00:00:03
welcome back another week another ex- homeschoolers club and uh you guys asked for it so I'm delivering uh I've been
00:00:11
getting requests a lot for parents to come on the show and talk about their experience with homeschooling so I
00:00:18
figured what better way to kick it off than with my parent uh my mom my mom is joining us today uh I'm so stoked to
00:00:26
have her and we're going to touch on the best thing about our homeschool experience together the worst things she
00:00:32
can probably air a lot of my dirty laundry uh to the audience so Mom thank you for coming on the show hi thanks for
00:00:42
having me Jacob we are well we've known each other for a very long time pretty much since I was
00:00:48
born your whole life my whole life um and uh yeah so I mean let's let's get right into it
00:00:58
because I know homeschooling was not really in the cards was not really the plan and so
00:01:05
what kind of what kind of made that like that shift for you and why did you end up
00:01:13
choosing to homeschool Madison and I when it came to I don't know what was I
00:01:17
second grade and Madison was Kindergarten something like that right right um actually it had not been on my
00:01:23
radar at all um it was on Nanny's radar from the moment you were born so my mom
00:01:30
had been pestering me from the time you were just a baby um encouraging me to consider homeschooling you but I was not
00:01:42
having any of it I just thought no that's not for me that's for weirdos that's just um and and I just didn't
00:01:52
entertain it and so when it was time for preschool for you we sent you to um the
00:01:58
little preschool at our church and it was really sweet and then it was time for Kinder and we sent you to our
00:02:04
neighborhood School in Ventura and it was a lovely experience like really we just never had a a bad um Public School
00:02:14
experience it was wonderful and then we decided um to purchase a home closer to your dad's work so we moved to Oakview
00:02:24
and in making that decision we had to start looking at different schools because we
00:02:31
would be in a in a different area and when I started looking at the schools I had no peace at all and I couldn't see
00:02:39
you there one bit however um I had already well before we bought our house because it was at the end of the school
00:02:50
year I had already signed your sister up for kindergarten at your Elementary School I was so excited because I was
00:02:59
going to go have coffee with my girlfriends and you guys were going to go off to school and it was going to be
00:03:04
a really great life I was I had been waiting for this I was primed and um and then and then we moved to Oakview in
00:03:14
that summer I just realized I can't I can't do it and really I looked into
00:03:20
like some private schools and nothing everything was flat but before that I had become friends with a couple gals
00:03:30
in Oxnard who homeschooled and from the beginning they thought of knowing me they kept saying you should consider
00:03:39
homeschooling your kids and I just was not into it um so that was Susan Adams and Susie ye both of them were just so
00:03:50
like really adamant so it's kind of funny when you think about it because I'm Susan and then there's Susan and
00:03:56
Susan so all three Susans were friends and um two of them were encouraging this gal too to do something different and so
00:04:06
that summer I really started considering something different and it was such a heavy conviction for me that I would
00:04:14
homeschool you go both of you that I knew I just had to do it it was like a deep knowing and I think sometimes women
00:04:23
have this kind of sense it's um just just a deep knowing um some people call
00:04:30
it like conviction of the Holy Spirit and some people call it intuition and all these different things right I just
00:04:38
knew I had to do this thing so I asked your dad or I told your dad that this what I was thinking and he was just
00:04:47
pretty clear like fine I'll support you whatever you want to do but I'm not
00:04:53
interested for myself I'm not going to participate this is all on you so I went
00:04:59
into it kn that it was it was my gig um and so I just called my friends and they
00:05:06
kind of pointed me in the direction of a big convention that summer and um and I
00:05:12
just and I went I went to um this thing it was this a Becca thing at a hotel and like local
00:05:26
and I because your dad and I had both been in in private school um at different points growing up and we had
00:05:36
both had private Christian School and the curriculum was ABCA so I went to this ECA thing at a hotel in oxnar I think it
00:05:46
again it was Oxnard and I just bought the kit for both of you which you know okay I I they sell it for homeschool
00:05:54
people but it's really Geared for classroom settings and and I didn't know
00:05:59
what I was doing so I just bought it all I bought all of it yeah and um and then
00:06:06
tried to homeschool you guys with that um it was a disaster but um I I was gonna say I was like that first year was
00:06:14
really rough from what I remember I just remember it was just like it didn't fit
00:06:19
it didn't work it was just like yeah I don't know it you know not that we
00:06:23
didn't learn we didn't we learned stuff but we were it wasn't fun it wasn't like
00:06:28
oh no I don't know it just wasn't yeah it wasn't fun for any of us like it
00:06:34
really it really was not a great experience but I just knew I needed to do it and and that year I learned a lot
00:06:44
I that I learned what not to do um and and we were also in the middle of remodeling our whole house so we had
00:06:52
bought a fixer upper and so right we were living ugly like it was just when we moved in we didn't have a kitchen at
00:07:02
all it was studs and we didn't have flooring in we didn't have any doors
00:07:07
interior doors in our house so no one had privacy um yeah it was it was really really rough and really dirty and and
00:07:16
stuff and I was trying to homeschool you guys with all this ABCA curriculum not that ABCA is bad but it it was just not
00:07:25
a good fit for what we were trying to do here because because all I ended up doing was trying to do a classroom
00:07:32
setting for school at home without a group and of kids and yeah it just it was so dry and just yeah what were
00:07:45
talking about you're talking about going from like a life where it's like I would
00:07:49
go to school and I know Madison was still at home with you but it's like I would go to school and you would have
00:07:54
you know your time kind of more alone and then I would come home and the dad would come home and so it was like
00:08:00
normal like quote unquote like the normal life right you know and yeah and then we move and it's like not only is
00:08:08
it like all of a sudden I have the kids all day long but yeah like you said it's
00:08:13
like our house was a disaster we didn't have baseboards until I was like in high
00:08:17
school um in our in our house like um and you know I mean it's taken what 20
00:08:24
years for you guys to basically finish it um and be like at a point where you're like okay it's it's pretty much
00:08:31
there now you know so but in time for everything to start needing to be replaced right right right yeah so
00:08:41
obviously icca didn't wasn't working and did we do it for the full year that's
00:08:46
what I don't remember is like did we just push through for the full year okay
00:08:50
I am no which is really a downfall in some ways because it was not working but I
00:08:58
didn't make you do everything I ended up getting advice because that that first
00:09:04
year we also joined achieve and group solution so that first year I had support in those ways um you were signed
00:09:12
up only for fun little classes and Madison was in Kinder there and so she was having a good time two Fridays a
00:09:22
month she had a great school experience the rest of the time yeah it was rough but um but I was able to meet people who
00:09:31
were able to say oh yeah you you don't need to do all that stuff and there's
00:09:38
better there's better curriculum out there to help you at home and then I was
00:09:44
also figuring out that I I was hitting a wall with your sister um with some some
00:09:51
