We can:

1. listen to Elizabeth Elliot as we sweep and/or mop.
2. hike on a sunny day with friends.
3. stop and pray any time someone is in need.
4. run with my teens in the morning.
5. jog with my littles round our living room/kitchen island.
6. read great books for fun.
7. read for strengthening mind and soul.
8. read Bible for personal growth.
9.  listen to the news cast of our choice over breakfast.
10. eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner together.
11. read over lunch or watch a history video.
12. prepare food that is nutritious, educational, and scrumptious.
13. send a helper when Grandpa and Grandma need help, or we can drop everything and go.
14. plan a workday with Grandpa to get advice when a vehicle or motorbike starts running rough.
15. adjust our lives like when one grandpa had a stroke, we learned a lot about his health situation and moved him in to live with us.
16. go to town for groceries and music lessons and pray to be a light, then watch what God unfolds right on the produce isle or park bench.
17. walk, sew, mechanic, wrestle, or ride dirt bikes at recess.
18. pursue photography, weaponry and marksmanship, all for a well-rounded education.
19. enjoy political leadership training every spring at the capitol—compliments of TeenPact.
20. go Hunting with Dad providing survival skills as well as anatomy and marksmanship.
21. adjust to life’s difficulties as when the other grandpa got cancer. We researched, rallied, traveled, hired a cancer advocate, prayed like crazy, and enjoyed 6 sweet months of being part of his final days here on earth.
22. run a speech class involving friends and great, God-honoring topics for discussion.
23. provide opportunities for responsibility and tangible rewards for kids running small businesses.
24. have one-on-one reading time for Youngers with our resident Grandpa.
25. study missionaries’ lives to provide live-action prompts for learning geography as well as culture while we follow their stories.
26. bring opportunities to worship with family and friends through music lessons.
27. enjoy more one-on-one time for found moments–uncontrived transparent conversation.
28. practice self-motivation as well as team-wok skills.
29. appreciate the luxury to feed and care for our body’s specific needs.
30. grow in art. Though not particularly artsy, we rally and even hire budding artists to enthuse their gifts on us (via murals, calligraphy, and even art classes.)
31. rely on outside classes some years to teach Spanish, Physics, Writing, World View, etc.
32. provide guidance and oversight a child may need to stay on the right path.
33. concentrate time to detect and care for learning issues and give the unique attention required for each one to succeed.

My mind races with all the opportunities afforded us through the last 20 years of homeschooling. This is a privilege I would choose again and again. Please hear me say, “It is not easy. But it is so very worth the effort!” I’ve divided this post into three parts. Please read it knowing bruises and bumps are in any path we choose as well as blessings. I simply want to enumerate the doors this one decision has opened for us