SR 900: Preparing for the Holidays: From Stress to Success – Sheri Renno, Part 3

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It’s just easy and tempting to look around at the culture

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and almost like with Peter and the waves, you know, just start to

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sink and fall under the weight of it. But

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the Lord’s given these children to us. And it may not

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look like what your friend’s

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homeschool looks like. It may not look like your neighbors down the street. It’s going

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to look differently, but

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it’s good. And the Lord is going to equip you for what you need.

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Hey, everyone, this is. This is Yvette Hampton. Welcome back to the Schoolhouse Rocked

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Podcast. I am back with my friend Sheri Renno, and we’re talking about the

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holidays, and we’re just bringing homeschool encouragement because that’s what we do.

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And we have had so much fun chatting with you guys. Like, I

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feel like there’s an audience. I mean, there is an audience on the other side.

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It’s hard when you’re speaking to a camera, but I know that you’re on the

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other side of this camera. And so it is really exciting to be able to

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encourage you guys in your homeschool journey. And I know that Sheri, she talks into

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a camera all the time. We were talking about this before we hit the

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record button because I said, I have a hard time

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doing videos where there’s no audience that I can see on the

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other side. And she’s really good at doing that. And

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so it is a blessing to know that you, Our audience, is on the

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other side, being encouraged by Sheri and by myself.

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And, you know, we’re just. We’re just regular homeschool moms, just like you,

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or we’re no one. Amazing. We are. We are in

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the thick of it like you. And we have the same joys and we have

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the same burdens, and we have the same, you know, all things. All the. All

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the emotions that us homeschool mamas feel. We’re there with you, and

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so we’re. We’re glad to just be on this journey with

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you. So, Sheri, thank you for being with me this week to talk about all

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these things. So we’re going to talk more, but before we do, I want to

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say thank you again to our sponsor, BJU Press Homeschool. I am so grateful

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for them because they are also on our journey with us and homeschooling

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as well. They provide curriculum that I could not come up with by

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myself, and I’m so thankful for them. And they do it from a strong biblical

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worldview, and that’s what we appreciate most about BGU Press Homeschool

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because we trust them. We know that they produce

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amazing, biblical, biblically sound

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curriculum, and we are grateful that they are so committed to

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doing that. So if you’re looking for curriculum for any grade, any, any

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subject, any age, whatever it is that you need, they’ve got something

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for you. Check them out at

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bjupresshomeschool.com. All right, Sheri, we talked

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Monday, we talked yesterday, we talked a lot

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about the holidays. And I want to talk today a little bit about

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just, just motherhood, I guess, because your, your

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thing is homeschool encouragement for everyday

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moms. And speaking of that, we are just everyday moms. I

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mean, that’s what we were talking about. And one of the things that I’ve noticed

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about every homeschool mom, just about including myself, is that we

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often feel very ill equipped to do the things that God has called

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us to do. And so our attitudes matter, our

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confidence in homeschooling and raising our kids matters. All of that

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talk about what that has looked like for you, I mean, did you

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jump into homeschooling feeling like, I’ve got this, I know exactly what I’m doing,

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and I’m going to be the most amazing homeschool mom ever and have lived the

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last 13 years of your life in that

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regard, or, you know what? How has the Lord worked in you and

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through you as a mom who’s

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growing in your journey of homeschooling?

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Yeah, well, I totally did not feel

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equipped. I was very nervous when we

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started out, and it felt so intimidating to

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me. And there have been so many times along the

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way where I have just really just cried out to

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the Lord, this is too big for me. I need your

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help. And that’s one thing that has

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been so wonderful about homeschooling is almost

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the hardness of it, the difficulty, because it’s been very

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sanctifying and it’s kept me, you know, anything that makes you

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depend on the Lord is a good thing. And that’s exactly

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what homeschooling and having kids home with you all

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day, you know, it’s not easy to be with

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kids all day and then add to that homeschooling on top

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of it. And the learning curve for me initially, the learning curve of just how

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do I do this? You know, it doesn’t look the same necessarily like it

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does in a school. And so having the kids

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home with me all day learning how to homeschool was just

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both of those two things. That was a big hurdle.

