12 -Want to protect your children from bullies, profanity and cheaters? Don't make the same mistake I did. Also, why we chose homeschooling and tips for smooth days.

After listening to this episode, you'll come away with some tips for moving your family through life in a stress-free, non-harried manner. And we just returned from Camp Margaritaville RV resort, where the beards have ponytails, even the two-year-olds have electric scooters, and everyone's sunburned. As parents lounged by the pool, kids got an immersive lesson on bullies, profanity, and sexism on the playing field. How do Christian parents react? Did I pull a 'Karen' after three frozen margaritas? Maybe.

Isn't it hard to find Catholic friends?! I've got a solution. Hop on over to the Homeschooling for Catholic Parents Facebook community. Where we share about apologetics, homeschooling, and family life!

https://maevejemison.com/


Purchase Home Is Where The Truth Is:
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Transcript

 ​ Welcome to home is where the truth is. My name is Matt, and I'm Maeve, and we have five kids that we're trying to raise in the ways of the Lord. We want our kids to know the truth of their Catholic faith and how to defend it. This is an everyday job and a lifelong commitment, and it is so important that our kids learn this before they head out and leave our home into today's culture, which is why we've chosen to bubble wrap or....homeschool our children, and whether you're already homeschooling or praying about it for the future, let me tell you, it's an amazing life to let the Lord guide your kids' education and your family's adventures. So please join us for some relatable stories because we are sinners and we deal with temptation on a daily basis.

We get overwhelmed and stressed out just like you guys, but we do get some things right. Thanks be to God. So laugh along with us or at us, and glean some parenting wisdom, tips to deepen the family bond so that you can have a family culture that's centered on the Lord. 

welcome to . Episode 11, St. Patrick's Day edition.

We are recording on St. Patrick's Day. I got the corned beef brisket in the instapot.

Oh, it's moldering in there.

Oh yeah, corned beef and cabbage is a tradition for us on St. Patty's Day

And 

potatoes.

Oh yeah, and potatoes and carrots and a little bit of mustard there on the side. And it's in the Instapot, okay? And for any mom out there, and especially homeschool moms, the Instapot is what you need in your life. It's a tool that will make your life so much easier. And if you've ever used a Crock Pot, The Instapot just steps it up a notch because it's also, it can slow cook, it can pressure cook, it can saute. I mean, it can even make yogurt. Not that I've ever done that with it. It boils eggs. It does it all folks. Okay. And so the Instapot replaced my crock pot many years ago. And folks, we're going to tell you today some ways you can Instapot your whole entire life. Some basic things that are just going to make your life a lot easier.

 

 I made my life easier by getting that as a Christmas gift to you.

I came out smelling like a rose. Cause you know I'm bad about Christmas.

 That was a good,  usually a woman doesn't want a vacuum or an Instapot for Christmas, but that tool is amazing.

The gift that keeps on giving right there.

Yeah, it's better than the year you gave me the treadmill.

That thing was sweet. 

You guys, he gave me a treadmill the same year that I gave him  a wrapped up pregnancy test, like we're pregnant.  My gift was a treadmill as I'm pregnant, so that was poor timing.

I think I use that more than you did.

Yeah, it's long gone now.

I sold that sucker.

Yeah. Cause it ended up being a place where we hung laundry basically.

And I was a marathon runner at that time. I just can't get on the treadmill. I'm sorry. Okay, we're going to update you guys today with some exciting things. For one, I am actually getting written feedback on my book. Home is where the truth is.  It's friends that are reading the book or acquaintances.

 One person, she gave me this great feedback and it was like, truth. Your pages are just dripping with truth. This is so good. And, parents are, even when your kids are grown, you're still a homeschool parent except you're teaching them life, 

She's been telling everybody about my book. My other friend who her kids are three years old and she has an infant, she read

my book and she's like, Oh my gosh, your book was awesome.

Which I was surprised she even finished it because literally she has a two month old and she said it got me right off the fence because she had been thinking about homeschooling. Yeah oh, and then it was funny because if you're a homeschool mom, you've seen a lot of homeschool memes that are so hilarious.

