The End of one Era, 

   The Beginning of a New

My time as a homeschool mom is over. I have homeschooled all of my children since Brandon was 6, since August 1993. That is a long time. But my last kid, Cade, has decided to go to highschool. He started 10th grade this year at Walhalla. 

I did not plan on homeschooling my kids. I didn't even know it was a thing when my first two were born. We always planned on sending them to school like everyone else. Then Brandon came along.  What we were not planning was to have a special needs kid. That changed a lot of things for us. Life has never been easy and we have made lots of mistakes along the way. We didn't know what we were doing as parents half the time. Or maybe most of the time. But we did the best we could with the knowledge we had at the moment. When Brandon was getting ready for first grade, he had already been kicked out of two preschools. Mostly because he wouldn't stay in the class room or he just decided he wanted to go home. Something in my gut was telling me not to send him to the public school. We had no idea what we were going to do about that but knew something would come along to give us the answer. I was driving down the road one day and was scrolling channels on the radio when I stopped on an interview with Dr. James Dobson and Raymond and Dorothy Moore. The Moore's were homeschoolers and were helping others learn about it at a time when most people did not know it was legal. That's when I knew we needed to do this. 

It has worked out great for our family. I do not think it is for everyone. I believe it is a personal choice each family has to make for themselves. I am truly grateful that it is an option. 

I do not regret one minute of having that time with my kids while they were young and growing up. It has been a blessing that we were able to do this. I will forever be grateful for the opportunity to be there for them. To teach them and take them to practices and meets or games. I wouldn't change our choice for anything. 

Now I am moving into a new era. My kids are older and I am no longer homeschooling. I spent 32 years as a SAHM. Homeschooling, and being the taxi driver, and helping my husband with his endeavors. I was really concerned about the empty nest syndrome. Not that we will have an empty nest anytime soon but just not being needed as much. This is why I started a new career as a real estate agent one year ago. It has been an interesting ride. I love the flexibility and the work. I get to do something new and still have time for my family. I am really excited about this next era in my life!

When you look in the mirror, what do you see? 👀Are you happy with yourself? Do you say to yourself, "hello beautiful!" each morning? Or do you look in the mirror and put your self down? Call yourself names like old, fat, stupid, ugly, etc? Is that the truth or is that what you perceive about yourself? I will tell you right now, those negative things are not the truth! You are not old, fat, skinny, ugly, stupid! Those are just lies we tell ourselves because of social conditioning. You are PERFECT just the way you are.💗 You just have to change your perspective. No one is ever going to respect you until you respect yourself. And how can you love others if you don't love yourself? 

This is your time to start loving and respecting yourself. It does not matter how you look or how you think you look. It only matters the things we tell ourselves. You need to greet yourself every morning with love and respect. Tell yourself, "good morning beautiful" every morning when you look in the mirror. Then as you start to believe yourself, it will start to shine from you and others will see and feel your beauty as well. It comes from within, not what's on the outside. 

Don't stress over how you look or what you eat or whether you exercise or not! Don't worry about these things. Life is way too short to spend your time worrying about how you look or worrying about what anyone else thinks about you. You are perfect just the way you are!!! No matter how thin, fat, short, tall, young, old, etc. You are perfect! If anyone tells you differently, it is time to remove them from your life. 

 I have spent so much of my life worrying about my body. I have never been satisfied with how I look. Even when I was a teen and I wore a size 3. I have lived in fear of not thinking my body measured up to how it should look. Like I could look better if I just ... (you can fill in the blank). 

Then I went through the phases of all the different diets and fears involving food. I studied health and nutrition to the point that EVERYTHING was poisonous and would kill you if you ate it. There are so many "rules" concerning food that it is comical. Because they all contradict each other. 

Well, I am almost to the place where I don't live by all of my own self imposed rules involving food and exercise. Or by all the rules others say is the right way to eat and exercise. Ask 10 people what a healthy lifestyle looks like and you will get 10 different answers. I say almost because I still have thoughts and impulses and doubts about what I "should" be eating or doing for my health. I am a work in progress :)

So does that mean I just threw all caution to the wind and eat and drink anything I want and never exercise? Does it mean I love the way I look now and am never self conscience? Not exactly. I am learning to accept the way I look and feel just the way I am. I am learning to love the body I have instead of constantly wishing it were different. I am learning what to eat and how to move my body based on what makes me feel the best. Some times that looks healthy and some times it looks like ice cream or a glass of wine. 

I am simply living life by doing what is the best for me. I eat the foods that make me feel the best. I drink a healthy smoothie every morning for breakfast. Not because I think it is the thing to do or what I should do. I do it because I truly enjoy my smoothie. I prefer it over breakfast. It makes me feel the best. If you don't like smoothies, don't drink them! I don't like protein bars so I don't eat them. Certain foods make me feel tired or they just don't agree with me so I avoid them. Other foods I just really don't like so I don't eat them either. In fact, I am not a food person at all. I never have been. So I gave up all the rules about what I should be eating and when I should be eating and I eat when I am hungry and I don't eat when I am not. Most days I drink my smoothie, eat lunch, maybe a snack and that is all. Some days two meals and a snack. It doesn't matter. It only matters how it makes me feel. I am a very healthy person and I want to stay that way. So that is one reason why I drink that smoothie every day. It gives me plenty energy, of protein and good carbs and I add a scoop of super food to it for extra nutrition. I take Juice Plus capsules every day because they give me the rest of the vitamins and minerals my body needs every day. Other than that, I eat whatever I want or feel like. I did not share how I eat so you can eat like me, just to show you that there is no right or wrong way. Just the way that makes you feel the best about yourself. 

Now on to exercise! 💪Do I exercise? Yes I do. Only because I like how it makes me feel. I do short workouts a few times a week for my upper body and lower body. The rest of the time I walk or hike. My favorite form of exercise is hiking. It makes me feel the best. I love being outside in nature especially. I can tell by my anxiety levels if I have not exercised or when I have not been outside enough. 

I do not exercise or eat healthy for anyone but myself and you shouldn't either. If you are trying to be healthy or look a certain way or exercise for someone else, you will just get frustrated and give up. It has to come from within. You should do what makes you feel the best. It is good to get some nutrition in your body every day and to move your body every day. But it doesn't have to be all consuming. Just do what makes you feel the best and leave the rest for someone else to worry about. 

So put on those shorts, that dress, that bathing suit, or whatever it is you have been afraid to wear because of what others might think and get out there and live your life the way you want to. Get out and play and have some fun! Remember, you are perfect just the way you are :)