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But it drew me to the Lord. And I think it can do

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that, or you can just get very

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frustrated and very discouraged. And so

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I think when it draws you to the Lord, then that’s where there is victory

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and that is where you can start to see the fruit. I love

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that because I have talked about that so often in that. Because we are

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not equipped to do the thing that God’s called us to do. He’s the

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one who equips us to do it. And so in the end of it all,

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he gets all of the glory for us being

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successful. Right. If you will, in homeschooling our

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kids. And that doesn’t mean. When I say successful, that does not mean that our

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kids are going to all get scholarships into college and get the most amazing careers

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and degrees and they’re going to be doctors and lawyers. Like, that’s not the success

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that I am talking about, but the success of them knowing

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Jesus and following Jesus. And even if our kids struggle

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in their walk, you know, some of our kids are going to struggle and they

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have to figure out what their walk with the Lord looks like. But we’ve at

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least set that foundation for them by the grace of God,

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because he has equipped us to be able to do that. And so then we

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get to trust Him. So even when things get screwed up, we can say, okay,

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Lord, we’re trusting you. We’re trusting you to get our kids through this difficult

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time, or praise God, that you have equipped us to

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be able to get them through their childhood and into adulthood as

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one whole person. So. And I know you’ve got an adult son, and so you’re

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in that phase right now of still

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being the parent of an adult, but you’re not parenting it, parenting him

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anymore in that whole transition. It’s such a different season. It’s so

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different. Yes. I just think back to, on our

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homeschooling journey, how many times the Lord came through and provided for

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us. When our oldest son was. When we were starting out,

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one of my biggest fears was that he wasn’t going to have friends.

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And I just knew that if we were going to

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be homeschooling, he had to have some other friends

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who were also doing something similar to what he was doing. And

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this was just the beginning of many other

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roadblocks or difficulties that we ran into along the way. The

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Lord provided wonderful friendships for him.

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And over time, every time we would hit these roadblocks,

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I would realize it was like I could look back on the story of God’s

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faithfulness and how he provided. It was the same thing with our Co op.

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It was just a small band of us moms. There were five of us moms

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that started together and we kind of held hands and jumped in together. We didn’t

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know how it was going to turn out. And the Lord

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blessed it and it grew. It’s the co op we’re still a part of today.

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And it’s provided a community to the people in

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this area. And so just so

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many times we would hit something and I would just

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think, I don’t know how this is going to work out. This does not

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look very good. But the Lord is the

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great provider and I can say he has done that for us. Yes. Yeah.

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He is Jehovah Jireh. He is so good to provide all the things

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that we need to be equipped in order to do what he has

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called us to do. And he has called us to home educate our

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kids. He has called us to be the ones to disciple their hearts. He’s not

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left that responsibility to someone else. What have you learned

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as you’ve got now a son who’s graduated from high

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school? You have one graduate so far, right? One graduate, yes.

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Okay. And then another upcoming senior or senior. And then our son. Yeah,

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he’s 17. No, he’s a junior. He’s a junior. Okay, junior. And then a

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sophomore. Our daughter is in 10th grade. And then stair step down. And they go

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down from there. Yeah. So looking at your 19 year old son,

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if you could go back to your son, you know, 15 years

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ago when he was 4, what would you do differently?

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What would you tell yourself? You know, what would you say to Sheri

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all those years ago as you were trying to just navigate through these homeschool

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years? I definitely would have

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relaxed a lot more and I think

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I definitely would have reminded

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myself that the Lord gave these children to

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us. We are fully equipped

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to teach them everything they need to know.

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And we have his word. That’s our handbook, the best handbook.

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And that the Lord is going to be there with us

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through every step of the way. And

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I think it’s just easy and tempting to look around

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at the culture and almost like with Peter and the waves, you know,

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know, just start to sink and fall under the

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weight of it. But the Lord’s given these children to

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us. And it may not look like

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what your friend’s homeschool looks like. It may not look like your

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neighbors down the street. It’s going to look differently, but

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it’s good. And the Lord is going to equip you for what you need.

