My Backstory! Part Three (including why we ditched public school)

All you need is a little sweet tea and a whole lot of Jesus! I love that saying. It sums up most of my life raising children.  As I said in part two, during nap times I started to dust off my Bible and actually read it.  The interesting thing about a Bible, and the language used is the more you read it the more you begin to 'get' it.  Mainly I would say a prayer before hand.  "Lord, please help me to understand and gain as much knowledge as I can to worship you." "Please give me wisdom and understanding." "I pray that today I will get strength from your word."  Trust me, it helps.  The more you read, the more I believe the holy spirit will guide you.

Everyone deals with stress and things differently.  I tend to want to withdraw.  I used to joke, and still do here and there about wanting to put bubble wrap around our house and just stay inside with the 4 of us.  No gossiping, no jealousy, just us being protected and feeling loved.  Wouldn't that be wonderful?  We all know it's not reality though.  Things happen.  People get sick, cars break down, loved ones careless words can cut deep.  The way to get through that is to know, and I mean really know that even though our feelings or bodies may be hurt, God is the answer to it all.  The Bible doesn't ever say that we aren't given more than we can handle. -I know it's a common phrase but it's not in the Bible.  Look at all the things that happened to people who loved the Lord in the Bible. The Bible does however tell us that it is Christ who gives us strength.

So why am I talking about stress?  It's because living on one small income can be stressful.  That doesn't mean it isn't doable though.  The first thing we did was when we could we would put some money aside for emergencies. A flat tire, a trip to the doctor, etc. All of these aren't easy when you have everything going out to something else.  We had bills for sure.  Our house, a car payment, a couple of credit cards, along with all the utilities. Of course we also had two young children and one now about to start Kindergarten.

So now we have one child in school and one at home. (They are 4 years apart)  School can be an expense as well.  We were able to have our son take a bus and he went to a smallish public school through the 4th grade.   During his school years I took a class so I could substitute teach, which had very low pay, but I mainly wanted to help out here and there.  I would say I substituted about 1-2 times per month.  I was also able to help out and be in the PTA, where I was President one year and treasurer another.  They were very friendly to me and most of the time I was allowed to bring Abigail, which was great. (For PTA events and parties, not teaching)

I was still reading my Bible and I would watch sermons on tv but we were not attending an actual church.  During that time  I also happened upon a magazine add about homeschooling.  It was called The Old Schoolhouse.  They had a coupon for a free copy so I sent for it.  I was intrigued.  Something inside was tugging at me.  I could not stop thinking about the hearts of my children and how things were starting to be taught in schools that were far from Biblical. I continued on thinking that was just a silly thought.  I mean, we weren't hippies or Amish. LOL.  I continued to research online about homeschooling.  Over the summer I went to a local Christian book store and bought 3 books about it.  One was a family who were succeeding at it, another was a curriculum book for 4th grade and another by a man named John Holt.

Summer was about over and after talking with my husband and a couple of other relatives and friends we decided that he would go back to school.  I personally would have started that year, but my husband was not convinced and wanted him in school. (The other relatives thought I'd lost my mind and didn't hesitate to let me know it.)   So back he went. Most of that year went ok but I never did give up wanting to home school.  Toward the end of the year there was an incident that I witnessed while substituting in a first grade class.  (This didn't involve my child but I won't go into detail just to protect identities)  I never stopped thinking about that.

After reading the books I had, especially the Holt one, I just couldn't get over the thought of losing my children's hearts to this "system."  About a week later I got my usual magazine in from Countryside Magazine.  There was an article about homeschooling in it too!  I read it to my husband and explained about the other things I had been reading and how I had been feeling.  He decided that it would be ok to let me try to home school the children for the following year.  I also found out through a friend that there was a local group in our area of other Christian home schoolers. My friend, Kris, and I went to a meeting there and it was AMAZING! To meet others who didn't think I'd lost my mind and understood exactly what my concerns were.   So in 2003 my son did not go back for the 5th grade. My daughter did not start Kindergarten.  We began our homeschooling journey.  It's got it's own set of trials and triumphs but I will say I'm so grateful we did it.  We ended up homeschooling for the next 13 years!

Having the kids at home gave our whole family the freedom to chose the way to learn.  The world really is a giant class room. Reading the Bible and making a point of including God in your everyday world makes it work.  Now, we did use actual books and workbooks. The library was like our second home and FINALLY one day they extended cable internet to our area! That was and still is one bill I don't mind paying. We all learned things together.  From repairing our own vehicles to butchering animals. EVERYTHING you do on a day to day basis is learning. At dinner we would talk about what we each learned that day.  If you learned at least one new thing in a day I consider that a success!

We were still paying down our debt. My husband loved his job, and I was enjoying mine more and more.  I continued writing some and submitting things to magazines for contests and things.  I was published twice in a homeschooling magazine and they did a featured article on our family in Cooking Light magazine.  I also have several recipes published in Cooking Light, Quick Cooking, and Miserly Moms recipe books. Each time you would just get a small check but it was a hobby I really enjoyed. We continued to add some animals here. Pigs, ducks, more chickens, quail, and goats.

Fast forward... Several years ago my husbands boss passed away and the business closed.  Luckily my husband got another job pretty soon.  We were debt free by then, including our home and land. We were stocked on food and most necessities so while it was a short but unnerving time we knew we would be ok for a while.  Which leads me to the real reason for this blog. I'm not an expert but I am a regular mom who has done it.  I want to share with anyone that if it is in your heart to be a homemaker, home schooler, homesteader, etc.  YOU CAN DO IT!  Even if you don't have acreage or animals.  If you get yourself on a realistic budget and live below your means you can have a happy, less stressful life.  You can enjoy your marriage and children!




*If you stayed with my story to the end, thank you!  I really look forward to getting more into detail on how you can thrive on one income, how Jesus is the key to it all, and my triumphs and failures on the way along!
I plan on posting on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.