IS THIS EVEN LEARNING!?! \\ FAMILY "VACATION" IN THE SUNSHINE STATE...

“ tell me and ill forget. show me and I may remember. involve me and I learn.” ~ benjamin franklin

I am at an interesting place in our lives and it is proving to be pretty difficult to put into words. a place where faith has led me to a point where there is now a deeper trust required. to talk about a dream is one thing and preparing for it is another. but there will come a time to “jump”. to jump into waters that feel uneasy and where focus becomes imperative. to jump into waters where the object of your focus is of the utmost importance. where your focus should be fixed only on the ONE who lead you here in the first place. you’ll wonder if it is right, you’ll feel uncomfortable. you’ll question your ability to follow through. and then the spirit of GOD will remind you that HE is the author and finisher of our faith and to “jump” with HIM is the safest place you’ll ever be.

if it were up to this cutie he would have ditched the life vest a long time ago, lol. he explores the world around him with very little caution. I often wonder what the world looks like from his point of view. I imagine handwritten notes and memos suspended above the ripples on the water and the leaves of the palm trees that pose questions I never though of on my own. I pray that you will always have the vision to see things like HE does and the wisdom to know just what to do my courageous little Kendall bear.

the second day of our family vacation in Florida and probably one of the safest little “adventures” we will ever have been on. and, yet the anxiety was high! what I am learning is that opposition will lay itself on THICK when change and breakthrough is staring you in the face. DON’T BACK down. swim. jump. run. crawl into the place that HE wants you to be.

cling to the ones around you who were meant to hold you up and help you walk through those difficult places.

I pray that I will forever have the courage to teach you how to slow things down and learn the lessons wherever you are. to observe the clouds above you with awe and close your eyes and feel the warmth from the sun on your skin. there are lessons there.

the joy this cutie brings is my favorite!!!

one of my favorite lessons from our trip came in teaching this little lady to swim!!! there are a lot of things that I have confidence in when teaching the kids and swimming just wasn’t one of them. my goodness… all the things the lord taught me about who I was/am in HIM and what I could be/do through HIM! some lessons are just so very hard to put into words. maybe one day HE will help me put it into words and ill share.

they will know you by your fruit…. my fruit ❤️

the first time this beautiful little curly haired girl had her hair braided and beaded and she LOVED it. she got to select her colors and choose each of their patterns making for such a sweet memory that I won’t soon forget with my girl. after she was all done she got a chance to swing her pretty beaded braids around a bit and sit out in the sunshine under the palm trees.

we swam, laid out in the sun, did disney ( a post all its own) and spent the last day of our trip at sea world. hot, tired and a full 14 hours of driving home ahead of us but the memories were made 😊.

I worked on our fallcofamily film from this week and went back and forth on how I could make it as homeschool related as possible. if I should talk about rest, schedules and routines, language arts, math or science. and then I reminded myself that this is what we stand for. this is exactly what we believe in. that without the talk of curriculum, schedules/routines, essays or assessments… the simple truth is, in fact, that life is truly so full of lessons! so, our hearts desire is to live and to learn. to learn even lesson that presents itself throughout our everyday. to learn how to communicate, how to problem solve, how to exercise our faith together, bind up our fears together.

thank you Florida for all of the lessons that you taught us, all of the memories that you brought us. to live each day with gratitude, always looking for ways to give of ourselves in patience, kindness and love. their journal entries after the trip have carved even more precious memories in my heart. so, yes this is learning. and, yes… this is these are the stories that we are looking to tell.

with all the love,

syreena