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Yeah. He is so faithful. That way, and I’m so thankful that we don’t have

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to figure it all out on our own. Let’s take a break. We’ll be right

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we are back with Sheri. As we close out, we have another, I

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don’t know, 10 or so minutes. I want to focus really quickly on

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the new year because I know oftentimes we get to the new year,

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the holidays are busy, they’re exciting, and now there’s this new

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year and we have all these New Year’s resolutions and

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we jump into it, but we’re already exhausted because we had the holidays.

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And so hopefully we have not exhausted ourselves and overwhelmed ourselves.

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But even still, we go into homeschooling in January and then we get

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to February. And there’s something about the month of February. You’re more than

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halfway. You’re halfway into the school year. You’re looking forward to the end of the

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school year. And it seems like moms, kids, it’s the middle of winter,

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it’s cold. Maybe you’ve been cooped up in the house for too long and it

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just feels heavy and you feel burnt out.

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There’s something about that February, March timeframe. February is a hard

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month. It is. I don’t know why that is, but for a lot of homeschool

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moms, it really is. And, and so we feel burnt out.

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Oftentimes we get to that point and so talk for a

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few minutes. Just give us some ideas of maybe some things that we could do

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to avoid burnout in the month

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of February, but maybe into the new year. Yeah. I

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think one thing is just be creative. Do something completely

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different. Get out paints. Get out

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paints and paint a picture. Or let your little ones finger

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paint. Do something that’s just

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completely out of the ordinary. Maybe for math instead of math

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for today. Just get out some board games and play strategy

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games together. Card games. This is. I know for my little

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ones. They love the ones that can’t even play card games. Will get out

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uno and I’ll just switch. Flip the colors over and they just have to match

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the colors. Things like that. Something that’s just completely out

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of your normal routine, I think will help just bring

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some life back into things. Another

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way is just to switch it up.

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If you’ve been doing something a certain way, maybe you spend most of your

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school day doing book work. Well, just do something else. Maybe

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go out and see some of the local attractions or field trips,

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meeting up with other homeschool moms. I think this is a

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really important time of year to really

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dig into those friendships. We don’t homeschool. You shouldn’t

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homeschool alone. You really need a community of other

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friends that are doing the same thing. And your kids do, too. Just going

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out and spending time with them, getting out of the

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house. I know one thing that has helped our

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family is doing serving. Serving in some

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way, because it gets your mind off of what you’re doing

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and all that’s going on in your home and just kind of opens your eyes

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to the needs of people around you. And for us, the easiest

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thing is just to look at some of the service opportunities right

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in our church because there are so many people that are shut

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in or moms that have just had a baby that you can take a meal

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to, and that’s a great learning

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opportunity for our kids as well. Yep. So many good

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things. You. I know you’ve. You talked before

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about having other homeschool moms, you know, as

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mentors, and I think that’s really important too. I know Kelly

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Crawford. She’s been on our podcast before, and I know that she was talk a

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little bit maybe about your relationship with her and how she’s played a role in

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your life. Because having those moms who have gone before us is

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so important for us. Yeah. When I was

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a young mom, I think I had five or six kids and they were all

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little. Kelly was the mom that was ahead of me. And

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she started her blog in 2008. I read

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every blog post she wrote because I just

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wanted to glean whatever wisdom I could from another mom that was ahead

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of me. And I think that’s so important. It’s important to

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know people, maybe online or through books, to read

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about it through books, but then also in person to

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know other moms. Find other moms that are ahead of you

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and make friends with them, because they’re going to be the ones that

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challenge you and help you on those hard days. They’re going

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to remind you of what’s important. And when you get all stressed

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out about things that don’t really matter, they’re just going to say, just let go

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of it. You don’t have to do that. Just chill out. You’ll be fine.

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Yeah. And so I think that’s really important

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to know people that are ahead of you and to lean into them,

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use it as a resource. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I’m so

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grateful for those moms in my life who have gone before me.