of her educational things and I needed to learn how to teach her in a different way um yeah so so so that so there were
00:10:01
multiple things at play there um but but we made it and we didn't kill each other
00:10:07
so that's we all still talk you know like I I have a relationship with you I
00:10:12
have a relationship with your sister so I'm like we won yeah but um yeah it was it
00:10:19
was a rough start but thankfully we immediately were in a community of of people who were able to point me in a
00:10:29
direction that was helpful yeah so I was going to say when so when it came to that next year trying
00:10:37
to choose curriculum and knowing like okay Becca's not working was it then like just Mass
00:10:43
overwhelm or I mean you you said you had people in your life who were kind of pointing you in directions but I know as
00:10:49
we got further along it's like we found like Matthew C really worked well for
00:10:52
our family so we kind of like went down that path and really bought into that um
00:10:56
and then like I know with um English we had like a particular English that we did for a number of
00:11:02
years and things like that so was it was a lot of that just coming from recommendations from other people or
00:11:08
because I know we would go was it the Chia convention that we would go to every year and they had like their whole
00:11:13
convention floor and stuff yes I I would go to the Chia convention that was very
00:11:19
helpful I read a couple of books that were helpful and one of them was uh about classical conversation by I I
00:11:29
think her name was Susan wise Bower and it was a classical approach but she made
00:11:35
some recommendations that were very helpful and and so that's where I got some of my
00:11:42
Educational Tools like the grammar she's like this is solid if you do this they're and she was I believe a college
00:11:50
professor she so if if you if you teach them this they're gonna know enough right and so um and
00:12:01
really at that point that was where I was mostly concerned I I wanted you to have the freedom to go to college if you
00:12:09
wanted but I had had an educational background that was rather lacking in some of my early years and so there had
00:12:18
been some gaps and but I had made up for them in later years in junior high and high school so I knew that if there were
00:12:27
some gaps along away we were going to be fine just so long as we figured them out
00:12:33
before the end and I and you were able to learn and and part of it is just learning how to learn if you can learn
00:12:40
how to learn then you're you're going to be set because even with gaps everyone's
00:12:46
got gaps everyone's gonna have gaps yeah it's just it it doesn't really matter we like we think that
00:12:54
there's this perfect thing and it looks a certain way but but there's always
00:12:58
going to be something a little bit lacking but if but if we have the school the skills to actually learn to teach
00:13:07
ourselves to gain information to seek help um then we have the tools we need to move forward in life um irregardless
00:13:17
of some of the gaps in the background so I yeah I kind of knew that but I was still scared like I just I
00:13:25
didn't I hadn't been down this road before so I was just really nervous about how it was going to how it was all
00:13:34
going to pan out but but I did get help and I I really like to research things I I'm I like to study myself search out
00:13:48
information I'm very curious as an individual I was a trained investigator this is my thing so um so I just went to
00:13:59
town on that and and then I would figure out enough to make me a little bit dangerous but a whole lot of helpful and
00:14:07
move us forward well I was going to say I mean we did a lot of we would go to the library a lot we
00:14:15
like we had the internet in our house like I you know you you taught us how to Google things I mean it wasn't like
00:14:22
necessarily unsupervised but like you know you taught us how to do research and and write a research paper and and
00:14:30
you know find information that was like valuable and accredited and that type of
00:14:36
thing and so because you were interested in learning and I think I think it just
00:14:42
kind of like maybe not so much of like you having to teach us how to be interested in learning it just maybe
00:14:47
kind of rubbed off on us to a degree also you let us like read kind of anything we wanted and maybe not
00:14:55
anything we wanted but like we read a lot of books we you know anything we were interested in we got to
00:15:01
pursue knowledge in that area and so like when I was into Pirates it's like well what do we do we research like
00:15:07
every type of pirate Under the Sun and like what does that look like you know and it's like you know getting into
00:15:12
medieval history it's like oh this is really interesting read everything we possibly could read and go to you know
00:15:19
this and that and the other we'd go to museums I mean I remember going to like
00:15:23
the Ronald Reagan Museum a ton as a kid you know and and learning and read not even just like going going but like
00:15:31
going and then reading like all the plaques and like then having to like answer questions afterwards and stuff
00:15:37
like that so I think you like instilled much more of a desire to like know if that makes sense does that sense
00:15:47
curiosity yeah yeah it's good to be curious about things and then to have tools to be able to to learn more about
00:15:57
whatever it is and so we we wanted to Foster that in you well at the same time that we were doing
00:16:05
these things we were also remodeling our whole house ourselves with a lot of help from Google
00:16:14
so we watched YouTube videos and your dad had some skills from growing up with his Dad in building houses but your
00:16:23
dad's an accountant you know he had a desk job and so it wasn't as if he was
00:16:29
working in construction and had a whole lot of current skills and all of this stuff but
00:16:37
we had enough and we had enough curiosity and enough just strong will between the two of us to make it happen
00:16:46
and and so you got to see us firsthand you know encounter a lot of things we didn't know um how to do and
00:16:55
figure out how to do them yeah that's that's very true so I wanted to Pivot
00:17:03
just a little b or I wanted to kind of go back to something that you had said early on which was you had made friends
00:17:09
with Mrs Adams and Mrs ye um and they you know helped kind of like Foster and encourage your like understanding of The
00:17:19
Homeschool community and then I'm assuming it's kind of a result of them
00:17:23
that we ended up at group Solutions and a part of achieve they were also part of
00:17:27
that yes but um what was like aside from them kind of being like you should join this what was like the
00:17:37
biggest selling point of those things and for for people who don't understand
00:17:40
I mean I I've talked about a good amount on this show but like achieve was the
00:17:44
association of Christian Home Educators of Ventura County and it was basically like you know field trips and um I mean
00:17:53
I know it was support for like The Homeschool parents but also like dances and graduation
00:17:59
and I'm sure there was a buch of other stuff that I'm not even aware of and
00:18:02
then group Solutions was a lot more of like a classroom setting twice a month where yeah other parents could teach
00:18:09
whether it was fun classes or actual like science and math classes that kind of a thing but what was like what was
00:18:18
the selling point on that was it just I know I need people and like I'm just
00:18:21
going to commit to this stuff or well I didn't know what I was doing so I so you
00:18:27
just like I need help like I need help so um and and they were both really adamant that they okay especially Susan
00:18:37
Adams she's like I would not homeschool without this this is and and it was very
00:18:42
affordable it was not um it was not out outrageously expensive so at that point it it was just kind of
00:18:52
a no-brainer that we would join those and then they they helped me know when to register our our school with the
00:19:02
state of California and do you know that kind of more legal procedural stuff that
00:19:11