And she sent me this link to a compilation of homeschool memes, and they are just really funny homeschool memes, but she's like, yeah, after reading your book, I totally get these

like, yeah, after reading your book, I totally get these 

And something very, very exciting is  I got to go on the Sentinel Report with Alex Newman to talk about my

talk about 

the Sentinel Report is if you go on liberty sentinel. org, it is a conservative news site.

Alex Newman and gang, they are

Liberty Sentinels. They want to keep freedom alive in the United States.  He is an investigative journalist and has been in the business for

I don't know.

I think a couple of decades and he's got all these acolades and

Oh, he travels the world.

he travels the world, literally speaking on education and homeschooling. And he has a book that just What's it called? Matt indoctrinating 

Indoctrinating our children

to Death.

the, read  subtitle.

Gosh, government schools, war on faith, family, and freedom, and how to stop it.

Yeah,  his book came out, I think, five days before or after mine, but his book is amazing because he goes really deep into the history of why our schools are the way they are. They started out as with socialists and atheists running them, modeled off of them. After Soviet Union, Soviet Prussia school system, they're working just like they were meant to work.

They are not broken. So he goes really deep into all that. Well that's how I got to know him is I realized that he's reporting on and talking about all the things that I hit on in my book. So I reached out to him and the Lord opened the doors and I got to go on his show and talk about my book.

hmm. 

if

it could go wrong, it did on that,

On that, that one. AT& T Internet. Right, yeah. We're out

Right. Yeah. We're out in kind of a, the country, I guess,

we've

not rural, but , people have horses near us and it was a TV interview, but it was a. 

 So I knew about this thing a month ahead of time and I was prepared. I practiced and practice  and I was scared.

Oh my gosh. Nerves. Because

, this man is super intelligent, super the kind of person that you're sometimes nervous to really talk around cause they're so

Right. He knows his 

Yeah, oh yeah. I mean, he's hard hitting. You know, he's a hard hitting journalist. Don't

Don't, don't give him a bunch of fluff.

You know? Just

And I, I mean, I recommend, I highly recommend his TV, his newscasts, because he's just, like, obliterating all these socialists and regimes and threats to our liberty.

So, so serious stuff. And then when

I logged on, There was these other, there were these other men that were going to be on the show. I see three, three older white men  and it looked like  they could have been on Hannity and Combs or,

been

or  Fox News

like 

and I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm so out of my league.

and you're just like, okay, I am sweating  

right Yeah. And they were, , pastors and 

four star generals and

right, right. I mean, yeah. He, in his book, he has General Flynn Endorsing his book among 30 other endorsements. So, I mean, he's Creme de la creme. So I'm just super nervous. Right. And then at the top of the show, now, if you do go watch this, I want to warn you.

It's on , the Sentinel report.

At the very top of his show. Well, in the news industry, they have this saying, I used to work in news.  If it bleeds, it leads, okay? He played, and he went by that, he played this viral video of these teens beating each other.

Nearly to death. I think that girl has brain damage. It was it's so I want you to fast forward through that, but I'm sitting there watching it. I watch in this terrible video. Of course, some kid is taking a video on his phone of this fight  And it's just atrocious this poor girl  gets beat nearly to death.

And so I'm watching

So it's disheartening, so just be prepared when you get on it

fast forward through that, but my heart is palpitating. I'm nauseous. I almost cry for the poor child and I'm up in five minutes.  I would never watch something like that willingly, like a viral video. So then

But the point was this is what's going on in certain schools

this is why your kids are dying in schools.

Yeah. Cause the kids, they do it for fun to get,

to get

yeah, videos. Yeah. Yeah. So on goes 

So, now, thankfully, Alex and I are friends and he shot me some questions because this is my first interview ever and he's like, well, here's some questions I might ask you. So I practiced those questions. Well, he starts just going off the cuff with questions, but  I was prepared, but I did ramble a little bit, I will admit, and then right when he said,  okay, Maeve, tell us where you can get the book.  The internet dropped

Screen freeze. You can hear a voice, but the face is just staring at you with like one eye looking up and the other eye over with your mouth open like you're getting ready to throw up or something. I don't know

like the worst possible. Yeah,

it's like the worst screenshot. 

