In the past year, I’ve said goodbye to a lot in my life. First was the life of a foreign missionary. In that farewell came the next goodbye – life as a Spanish speaker. And most recently I’ve said adios to being a homeschooling mother. I mourned the loss of the first two but might have done a little dance when the last one ended.

Please understand I believe homeschooling is a gift for families who have the ability to do so. But for us, our gift had reached an expiration date. (Many homeschooling parents will tell you that expiration date seems to rear it’s ugly head a few times each year- especially in the spring.)

For three years SoccerAce, Sassafras, and I have spent the days teaching ourselves and each other: SoccerAce the history/math whiz, Sassafras the organizer, and me the supervisor. While there were sweet moments of family laughs and unforgettable memories, I spent much of my time re-learning algebra and nagging. Just typing that sentence makes me cringe. If you know me, the last thing I want to spend my time doing is nag and fight with algebraic equations. In fact, I despised it.

So as the expiration date for Hall Homeschool neared, I experienced giddiness with an inkling of nostalgia. Giddy because I didn’t have to wrestle for hours (not an exaggeration) with logarithms, polynomials and variables, exponents, and trigonometric expressions. Giddy because my children didn’t have to hear me repeatedly say:  “What have you gotten accomplished?”  “Why haven’t you finished that assignment yet?”

But even with giddiness and a feeling of William-Wallace-FREEDOM, I have felt I still find myself a little sentimental about the years I’ve spent educating my children. For the most part, it’s been just us in the house each day. Just us sharing breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Just us taking a break to watch a movie or a favorite TV show. Just us in the first hours of morning doing our devotions. Oh, how I’ve enjoyed “just us.”

This fall I will be mother to two high-schoolers! Even crazier, is that one heads off to college in just two years. No matter how much I wish I had a time freezing machine, it just won’t happen. Honestly though, I’m okay with that. I know huge adjustments face us, but I also know that God has great plans for each of us. It’s an end to one season of life but a chance to find new meaning and purpose to another season. (I for one would like to blog more.)

Through this transition, my heart is focusing one thing: smiling at the future (Proverbs 31:25). I will see our homeschooling days for what they were: a sweet gift. I will not spend my days wishing to relive them or keep my children from spreading their wings.

There will always be ends that we celebrate and ends that we mourn — and some call for a little of both. But like Dr. Seuss says, “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” So you’ll find me smiling and being grateful for a gift I was given. I think they call those happy endings!