is necessary for running a school and so um yeah I just I just listened to my friends and did what they told me to do
00:19:21
and then and then you know so that they just pointed me in the right direction and then outside of that I made all my
00:19:29
own decisions so I chose my own stuff on my own but they were really helpful because if I had listened to them closer
00:19:38
I would not have boughten the whole ABCA program for each of you that first year
00:19:42
because they already knew that that was not the best idea but I just needed to go the safe route for myself and yeah
00:19:51
and your dad and I both knew that that was that would get it done right and it did it got it done but not in a
00:20:01
really fun way not in a holistic beautiful way that we really wanted our homeschool to be yeah well
00:20:11
what would you say so when so when that that one year two came around and we were like transitioning to different
00:20:19
like uh curriculums like at what point did you kind of go okay this is like this is working like what was the thing
00:20:28
where you like and not necessarily like okay do you get what I'm saying like when did you go when did you go
00:20:37
like okay this is it instead of like this is not happen it took a few years and really what happened was I started
00:20:46
learning more and more about a classical education approach and I learned more about this
00:20:54
one company called sunlight and they offered I don't even know I think they may have changed their name or something
00:21:02
but I don't I don't know because I'm not in the homeschool world anymore but
00:21:08
um um I learned about them they had these wonderful book lists and you could get their whole program and and they
00:21:16
could tell you kind of like a Becca but in a different way um how to run your whole home school well
00:21:22
I I didn't necessarily want to do that because a few years in figured out Matthew see was going to work because I
00:21:31
had kept you in a Becca math for a few years and um and stuff and it was a dry piece of toast it was not exciting but
00:21:42
it was getting it done you could do math and um and stuff but then Madison was really struggling because she's wired
00:21:50
completely different I couldn't have more like two more different children in
00:21:56
my life that I was trying to educate at the same time and it was it was a challenge but I figured out um that that
00:22:05
this other math curriculum would really help her and I thought just by researching it that it would probably
00:22:11
help you too well what happened was it helped not only you and Madison I got the math education I had never had in my
00:22:19
life I loved it um and I feel so much uh more Adept at math now um than I ever had before and you know your dad's an
00:22:31
accountant but I was a literature major in college I I could happily read books all day long um but I I I seem to like
00:22:42
kind of come alive with math when I was helping you guys with ABCA and then we actually ended up having a friend come
00:22:49
in and do math with you for a while and that was really fun and it was good for you because um you got a challenge I
00:22:59
remember you you would um compete against each other I didn't even have to try to create the competition you guys
00:23:08
naturally would just be a little bit competitive you wanted to learn more faster you wanted to get the better
00:23:14
grade you want you know all that stuff it was really kind of this fun thing to see happen because it didn't normally
00:23:22
happen in our home school with um because your every everyone's education in this household was very
00:23:30
individualized yeah and well I was going to say because yeah I mean shout out to
00:23:34
Caitlyn Gibbons for being my mouth buddy for many many years and even to this day
00:23:39
um whenever we do see each other it's always math comes up that's just what
00:23:43
happens um so but I think what's interesting is that like yeah as time went on also there was this shift in I
00:23:53
think so many people think of of homeschool as this like well you're just at home and your parent gives you the
00:23:59
textbook and they teach a class and they whatever and some people it's that way
00:24:02
and some people um I've had multiple people on too where it's like their
00:24:05
siblings are they're all spread out but they're all doing kind of like the same
00:24:08
science together and all the same math together and whatever so someone is either like really Advanced or really
00:24:14
behind and but everyone's kind of at the same level and I think what was different was like you also we got to a
00:24:23
point where we leaned heavily on like other people too so like yeah come to our house and you would teach English
00:24:30
and you'd have a whole book list and we would sit around and discuss and write
00:24:34
papers and whatever well then we would all go like to the lamos house and we do science at the lamos house or you know
00:24:41
everybody kind of had these like places that they would go and these these people that that would be that person
00:24:48
right that teacher figure but it was kind of all the same group of people you know was like the same six kids and we
00:24:54
would just kind of Bop around in different people's houses so even though we had like something like group
00:24:57
Solutions there also was just like a micro version of that happening in the ohigh valley right and when you were
00:25:04
still in elementary school we joined forces with a couple of other families and we did some science together at one
00:25:13
point we did our history together and that was really fun just as a little Co-op and we get together once a week
00:25:22
we' we'd be reading and studying at home on our own and enjoying that but then
00:25:27
we' get together for like an enrichment day and we would do crafts and maybe
00:25:32
have food and different things surrounding whatever we were studying and so um that's when we ended up make
00:25:40
building that big catapult to we were trying to catapult yeah um we were we the goal was to
00:25:48
catapult um produce like expired produce from our vegetable garden um over the cliff because we we on a bluff and stuff
00:26:00
but we couldn't get the the trajectory quite right to make it happen um to clear the fence and like all that kind
00:26:08
of stuff so we ended up moving it to the front yard and using it to Pelt you guys
00:26:13
with water balloons in the front yard and everyone had a good time and but it it fit with what we were studying in
00:26:22
history not the water balloons but the Catapult and this idea um in history but then there was the mathematical
00:26:31
component of like how you get the arc and the Angles and the all that stuff um to work right just right and and stuff
00:26:42
so it made it fun and we I think you did have a good time at those little Co-op things that we had with small Gatherings
00:26:52
of like two or three families um where we would where we would do that but for me it was my lifeline because MH one of
00:27:03
the things that I didn't realize going into homeschooling was um kind of how
00:27:10
really all consuming it was going to be how like I made this tradeoff but um I I I had a lot of responsibility not
00:27:23
just while I was teaching you but thinking about processing and preparing to teach you guys and um how it limited
00:27:32
my capacity in in other ways um to cultivate friendships and stuff like that and I needed that really badly um
00:27:41
I'm not a big group kind of gal but I do need friendship I'm I'm you know this
00:27:47
but I have an identical twin sister so from the very beginning I entered life with a partner in crime so I I've been
00:27:56
used to having like close personal connection with at least one other person that's my peer and and
00:28:05
stuff and H schooling um like really pointed out my need for that more than ever before I just um
00:28:15
needed that and so these small co-ops really helped and then our community of friends up here in the ohigh valley
00:28:24
really made a huge difference and so that's where where it got really good um
00:28:30
but it took a few years to get that yeah really in the flow right yeah yeah because I mean you were talking about I
00:28:39
mean when you bring up like Mrs Y and Mrs Adams like they lived in Oxnard which for context for people who are not
00:28:45
