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He Turns it for Good

“The dryer isn’t working” I sighed to my husband. This was only a week after he had spent an entire day disassembling and reassembling the washing machine after it had stopped working only to find a nail, yes, a nail, in the drainage. And about a month after he had spent hours on YouTube learning how to plumb when a main pipe in our house became full of sludge. I saw the defeat in his eyes. I softened my approach, “I can hang laundry, I’m home now and have the time, it’s going to be fine.” I failed to mention these expenses and breakdowns also came just a few months after I had quit my full-time job to stay home with our two sons. We had both reached what we felt like was our “peak” stress level.

So, the next day, without complaining, I took a load of clean laundry and began to hang it on the drying rack we had from years before but had never used. I found that we had too many pieces of laundry to fit on the small rack and towels were hung from the top of doorways, something my husband found quite humorous as he went to use our downstairs bathroom and was unable to close the door completely.

As I spent time placing each garment on the rack, or doorway, I found that I was surprisingly enjoying it. It was a dramatic shift from my usual pattern of throwing a bunch of clothes at a time into the dryer. I was drawn to caring for my boys clothing items. Placing them properly to make sure they dried evenly, touching each sleeve or pant leg to ensure it was not inside out. It was slowing me down, forcing me to be present in the most basic way.

It felt like God was taking what could have been seen as a major inconvenience and turning it into a major gift. And that is exactly what He does. Looking at the experience through a lens of appreciation that I was able to be home and able to slow down, allowed for such a shift in my attitude toward the situation. As a busy mom of two boys, one which is homeschooled and the other a toddler, it can be easy to get caught up the everyday of life, feeling as though there is no time to slow down. But if we take that time and appreciate what is right in front of us, even the most rudimentary tasks such as hanging laundry, we can create an environment of peace and gratitude even in the midst of chaos.

Prayer at Panama Rocks

We hiked Panama Rocks on Tuesday. It’s a local hike about 25 minutes from our home. As we pulled into the parking lot, Noah said, “we should pray with everyone we meet!” My heart was so grateful for his joy in spreading the love of Jesus.

We were able to pray with three people. Someone who was sick and wanted prayer for healing. And then a lovely couple who was selling their home and moving oversees. I saw their faces light up as Noah prayed, “God, will you put their house in order so they can sell it right away!”

It was out of my comfort zone to pray with these individuals and to ask. God had enough grace to allow each person to be open to it. I’m so thankful for this opportunity to raise my children for Christ and to proclaim His name wherever we go!

And so it Begins!

We have officially begun out 2025-2026 school year. My oldest, Noah, is in Kindergarten and it is my first year reporting to the state (eeek). My youngest, Isaiah, is just starting Pre-K and is quite excited to be joining brother in “doing school work.”

I have spent the last 7 or so years trying to figure out what homeschooling is all about. I knew as a family we were called to be doing it, but I still didn’t know how. Actually, I still don’t fully know how. And I think that’s part of the beauty.

We are about 6 weeks in and it’s been nothing short of wonderful. I planned the year out using a copy of Ambleside online’s calendar. I knew I wouldn’t use all of the same material as I didn’t feel led to dive deeply into studying greek mythology, but it was still a helpful resource. I write out a weekly schedule based off of the yearly schedule, and so far, I feel we’ve been able to stick to it. It feels doable during the week and also does not feel overwhelming at all to plan for each week.

Each morning starts with a hymn. This is such a life giving rhythm. My boys love it and we use Ambleside online’s recommendations along with a Youtube Channel with the same woman singing each hymn. It’s been so sweet to hear these songs repeated as my boys play outside and go about there day. We have been covering every subject and have really been able to enjoy reading books while we eat, memorize scripture as the boys build legos, practice math while grocery shopping. The beauty of it truly never ends!

I was cleaning up the school area this morning–which is actually our dining room– and tears filled my eyes. I looked at Noahs math paper and had a deep revelation that his handwriting will not always look like this. He will not always long to show me all of his creations. His “science projects” in the shower (he placed a washcloth in a cup to see if it would “soak up all the water over night”) will not be in there forever. I am so acutely aware that these years are short and time is a their.

I hope to be more present here, giving picture updates! To God be the glory in it all!!