And it's, it's there for like a good 30 seconds.

as I ramble on and then, and then,

like, Oh, okay. We need to wrap this up, producer.

Well, and I couldn't even get amazon. com out before

Oh yeah. He's like, yeah, this 

it, but you know what? Like Mother Teresa said, we don't have to be successful. We just have to be faithful. Or like I like to say is the results, what is it?

The duty is.

ours. The results are the Holy Spirit of the Lord. So he'll do with that what he will. And . We're going to be at the FPEA convention, which is the largest homeschool convention in America.

Florida Parent Educators Association.

We have a booth there and so I'll try to get the word out more about my book there.

That's pretty exciting. Folks, we have gone international with this podcast. We have listeners in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Or listener, we're

A listener. Okay.

So, hey to our Canadian  Brethren up in Saskatoon and I did look up. They do, they are able to homeschool there. So  Canada. , we hear the headlines coming from where  you don't have as many liberties. And we're glad you're listening and send us a note at info@maejemison.com.

Tell us what you think. Thanks for listening. So speaking of.

Being cold in Canada. We definitely were not cold this weekend. We're in Florida, where we went to Camp Margaritaville. Right.

went  margaritaville, 

Yep, Camp Margaritaville RV Resort.  

One thing I noticed  there are

two types, I mean it could be more, but for our sense of purpose, two types of camping families.

Okay, you've got your more back to nature, we're going to camp at a state park in the, , in the forest, , in a river, 

Which is I think we are that fmaily 

family 

yeah which is more slower paced, quieter, more outdoorsy kind of stuff, right? That's more family conjoining, , we're sitting around the campfire.

And then you got the resort style camping, which is Nothing close to that. It's more a glorified parking lot esque with nice landscaping. But , everyone's in parallel to one another lined up in a resort style with the pools and, you know, we've got the Tiki bars. I mean, it's nice, but, but then you've got those families, right.

That they want to. Go to resort, but yet still camp.

still camp.

And so we've noticed a difference too, with the children.

, and what we noticed here is  Camp Margaritaville RV Resort, where the beards have ponytails, even the two year olds have electric bikes, and

the hillbillies tongue kiss their dogs in the mouth at the tiki bar.

year

And these are all things I saw. Oh, and, and the  the 12 year old alpha males wear shirts with I heart , hot moms emblazoned on their shirt.

on 

And everybody's sunburned.  Right, and you start drinnking about 10:30.

Whenever the bar. Yeah. And I had heard in urban legend of these campgrounds where your camper cannot be more than 10 years old or you're not getting in 

Yeah, they want a specific,  clientele.

They don't want some,  Billy Bob Joe pulling up in his 1975  Itasca trailer that's been sitting in the backyard for the last 30 years and he Undoed the dry rotted tires to just so it can roll and brought it up in there where it's got the natural camouflage of mold and tree branches and  mildew growing on the outside.

They don't want that guy

Yeah. Cousin Eddie. He ain't coming up in there.

cousin. He's not showing up

You got a couple of window units hanging out the back and front. Yep. Nope. You ain't coming up in there either. But our camper. Is 14 years old, okay? But I will tell you we snuck up in that campground right under security's nose because Matt Jemison  He a takes care of his toys B He had put three coats of wax over the last month on that camper I mean

month on that. I mean,  like I was worried and Pardon the phrase putting lipstick on a pig because it wasn't, it's not bad.

I mean, it's, it's just an older model, right? And so

it looks fine. All except that battery blowout of fifteen.

battery blowout.

Where, right by our front door you got a little bit of , Yeah. What do they call that? When

Battery acid? Yeah.

Yeah, 

left the battery

I left the battery in there too long on trickle charge, I guess you could say, to the point where it literally fried the battery and the acid ran out the sides, so it's got like a little waterfall of 

Which has been spray painted over. Oh, yeah.

And,  

it's been, fixed, in quotes.

Okay, well you know, the fact that one thing I want to say about Matt taking care of his toys, I will say that's one of the first things I liked about you when I was getting to know you.

