Chris gets Controversial – Our Curious Home

Since it’s public knowledge that I homeschool and am a Christian, my skills as a mother are (fair enough) always up for evaluation. So here’s back at you America; When you take your kids to the park, turn off your smart phones and be mentally present with your kids! Also be the adult and discipline them so they learn to control themselves and let them RUN for crying out loud, that’s what parks are FOR! And if you are going to put experts on NPR to say I’m keeping my kids from reality by homeschooling them, how come I’m not allowed to let my responsible son visit the zoo on his own until he turns 16?

Larry Crabb recently wrote, “If I could imagine myself a woman, I’d be offended by most of what the church tells me I cannot do and by the culture telling me how I have got to look.”

Oh body image. I’ve wasted more time over that than I have on most other things. And I have to have something coherent to say to my little K.

I know that a large part of thinking sanely on this it to realize that my worth is just handed to my by God; I’m made in his image :. I have worth. So does any human; rich, poor, male, female, lots of melatonin or very little, educated, born yet or not, senile or clever.

But understanding how standard sizes run in ready-to-wear can help too.

Which leads to a controversy I haven’t figured out yet in my knitting design; what makes us professional: money, or reliability, excellence? Should I skip test knitting a pattern because I can’t pay them, even though it’s better for advertizing and buzz than buying advertizing?

Motherhood. What a confusing transition.

When I see young moms trying to stay awake, and figure out how they fit into the world now, I’m not sure I’m able to be supportive enough. I do have a really great chapter in a really great book that helped me understand the historical context of my own confusion – Nancy Piercy’s chapter on motherhood in Total Truth. I know one example I hope I never follow, and one I wish I was cool enough to follow.

Which leads to the whole crazy way our culture treats pregnancy as a disaster.

And believes that abortion is “needed.”

It’s public knowledge that I’m a Christian. So, yes that does mean I believe in personal providence – at least when God has been asked for help. But that doesn’t always mean I know how to be a Christian in public gracefully or anything.

Of the advantages I think my kids are getting as homeschoolers is that their minds aren’t being trained into home thinking and public thinking. They get to think with integrity, with all the truth they know. But maybe I’m romanticizing it. Romanticizing is not my only goof; the day I didn’t notice that K had burned her hand until she couldn’t stop crying and we had to take her to the ER was horrid. But of the crazy things I’ve learned in guilt and failure on this adventure, it was the sweetest.

Homeschool isn’t all magical children running in a meadow during golden hour when you remembered to pack your camera. In fact, I haven’t meet any one in the Northern Hemisphere who wants to homeschool at all during March. Raising kids is hard however you do their education. My kids experience it differentlythan I do, and I only found that out by asking them.

People ask homeschoolers the same really stupid questions over and over again, but here is a list of good ones you could ask instead – I dare you! Homeschoolers themselves can do dumb things to each other in groups. Co-op leaders, for Heaven’s sake, support your members who are willing to teach groups of other people’s children.