blessed by facebook

This is going to be a very quick post, as it is late and my in-laws are here, and it will be an early morning.

But something just happened that made me so surprised and so grateful.  I had to quickly share, because my heart was swelling with love.

But first, some background:

One of the reasons I have not been blogging as much recently is because I have a new project I'm working on.  I have mentioned LitWits before--the local workshops and online literature guides developed and taught by my dear Becky and her sister Jenny, that help kids explore great books with sensory immersion.  My girls have been fortunate enough to have been with LitWits since the beginning (as soon as they were old enough), and I know those workshop experiences will be a part of their lives that they will look back on with great affection when they are older.

Well, now my own Sunny is about to start her first year of high school, and it is time for her to transition out of LitWits (which is geared for kids roughly ages 9-12).  Apparently a lot of other parents who love the LitWits workshops found their children facing the same dilemma--and so a few months back Becky and Jenny approached me to see if I would be interested in co-leading LitWits "Master Classes" workshops for high schoolers!

YES!  Immediately I knew it was the right time to jump into teaching classes, something I have thought I would do "someday."  The timing feels right, and I'm very excited to be co-leading these classes, and getting paid to do something I love.  If you want to see the official flier, here you go! (I still need to quickly finish the write-up for each novel, so parents know why these are fabulous books and worth reading and studying. But you get the gist!)

I have had so much fun planning so far.  It has been a lot of work, because I want to make the workshops really meet the needs of the local homeschool families, so I had to research CA state requirements for each grade level in history and English and essentially plan out all the texts I would teach over the course of the next four years!  I just needed to make sure we covered all the books I really want my own daughter to be studying, as well as fitting the books into where they made the most sense for what other things the kids will need to be learning (for example, here in CA high school Juniors study US History--so I purposefully arranged the text selection to suit that).  After I went through the process of getting the chosen books approved by our local homeschool charter school (so the kids will receive the highest level of credit for the work), then I could start actually planning for the specific books I'll be teaching this fall.  As you can imagine, I've been doing a LOT of reading (ahhhhhhhhh!) and have spent many an hour pouring over lists of books and scritching and scratching away with pencil and paper, trying to fit everything in the best place.

Seeing the flier now makes it real--it's happening!  And today apparently either Becky or Jenny posted the flier on facebook.  And a lovely woman--who I know well enough to care about, but don't actually know all that well--posted this comment in response:

This looks amazing. I'm a huge Lisa Craddock fan. Not sure how her huge heart fits in her tiny body.

Actually, at this moment my heart is melted all over the floor.  Re-reading that while writing this, I'm once again completely floored at those words. I know enough about her to know she is a generous and kind woman, a fellow homeschooling mom and Christian. In fact, I know her mainly because one time she was clearing our her massive homeschool book and supplies collection, and invited Becky and me to come take what we wanted. (How awesome is that! From her generosity we are starting a little Vintage Homeschool Library!) But I didn't know she knew anything about me at all.  

So there's the first surprise.

Here's the second surprise: I have been on a facebook fast since the beginning of summer. (More about that another time.) So I have not been getting on facebook to read the feed, but just hopping on occasionally to check up on someone or look into information posted on our local  homeschool group.  I think I have glanced at the feed twice since I started the fast, tonight being the third time.  There's no reason why I should have seen that comment.  I was not tagged in it, so would not have been alerted in any manner.  If I had not broken the facebook fast for a few minutes while winding down here tonight, all that love would have completely slipped under my radar. 

All that surprise leads me to think I shouldn't really be surprised--that Someone led me there tonight, to see those words on a night when I could really use some kindness. Some loving words.  Things have been going pretty well with my MIL this visit (MUCH better than the last two times), at least so far this one afternoon and evening. But still, a good visit is a slightly uncomfortable & stressful one, and I've been very focused on keeping calm and patient and non-reactive, keeping my eyes warm and my smile ready, no matter what comes at me. : )

There's so much love in that woman's comment.  I don't think her words say nearly as much about me as they do about herself.  But still, it means she has seen something in me that spoke to her own heart.  I'd love to think it is Jesus.  Because if someone whom I have only met three times in my life has seen a glimmer of something so Good in me, then it takes a little pressure off of what I'm feeling tonight.  It's ok.  He is with me. He will work through me, even when I'm completely oblivious to it.  I can show people His love just by being myself.  

If I remember to get myself out of His way! ; )

Ok, now it's late and morning will come quickly.  I hope all of you have a wonderful start to your week. And I hope you all get some Divine encouragement!  Please let me know if you do!