Marriage, Homeschooling & Camper Life. How we do it.
Imagine selling ( or donating) everything you own, packing up, selling your house and moving into a 40ft living space with two dogs, 1 kid (full time), and more 3 kids (part time) and with only 1 bathroom. For some it might sound too stressful and too small a space, some might enjoy the thought of leaving it all behind and hitting the open road with their family. That is exactly how we feel. It was very liberating donating every unnecessary material item we owned, packing up the rest of our necessities and moving into a fifth wheel trailer. It is amazing how much you can live without when it isn’t there.
My husband travels for work and the “part time” husband and wife ideal was not working for us and was not easy on our marriage. We have endured many hardships and trials, many of which we should have never had to endure, especially for only being married for 5 years. There were many times both of us wanted to throw in the towel and go our separate ways. But our love for each other, our family and our faith kept us holding on. In a world where you can get a divorce in a drive through, we were raised differently. We were taught to value marriage as more than a piece of paper or inconvenience. So we did the only thing we knew to do; we prayed. We prayed day and night over our marriage and situation asking God what we should do and how we should do it. As we waited for his answer we signed up for bible classes and participated in them over the phone every evening; sometimes we would be on the phone for over 2 hours! Hello high school landline phone days! Honestly though, we learned so much about each other more over the phone in bible class, then we ever did being together in person. I didn’t know he had so much in his heart he wanted to say, and he didn’t know the anguish I felt in our deteriorating marriage, he always assumed I was just fine without him. Going through the past year of bible classes, conflict and resolution was the best “fighting” we have ever done. We fought for each other, we fought in prayer and we came out loving each other more than on the day of our marriage. God totally shifted our marriage, as he will do when you seek him, and it has been amazing day in and day out ever since. We still argue from time to time but we are able to laugh about it and move on instead of holding on to angry feelings and words. If your marriage is going through a hard time, or you just want a renewal of that, “first love” feeling, I encourage you as a couple to sign up for bible classes. If either of you are not comfortable in a group setting, sharing your feelings and problems with others (we were not) there are online classes you can take. We took all of our through our church and on the YouVersion Bible app. It’s free to download and has hundreds of thousands of devotional plans to choose from. Ask your church leaders, small group leaders or church family for any classes offered at your church. I guarantee you will not regret it.
As we continued to wait for Gods answer, we continued to pray together and to wait. The day our answer came I cried. I prayed in thanksgiving and gratitude that our year long wait was over, he gave us the answer we needed. His answer came on his timeline and it lined up perfectly with the current situation we were in. Economically, financially, physically and emotionally everything lined up absolutely perfect. It came when he intended it to so we were ready in all areas of our lives. We know now we went through the hardships we did to get us where we are today. We couldn’t have done it on our own or we would have failed, and we both know it. It is beautiful to see how God transforms us through him. We are transformed from little caterpillar’s desperately holding on, to beautiful butterflies flying free. Not sure my husband would like being called a butterfly but it’s true, we are completely transformed and renewed. I still encourage you to seek help if your marriage is holding on by a thread, you can endure, you can forgive, you can choose love.
A year of waiting, donating, renovating, packing and traveling were finally together, permanently. In a 40ft (maybe 43ft) living space. We have less material items, less overhead and less stress and worrying. That doesn’t mean everyday is rainbows and sunshine, there is a lot of rain in west Texas, but we get through together. That is the import part, being together in God. The transition from living in a house to a camper has been fairly easy for both my son and I. We actually enjoy having less, and being closer. We have decided to homeschool him and he is very good at it and is actually done with this current school year and some of the next. It has given us the opportunity to really look at the outside world and what it has to offer. Instead of endless working days, dinner, Netflix and bed. We are able to explore and play like never before. There was a time I couldn’t imagine being a SAHM ( stay at home mom), all I knew was work, work, work, go, go, go, 70 hours a week. Being a SAHM seemed boring and not productive at all and I didn’t know how others could do it. But we change, life changes us, God changes us. I love this freedom and opportunity to get closer to my family like never before. My husband and I are also trying for a baby together. We each have a child/children from our precious spouse but we don’t have one of our own together. In our previous situation we did not have that blessing. No luck on the baby front, but we just keep trying. Isn’t that the fun part anyways?! TMI, I know, moving on! I love being a SAHM and I love homeschooling. We have found a great curriculum and tons of resources to help us when subjects get hard. It’s been a while since I’ve done “acute” angels” and “x = b x w”, it’s also not my favorite, so I need help to be able to help him! We ha e gotten through though and my son is doing amazing!! Way better than I did through grade school, I didn’t get good at school until college! He is a smart child and I am blessed God has given him that gift.
Our days are filled with routine & structure while also implementing freedom. It’s easier than it sounds, I promise. We know that kids thrive on routine, structure and discipline. But we also know that too much of it chokes the life out them and gives them no room to be kids let alone enjoy it. This is what I have found being a SAHM. We start our school day at 8:00am, I will provide lesson plans for the week every Monday so he knows exactly what he has to do for the week. We do it at our own pace and in no order, that is the benefit of HMS (homeschooling). If he feels like starting with science, he completes that lesson first, or if I feel he needs extra time in a particular subject, we get that out of the way first thing so it is fresh from the previous day. I also have access to see his lessons and tests, so when he doesn’t get an adequate grade I can see what he did wrong and help him on what he is struggling to understand. This is the routine, structure and freedom I was talking about. It has been a blessing having this one on one teaching and bonding time. Along with his schoolwork he still has electives, P.E., Art, Music & Library. I usually try and keep it on the same days but when things come up we are able to change them, again, freedom. Blake (my son) loves all of the electives, so they are important to me to make sure we participate in them everyday. It is good free time as well, he still needs breaks and recess. P.E. has been fun and exercising (and is his favorite) we do a multitude of activities from the park, walking, soccer, tag, to basketball, we always switch it up. Art, we paint & draw, music we are learning the acoustic guitar and library is free time to read and go on the computer. Along with all of his schooling and electives he is also learning about God, who he is and what has done (and continues to do) for us.
Routine, structure, discipline, freedom.
This entire experience has been a blessing in so many ways. I am grateful God has given us this opportunity and put us on this path. He transformed us, blessed us and stayed with us, near and dear to our hearts. We are so much happier with less, because we have more. We are grateful and give him praise and prayers thanksgiving everyday, most times, multiple times a day . We look forward to our future, especially the “baby” part. I have had having a baby on my heart for over two years but it just has never been logical or doable in many areas of our lives. God has gifted us with this opportunity, it is in his hands and with full hearts we again wait patiently and expectantly.
If you have any prayer requests or questions on classes or bible devotion plans for marriage, motherhood, infertility, waiting expectantly, or anything’s else. Please feel free to reach out to me via the “Home” tab, scroll down to “contact us”. I will answer ASAP. I would love to pray for you.
May you all have a blessed day & wonderful weekend.
“Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.”
Psalms 5:3 NLT
“So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”
Galatians 6:9 NLT
“So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.”
Romans 8:6 NLT
“Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.”
Luke 9:23 NLT
“Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ”
Philippians 3:8 NLT