familiar with this area that's 30 minutes away 30 45 minutes away um it's
00:28:50
not that like we can just go there all the time and be around those people all the time and yeah and the whole the
00:28:58
ohigh group I mean that's 10 15 some people five minutes away less than you know some people you could walk to their
00:29:05
we could walk to their house if we really wanted to um and so I think there was just kind of once that group started
00:29:11
to form and that existed even before we were a part of it but once we joined that that's where I really see that like
00:29:20
thriving kickoff that's just I think when I think back to the homeschool stuff I kind of just exist more in that
00:29:28
like we were just good like we were thriving we had friends we had like good classes and small groups and all these
00:29:35
things and so you know but I look back at those first couple years and I just remember a
00:29:41
lot of loneliness so even though yeah we were a part of groups and things like that I remember feeling like well but my
00:29:47
friends are all 20 30 minutes away yeah so it wasn't I don't know and coming off
00:29:52
of a a public school experience it's like I saw my friends 5 days a week we lived in an area where my like I had
00:30:00
friends in our little condo area I see on weekend yeah we moved and then it was like I got nobody and then the people I
00:30:10
do have are 30 minutes away and I see them every two weeks you know so it was definitely that was a that was a rough
00:30:18
shift in our life yeah because because we didn't have that the the closeness of
00:30:25
your peer friends and we we had relocated so we were developing some new like local friends even though we did
00:30:34
have some friends up here but um they weren't like every day throughout the day kind of friends they were you know
00:30:41
yeah they were in a different um yeah we just saw them on the weekend kind of thing and and stuff but then we
00:30:50
we were taking on this massive undertaking with this house and and stuff so there was so much change
00:30:58
and upheaval all at one time and um and so I think it was rather traumatic for all of us I I I
00:31:09
have a funny feeling your sister was the one who like handled the beginning parts
00:31:15
of all this the best but I don't proba I don't know because it was it was
00:31:21
challenging but but then it did it within a few years we found our stride we found our people and um and it's been
00:31:30
really beautiful and um like the homeschooling was really beautiful but since homeschooling like I had developed
00:31:38
friends during that time that are still my best friends and so that's yeah really beautiful yeah well that's that's
00:31:48
kind of a good segue because I wanted to talk a little bit about kind of transitioning out I mean it's been what
00:31:54
like eight years for you I know for me I've been out of The Homeschool world
00:31:58
for 10 um Madison was another two or three years after that so but yeah like and and somebody that I interviewed um
00:32:09
had brought up that their mom really struggled with turning off the teacher right it was like their mom and their
00:32:15
teacher and at home they really struggled to turn that off and I think that's something I mean we kind of
00:32:20
touched on it already like it's difficult when it's all I work from home
00:32:24
I understand like it's hard for me to turn off work because I'm it's here it's
00:32:28
in my it's in the middle I'm in the living room um but I can't even like for
00:32:32
homeschoolers it's like that's also got to be tough on on moms because it's like
00:32:36
well when does The Learning end well the learning ends when the learning ends it's not like you know um but if your
00:32:44
whole identity is wrapped up in that so then anyway to get to my point is is I guess walk us through a little bit of
00:32:51
that transition of like okay now your kids are out they're in college or a job
00:32:57
whatever uh was it hard to transition out of being a teacher into just like okay I'm
00:33:03
retired like what was that I was I was super excited for the shift and I knew and I
00:33:10
saw it coming so um the beautiful part about it was that I had started to think through how I was going to keep some
00:33:25
friendships and so I think you were in high school maybe I I think it was while you were still at home um I started this
00:33:35
little thing and then like I just I just put something together one time and it was we were celebrating someone's
00:33:42
birthday up here one of the moms and it was just the moms and we went to lunch I
00:33:49
think or breakfast or something like that at a restaurant and we left the kids at home and it was just us and then
00:33:56
we started doing this thing up here where we would meet for someone's birthday and um and and that's all we
00:34:05
would gather around we weren't we weren't trying to be like learning something new for homeschooling or or
00:34:12
somehow fix our kids or like whatever right it was just it was just a group of women getting together but we all knew
00:34:20
each other from this one thing and so then um so then one one time we were together like I I started this but then
00:34:30
everyone just kind of would would take the lead when it was someone's birthday
00:34:34
and someone would get us all moving in the right direction and one of these days we were together and Melinda asked
00:34:44
if any of us were interested in a book club and a bunch of us raised our hands and and that day but not all of us but
00:34:53
that day we formed a book club I was still homeschooling Madison by by the time this came around I think you were
00:34:59
gone I think you had already left for college and um and we formed a book club well after we formed the book club the
00:35:08
birthday lunch thing kind of went away and it was just about the book club so now it was even a smaller group um but
00:35:16
we were in the process of transitioning out of homeschooling and so it was really vital that we
00:35:25
cultivated a a group that met and was intentional but not around homeschooling and we were just
00:35:34
reading and we got to pick whatever books we wanted we would just take turns and and then um so it was just kind of a
00:35:42
really nice segue into something good um there and then the other thing that was
00:35:49
helpful was we had been taking you guys to the beach or I had been taking you kids with
00:35:55
other homeschool families to to the beach for years in the summer and on Fridays it was always the same place
00:36:03
always the same you know it was just what we did and um and stuff and once you guys all grew up and went away to
00:36:12
school or got married or got jobs or did whatever you guys have all done um we still kept going to the beach well we're
00:36:22
down to there's four of us now that have really stayed together and were close
00:36:30
friends and and by having these different pockets of friends that transitioned while I was transitioning
00:36:38
out of homeschooling we transitioned together but had something besides homeschooling to keep us together um so
00:36:48
that was that was one thing and then the year I finished homeschooling the following year Nanny was really sick so
00:36:57
my mom got really sick and I had to help with that and so I was so grateful to not have the responsibility of
00:37:05
homeschooling while I also needed to help out a little bit more with my parents but also um process what
00:37:17
was really happening because it was really hard and sad and then she passed away so my first year out of
00:37:24
homeschooling was was a really hard year but and I was gone a lot um so when so it took a little while when I came back
00:37:35
after that I was a little bit lost um because but I still had my book club and I still had my beach girls and um so the
00:37:47
mermaids were intact the beach the book club was intact and um and I had a solid
00:37:54
group of friends from church and I just dug in I just I I dug in and said okay well I need to do something else so I
00:38:03
ended up um helping to lead a women's Bible study so I was getting involved in
00:38:10
community outside of homeschooling and then and then a little bit after that um years ago a friend
00:38:19
Melinda had offered um you know that she was going to be taking this trying to get into the
