Guest Lisa Guidry

My guest blogger today is Lisa Douglas Guidry, a friend from ETBU days.

Lisa, tell us about yourself. I know you are a Mom, but you are going to school as well. What's that like?

Going to school full time while being a full time mom…hmmmm, it’s hard, but since God opened this door, He had faith in me to be able to walk this journey. Although there are times that I wonder about that wisdom…but I really have loved being in school. I have learned so much – not just about the coursework, but about myself. Best counseling program ever – expensive, but serves a dual purpose…LOL! The course of study I chose is Criminal Justice. Growing up I loved mysteries and crime shows. I loved pretending to be a PI (private investigator), but back then it was not a reality, so I chose another major in college. Years later I found myself a single mom again, and was thinking about going back to school – but what would I do? God opened the door through some friends from my former college days. So I thought, online college would work, and the school I loved was now offering online classes. And guess what the ONLY degree plan they offered that was online? Criminal Justice! WOW!!! A first love. I would get my degree, help be a voice for women who were in or just coming out abusive situations. I was so excited.

It has been difficult, but no more so than any other time in my life. I homeschool and do classes online, so I am busy. When I was married I homeschooled all my children (they are ages 10-31 this year), ran a household of 10 people, and helped to run my husband’s business, plus I volunteered at my church and helped with the state homeschool organization for the yearly conference. Just regular mom stuff. 

How has God surprised you lately?

Hmmmm, part of me thinks that I should not be surprised at all the wonderful things that my heavenly Father has done for me over a lifetime, most especially during the last 2 plus years. He saved my life by exposing evil against me in my own home and got me out under the protection of angels in Blue. He has provided an amazing attorney who loves my family (his wife used to babysit me when I was a baby) and is a Godly man. He has surrounded me with friends and family who love me and pray for me daily. They send me encouragement. They have blessed us with food, clothes, and shelter when needed. God has opened doors and granted great favor in many areas of our lives. I have scholarships and grants to attend school. I have Godly professors who encourage me and pray for me weekly. My class mates pray for me.

God surprises me in all the little ways that He touches my heart with love for me – the singing of birds outside my window each morning, the sunrises that wake me each morning, the sounds of my children laughing, the hugs and encouraging words of friends. His promises to me that He continually keeps beyond anything I could ever have imagined. I used to pray that my husband would love me the way God wanted a husband to love a wife… well God is showing me daily what that love looks like and I am very spoiled by that Love.

What's your best advice for moms?

 My best advice for moms? Remember that your children are a gift from God. Their hearts are like moldable clay – and a mother’s words and actions are what do the molding. Parents get really wrapped up in achievements and test scores, but those should be secondary. As mom’s we should be reflecting the heart of the Father towards our children. How does show His love to us? We should be parenting our children the way God parents us. With love, grace and mercy as we learn who we are and who we were created to be. Celebrate your child and the place he or she has in the family as a whole. As we (moms …and dads) work on our relationship with God (vertical), we should be working on the relationship with our children in the same ways (horizontal). Spend time with them talking, walking, sharing, encouraging, correcting in love, building up, and so on. Our children are only under our care for a short time of their whole life…if there is no relationship built during that time, it will be very difficult to build that relationship when they are no longer living under the same roof. God will fill in the gaps of our parenting when our children become adults, so academics should not be our primary focus. He is the greatest teacher of all. But the relationship that you build and cultivate with that child – it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to set that foundation.

 There is a great poem that I love from the 1940s that sums up most of what I have said. 

 Song for a Fifth Child
by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing and butter the bread,
Sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.
Oh, I’ve grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren’t her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
For children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

Take a look at Lisa's Blog:  From the Rocking Chair

It is Finished - 4



Those Were the Days



Jessica and Armando Ontiveros



Natalie and Sarah

Now?  Now Randy and I very much enjoy that our position of authority has morphed into a position of influence on our adult children.  Now we benefit from the hard choices we made early on.  Our children all serve the Lord, their churches, and their communities.  It is a blessing to see them make choices that reflect the values that we poured into them.  Have they always made the right choices?  No, certainly not, but to watch them fall upon the foundation of their faith when faced with troubles, whether external or self-imposed, is a great comfort and joy to a parent.  The spouses that they have brought into our family are awesome, godly people.