Because I remember you detailed my car probably within the first three weeks of you knowing me, right? You remember that little 

That little Mazda I

I mean, I, I don't know why I even bothered, but  yeah, that thing was

Anyway, so our camper is 95 percent mint, so we got up in there and I will say it's got minimum wear and tear. 

Oh yeah, there's not a scratch on that thing.

. And remember when you traded in our old camper, we had a little kind of Not a pop up, but it

No, it had two sides that came out like

Bet the beds popped

the beds popped out.

I remember when you traded that in on the camper we have now and you you told the man. Oh, yeah, it's in great shape  I remember when that man saw your the camper.

He's like, wow, he wasn't kidding like it was showroom Ready when you turned it in

and he gave me what I paid for it, like, five years

you got so it didn't depreciate  as at all so



To Margaritaville

back to the hillbillies tongue kissing their dogs under the tiki hut, which we did see. 

I did not see that but Maeve did and I took her word that yeah, that could have been possible when she showed me after the fact 

now

We're talking like Rottweilers or something.

I don't know

those are boxers, they had two boxers,  and it's like when you look out at Margaritaville, the foxtail  Palms, and the Tiki Huts just dot the horizon as you're sipping on your frozen

oh it's nice it's it's you'd think you're in the keys

keys. It's like Key West, but without the debauchery, but a little bit of debauchery. It's so pristine.

It looks like a movie 

Like 

at you have AstroTurf under your picnic table at your campsite you know where there would be gravel. It's coquina shell. Yeah, literally, it's got the colors, the lime greens, the teals, the coral.

would be proud.

crowd. Yeah, God rest his soul, and he was a Catholic. Speaking of Catholics, our kids met some Catholics there. God's grace just covered us this whole trip. But okay. , it's the first night we're there and our six year old, he is riding his bike all around that place and he's just living it up.

And

 We're up at the green where all the kids are playing.

AstroTurf Pavilion. Right next to the tiki bar so the parents can drink and let their kids run amok. 

And you can keep an eye on them.  Here comes the, this worker. A guy comes up to us and he's like, Oh, hi, are you Merritt's parents? And we turn and

I'm just thinking, Oh no.

wonderful little boy. He had an accident on his  And so we see Merritt, Merritt's not even crying. Merritt's calm.

He's got his hands in his pockets.  He's like the bike sustained a little bit of damage. We want to show Merit's okay. We want to show you the bike. And so we start walking. So he was very,

said, he said he was hit by a golf

well, he didn't tell us that until  a few seconds into the conversation.

right.

Merit had a head on collision with a golf cart 

Yeah.

is okay.

Oh, praise the Lord. His bike is not okay, it busted a tire, it bent the it bent the,  the brake,

Yeah.

the brake rotor. Okay, now, this is what the guy told us.  , as soon

soon as he did the barrel roll off the bike, which was very impressive. He stood right up  and the first thing he asked, or the first thing he said was,  are you guys 

To  

To the people at the cart.

cart? Yes. They were just so impressed with him. They were the guys that work there 

Everyone was shooken up. Of course you hit somebody with a golf cart. I mean what you hit a kid on it I mean everyone's shooken up  So the guy one of the guys that works there he's like You know, Merritt's going to be a stunt driver the way he tucked and rolled.

He's like we just want to make sure if, if we'll have him checked out. If you want to have him medically checked out. Now he wasn't even crying and barely had a scrape on him. So we're like, no,

plus it was dark, so as long as he wasn't crying and limping or, you know, holding an arm limp or something like that, then I figured he was probably

he was probably. Yeah, so we're just going to play this one.

It's super easy. Well, the guy,

Yeah, so we're just going to play this one super easy.  

was like, here, my name is Rob. They call me the mayor. He hands me his card. He's like, if you have any problems or whatever.  Yeah. And I pocketed that card. Now, that's going to come back later. Thank God. I was holding him tight. I was hugging him tight that night. Like, oh my gosh. That could have been horrific.

the 

And, even The guy, we saw the manager a couple of days at each day. And he said, that's the first thing I told my wife when I got home is, Oh, we had this little guy, he ran, he had an accident.  He was just so precious. He was just such a good kid. And so that

we're doing something right.