00:38:27
Master Gardener program here in Ventura County and and asked if I would be interested because she knew I like to
00:38:33
garden and and I knew it wasn't my time I was still homeschooling so I said oo
00:38:39
that's really interesting I'm yes but no not right now and so so it's been a
00:38:46
little while and finally last year um I I applied and was accepted and took the course and did all my classroom time and
00:38:56
volunteer time and became a Master Gardener and and now I volunteer in my community in that capacity so it's been
00:39:04
like this steady transition of of moving away from the homeschooling stuff but but as soon as I
00:39:14
stopped homeschooling my heart was pretty much done I still volunteered a little bit
00:39:20
with the homeschooling stuff just because there was a transition that needed to happen um but but I got out of
00:39:28
that as really as quickly as I could because I knew I needed to move my life forward and find um purpose in doing
00:39:37
stuff that I was really interested in and gifted with and so yeah so it was just the being purposeful about choosing
00:39:48
a path forward I think was really important and and seeing it before it arrived like being forward thinking like
00:39:58
I knew you guys were going to be leaving home and going to college and having your own lives and and making a plan for
00:40:05
what my life was going to be about when that happened and and stuff but I think I've just been kind of a planner like
00:40:15
that um for a while because since you were really little I was always telling you okay so when you grow up and you're
00:40:25
18 and you decide you know if you want to go to school like where you're going
00:40:29
to go to school and what you're where you're going to live and all this stuff
00:40:33
I was always planting the seed for you yeah that there was this time in the future that you were going to go do this
00:40:40
thing you were going to move beyond our home and and we talked about it like it was the most normal thing in the world
00:40:48
so I Was preparing my heart for it but also preparing you for the fact that you grow up and and go you know know find
00:40:58
your path and do your thing and that helped a lot yeah and that helped a lot because it was just like I mean I
00:41:04
remember that it wasn't weird to me to be like Oh I'm going to go to college now or like
00:41:11
I'm moving out or I'm you know I'm an adult basically because we had always
00:41:18
talked about it and I think for other friends of mine I think it was really weird for them because they were like
00:41:23
well what am I supposed to do now like their understanding of what came after homeschool high school was like what the
00:41:31
movies showed them which is kind of the same thing but it was just like yeah I don't know and I don't I don't blame
00:41:38
parents because I I know to some degree a lot of them were just like it just we have to get them through like it that
00:41:43
was kind of like end goal for them and they were just like we have to get them through but it's so interesting to me
00:41:49
when I talk to people now and I'm interviewing so many people now it's like you can tell the ones who their
00:41:56
parents kind of had this like okay yeah we're gonna get here and then like mom's
00:42:01
job is kind of done because I mean typically the moms were the ones teaching but our job as like teachers
00:42:06
home school teachers is going to be kind of done but then you're going to go off
00:42:09
and do this other thing and then there were the people who I don't know that their parents
00:42:15
really expressly said those things to their kids and so they got there and then everyone was just kind of like I
00:42:21
that's why so many homeschool kids got stuck at Ventura College and there's
00:42:24
nothing wrong with going to Ventura College but it was just I mean some people were like I was there
00:42:30
for six years and I accomplished nothing why is that because there was no they didn't know what the next step was
00:42:36
because they just hadn't really B the the seed of like the transition period hadn't been set in
00:42:42
their minds so they were just like I don't know what to do like you know it could be anything the whole world is my
00:42:47
oyster right well I think sometimes we have this false notion that when we set out on our trajectory as an
00:43:01
adult that it's it's One Direction One Way it's a commitment forever right it's
00:43:11
it's what you have to find the perfect you know interest that suits you for the
00:43:17
perfect career that you're going to be at forever but the reality is is that's
00:43:23
very rare life is exciting and you're going to take take like many twists and
00:43:28
turns and so you just got to go after like what what are you really passionate about interested in now or um maybe you
00:43:39
don't have a like interest or capacity for something that's really going to
00:43:46
make you money that could pay the bills but but it's something else but you could go find a job that would pay the
00:43:53
bills so you could pursue the other thing that you're really interested in it so yeah you know and leaving space
00:44:01
for that and leaving space for a change leaving space yeah to say okay my interests are going to change my um my
00:44:13
ability um to earn money is lower now so I don't need to be able to make you know
00:44:23
$300,000 a year at 22 I can I can you know like just go um and and find something that would pay enough as I
00:44:35
explore adulthood and figure out what I'm going to figure out so um yeah so it
00:44:40
is kind of hard because we don't we don't talk about these things a whole
00:44:46
lot in our culture and and maybe the the conversations are going to pick up but um yeah but I think a lot of times we
00:44:54
have that idea like well I better pick the right major and get the right job because I'm going to be doing this
00:45:00
forever and that's not really that's not always the case and we need to take that
00:45:05
pressure off um off young people to to have it all dialed in yeah yeah well let me tell you something that I think I
00:45:16
mean you you taught me this and I think I mean I was raised we went to church I was raised a Christian I was I was a
00:45:26
Christian I'm not a Christian anymore but one of the things that I so vividly
00:45:31
remember about you know for me high school was 2010 through 2014 and during that time in the church there for
00:45:38
whatever reason was this massive emphasis on the will of God and what is the will of God in your
00:45:44
life and I think people took it the wrong way and and to backtrack a little bit you
00:45:52
would years before that you had um made me read the the Westminster catechism and one of the first like
00:46:01
sections of the Westminster catechism is about the will of God and it's like the
00:46:06
will of God is to to honor and glorify him forever and believe in him and so you're with him forever right and so my
00:46:13
understanding of the will of God was that it doesn't really matter what I do
00:46:18
as long as it was to honor and glorify God I was doing the will of God and so and then he would make it abundantly
00:46:25
clear if the job I was in or the person I was with was the right person or the right thing to be doing and so when it
00:46:33
came to in high school when we're all trying to figure out what to do yeah I was like nervous about like
00:46:39
well what am I going to pick for a career what am I going to do this but I had this
00:46:45
like understanding that it's like it doesn't really matter because I was a
00:46:49
Christian at that time so it was like as long as I'm doing something to glorify
00:46:52
God it doesn't really matter because it will all work out in the end he'll make
00:46:57
it abundantly clear what I need to be do and I think a lot of my friends got stuck on this like well what is the will
00:47:03
of God what like what is his like Divine thing that I have to do like am I supposed to be like the next big New
00:47:10
York Times bestseller an author am I supposed to be a doctor am I supposed to be a rocket scientist am I supposed to
00:47:14
be all these things and so these people got stuck because they were like I don't
00:47:17
want to I don't want to mess up and I don't want to make God anger and it's
00:47:20
