When we first decided to homeschool I didn’t even know what it was. I pictured families in matching denim jumpsuits with super conservative and narrow minded values. I had no idea that there are all kind of people who homeschool for all kinds of reasons. The reasons we started out homeschooling were so simple compared…
Author: Jen-Admin
Savoring Beautiful Quarantine Moments
Today, after nearly four months of being together around the clock, my husband got on an airplane and left. For the whole week. Our nearly four months of togetherness ended. Just like that. It feels so abrupt. Work is part of a good life. I knew work travel would come back. It did not get…
Moving Away From Family: How it Turned Out for Our Family
I was almost 40 before I knew Living By Design was an option. Now that I know, my family is moving toward it. Author’s Note: This piece was originally published by the same author on a different blog in approximately 2017 Our family is at a crossroads. We have been living in Denver for a…
Remote Learning: You Can Opt Out if It’s Best for Your Child
Not everyone wants to opt out of remote learning but it is an option for those who feel it’s not good for their child. Our society and economy are built on schools functioning as expected. I have no desire to change or challenge that. This means we need free public schools to function as a…
Making the Days Smoother: A Tip for Parents that Might Help
Many parents are now living full time with their kids. Here’s a parenting tip that helped me when I first started living with my kids around the clock. When I was first adjusting to being with my kids around the clock, something I found helpful was this: I leaned into my kids. When I found…
Happiness is a Practice and How I am Practicing with Resources
Happiness is a Practice This afternoon I was driving along a road that runs parallel to the ocean. It is a cold day here in New England, just twenty-one degrees, but the sun is shining. It’s been weeks, it seems since we have seen real sunshine. My kids were in the car with me. We…
Life Doesn’t Have to Be So Hard
This is exactly the way I dreamed of my life when I dared to dream. In the dark times- Cancer, job loss, a marriage close to the brink of divorce, a mental breakdown, alcohol abuse, poor mental health… during all of that I was privy to a glimpse. A glimpse of a good and happy…
J.Lo and Shakira’s Halftime Show: Some Stuff we May Not Know
I guess I’ve come a long way. All I saw on the halftime show heard from Minnesota to Nebraska was two powerful non-white women absolutely fucking crushing it. A decade ago I too probably would have cried old school feminist virtues. Now though? I saw two women standing in their power, embracing who they are,…
Unschooling Life: When Your Kind of Alternative Living is Center Stage
Did you know Billie Eilish is a grown Unschooler? Right. That Billie Eilish. The one who swept the Grammys on Sunday. She’s never taken a test. Never been in class. She learned through living life with her engaged, intentional, and involved parents. And on Sunday she swept the Grammys. I didn’t watch them. As I…
We Are Not as Fragile as We Think We Are
We aren’t as fragile as we think we are. We are capable of handling the hard conversations and setting boundaries. We are strong enough to sit with emotion and think about what it is we mean. We are durable enough to change our mind and shift our perspective and see it from another angle. We…