I looked out my window this week, saw buds on the trees, and got excited. Spring is coming! There is nothing like spring flowers, green leaves and grass to get someone excited. It’s a breath of fresh air–bright and cheerful.

There was just one problem, we’re ahead of schedule in my daughter’s Biology class for the year and an experiment this week called for a leaf collection and identification. Hmmm. The leaf buds are still too tiny to collect. Plan B. Thankfully the internet had a wealth of information–it became a virtual collection and identification experiment instead.

Improvise. Substitute. Adjustments. It’s all a part of every day life, isn’t it?

Some situations are easy to adapt to, others … not so much. At times I can go with the flow and other times tweaks make me resemble a newbie trying to learn how to drive a stick-shift for the first time. Start. Stop. Jerk. Lunge forward and jolt back against the seat. Not real productive until you get the hang of it.

The important thing though is we don’t give up or we don’t allow the sudden need to switch gears to throw us off course or shut us down in defeat. We’re resilient, right? Of course we are … we’re parents!

Change is inevitable – except from a vending machine.

~Robert C. Gallagher

Last night as we drove to church, a car headed straight towards us in our lane, not stopping, not swerving …  just straight towards us. My husband swerved the car up onto the right shoulder and the oncoming vehicle raced past in the lane our car just drove. As soon as it passed, it went up the embankment behind us, without braking, careened across the road to go up over the curb on the opposite side of the road, and disappeared down into the ditch.

In an instant, all plans changed. My husband bolted down the embankment to help the driver and I grabbed my cell phone to call 9-1-1, and headed down behind him. An hour later, once the ambulance and fire department left, witness statements were given, we all three got back in the car and continued on our way to church.

One never knows what the next moment brings, do we?

Thankfully God spared our vehicle from being part of the impact of the oncoming vehicle and we were safe. But what one of the officers later told us about the dangers of helping people in an accident, startled me. He told of a recent incident where the injured was strung out on meth and lashed out violently at the one there to help. The officer explained when you approach a vehicle, you don’t know if they are armed or what danger waits when you open the door to help.

The thought had never entered my mind. What a different world we live in today.

In showing our daughter how sometimes things we want to do, like youth group, gets put on hold when we see someone in need, we also had to share with her the dangers.

As parents, our job is to teach kids how to live so when they become adults, they are equipped to stand in the world and live the life they are designed to live. Today’s dangers and pitfalls are far greater than when we were young, but it just means our job is that much more important. It’s our job to be there to love, support, encourage, protect, equip, and teach. How are we doing?

At times being my daughter’s homeschool teacher in addition to being mom creates a few challenges. I want more than anything to be her cheerleader, but as her teacher I still need to be constructive in her learning. Most of the time I juggle it alright, but other times it gets a little messy.

One of the greatest things I learned when we started homeschooling was how each of us processes information differently. I wished I discovered the information sooner! There is a gem of a book that I have listed in my Resource section called “The Way They Learn,” by Cynthia Tobias. Whether you homeschool or not, this book will help you discover your learning styles and I assure you it will help in your communication as a family.

My daughter and I’s minds work differently. I’m very concrete and sequential–there is step 1, 2, and 3 and they go in that order (most of the time). My daughter is also concrete but very random–even though fully aware of the steps, the order they fall is not so important because her way might work better and faster. I loved Algebra in school, she hates it. I can understand why … random and Algebra don’t mix.

But sometimes regardless of information, communication just fails! Right now in one class, we are working through library skills such as computer catalogs and indexes. One of the assignments provided a catalog entry and then asked a variety of questions about the supplied information. When I read one of my daughter’s answers, I knew she wasn’t being sarcastic; she just answered the question with her literal mind.

Question: How would you type the author’s name in the computer?

Her answer: With your hands

Isn’t communication like that sometimes? A complete miss. All I could do was laugh!