like well you're not do by by doing that you're not doing anything so right it's
00:47:25
no wonder you're just kind of stuck in this perpetual motion and I know not everybody was a Christian but it it just
00:47:32
I don't know I think it gave me a little bit more of an emphasis because when I
00:47:35
got to college and I realized really quickly that the degree I went in for was not the thing I wanted to do I had
00:47:40
no problem than just being like okay well I'm going to do this other thing that I'm really interested in right so
00:47:45
my Pivot was just easy and quick for me because I wasn't afraid that I was like going against the will of God at
00:47:53
that point like I don't know like right I hope that makes sense to people because it makes well it makes sense to
00:48:00
me because that's totally what I think too like but I think your point it's
00:48:05
like there there is no set like you have to do this forever and have to I mean there what's the stat on this point I
00:48:12
mean I'm gonna make up a number off the top of my head but it's like 70% or some
00:48:15
crazy number that it's like you go to college you get a degree in something and most likely you're not going to work
00:48:20
in that field you know most likely you're not going to do anything related to it right and that's okay but you know
00:48:28
you just got to be okay with rolling with the punches sometimes and figuring it out as you go along right and um
00:48:37
anyway anyway well that's that's my Spiel yeah well you know what's interesting to me because I spent I I've
00:48:45
spent the last I don't know 29 years um unemployed right because I I ended my
00:48:56
career to be home and to have a family and we decided to practice before we had a
00:49:03
child um like the living on one income like we could have practiced and still had my income except we weren't really
00:49:10
disciplined enough to live without it like we really liked to spend the money so um so I haven't really been in the
00:49:21
workforce in a traditional sense because I haven't been earning an income come or
00:49:27
having a paycheck so the question would be well did I just waste all that time and money
00:49:35
going to college to get a degree and and I would say no I I didn't yes it helped
00:49:45
me get my first job out of college and and it was very helpful at the time and it it provided some things that that
00:49:53
were helpful but then after that the skills I learned doing that have always been helpful in different ways I
00:50:01
developed relationships friendships I found a husband well we didn't get together till later
00:50:10
but but I met him there yeah and um and like there are so many wonderful things that came of that experience and I don't
00:50:20
think that it was a waste in any way I think it was purely beneficial and and I'm glad that I had that experience and
00:50:29
then I did get to dip back in um when I taught literature classes in the H School Community because that's like
00:50:36
really what I loved to do but then once your sister finished high school I didn't want to teach High School classes
00:50:44
anymore or Junior High classes anymore truly I almost took a job I almost for a nanc took a job teaching at a private
00:50:53
school um Junior High which is what I went to college to do right and and then at the last minute I just said 'you know
00:51:03
what I really can't I had no peace and then it turned out Nanny was sick and I
00:51:07
needed to help take care of her it would have been a train wreck had I not listened to that intuitive knowing right
00:51:15
of saying hold on something else is going on here you just need to wait and I'm glad that I listened to that but I
00:51:25
but in no way do I regret those early choices in my teen years and in my early adult
00:51:33
life um to move me forward to where I am now we just we make these decisions and
00:51:40
they help put our path a certain way but we don't stay on the straight path All
00:51:45
The Way We There are twists and turns that a lot of times we we would have never seen coming I would have never
00:51:52
imagined that I would go back um to school and be become a Master Gardener I wouldn't have thought that at all um
00:52:00
yeah but it's been really fun and I'm glad that I've landed where I am right
00:52:07
now with that and and the choices that I've made along the ways before now have
00:52:13
led me to this moment and I think we need to talk a little bit more about that kind of stuff to just say it's okay
00:52:20
in your late teens your early 20s your 30s whatever to be figured fing stuff out and try something new it's just it
00:52:31
it's great we have a friend right now who um just turned 60 and is making a major life change career-wise and it is
00:52:41
so exciting to see it because when a lot of people are just settling in being comfortable with where they're at and
00:52:52
where they've been and this is the way I'm always going to be you got people
00:52:57
out there really just saying you know what I'm ready for the next ACT let's do
00:53:02
it you know yeah so that's really exciting so you know it yeah there's there's just it's it's a
00:53:12
mindset kind of thing and and the God's will thing I think is we can get hung up
00:53:19
on that um very easily so I still I'm a I'm a Believer I have faith in God and
00:53:27
and I'm all in there right but um but I don't get hung up like we had to go buy
00:53:33
a car and I I didn't get hung up on you know like is it God's will for me to get
00:53:40
the white Honda or the or the blue Toyota you know like no yeah I don't think God cares you
00:53:48
know God if you're out there I I just he's got bigger problems to to work on
00:53:52
right now so so yeah I'm just I'm just not in that space I I know that he cares
00:53:58
about me personally intimately like I believe that right but but the some of this
00:54:06
other stuff it's like he you know I we have free will for a Cho for a reason make a choice yeah yeah yeah yeah
00:54:15
I think I I love so much because I think when I was in college and I would call home it's like I mean you were
00:54:23
still homeschooling and I know it was kind of difficult there at the end you were just
00:54:28
you you were kind of done you were just ready for it to be over I think um I mean I've been a year you know 10 years
00:54:36
of your life it been a decade of your life doing this thing and so it was like okay that that's a long time you know
00:54:42
and sometimes it's ready for a change so but yeah watching you kind of come out
00:54:46
of that and go through I mean yeah Nanny's death was big and hard and gnarly um but to kind of go through all
00:54:55
that and then find like okay I need to do something I can't just like sit at
00:55:01
home all day and do nothing right there's not there's not enough things to
00:55:05
do I need like a hobby or a purpose or whatever and so uh yeah so anyway watching you become a master Gardner has
00:55:12
been really cool um and it's something you know I know also with Dad it's like
00:55:18
Dad has become like you know an obstacle course racer and shot about that on his episode um
00:55:26
and things like that so it's cool to see my parents who spent so much time just being our parents who now have
00:55:34
the time to like go do things that they're interested in is is really it makes me happy um and it makes me like
00:55:41
also want to pursue things that I'm interested in because I have the time to
00:55:44
do that and when I do you know and so um so yeah so I think that's awesome and uh
00:55:51
I'm trying to think here's a question that I kind of I'm I'm going to posee it you don't have
00:55:58
to have an immediate answer but you know for someone who is considering homeschooling their kid or just wants to
00:56:03
be involved in their kids education even it's like what do you think is like a
00:56:07
really what's like one good piece of advice that you would give them to be like you know just trust me on
00:56:16
this you you know I I wish that I had taken more time to weigh the cost because with with anything there's
00:56:32
a cost whether it um you when you make a decision to do one thing you're actually
00:56:39
also saying no to a bunch of other things that you might be able to do with your time or your
00:56:45
resources and with homeschooling um I made a choice to be Allin with you and your