Rachel, Anna, Elijah, Wayne, and Noah Nix



       Grandchildren!  What a reward.  Could there be higher compliment that my daughters are homeschooling their own children?   I hope that the joys are multiplied and that the struggles are lessened.

Micah and Liliana Ontiveros



Micah Stegasaurus



Elijah Nix Kinder Graduation







Natalie, Sarah, Emily, Nathan, and Jessica at Paisano Baptist Encampment







Noah Benjamin Levi Nix



Jeffrey and Emily Brantley



Natalie, Sarah, Emily, Randy, Jessica and Armando, Me, Nathan, Elijah, Wayne, Rachel



Princess Anna Nix

And many, many heartfelt thanks to....

It is Finished - 3

....and then the amazing joys:  reading God's Word together, reading the classics together, watching my children grow into their spiritual gifts and callings, dramatizing history, ministering to and serving our community together, cooking and sharing, performing music, making messy science experiments, learning to be flexible and available, writing stories, poems, letters, and just generally learning every day TOGETHER! 

(We don't talk about math.  Math is the reason I use Miss Clairol - dark brown.  But by the grace of God and a tutor here and there, we got through it.)

Our homeschool was not just an 8:00 to 3:30 event, five days a week.  It was a 24/7 lifestyle.  Everything was a learning opportunity.  Dad has a wreck and breaks his leg?  Anatomy.  Rental house gets sold out from under us (again)? Contracts and Agreements.  Babysitting for a friend for a week? Child Development.  The possibilities and opportunities were endless.  One of the benefits of that is that my children are life long learners, even as adults.  It pleases me to see them continue to learn and grow...

It is Finished - 2

I have to admit that I loved it most of the time.  We actually had a lot of fun accept when we, uh, weren't having fun.  It's not for the faint of heart, let me tell you.  Sometimes we had to adopt the attitude 'tho' hell should bar the way!" (Rachel's favorite line from 'The Highwayman', a poem she memorized; thowing her fist up the same way Anne does when she recites it at the White Sands concert in Anne of Green Gables.)

"Tho Hell Should Bar the Way!!"

In other words, we were going to get it done no matter what.  And we did.

I always had a plan, but you know what they say (or what Burns said); the best laid plans...well, let's just say that it didn't always work out the way I wanted it to.  But early on, the Lord spoke to my heart very clearly...

"They will get what they need for what I have for them to do."  So I barreled through, not comparing our school to public school, or even other home schools.  That promise has come true in every case, and I am so grateful.

So pressing on through criticism, lack of finances for curriculum (thank heaven for the world wide web), a quiver getting full, extreme 'you had to be there or you wouldn't believe it' external pressures, full time ministry, a large piano student studio, moving eight times, a million miles to music, etc., lessons (have homeschooler, will travel)...

It is Finished

I really never thought this day would come.  No, seriously, there was no end in sight.  My next five posts will feature a few thoughts on the end of an era in the House of Day.

The day Randy first mentioned 'homeschooling' to me is indelibly seared into my brain.  We were engaged and were returning from a date one night when he began to wax philosophical and prophetic about our future life together.  When he said, "And we will homeschool our children..." I scooted very far over to the passenger side door and considered jumping out. No, really.

"What?!?" I said, none too gently.  I think he was surprised at my reaction.  I began to wonder what kind of crazy man I had gotten myself engaged to.  How was I going to get out of this?  The invitations were already in the mail.  He very wisely refrained from saying anything else about it.

A ton of prayer and a few Bill Gothard seminars later, I finally felt the call.  O.K, I'll do it.  It's a good thing that faith and obedience don't include knowing the details sometimes because, well, jumping off a cliff might look better. 

So when the time came, we began.  My friends in Kirbyville will remember the little red apples taped to those giant windows in our house on Main Street...