Here is another post from our archives. We are trying to get all the archive up here from the old blog, we will in time. We just hired another new mama to help us! This post is from last year. Are you a pioneer?
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As we went through our old house with our sweet landlady Friday morning, she hugged me, told me we were the best renters she ever had – and she had MAJOR reservations in the beginning because of the size of our family – and she gave me the biggest compliment… she said… “You and Erik are such pioneers. When the Spirit calls you to something you answer right away. I admire that.” I thought about that for a bit…pondered it all the way to Utah as I watched Erik drive a 26 foot truck full of our belongings. I pondered our lives, what we do, how we do it and what our family means to each other. Idaho carried a lot of pain for us – some WONDERFUL friends, but also a great deal of pain. I divorced in Idaho, Erik had some bad friendships there and we felt like the Spirit asking us to come to Utah was an answer to a prayer. We had been willing to wait in Idaho until the timing was right to go to California (and that is still in our thoughts, just a few years away) but on a trip here about six weeks ago we felt a strong pull to just do it. We prayed and prayed about it – I often wondered if God tired of me asking “are you sure???” Erik and I received the very same confirmations and the children were so thrilled to be near their other set of grandparents. So we knew what we needed to do. My task was to pack up our house and move 7 people (remembering that one was a newborn) 200 miles south as well as find a house we could afford and that met all our needs – the whole thing was a pretty tall order… but to stand back now and watch just how God guided each step is truly amazing to me. All of this happening and I really did think about her words… that we were pioneers. What does that even mean? lol.
As I drove, listened to bad 80′s rock and some good Cat Stevens…watched the three kids I had in the car with me enjoy time with their mother and show complete excitement over where we were going (the roar in the car when we passed the Utah sign was amazing, lol) … as I watched them I thought about this idea of pioneering. I guess I am one. People used to call it being wacky or weird or just plain odd. In my younger days I probably would have just been labeled or given myself a label of “alternative” – and that is a fine label if you want to carry it – but pioneering means so much more. I think I had to fully stand in my own biography to grasp it all. When I started out breastfeeding and cloth diapering, I wasn’t looking for a label, I was just poor, lol, and wanted what was best for my babies. When I decided to homeschool, I wasn’t looking for a label either, I just again was looking for what was best for my children. Over time though that sentiment grew. I found what was best for us in Waldorf and I began to align my thoughts and home life to Steiner’s ideals and that put me in an odd category. When I started doing this, there were not many of us – this is for my other older readers, lol – we were pioneers. There was no curriculum really… there were conferences where we could learn how to put it all together, but these conferences were often taught by teachers, not homeschooling mothers back in those days.
I think we are all pioneers. All of us have likely pioneered in some way or another. Are you a pioneer with homeschooling? maybe you are the first in your family to have taken the challenge? or maybe you are that pioneer that just started out being alternative and now that name doesn’t really mean what it did… being a pioneer has such a welcoming and positive touch to it.
The next time someone asks you WHY you do something… just tell them you are a pioneer – living the life you feel called to live.
Much love and many blessings to you all!
Melisa