 Raising him in the ways of the Lord, it showed, and he just made an impact on the manager. So

So, praise the Lord for that. Now. Fast  forward to the next night. 

next 

Slide. Okay, 



So they put on these

 Game times and stuff. So, I guess this new craze is. 

Gaga

Gaga Ball, which is basically a kind of like a pit or  walls, 

Okay, it's a hex, it's a hexagonal pit.

It can be made from plastic. This was an inflatable hexagonal pit. And I did some research on gaga ball. It is, it's a craze that is sweeping our area.  We just found out about it through our 13 year old. But gaga ball has been around for a while, but It's basically like the rules of dodgeball.

You got to jump the ball. You got to, you can either catch it to get people out. If you get tagged,

got to stay like on the ground, you can hit it with your hands, you can't get hit below the knees,

you have to get hit below the

Yeah, that's how you get out.

So,

yeah, so there's a bunch of kids, there's two pits, there's ones for the young'uns and there's ones for the teenagers, and so,  you're getting all walks of life in here, right? There's, and going back to the two different kinds of families that go camping, this Style of camping. This is where the parents can go do parent things and I guess they're they decide Our kids can just go run off freely and do whatever they want, right?

This isn't about  Family bonding time per se. This is more of you do your thing. We'll do ours. We'll see you later

Yeah, and it's a party atmosphere. It is. And if you've ever been to any Margaritaville resort, that's what it is. It's a party atmosphere. 

 Now,

it's pandemonium in the gaga ball pit, but no one's getting hurt and everyone's having fun. 

Until I had to pull a Karen.

pull at Karen. Which turned 

Which turned out bad at first, but overall, it turned out good. 

Now, was it my fault that I pulled a Karen? You tell me, you, okay, you let me around that situation and I had had three margaritas that day. So whose fault

really is it here? 

Right. It's the bartender's fault, right?

or yours?

I mean, all right. Who's, it's not my

I just saw you leave and I'm thinking, okay, she's been going for a while. This can't be good. 

Right. And,  we kept going and checking the, I mean, there was probably 60 kids in this area.  Well, there was this one kid who would not get out  and he was out and everyone's yelling, you're out, you're out.

And he just wouldn't get out. He was a bully  and he would be the one left

He would always be the one of the, cause it's the last man standing. And he was. Every time I went, they were yelling at him. Get out, get out, you're out. So I just asked my daughter, I'm like to see, and I had already known, he, I had already complained to you about it like 30 minutes ago.

I'm like, this kid's making me so mad. You know, no one's standing up to him. I, I told the kid, I'm like, just hold the ball until he leaves. Don't, don't keep playing. And they did that one time and it worked. So, but there, there are people, there are , let's call 'em camp counselors. 

People in a shirt with a walkie talkie to kind of keep keep the peace.

Yeah, they're teenagers, but probably college kids so Finally I had had enough 

it folks, tipping point, she got triggered, and it just went south.  

Okay.

as i'm gonna walk over there remember I told you guys about the 12 year old who has the black t shirt on and it says I love hot moms  He's gonna pop his shirt to me and be like hey and  pick up his shirt and pop it like he's trying to say  

What's up, mom? What's up?  I told her, I'm like, 

I

should be proud of that. I think. I mean, he ain't popping it to anybody else around here. I can tell you that right now, especially that. He's walking past that hillbilly lady over there, kissing her dog at the bar. I guarantee he's walking past that looking down.

He's hiding

hiding his shirt, right, or if I walked by and he was like, hiding his shirt, , that is, so

So part of you should be flatter, the other part

little flattered after three days in the sun, okay?

I

And about one shower that, 

I was a 

felt I was a hot mom, but that was disrespectful. And I said that, I said, don't disrespect me.

I said it right to his

aren't listening. 

So as he does that, I'm already walking over to that lady and I'm, and I asked her, I'm like, do you need some help out here? Because they're not, the kids aren't listening to her. She's calling the guy out. He's not getting out. I said, do you need some help out here? She's like, nobody's listening.

