I wrote this blog with you in mind! You may not have had the same experiences as me, the same number of children, and you may not homeschool, but as wives and mothers who are striving to live a life that glorifies God I think we can understand one another. We share struggles with hopelessness and discontentment. We lose our cool with our children. We love God and His word and desire to impart that to the people we love.
Titus 2:3-5 exhorts the “older” women to teach the younger women to love their husbands, and children; to be sensible, pure, workers at home who are kind and subject to their own husband. Why would we need to learn how to do this??? Because it’s hard!!! If you ever wanted to sit down and have a conversation with someone who’s already been there and just ask how — then you are who I wrote this for. I want to encourage you in the christian life as a wife and mother as I have been, and continue to be, encouraged. As a matter of fact, I hope we can inspire one another in the christian life. I write posts about how I learned to trust God in hard circumstances, find hope in the waiting times, large family life, homeschooling, as well as what I’m learning in bible studies and books I’m reading.
I started Faith, Hope, and Family back in 2014 as a way to share all that I had learned in the faith adventure I call life. Our family was in a transitional period and I was trusting God daily just to get by with a good attitude. We had been stuffing our large, eight-member homeschooling family into a small double-wide mobile home and had recently stepped out in faith in attempt to get a larger place better suited to our family. That meant moving into my parents basement for what promised to be only 6 months but in reality lasted 2 years. God taught me a lot along the way. Pair that with all the things I had learned about being a godly woman and homeschooling mother and I had a lot to share.
I married the love of my life in 1996 when I was 20 years old. Our first child was born just 3 years later in 1999. For the next decade I was almost constantly pregnant or nursing. I had my sixth and final baby in March of 2009, giving me a grand total of six kids age 10 and under — all of whom I was homeschooling. Life was full of craziness and full of life lessons! A lot has happened since then and I’ve learned and grown so much. At the time of this update (January 2019) my oldest has graduated homeschool and is in his second year of college and I’m getting ready to graduate my second in May. The remaining four are scattered among high school, middle school, and upper elementary. After two decades of being a mother and teaching homeschool, while far from perfect, I’ve learned a few tricks of the trade. So dig in, browse around, leave me some comments and let me know your thoughts. Looking forward to getting to know you!
Five Random Facts
- I’m a coffee and tea lover, with my favorite being a cinnamon latte.
- My family and I thoroughly enjoy hiking, camping and generally hanging out in the great outdoors.
- I love being creative — writing and painting are two favorite ways to relax.
- I enjoy cooking good, flavorful foods. I especially love learning and trying out new techniques.
- I don’t like baking. I do my best to leave the cookies and cakes to my daughters.
