HMJ: REAL Busy Begins & Freindship Dilemmas

This article's title was going to be, "The Week Where Busy Meant I Was Posting HMJ on Sunday"!  Um, no, that was too long!  Realistically, we haven't been too awfully busy, just filled up with needed family time on top of seasonal prep time. 

For instance, instead of trying to have my post up by yesterday, I spent the day in heart talks with Brooke and then baking a stash of Pumpkin Bread on top of fielding pictures for both our Christmas Newsletter AND a special gift for the grandparents!  By the time all of those lovely things were complete, Brooke and I decided to escape to the shoe section at Shopko while we waited for her brother to get off work just down the road.  Trying on shoes is her "therapy"! 

Heart matters:  well, simply put, trouble in Friendsville where Brooke feels like it is population 1.  She is such a sweet and generous girl, it is hard to believe friendships are so hard for her.  Reading "Missionaries are REAL People" by Ellen Rosenberger has helped us both. (by the way, it is on sale right now for only $6 and can be helpful for NONmissionaries as well if you want to learn how to be more empathetic to missionaries you know)  Ellen points out how missionary kids often make friends fast and hard because they move so much, they know they don't have the time for the long process of "getting to know" people.  The downside:  a lot of people like the slow easy process and often have a core friend-group they have known for years. While missionary kids are new and, with girls anyway, it can be hard to break into that core and since the only way missionary kids know is fast and all in, it's often intimidating to other kids AND their parents!  Missionary kids have a hard time reconciling why others keep holding them at arms length... I imagine the "wierd unsocialized homeshooler" bit only adds to the frustration at times.  (Though, being in public school wouldn't mitigate the friendship dilemma either.)

In the same thread, while I see her fight is real; friends have cancelled study hang-outs at the last minute and left her hanging on other extra plans; she is also a teenage girl and, at her age, she has two things working against her:

1. perspective friends have their parent/family schedule to contend with so planning hang-outs are often subject to this (the biggest reason for recent cancellations).  
2. girl emotions.  Even one day without hearing from a favorite friend wreaks havoc on a young girl's mind and esteem.

I've been trying to remind her to focus on Jesus first and His guiding second... to plug forward in Trust and knowing He has a good plan and time for everything.  She is deep in some scripture on the issue at hand, and I am proud of her for that.  She is making progress. 

In the same discussion, one friend who is subject to the parent dilemma was finally able to come for dinner on Wednesday.  Afterward her and Brooke dressed up for their youth group party.  One of the girls in their small-group is moving this weekend so everyone came wearing moving boxes!  Knowing they wouldn't want to wear boxes all night, the girls also wore more comfortable secondary costumes.  It was a crazy evening so I wasn't able to get a good picture of her friend's costume (she went as a pirate).

Brooke went as a Chinese Panda!  She did her make-up so that when her mask was off she would still look Panda-ish!

Brooke's friend borrowed her bunny head from last year.  The girls had a good time doing make-up, cutting and labeling boxes, and chattering away!

Ashley dressed up too... 

She wanted to put on a good presentation for the kids who would come to the door for candy.  We started an annual tradition a few years ago on the premise that our front doorstep becomes a mission field on Halloween.  We hand out candy with glow in the dark bracelets we special-order which read, "Jesus is the Light" on one side and a root Bible verse, "John12:46" on the other.

It's always a big hit with the kiddos who come to the door!

We stayed on task this week, even amidst the friendship drama.  We FINALLY got past all the intro material in Geography and started on our first continent: Europe.  Had I not gotten married and began collecting kids, I probably would have wanted to get a job writing for a travel magazine and gallivanting all over the globe!  So, it is no stretch to put gusto into this class.  I think it catches on with Brooke! 

Also this week, we finally jumped back into Pre-Calc.  After assessing her Geometry book and talking with my oldest last week, I felt absolutely comfortable trimming all the fat off of Proofs.  This opens up time AND brain space for the other maths she is doing.  We will continue reading through Geometry to acquaint her with the info, do some exercises in Constructions and Equations but, otherwise, I will let her SAT prep guide her through the rest this summer.

Friday, Brooke arranged to have coffee with her small group leader from Church.  I'm not keen on dropping her places alone so I hung out with her while she waited.

She is working on writing a Bible Study on relationships (which I think is a big reason why she is being challenged in them right now!!!) and this meet-up was part of collecting insight and guidance from varied sources.  It was also a good time to unload some of her heart renderings to a trusted peer as well.  I'm grateful God puts people like this in her life ♥️

So that is our week wrap-up, a day or two late.  I expect "busy" to be the main-stay in life from now and January.  Between holidays, company coming and a Sweet 16 to plan for the beginning of January, there will be no shortage of to-dos and distractions!  I don't mind though... I get bored when life isn't bustling!!

How has your school week been?  Do you find authentic friendships to be a dilemma as a homeschooler?  Is holiday life ramping up for you yet?  (I'll be posting this week on some ways I am managing mine holiday 'busy'). I pray your homeschool days will be recognizably wrapped in God's presence this week!

Blessings,

You can click here to see some of the great blogs I am linking up today ...

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