And she was flustered. She was overwhelmed and flustered. So I said that kid's out and, and he doesn't, he's not getting out.  Well, So next round, as I'm standing with her, guess who's the first one out of the pit,  that bully. And I said, good job. That's good sportsmanship because he knew I was talking to the lady in charge,

the lady in 

So I should have right then said, call Ben on your walkie talkie because a, I know the manager by name right now, because last night , not last night. It was the night before our son got in the accident.  The next morning I saw him. He's like, how's your son doing? So we've already had three or four conversations with the head manager, Ben.  And I

okay, yeah, but I'm gonna tell you this right now. I'm sure he's got bigger problems than to worry about who's cheating on the goggle ball court.

okay, wait till you hear, wait till the response, you hear the response. So  should have said call him on your walkie talkie right now, but I didn't.

I'm

And the Holy Spirit was nudging me. No, 

to say that, but like I said, three margaritas in, I'm just like, okay, I walk away. Come back over to you at the bar.  Five minutes later, here comes our daughter.  I felt so terrible.

Embarrassed her in front of the group of kids.

She's like, I wish you wouldn't have done that, Mommy, because now they ganged up on me. They asked me, was that your mom?

Who went over to that lady saying, I'm out. And so they ganged up on me to get me out. Ah, 

backfired.

it, it  backfired in my face. So if you're going to pull a Karen,  yep. If your kids are teenagers, don't let the, don't let the other teens know do it.

I sh I should have been under the radar about it, but listen. Okay. So she was mad at me. She was.  Mad at me for, for, for a little while. So I was like, okay,

Oh, this is when she needs to pull out the ace of spades.

Boom. Slap it on the table. Cause guess whose card is in my pocket? The mayor. That's what, even on his big rig, it says the mayor. Okay. So  I called the mayor on the phone.  That night, a few minutes later, and I told him what was happening, and I said there was a kid up there that has a shirt on that says, I love hot moms, and this is the mayor said, he's like, I saw that, I saw him, and I didn't like that, but when I told him that kid popped his shirt at me,  he's like, oh no, no, no, he's like, that is not going to happen here, , I said, I figured you guys had higher standards than that,

He's like, Oh no, I'm going to find that kid.

I'm going to talk to him. I'll talk to his parents because here's the thing is,

. Yeah, there's certain things going on out there in the culture that some people are going to ignore it, but if you get down to it,  it's not acceptable 

and so, you

can make a difference. So, instead of my daughter staying mad at me.

Here's what she realized. Well, for one,  they sent more help up to those teenage kids. So, so the, the girl who was overwhelmed, hating her job, feeling like trauma, a trauma, she got help.  The, the guy the kid who was disrespectful with the hot, I love hot mom shirt, he got talked to. They found him. They went and found him and said, and here's the thing, when, when he said, The mayor said do you like stay in here?

Oh, yes, sir. Yes, sir I did that kid knew his manners that kid knew how to act instantly  so

That just goes to show,

you don't have to let these kids run ape blank crazy

Right. 

Because it's not acceptable to people

parent really cares and which are just like, you know,  Obviously there's, yeah, just let them go.

So, you know, that's, that's the situation we ran into. And of course,  and that's something I talked to Maeve about. I'm like, you can't stand around your child thinking you're going to protect them 100 percent of the time. I mean, this is real world. Granted, yes, we homeschool and this is the environment that they're in right now.

And they need to understand you're going to come across kids that have virtually no  I wouldn't say responsibility, but

No, no moral

the morals go off the deep end once mom and dad are gone and they're around their peers, right? Cause they're going to do what they want to do that they think is cool or funny or whatever.

So our kids need to understand, okay, you're going to be in this situation. How do you handle it? Do you stick up for yourself? Do you say something when something is set around you? Do you tolerate it? Or do you stand up and say, no, I don't, I don't want to be around people like that. You know, unfortunately, that's just what it's going to come to 

to be. Yeah, because there was some life lessons out here. 'cause that's the first time our kids have ever been around just a group of  unruly  government, school, kids.

Some lessons were learned. Unfortunately if you're age 10 and up, anyone you go around is you're gonna be around cussing  the profanity is. It's off the chain. It's terrible. Another thing, sexism boys don't like to lose gaga ball to girls. So they're going to gang up on you. They're going to try to get you out as quick as you can.



Our, one of our kids was like, 

somebody called me a B word and it was scary. 

