It’s times like these that I want to laugh when people ask if my boys get enough socialization, as if homeschooling means we never leave the house.
Jeremy had his eighth and final soccer game of the season on Saturday, which they won, therefore the Blue Bombers finished the season undefeated. Jeremy couldn’t be more pleased since last year’s football experience was the exact opposite – they never won a single game. He worked his tail off and his coach made the remark that Jeremy is one of the players who showed the most improvement.
As soon as soccer wrapped, we headed to church so both boys could practice their roles in the Children’s Sunday service. Jackson read scripture from the lectern and Jeremy was one of six who gave a short meditation in place of the sermon. Practice was chaotic, but that’s to be expected with kids running the show! I knew Jeremy was nervous, but we just kept encouraging him and making him practice two and three times per day both in front of us and the mirror.
Sunday morning came and they had two services in which to play a role. Both did a fantastic job. Really, all of the kids did well. It’s not easy to stand in front of several hundred people and read/speak/sing. My stomach is in knots just thinking about it.
We were immensely proud of our kids, not only because of how hard they worked to prepare but also that they had the courage to volunteer in the first place.
Jackson read John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches…” He got a kick out of how loud his voice was over the microphone. Jackson is an excellent reader, so our main concern was whether or not he’d get goofy or laugh. You can see a smile start to form on his face in the photo, but he pulled it off without a giggle!
Jeremy wrote a three-minute mediation. Sure, we worked on it together by talking through what he could say, but he wrote it and made changes and practiced every day for two weeks. He owns every bit of it. The theme of the service was on the fruits of the spirit. Jeremy spoke about faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.
I have video of the sermon, but the sound wasn’t spectacular through the camera, so I’ll upload the video and give it captions so you know what he’s saying. Give me a few days on that because I have two photo sessions to edit from yesterday.
So yeah, we’re wiped out from the weekend and we’ve got a full load of activities planned this week. Socialization? Yep, we got that covered.