Memories of the Best Job Ever

My first book - a memoir/how-to book

 about our homeschooling journey. 

As I read Billie Jo's post this week about starting her daughter's 8th grade year of homeschooling , it brought back so many good memories of my own time as a homeschool mom.  

I loved being with my boys. We stayed busy and every year was different. If we weren't learning at home, we were going to Tae Kwon Do or music practice. Some years we joined co-ops and some years we just enjoyed being at home more. 

We traveled a lot with David, as he would go to far away places for work. Those were educational trips for the boys and I, plus we got to see a lot of nice hotels, museums, beaches and lots of stops along the way, like the year we drove Route 66 all the way from the Santa Monica pier to Oklahoma. 

Life was our schoolroom, much of the time. 

Our days at home were routine. We did school in the mornings and the boys had the afternoons to work on their own hobbies and interests. The afternoons were also when we would go to various practices they had. 

I remember one year, David was working in Dallas for a few months and could only come home on the weekends. By that time, Ted was involved with a local Christian Academy, playing on their worship team for chapel every Wednesday. I would have to get Ted to practice every Wednesday morning at about 7:00 a.m. and it was a good 30 minute drive. So I would wake up my sleepy 9 year old, put him in the car, in order to get my 15 year old to practice on time. Fun times!

There were times when David would work from home and I had to teach the kids, while trying to maintain somewhat of a schedule with dad home. Lots of those days turned into David and the kids playing songs on the guitars or doctoring the horses. I called it Science and learned to not sweat the small stuff.

Collin's freshman year he attended a Fine Arts Co-op, 

where he would go for the next 3 years for drama, music, and history 

After Ted graduated, in 2011, it was just Collin and I doing our school days together.  It took some getting used to, not having Ted there for the subjects we liked doing together, such as history, reading and science. But Collin and I fell into our own routine and I realized that the first 6 years of Ted's life, that he lived as an only child, I was now getting those kind of years with Collin and it was really special. 

Ted was off starting his own recording studio, touring Europe, and playing at various churches around our community, so our home was kind of quiet, compared to what it used to be. 

Collin and I are both homebodies, so after our school work was done each day, we both had plenty of time to do other things that interested us. For him, that looked like building a computer from scratch, teaching himself to perfect the guitar and earning money by creating music for other people's video games. 

Collin kept himself busy and eventually became an intern at church and that's where he would be, when not at home.

My kids never missed out on anything. In fact, they had so many unique opportunities, because of homeschooling. 

When Collin finally graduated, in 2017, I was a little bit afraid of what I would find to fill my days. 

I had been my son's teacher for 20 years! I had taught every grade, every subject, TWICE!

Now I was officially retired from teaching (or so I thought) and it was kind of scary at times.

But, as life always does, things came up (like huge storms named Harvey), we moved a few times, I started teaching my grand babies and we had weddings and more babies, I wrote another book and here we are.

The empty nest days are still kind of different. It feels strange to own my own time, if you know what I mean. I keep thinking I have to be busy or I'm not doing enough. One day I'll learn to relax better. I hope.

In the meantime, when I see posts like Billie Jo's and think back on those sweet days of being with my boys, I just fall in love with homeschooling all over again. I'm so thankful that the Lord gave me the privilege of being at home and being with my kids. I never have to look back and wonder if we spent enough time together. 

I wasn't the perfect mom or teacher, but we learned together, and that was the fun part. 

I think my boys would say the same. And that's all that matters.

Until Next Time...

Blessings!