DIL and I have been talking this morning, on the phone and texting. I even got to FaceTime my grand baby!! He is just too stinking cute! I have got to find a way or a time to get out there again!! I miss them all so very much…
Anyway, DIL and I have been chatting and she’s been home with grand baby a lot lately as he’s been a little under the weather and it’s reminding me how very much I loved being a stay at home mom. It was hard sometimes financially, but we made it work.
When the kids were home and DH was still active duty, the budget was always tight so we ate at home a lot more often. Which saved us money but was also soooo much healthier! Because we did my kids learned how to grocery shop, to cook… we had a garden a couple of years that they helped with… some…
That’s one thing I’ve never regretted. Not once. I loved being with my kids. We homeschooled starting at 6th grade for DS and 2nd for DD and again, I don’t regret it all. Not sure how DS feels about it, but DD always talks about how lucky she was to get to homeschool the way we did and how it afforded her opportunities she wouldn’t have otherwise had, to find and follow her passion.
My mom used to laugh how my DD would ‘school’ her on grocery shopping at like 7 or 8 years old. “No, this one isn’t healthy we need to go over here and get this one, it’s better for us.” 😂
It was life skills for my kids but such a precious family time for me. I actually miss those days so much. We used to laugh and play and learn even when we didn’t know we were learning. One of our favorite things to do was have meals out on the porch and either listen to old time radio or have a read aloud together. Lots of times during or after lunch, I would read a chapter or two of a book aloud for us that went with the unit we were doing. They had their own books to read that were age and ability appropriate too but I’d always pick one for us to all read together. It was some of my favorite times.
I remember when we were reading “The Warhorse” by Don Bolognese I think… and we were so into it that when it was time to stop, they begged for more and DH came home unexpectedly as we were in the big battle scene and scared us all to death! It was sooo FUN! “My Side of the Mountain” was another favorite that we couldn’t put down. After that book, I couldn’t get them to come inside most of the time. They loved playing outside even as middle schoolers.
We experimented so much in those days. DH was deployed and we’d find new homemaking/steading things to try out… we hung up a clothes line between the polls (? I don’t know what they were called) on the deck and had fun drying our clothes that way. As I said earlier, we had a little garden and we canned and dried all kinds of things. We learned to eat things we would usually turn up our noses too… me too! I hated a tomato on my sandwich but when we were growing our own, we ALL discovered we loved them!
DS took up archery and was really good at it! Oh… we had so much fun. I miss those days. I wonder if they ever do…
Of course as they got older we didn’t do as many things like this anymore… DS got into the theater, DD was dancing more… They weren’t home as much but when they were, I cherished every minute… Oh, yes, we fought, and we yelled, and we pouted too but I still wouldn’t change much.
I mean, yeah, I wish sometimes I had had more patience but so much of this time was during deployments and sometimes I was just tired. It was hard doing it all alone so far from family to help but we did it. It wasn’t perfect by any means but I did my best and they both turned out to be amazing adults! I couldn’t be more proud of them.
Anyway, these are my thoughts today as DIL and I were talking about her sweet baby and their time together. Yeah… I’m feeling a bit nostalgic … Nostalgia always raises it’s head when I bake homemade bread and I did that this morning as we were talking too… it smells so good. I think I’ll go have a slice.
Have a wonder-filled day, my friends! Remember time is precious. 💜
Simply Sherri 
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