And I'm like well now, you know what to do next time to not be called that you need to step it up 

 Yeah, I remember the first time I got called to be 

And I vowed i'm never gonna be called that again  what do I got to do to stop that  so yeah  Yeah, it's a very humbling experience 

Right. 

kid 

But Matt did bring up a good point is

if

we're too protective, 

especially when they're in the middle to high school, they're going to push us away, , , so you don't want that wall up, built up. So it's kind of a fine line, a dance that we got to teach them the right way. And then , going out in the real world, you're going to meet people who they have no moral compass.

Okay, but it's good to be home I couldn't wait to get out of that place so it was fun It was fun, but it's too kind of like Sodom and Gomorrah, I feel like a little bit  

I mean, the thing is, the kids, they loved it because they had so much stuff to do. Our one son, he was gone from  noon till 9. 30. 

boys 

eat, lunch, dinner, nothing. I mean, this kid was in his zone. Playing with the boys, his age, throwing the football, riding scooters, doing what he wants. , he was thriving.

, for a little boy that's around girls all day, this was right up his alley. And the same thing with our girls is that they wanted to be around and they found some girlfriends that they could hang around and play sports and do. , girl things. And then our older, she wanted to hang out with mom and dad at the pool 

and same with a six year old. So we all had our thing to do and we kept in touch and said, , we need to keep checking in and, , hydrate and,  , sunblock and all that good stuff. But but it was, I mean, it was fun. For that experience, would we do this every month? No. I mean, you can only go crazy, , all the time.

I mean, we're looking

You can only go crazy all the

time. 

so many, yeah.  Yeah. On every trip. Right. You just want something more subdued next time. Yeah, it'd be nice when  we could just do a really laid back

vacation.

want to go back there.  But the kids

Yeah, too bad. So you're going to be

bad. Okay, so let's tell you guys some, some basics. These, now  Some of these might sound really basic to you, like why is she telling us something so simple, but I will say from my experience and my observation, I see that all parents, all moms don't know this, all parents don't know this, all homeschool families don't know these.

And just like we've told you guys before on here,, some of the basics like sitting in the front pew at mass, read the readings before mass. And for us, we read the readings on the way to mass.  It makes such a huge difference. And I remember somebody had to tell me, read the readings before you get to mass.

It makes a huge difference. So.  I'm going to pass on to you guys some of that kind of stuff. So  I used to teach high school and I had some very, very smart kids. IB kids. It's a program at the, at the government high school. These kids went on to be doctors. They were smarter than me. They were like 15 years old and already smarter than me.

And they, I remember had this conversation one time that the common sense is a myth and I had never thought about it. but They're right. And if you've been a parent for any amount of time and especially a parent of boys, you know, common sense is a myth. It, there is no common sense. that's why you might think, be thinking, Oh, well, that's common sense.

No, these are basics that are going to help you.   And leaving for a vacation or leaving for a

Field trip or an outing. These are things that are going to make your life better, easier.  One, set your expectations. Meaning, kids, we're not stopping for lunch.  Or, we're going to be there from 10 a. m. to 1 p.

m.  Or, we're not buying any souvenirs.  Set the expectations up front.  , it's going to go smooth from there. If the kids know that's the situation, then  there's not going to be an argument

argument later. Right. Yeah.

Now  set expectations and that timeline is one of the expectations. We will be there from 10 to 1 and you stick to it.

You do not say, Oh wow, it's 115. Time to load up. Nope.  At 1245 you say, okay, it's time. Well, you give a little countdown. Right? We're leaving in 20 minutes.  We're loading up in 5 minutes. You give them that time countdown. 

Because If

not, they're just going to drag it out. Oh, we're still having fun. Oh, we still want to stay here.

And in any of these situations, anywhere you go, any vacation, any field trip, The kids are expected to work to make it run smoothly. So for example, our kids, we've got four at home, all have a job to get out the door. Anytime the jemisons are loading up,  one kid is getting the, has to get the water vessel, one kid has to get the snack bag, one kid has to help get the little baby shoes on him,

One has to get the milk for the baby or something like that.

