I was out and about with my five children one school day, and we decided to stop by one of our favorite restaurants for lunch as a special treat. 

Normally we are doing school during school days, but we had some special stuff going on that afternoon. Then we'd finish our school work when we got back home.

As we sat in the restaurant, I looked around mesmerized at what I saw. At least two very long tables full of ladies about my age, were wearing exercise clothes, all having a grand time gabbing and visiting. I stared. My heart sank.

Oh.

That's what people do.

They go to the gym to work out together while their children are in school. Then they meet out for lunch somewhere while their children are in school. I felt a pang of sadness and jealousy for a moment there. I gazed at them longingly. And thought about how the only way I can get a work-out is to do it in the cold and the dark at 6:30 a.m. while everyone in my house is asleep because my children are always home. And the rest of my day is spent teaching them. Then taking them to lessons and activities. Haven't had lunch with a girlfriend in ages.

But my 5 year old looked at me and smiled brightly with her sweet little eyes looking up at me trustingly. She snapped me out of my trance. We talked and hugged while we waited, and she asked me questions such as, "Are baby penguins bad?" She's so happy, I thought. She's with me. Then I went home and had a really fun afternoon my children, with lively and meaningful discussions. We laugh a lot. They're my friends.

I realized that with homeschooling, I'm right where I want to be.

This got me thinking back to all the wonderful and fun things that my children and I have experienced together over the years, during weekday school hours. We would have missed so much of this, probably all of this, if we hadn't been homeschooling. I'll take this list any day, and do lunch with friends when I'm a grandma.

• As the school bus was taking children to school one weekday, I was on my morning walk and I saw a turtle on the sidewalk. When I got home, I told the children (who were just waking up and still in their pajamas) about the turtle, and we all got in the car and rode to see the turtle.
• The oldest three children were home those precious days after the birth of their baby sisters. They were home when the baby learned to roll on its back, but then was stuck there like a beetle. They were home for all the exciting milestones.
  
• My two-year-old said the following about his baby sister: "Elizabeth's blood vessels seem to be turning into a dull red."
• We've gone on vacations to very cool places that are normally extremely crowded, but we go in the off season when everyone else is in school, and it's less expensive. Once we were at a popular amusement park that has hour-long lines to go on roller coasters. We had the place to ourselves to the point where the roller coaster employees would let us take another turn around on the ride, without even getting off.
• My daughter sat in my lap at the piano one day, and as I played she said, "Mommy, your fingers are dancing."
• When my son was 8 he hugged my leg and said, "I'm so glad I live here with you. You're so sweet."
• One day I read to the children about archeology during science. The next day at 7:30 a.m. my child was outside in the yard, digging up rocks and even a huge boulder. He came in and hugged me, then told me the big rock was too heavy to lift, so he'd made a lever and "that made it hop up."
• My 4 year old kissed me on the cheek, told me she loved me and said, "I'm so glad God gave me a mommy."
• At the park one day I locked my keys in our car. No one else was at this park but us. We were out of water, had no bathrooms, no cell phone in those days. A policeman pulled into the parking lot and got the keys out for us. The children and I marveled that this was no coincidence, but God had sent a policeman to us that day.
• During a history lesson we got to talking about Joseph from the Bible and his jealous brothers. My young child said, "Joseph's brothers should have been content with the things that they had, for He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'" This elementary aged child was quoting scripture and applying it to events in history.
  
• And, most recently, just a few days ago actually, during a literature lesson with my 11th grader, our book asked the question: What is the greatest virtue? My son thought about it for a second. "Fear of God," he said. "Everything else falls into place if you have that."
  

Homeschooling mothers are hard-working teachers who give their families a lot of love. We don't get a paycheck, or any sort of tangible reward. Our children must be walking around thinking how blessed they are many days, but they don't always know how to express it. 

Our 11-year-old daughter Claire, who is giggling right now playing card games with her sister, wrote the following letter to me a while back. I actually just got up to see what all the fuss was about, thinking they were upset and arguing and needed my help with that, but they were booming with laughter together. It warmed my heart to walk in their bedroom and see them having so much fun.

A drawing of Claire is to the left. I am sure your children are thinking something similar about you, right now.

What I Love About You

by Claire
 
You are so kind, so loving, and I am not worthy to have such a patient mother. When we fight, you stop whatever work you were doing and come help us. You are so hardworking and always there to help. You are raising five children and homeschooling us when you could send us to school. If it weren't for you we wouldn't have relationships with each other or you. Because you are there to guide us we are what we are. I wish I could be more help to you and not be so mean. When I get married and have children, I will use everything that you taught me. You are raising a new generation to follow the Lord. I know you work hard for our family and it's difficult on you when Daddy's working a lot. Your life is dedicated to raise and care for a family, and you do it so well.

Because we homeschool, our family got to live in Germany for two months in 2009 when our Daddy had a military job near Frankfurt. Here we are on a bridge in Heidelberg.

We took our school books with us, and kept up with math and language pretty faithfully, plus we checked out stacks and stacks of library books that we normally would not have had access to in America. But everything else that two months was enriching, soaking-in of the culture. We went ice skating, toured all kinds of castles and amazing places, took walks together in the charming village we lived in, shivered and ate bratwurst at Christmas markets. We spent a weekend at a farm villa in Salzburg, Austria. We toured cathedrals and ate crepes in France. It was a wonderful experience for all of us.

Homeschooling is illegal and criminally prosecuted in Germany. Being an American military family, no one messed with us. Sometimes, if the weather was pretty, we would take walks in our quaint village on a school day. We always walked past a school on our stroll and sometimes heard children's voices out on the playground. I took that opportunity to explain to our children how blessed we are to have the freedom to homeschool in America. They would ask, "Are we going to get in trouble?" And I would say: "Oh no, we're Americans, they can't touch us." Our family appreciates the Homeschool Legal Defense people for fighting to keep that freedom for us. Perhaps someday the Germans will come to their senses and allow homeschooling. Hello? Hitler's long gone. Y'all can walk about the cabin freely.

I had an interesting conversation with a nice elderly gentleman on the airplane back home from Germany. He marveled at how well-behaved our children were but when he found out they were homeschooled, he questioned their socialization. He expressed concern that being homeschooled, they would not be well socialized. I just smiled politely and hoped the clue bulb would turn on with him sometime later that, having just spent two months in Europe interacting with all sorts of people, and behaving well enough on a long overseas flight to be marveled at by total strangers.... I'd say that's a tough socialization situation to top.

I think we're good on the socialization.

Our son, Patrick, is 16 now and has a job at a family-owned clothing store. Lots of very respectful, clean cut young folks work there. He came home one afternoon, after having been employed there a few weeks and told us something that made us laugh. As the young employees were standing around shooting the breeze after work that day, they said to Patrick, "Hey you know what, you're not, like, extremely socially awkward for a homeschooler."

Well that's good to know.