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And, you know, I think of Rachel Carmen and Ginger Hubbard and Dorinda Wilson

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and, you know, so many others who. I’m just so grateful for them

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that I can go to, whether it’s homeschooling or parenting. I mean, there have been

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many times where I’ve gone to them. I’m, please, help. I don’t know what to

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do in this situation. And they’ll always say, oh, just okay, calm down first, because

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we’ve been through this ourselves and it’s all going to be fine. But here’s what

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we did, or here’s maybe some ideas of things you can do. And

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so they’re amazing. I love having other godly women. I mean, that’s the Titus

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2 model, right? That’s what the Bible instructs us to do, is to have those

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older women come alongside the younger women and help train them

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in godliness. And so we need to be doing that in our homeschools as well.

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And then, like you, you are becoming that, of course, to other

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moms. And so it just continues on. It’s that ripple effect,

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and we’re grateful for that. I think another thing, too, is just

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to work on some life skills. This is something that we’ve

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done, is just take some time and

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focus on cooking, on time

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management, just sit down, even just conversations with your kids, time

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management, finances, how to do a budget. Take them with

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you to the bank and just bring them along. Let them see the process.

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I think we kind of we don’t give life skills enough credit. But

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there’s so much that. That’s one thing also that I learned as a

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new homeschool mom. I was totally academic. I wanted to,

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like, make sure we. Were check all the boxes. Yeah.

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And then I realized there were so many life skills that

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I wanted my kids to know that I was totally

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overlooking. So maybe just even think about,

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you know, what do I want to pass down to my kids? What are skills

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that we could be working on? And that could just be the change of pace

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that you need to help you get through the hard month of

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February or through your downtime. And that can be your way of

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switching things up. Yep. So much good stuff. Well, you’ve got a

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ton of information on your website. You’ve got lots of really great blogs that you’ve

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written, lots of great videos that you’ve done on YouTube. So tell our

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audience one more time where they can find your blog and your videos. You

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can find me at ourlifehomeschooling.com and I also

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do one video a week on homeschooling. Encouragement for everyday

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moms. All right, very exciting. We’ll put those links in the show

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notes. Sheri, thank you so much for being with us this week. It’s been so

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much fun chatting with you. Thank you for your encouragement. And you guys

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have a great holiday season. We’ve got more exciting episodes coming up.

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We’re not just leaving you hanging, but I pray that the holiday

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season for you and your family is going to be amazing this year. And again,

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I’ve told you guys before, if there’s any way we can be praying for you,

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please send us an email at podcast@schoolhouserocked.com

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especially if the holidays are really hard for you. I know for a lot of

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families, the holidays are not enjoyable. They’re very difficult for some

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people for one reason or another. And so if you’re finding this

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year to be difficult, just shoot us an email. We don’t even need details. If

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you don’t want to share them, just say, hey, our family needs prayer and we

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are committed to praying for you. It is truly our honor to be able to

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do that. So podcast@schoolhouserocked.com. Stay tuned

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to the very end to hear what’s coming up next on the podcast. And we

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will see you guys back here on Monday with another fantastic guest.

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Bye.

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You’re listening to the Biblical Family Network. Hey, I’m Meeke. And I’m

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Wil. And we’re the co hosts of the Culture Proof podcast. We want to invite

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you to join us every week as we discuss what’s happening in the world

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and then filter those happenings through a decidedly biblical

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lens. There are many questions, especially when we see what’s happening

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in our culture today, but the answers are found within the word of God.

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So that’s where we want to look. Amen. When we resist those cultural

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trends that rival the truth, we remain culture proof.

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1920S, you started seeing critical theory come about

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in the 1940s, you started seeing postmodernism and the ideas

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that we need to focus on our feelings and our

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perspectives. And it’s all about me and what I believe and not

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necessarily what the author or the creator intended. So you start seeing These ideas probably

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80, 100 years ago, but they just really hit the culture

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in just a very accelerated way in the last several decades. And I think a

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lot of us would say, really, in the last four years, it just seems to

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have exploded in a lot of ways. So you have that going on, I think,

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in culture in general. And you had all these people going into institutions like

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government or wherever, even our churches, right, that had these

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ideas. And so now here we are with a very biblically

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illiterate culture. And honestly, a lot of us want to stick our head in the

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sand and don’t even want to address it in some cases, too. So I think

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you have this kind of collision of a lot of things happening at once that

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made us a weak church and made these ideas very

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aggressive in society. And then as a weak church, we weren’t really able to combat

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them with biblical truth.