Where Have You Been, Rach? ANNOUNCEMENT!

Well, in a flurry of life, to be honest.  I've been mama-ing and wife-ing and writing and studying and listening for the Voice of God.  I'm preparing for the season.  Once Rosh Hashanah begins, it seems like the rest of the year flies by in a hurry.  My other posts so far have been focused on specific topics.  Being aligned with God's timing is crucial, and because of the timing of the birth of this blog, I focused immediately on the season we already entered.  What can I say?  I'll write what the Holy Spirit leads me to write in the timing He shows me!  This post seems to be more introductory in essence.  So come sit at the table with me.  My kettle says it's time for tea.

This blog is intended to be geared towards homeschooling moms & families.  Generally speaking, homeschool moms have a lot on their plates.  I plan to cover bits and pieces of life here and there.  Food and meal prep takes up quite a bit of time for us, as do chores, play, and homeschooling.  We have wide swaths of interests here, and large brushstrokes of things we need to do.  It's difficult to bracket this as anything other than "Homeschool Family Needs."   If you know, you know, right?  

We've already started our 2023-2024 school year with a 1st grader, a sweet little kindy girl, a 2-year-old, and a baby due late this fall.  How does all of that work?  The secret is that things are not perfect.  We get things accomplished in relative peace, but occasionally, *ahem, today* we end up with a container of sequins dumped onto the carpet.  My two-year-old then "picked them up," read: spread them around whilst thinking that was the equivalent of picking them up.  Things are festive around here, certainly not perfect.

We start our homeschool days with breakfast and coffee and gentle background music.. well.  I attempt to start mornings this way.  Out of 3 kids who have their own interests, we have TWO entire drummers.  I say that like it's a lot of drummers because that's a lot of drummers.  Though we have time rules in place for actual drum playing, if you have a drummer in your household, you know that the sound effects are near constant and, well, you can't stop the beat.  Queue lo-fi Psalms playing in the background and the coffee brewing away.  This Mama likes to ease into the day, and my children like to hit the ground drumming. I mean running.  The point is that we start our days together.  I let my children see me reading a hard copy of the Bible so it doesn't look to them like I'm glued to my phone first thing in the morning.

We pray together.  We choose life.  We take off the old man and his behaviors and deeds, and ask the Lord to cloak upon us the New Man renewed in Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus, the Messiah).  Our morning prayer could probably be an entire post on its own.  It is a powerful daily prayer, and it is meaty and jam packed with the Word of the Living God.  Maybe a future blog post? We will see!

After some morning chores like watering certain parts of the garden that are not on our irrigation system, I try to get breakfast dishes cleared, kids dressed (if we aren't having a pajama day- Let's stay real here), and a load of laundry going in the washer.  Is this perfect clockwork every day?  Of course not.  But things are so much better when we are consistent!

School starts with our Morning Basket.  We have our Bible in there this year, along with a book that helps kids memorize scripture and utilize "It Is Written" to combat the wiles of the Enemy.  It is not Hebraic in nature, necessarily, but I am able to adapt it as needed.  I have been looking for quite some time for a Hebraic method of homeschooling.  There are not a ton of resources out there for this kind of lifestyle.  And yes, I mean lifestyle.  It is one thing to have Hebraic knowledge.  I can have that all day long and still be utterly lost in religion and doctrine.  But if I have Hebraic knowledge coupled with revelation from the Holy Spirit, there we go!  That is life-changing and life-giving!  What is the point of only having natural knowledge of a supernatural language?  It's like shuffling around in the dark with a flashlight that is turned off.  The tools are there, but the wisdom is not.  I knew that someone, somewhere had to be attempting to homeschool in a way at least similar to the way I was trying to educate my children.  

I started searching on Pinterest very late one pregnancy-induced insomnia-filled evening.  I just started typing anything in the search bar that may trigger ideas for what I was seeking.  I think I searched "Torah in My Homeschool," "Hebrew Homeschool," and many other things like it.  I finally came across one blog post.  ONE.  I found one other person.  This mom appeared to be a Messianic Jew homeschooling her children Hebraically.  I cried.  She had resources listed.  More tears.  I came across a homeschool book about a Hebraic method for homeschooling, and it is called Heart of Wisdom by Robin Sampson.  My pastor had mentioned this method to me, but she could not remember the name of the book or the author.  I knew in my spirit that this was the book she had mentioned.  As it turns out, I was right!  I cried some more.  I remember my husband saying, "Girl, you've got to go to sleep."  He was right.  I ordered the book and happily cried myself to sleep.  

Within this book is the exact method I was attempting to use. It is clear, concise, and creative in approach.  I've had to do some revamping for our current year's plans, and next year I will be starting my planning process with certain methods ready to implement from the get-go.

Part of my revamping process includes a NEW RELEASE that will be available to all of you as a digital download NEXT WEEK through my Etsy shop (details coming soon)!  A Rosh Hashanah study & project packet is coming your way, friends! What better time to revamp than at the beginning of the New Year- 5784.  The year of the mouth and the door.  Included are study pages with copywork, recipes, guides for the Tashlich and a New Year Dinner Feast, a shopping list, projects, activities, coloring pages, pages of art that you can cut out & glue onto scrapbook paper, cardstock, or a poster board for scrapbooking page projects you can do as a family (add your own photos & creative touches), and most importantly, how this feast ties in with Yeshua HaMashiach, Jesus the Messiah.  

More details coming soon, plus another SURPRISE ANNOUNCEMENT that my husband and I are very excited about.  Be sure to STAY TUNED!

~Rachel