the world I want to make my own.

Hope to see everyone there again this year in Indy! I’ll once again be bringing my family—so if you see a prancing princess and a little curly-haired monkey squealing his way after her, those would be mine. My daughter is very excited to go to “comprence,” because she wants “to be a book writer someday too.” (Don’t worry, y’all, I’m not sneaking her into classes, LOL.) I have a feeling my son will be far more interesting in the vroom-vrooms his papa will probably take him to see while in the famous racing town. And Mama—Mama will be soaking up, once again, the sheer delight of being Home.