00:56:53
sister and and to be a huge you know part of your educational process and in doing that I had to say no to a number
00:57:04
of other opportunities and I didn't always do that well like I really thought I could
00:57:11
do it all and no one can do it all right it like it's impossible to do everything
00:57:20
and to be everything to all people and and stuff and so there is a cost that that you pay with your time with your
00:57:29
resources because all of a sudden you're you're paying for curriculum you're
00:57:33
paying for classes if you choose to have someone else help you with certain things um and you're pain with your lack
00:57:41
of availability to go pursue your own career um and that was kind of a a a big deal in a way but
00:57:52
I wasn't always mindful of it and and stuff but anytime you make a decision to
00:57:58
do something if you when you decide to send your kids to school like a Traditional School say the local public
00:58:05
school down the street you're also making a decision that you don't get all
00:58:10
those hours of the day with your child you don't because they're going to be
00:58:15
away from you someone else is going to be speaking into their life for those hours that they're away um but then you
00:58:23
get back maybe some personal time or some some time to have a job which means more money and and stuff so there are
00:58:30
all these costs and you're always weighing things like that and and so I think really weigh it and and figure out
00:58:39
what you really truly value um and and what's most important and then put all
00:58:46
put your effort more effort there on your higher priority things and I'm glad
00:58:52
it ended up the way the way it did with you and Madison and your dad and I here in our home
00:58:58
school because it was beautiful but I wish that my eyes had been wide open to that truth and I
00:59:06
wasn't continually also trying to pursue being um involved in so many other things outside of it and if I
00:59:18
could because I did go all in with you but at the same time in the back of my mind I'm going well I can still you know
00:59:26
be really involved in church and I can still you know travel to go visit Nanny and Poppy whenever I want to and all
00:59:34
this stuff and it's like well you know what I I really need to to be all in especially the minute that we decided to
00:59:42
to remodel an entire house while also homeschooling that that was a big thing so um yeah so I think that that that
00:59:53
might be a thing to really really stop and think about about it all it's not homeschooling isn't something
01:00:01
you just add on to your already busy schedule it's not going to work out well
01:00:07
and and you see that happening sometimes where um where people are homeschooling
01:00:13
then they're not homeschooling then they're homeschooling then they're not
01:00:15
homeschooling you like there's in and out of of school and sometimes that's
01:00:20
for other reasons and sometimes it's just because it's a little flighty right
01:00:25
it's a little like I haven't I I can't I can't do all the things oh wait but I
01:00:31
liked it better when the kids were home I'm going to pull them back home oh wait
01:00:34
I can't do everything you know it's just it's a tough one so um yeah I don't know
01:00:41
was that where you were going no that's that's totally I think that's a great
01:00:45
piece of advice is like yeah weigh weigh the cost on what it is because I mean you know my biggest thing right now is
01:00:51
just that like or one of my big things that I push on the show a lot is that for who are considering homeschooling
01:00:57
their kid for me it's less about like oh homeschool is the right way public school is the right way private schools
01:01:04
the right way it's more about if you as a parent are invested in your kid right
01:01:08
because I know plenty of kids who they don't have relationships that were homeschooled that had don't have
01:01:13
relationship with their parents because even though their parents were there and
01:01:16
they home educated them they didn't actually invest anything in their kid and so it's just like the relationship
01:01:22
wasn't there to continue after the fact and so to me it's less I'm a relationship
01:01:29
guy that's just that's just who I am um if you haven't picked it up on the show
01:01:34
my mom said it earlier she's like I did better in the small groups of like six
01:01:38
kids coming to our house than I did at like group Solutions where there's you
01:01:41
know 300 people running around um I just have always liked the closer nit relationship stuff so I think parents
01:01:48
who take that time to invest in their kid whether it's being their their homeschool teacher and and having them
01:01:56
at home whether it's just like I'm going to pick them every day up every day
01:01:59
after school you know and then we're going to go do something together and I'm involved in their homework and I'm
01:02:03
involved in their sports activities or whatever you know it's like I think that's to me that's that's the more
01:02:10
that's the biggest piece of advice I give anybody um and I'm not a parent but
01:02:14
it's just that was that I think is what has shaped me better into the person I
01:02:19
am today and the fact that I still have a relationship with you and Dad we've
01:02:23
grown as people we continue to grow as people we have conversation around it and we're able to do that because you
01:02:30
guys had my back as a kid and you guys were invested time and energy into me outside of just we're your teachers you
01:02:36
were my parents and my friends and so anyway not to get too sappy um so I think I would be remiss I think
01:02:46
I would get a lot of flack if I also didn't ask this um are there any cringy
01:02:52
stories about me that you need to share with the audience um or was I you know very obviously like
01:02:59
the perfect child and did nothing wrong um so you know I will I will say yes of course
01:03:09
there were cringy moments with you as there are with every person that travels this Earth and grows from a
01:03:18
child to an adult um that's going to happen but I have to say you were a joy
01:03:24
you guaranteeing you and your sister have been the biggest Joy oh of my life I'm so
01:03:35
privileged that I got to do this and I can't imagine a better way to have spent these
01:03:46
years than I had you guys here at home it was just so it was awful and it was wonderful all at the same
01:03:56
time um the I think the most cringy things that happened was like puberty was really rough because you lost the
01:04:05
Good Sense God gave you and I just couldn't manage it and and then um I had my own issues like I I didn't
01:04:17
come into parenting um as an emotionally healthy person and so all my anger issues came out like
01:04:28
even worse so I me so while I was homeschooling you but but even longer while I was Raising you I was I was
01:04:37
learning to navigate my own who I was and my own um emotions and and and just grow to be a healthier
01:04:48
person and and stuff and so I would bump into you so and and stuff and then you guys both of you would do things that
01:05:00
that were just mirroring back to me who I had been like my in my flaws right and
01:05:07
I would get to see it and be horrified by it but I think that's just that's
01:05:13
parenting um in general uh and and stuff so I'm trying to think so the Red Jeans
01:05:23
like that that your Red Jeans have come up quite a few times in in your podcast and and stuff that was a look for sure
01:05:32
but it was it was in style at the time and so that was kind of a a funny thing it wasn't as if it was a really bad
01:05:41
choice at the time um I think the funniest Family story surrounding those red skinny jeans was the time your Dad
01:05:51
tried them on because on you yeah on you they weren't they while they were called
01:05:59
skinny jeans they they weren't painted on but when your dad put them on they
01:06:05
were definitely painted on and then we just start started calling him thunder thighs and and do you remember they were
01:06:13
super short like he yes he's he's considerably taller than you are and like maybe I don't know he's he's
01:06:23
got four inches I think on me four or five amazing so um yeah and and he's real trim so he could fit your your
