100th Post: A New Name

When I started blogging last year, I just could not think of a fitting name. I chose Home School Dawn thinking "well, my blog will be about home and about school and I'm Dawn, so there you go". I just have not felt settled with that name, though. It is so hum-drum and has bugged me to no end. So a couple of months ago, I sat down and started brainstorming.

I knew I wanted a name rooted in scripture. I also wanted something that reflects my family's vision for homeschooling. The Lord brought to mind Psalm 128.

Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in his ways.

For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD.

The LORD shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace upon Israel.

I think it is such a beautiful image... a God-fearing, hard-working man who eats the labour of his hands. His wife is a fruitful vine, growing, bearing good fruit, bringing life and beauty to his home, and his children, the olive plants, springing up from the healthy, fertile soil of parents blessed by God. Spurgeon wrote of Psalm 128 in his Treasury of David, "Here we have the vine and the olive blended—joy from the fruitful wife, and solid comfort from the growing family; these are the choicest products earth can yield: our families are gardens of the Lord."

So, allow me to reveal my new name... drum roll, please...

Olive Plants by Homeschool Dawn.


With it, I have added a new Vision Statement to my sidebar.

Obedience to Christ

Love for God and neighbor

Ingenuity at home

Visionary parenting

Experiential learning

This is our family's hope for our homeschool. We desire for our home to be a place where father, mother and children learn obedience and love—where we, the parents, invest our talents in the nurturing of our offspring, seeing them as our primary disciples—where our children learn to invest their talents in God's Kingdom—where learning occurs as a regular, everyday part of life.

I hope you enjoy the new name, the new look and the new expression of an old vision. Join me each week as I share from our garden.

*images from Google images