Above is a picture of what our bedroom looked like as I began to prepare our reading list for the year 🙂

We checked out an anatomy kit from the library. It brings me so much joy to watch them learn!!

A bread baking class one night with great grandma–I’ll count it as “school” 🙂

Sweet Isaiah!

Finishing up the bread from the night before! We used this as communion bread with our friends that morning ❤

We went out to evangelize and the kids prayed over a woman and fell in love with her dog, too!

Shout out to aunt Hannah for the sight word game! We mix up reading with games, books and the How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons Book. So far, this seems to work!

Homeschooling

Gosh, I had every intention of documenting more of our day to day life over the last few years. This blog was supposed to be filled with sweet stories of my first born, renovations of our home, and day to day life here in WNY. Since that initial post, we have remodeled much of our home, started new careers and had another baby, Isaiah! Life is so sweet & full (I prefer that to the word ‘busy’) and there is so much good I want to remember and have as a keepsake. Today being the perfect example.

Today we officially started our homeschooling journey! I have felt called to homeschool my kids for the last year or so. I didn’t really think it would be possible as both my husband and I currently work full time. I assumed that homeschooling was only possible if you had a background in education or were home 100% of the time with your kids. I began researching almost obsessively. If you find me on Instagram, you will find me following more people I don’t personally know versus friends or people I do know as I follow a plethora of homeschooling accounts. So when I was able to start “school” with my oldest (he will be four in December) today, it felt like a dream come true.

I feel like we are on journey together. I am so eager to learn along side my kids and walk through life with them. We started today with some very basic shapes which my son glued to a piece of paper. I thought this would be difficult, but it turns out he has great fine motor skills and knows all of his shapes and colors already. So, lesson learned, he is ready for harder lessons. We then read the story of Peter and the fish (Matthew 17: 24-27) and he colored a picture. We had an open discussion about that and read about the disciples in his Bible story book while he had a snack. All this took place as Isaiah (my one year old) was eating a snack in his high chair. Another assumption I had was that homeschooling would be impossible with a baby–I’m here to say, it’s totally possible!

We spent the rest of our afternoon playing outside; looking for shapes in our everyday environment, catching bugs, making letters and shapes out of play dough, and playing cars. All in all, it was roughly a total of 20-30 minutes of “school” and the rest of the day playing. I should make it clear my kids spend a majority of their days at a babysitter as I work Monday-Friday. I am hoping to have lesson plans in place to do after work and on weekends to keep up with the “normal” preschool schedule.

I have truly found my purpose. I feel as though there was a piece of me (my creative self) that has been missing and is back in full force excited and passionate about ways to teach my children. I am excited to read and expand my horizons on unschooling and other methods. I am grateful we can guide our children and adjust their learning based on their individual needs. I am so thankful God has called me to this role.

All this being said, teachers, you are hero’s! My mother and mother in law are both teachers. They are passionate about their work and care so deeply about their students. I learned today that I have a very long road ahead of me and a lot to learn. I am so excited about this journey. My goal is to do weekly updates and hopefully offer some help to other parents trying their hand at homeschooling. Hopefully I also get better at blogging and picture taking so this isn’t so basic (lol).

Our current set up in our dining room. I dream of having a separate room for this space someday 🙂

This is Us

Years ago I told my husband (the handsome guy in the picture above) that I wanted to start a blog.

At the time, we were newlyweds living in Queen Creek, Arizona; adjusting to life together and traveling all over the west coast. I wanted a space to write about all of our adventures be it hiking in Utah or hanging out on the beach in San Diego. After two years of enjoying the Arizona sunshine and life as just the two of us, we found out we were expecting our son, Noah. It didn’t take long for us to realize that the best place to raise our babies would be back home, near family, in a small Western New York town.

Sooooo… here I am, years later, finally starting blog. Our life looks different now, and a majority of my posts will not be about our spontaneous adventures. I’ve come to realize there is beauty in the ordinary every day moments. I want to capture and hold onto them all. I don’t want to forget how it felt the first time my baby smiled at me or learned how to latch properly while breastfeeding. I want to remember how it felt the first time my husband and I finally slept more than a few hours at night and went on our first date after having the baby. I want to look back on a cold day (we have looooooots of those here in NY) and recall how the sun felt on a summer day. Here you can find my thoughts about motherhood, marriage, and small town life here in western New York. I hope you enjoy 🙂