Finish Well
Hey Reader,
We made it to the end of February.
I don't know about you, but this month asked more of me than I expected. And if you're feeling that too, a little worn down, a little behind where you thought you'd be, a little weary of carrying so much, I want you to know: that is not weakness. That is honesty. And honesty is always the beginning of something good.
So before we turn the page into March, I want to give you something you may not have thought to give yourself:
Permission to finish well, exactly as you are, right where you are.
Not perfectly. Not caught up. Not with everything figured out. Just well. With intention, with grace, and with your eyes on what actually matters.
LIFE
If you've been following along for a while, you know that last June, we said goodbye to our daughter Myla. She was born sleeping, and the grief of that loss has shaped every month that has followed in ways I couldn't have anticipated or prepared for.
Most days, I've found a new kind of footing. God has been faithful — genuinely, tangibly faithful — in ways that have humbled me. I don't say that lightly. I say it because it's true, and because I know some of you are walking through your own version of that kind of hard, and I want you to hear it from someone in the middle of it: He really does show up. I’ve seen it time and time again!
This past week has been its own kind of difficult. We passed eight months since Myla was born, and the longing for another baby has settled over me in a way that's been hard to shake. Baby fever, grief, hope, and waiting all tangled together into one ache that I didn't quite have words for until I sat down to write to you. In fact, I still don’t have the words! But I’m going to try. ❤️
God has been very intentional about stretching my patience muscle lately. I know that my body and my heart need more time before we welcome another baby, but knowing and feeling peace about it and practicing patience feel at war, and right now I'm somewhere in between. I have peace that God is guiding our every step, but boy, is it hard to be patient!
If you are in a season of waiting — for a baby, for healing, for a relationship to mend, for an answer that feels impossibly slow in coming — I see you. I’m sitting with you. And I’m right here, practicing patience alongside you. ❤️
As we close out February together: you are loved. You aren’t alone. And the waiting isn’t wasted.
HOMESCHOOL + MATH
Here's the only thing I want you to do before March begins:
Look back: not to evaluate, but rather to acknowledge.
I don’t want you to tally what you didn't finish or catalog where you fell short. Just notice, with honest and generous eyes, what your child actually learned this month.
Did a concept finally click, even a small one? Did they push through something hard? Did you find a better explanation, slow down when it mattered, or choose understanding over completion? Did you show up on the days when showing up was the whole victory?
That is real progress, and that counts.
Sustainable homeschooling, or sustainable anything, really, is not built on white-knuckling your way to the finish line. It's built on the accumulation of being faithful, and you have had more of those faithful days than you probably realize!
So instead of asking what did we not get to, try asking: what did we build this month?
You might be surprised by the answer!
GRACE
Two verses have anchored me this week, and I think they belong together.
The first is Philippians 3:13-14: "“No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us."
There is something deep in that phrase: forgetting the past. Not denying it. Not pretending it didn't happen. But refusing to let it define the next step forward.
The second is Galatians 6:9: “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up."
Read them together and you start to see something beautiful: we release the weight of what is behind us so that we have the strength to press forward. We lay down the burden of the past so that weariness doesn't win. And when we press on in faithfulness (even in the slow, unglamorous, ordinary days!), God promises a harvest.
That harvest isn’t just a suggestion or a wishy-washy hope: it’s is a promise.
Whatever seeds you sowed this month — in your homeschool, in your family, in the quiet and unseen places of your own heart — they are not lost. God sees every one of them, and in His timing, at the proper there will be a harvest.
You don't have to see it yet. You just have to keep going.
So tell me: what is one thing you are choosing to carry into March with you? One win, one lesson, one moment of grace from this month that is worth bringing forward?
Hit reply and let me know. I genuinely read every message, and I would love to celebrate February with you before we close the door on it.
You are loved, and you are not behind. 💛
See you soon,
Mrs. Holman