01:06:31
waist size um in high school but oh th but those pants were pretty funny they were they they brought some Joy to the
01:06:41
house for sure yes yeah no those were I don't know I'm not going to say it's a bad it was a mistake it was just
01:06:55
look back I'm like I'm thankful I don't own those anymore but you know um
01:07:00
they're memorable there's good photos on the internet of me rocking those um you
01:07:05
know and it's something that everyone brings up the okay here's another thing
01:07:09
that just popped into my brain I was going to ask you about this because I always tell people that the only reason
01:07:14
that I became a swing dancer was because you stuck me in swing dance class oh yeah I don't
01:07:21
remember really being okay with that at first I feel like you just kind of like okay you kind of just put me in there
01:07:29
okay so here's the thing [Music] um your PE kind of thing was really lacking your dad is
01:07:41
athletic but remember your dad said I'm not doing this thing I'm not going to be
01:07:46
part of it you're you're You've Got The Homeschool thing but I was not athletic I wasn't interested in
01:07:54
going outside particularly now I love going outside I want you know I go for my morning walks and you know like just
01:08:02
all that kind of stuff but but back then not so much and so I knew I wanted you to
01:08:10
have like more physical activity but also there was this great social thing that was going on in our Circle and I
01:08:20
wanted that for you I wanted you to have friends and and to to be able to go do something fun and it looked like fun to
01:08:30
me didn't look like fun at all to you and you were in the height of your awkwardness and and stuff and so we put
01:08:38
you in some dance classes and then we would take you to dances and how we ended up doing this because you would
01:08:47
have gladly gone and not danced at all was the first few dances um we went we paid for you to get in
01:08:56
but then we say so the first time you went you had to dance one dance or else you had to pay us back for
01:09:04
the fee to get in that was the deal yes you didn't want to go at all you didn't want to learn
01:09:11
how to dance like none of that stuff so so you went you danced the one dance and
01:09:15
that was it and then the second time it was like okay so today we're paying for
01:09:21
you to go to this dance and you need to dance two times or else you're gonna pay us back for the
01:09:29
fee to go dance and so you liked your money and you didn't want to have to do
01:09:34
it so you that was enough to motivate you um to at least put in the bare minimum and you did that and before we
01:09:42
knew it you were dancing all night long and having a great time and and it just kind of snowballed from there but it but
01:09:50
it was hard and painful but that's anytime you do anything new stuff is just painful it requires more of us um
01:10:01
to to put ourselves out there and stuff and I'm so glad that that you had the
01:10:08
experience that you did and at some point we would have let you just not go if you were super miserable but we knew
01:10:16
you needed to give it a little bit of a try and and stuff and it worked out yeah
01:10:23
yes it did became pretty much what I'm known for in the hes School group and yeah it's still something that
01:10:31
I love to this day and I look back very fondly on that time so um yeah so thank you for pushing me to do that because
01:10:37
yeah I do remember that first dance I went to was in the pettit's backyard and
01:10:41
I only danced with Morgan Bozarth um and she basically had to drag me out on the
01:10:45
dance floor um but yeah yeah yeah but here we are yeah do hard things so okay yeah
01:10:56
I don't know that I really have any other questions for you is there anything I missed is there anything
01:11:01
hav't touched on I think we could prob sit here and just talk for two weeks about different things but I think we
01:11:08
can let it go we can let it go with that we can always do a part two um yeah people if you've got questions yeah I
01:11:16
well I will tell you this like if I could go back and do it and and and not do it
01:11:24
would I you know would I do it different well of course I would do things different but I will tell you I would
01:11:30
homeschool you and your sister all over again I would I would do it again and I'm so grateful that we had the
01:11:38
opportunity to do it because I think that our relationship now a big part of it has been built on
01:11:48
we did this big thing together and it built our relationship and we built trust with one
01:11:55
one another and and it it's been really good and and now you're living your own
01:12:02
life and you're making your own decisions and and and it's and it's good to see that
01:12:10
and and even though some of your decisions might not be the same ones that I would make right it's okay like I
01:12:18
I love you I trust you and we've built that and and we can still stay in in relationship with one another even
01:12:27
though we don't see the world like we're not carbon copies of each other we're very distinct and
01:12:34
individual but um anyhow but I would totally 100% do it again would I make changes oh you betcha I would change a
01:12:45
lot of stuff that I did but um but I think that's all of life right we all can look back on on life and say oh I
01:12:53
would have done that different and I would have done that different but um but this is one thing where I can say J
01:12:59
I would I would have done I would do it again and um yeah because I love you and
01:13:05
I'm so glad we had that adventure together yeah it's it was fun you know
01:13:11
and it was I don't know like I know it was stressful and there are things that
01:13:15
yeah I would do differently and we would never do a Becca maath um because that was a waste of time oh my gosh
01:13:23
but but there's so many good things came out of it and good relationships and
01:13:28
that's kind of been the whole point of this show too is just kind of to rekindle some of those and Define those
01:13:34
people because I mean said it a lot on the show been a decade for me that I've
01:13:40
been kind of outside of it popped in every now and then I see a few people every now and then but for the most part
01:13:45
it's like everyone's gone we've all gone our separate ways and so but I think it's fun to catch up with
01:13:52
people and hear about what they're doing today and and what's going on you know
01:13:57
and yeah and one of the biggest questions I kept getting was well what are the moms and dads doing like did
01:14:04
they also move on with their lives and um so we're finding that out so well there's a group of us oh high moms that
01:14:11
are in a book club together and there's a group of us um that are mermaids together Friday mermaids go to the beach
01:14:20
every Friday yeah and we just we just love each other and we've just veloped friendship and um and so that
01:14:29
has spawned something really really beautiful for all of us and yeah yeah yeah and the thing the nice thing too is
01:14:37
you guys aren't limited to just being homeschool moms anymore like maybe it birthed out of that but it's like you're
01:14:44
not you're not limited to that none of us are homeschooling anymore we're all
01:14:49
retired exactly it's wonderful exactly yeah yeah well for the audience if you've got
01:14:57
questions if I didn't ask my mom the right things you let me know shoot me an
01:15:01
email at exhs [email protected] or shoot me a DM on Instagram at ex exhs club uh yeah on Instagram and uh yeah let me
01:15:13
know because we can always get her back for part two or if there's a parent that
01:15:17
you want to hear from and you want to know uh the deep dirty dark secrets of one of your homeschool friends um I will
01:15:24
do my best to get to the bottom of it uh I can't guarantee anything but I I will
01:15:28
try my my darnest uh this has been the ex homeschoolers club and yeah I hope you guys tune back in next week uh my
01:15:36
dad's coming on very soon so stay tuned for that and more parents to come more
01:15:41
big things are in the works guys you wouldn't believe it State of the Union Address coming very soon as well so stay
01:15:49
tuned all right until next time peace [Music] [Music]