Last year I missed Autumn. It happened, just like it does every year, but I missed it. I was counting on the tell-tale vibrant colors to last long enough for me to really appreciate the season, but the cold came quickly, and the colors didn't last long. This year, determined to wrap myself in fall, I gathered up all my browns and oranges and thankfulness décor and laid it all out at the first sign of a chill. The chill came, but when I looked around my street to confirm the season, I discovered we are totally surrounded by evergreens. It is Autumn just the same.

This autumnal revelation got me thinking about my attitude toward my homeschooling. Year after year I find myself comparing what our home-school looks like with everyone else. I have such a need to see visual proof of the fruits of our labor, that I often can't see the education for the books. I am so thankful for mothers, wiser and more experienced than myself, who can bring my gaze off of the curriculum and back onto the student. Recently, I came across an article reminding me of my calling. The author stated the importance of remembering that teaching my children is not a mission to produce a product, it is a commission to make disciples. It is not a product of a vision for an outcome, it is a vocation, given by God to cultivate wisdom and love our neighbor.

I may have to leave town to realize my expectation of fall, but my children's education is always happening around me, even when the fruit looks different than I imagined.