The North Carolina State Homeschool Convention

For those of you who may be visiting because you met me or heard me speak at NCHE, I want to welcome you to my blog. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing, meeting, and getting to know all of you. It only confirmed what I already knew- that homeschooling families are some of the most wonderful people on the planet!

You can check out my sidebar to see topics that relate to homeschooling and writing. I don't have as many posts as I want to have yet, but keep checking back because I will be adding more, including more ways to sparkle in your homeschooling since that seemed to be a big hit.

For those of you who prayed for me and prayed for those who I would come into contact with at NCHE, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I felt your prayers! I could never tell you all of the wonderful things that happened there, but I can tell you that even though it was completely exhausting, God met me at every turn and He took care of every minute little detail, even things I had no idea I needed to cover in prayer. I feel like the whole weekend was nothing but one small miracle after another and I drew so much closer to the Lord because I had to depend on Him for everything.

I've never laughed so hard (My roommates were crazy people! LOL!). I've never talked so much as I'm a relatively quiet person. My throat hurts and my voice is strained beyond belief, but I feel like those words brought so many new friends into my life. I can't say I've never worked so hard or done without so much sleep because I have, but it still required God's grace and strength to have the stamina to see it through to completion. I've rarely felt so constantly close to God, as if I was standing in His presence every moment. And this weekend will reside in my memory bank as one of those times when God showed up and showed out in ways I could never even imagine. Friends, it feels so good to step out of the boat and walk on the water, doing things that we never thought we could do.

Ironically, but not surprisingly, things fell apart on the homefront while they were going so well at the convention. My daughter fell down the basement steps, my mother-in-law, who lives with us, developed a painful tooth infection, and my husband injured his knee during batting practice with my daughter's softball team. Only my son escaped unscathed, but he ended up working the whole time to replace all the sick people at his workplace. You can imagine what my house looked like (and still looks like!) when I walked in the door with everyone incapacitated to some degree. The cat was awfully glad to see me and hasn't stopped loving on me since I got home. I think everyone was too busy working or recovering to pay him much attention.

Last night I guess I must have been pretty exhausted because when I finished brushing my teeth I realized that I had used my husband's toothbrush! I'm such a cootie freak that I would never ever do something like that if I wasn't way off kilter. This time I just shrugged my shoulders and said, "Oh well," then snuggled into the most wonderful bed on earth- the one in my own home surrounded by the people that I love most in all the world. And I slept like a baby- a happy, contented, exceedingly grateful little child of God.