Okay. And let me back up there and explain that  always travel with water. We're six people. We travel with a gallon water jug sometimes in the car. With a,  couple of vessels with ice in it, ice water. Always travel with water. Always travel with a snack bag. I don't care if you're just going out for an hour.

You're gonna have hungry mouths.

you're just going out for an hour. You're gonna have hungry mouths. 

Yep. And I remember the time my daughter said, Oh, Miss Carolyn always travels with the peanut butter sandwiches. It was like, Oh, why am I not doing that?

So always, always have a snack bag.  Here's a good one.  You, you have to be quiet in the transitions. So  when we are walking out of our house, even when we're getting our shoes on, we're walking out and getting loaded up in the car and getting buckled.  You are in total silence. Nobody's asking questions. 

Nobody's saying, Oh, I want this. Or can we watch this movie? Because why you're trying to maybe load a map onto your phone. You're trying to, you're, you're making sure everyone's safe in their seatbelts.

a seatbelt. You got everything

driver, the parent have every, yeah, you have to focus.  I'll never forget. I was on the phone with my friend. 

We're just chatting it up. We're talking la la la. It's not an important conversation. It's just like we're talking as friends  and here She's like, where's my purse?

Talking to her kids I hear them in the background. Okay, somebody find my keys I said, what are you doing? Are you in a transition right now?

She's like, yeah, we're trying to leave to go bubba 

Get off the phone right now woman. I said get off the phone with me and focus and I hung up what how

do you operate?

How do you operate like that  

Yeah. And  especially our kids,  we've got the DVD player in the car. And the first thing they want to do is can you throw in a movie? No, we're not going to throw in a movie until we're down the street and we get into our little groove, knowing that we're on the highway and we're settled in until then things are staying simple and quiet until we know everything is good to go.

go

Because otherwise it's just chaos and that's when you forget something or who knows

You're in your anxiety is through the roof and you're yelling at the kids because you're harried. Okay. Another thing is

in the car ride.  You can use that to learn so much or as so much instruction.  We've listened to our Spanish pronunciation guide textbooks on audio, audio books. You know,

cause reading aloud is so important for your kids to get a command of the language.

So we've, we skip count by twos and fives. We listened to historical biographies. I've told you guys about the glory stories of the saints that we listened to. So your car ride can also be a time of instruction, a time of learning. Oh, and back to the traveling with food and water. We were at a We're at a homeschool gathering and it was a park day and that the time was from 10 to 1. 

And so that's lunch time, right? I mean, it's like bring your picnic to eat and play field day.  one kid was like, man, I wish my mom brought us food.

wish my mom had food. Right. It's

It's like, wow. So

And then 

piggybacking on that. Well, okay. A, your kids need to be involved too.

So it's not just the mom's fault that she didn't bring the lunch. Like, what, what are

can be oblivious to the situation.

One kid in the, in class, he was like, Oh, I don't have that homework. Now this is  a co op setting. These are homeschoolers. He's like, well, I don't have my homework. My mom didn't put it in my folder.

Excuse me,  you're a 16 year old person and you're blaming your mom did not put it in your folder. Now, I taught high school at the government school. I've heard a lot of excuses, but you ain't gonna catch a government school kid saying my mom didn't put it. 

wow, kid. Yeah.

okay people, let's make sure our kids are ,

So sufficient.

yeah, if they can do it, don't do it for them.

Okay, oh, here's another basic.  Now, when you pull that snack bag, because you're going to use it too, it's a godsend, okay? Do not eat the chocolate granola bar when you got your new white cabi joggers on, okay? Because what's going to happen when you eat that chocolate granola bar is one of the pieces is going to drop between your legs.

And over the next 30 minutes of you driving and sitting on it the heat from your body Okay is going to melt that chocolate into your white pants every time  and I did that when we were ago. You remember when that happened to me? Oh,

I remember distinctly. Yeah, because I'm the one that pointed it out to you.

you And where were we?

I don't remember.

We were in delray beach at the most bougie  hotel it we were away

Yeah, we're, we had just traveled three hours in the car and we valet the car and we're getting out walking inside and you're ahead of me. And I'm just like,  hold up there, partner.

You're,  you got a straggler. 

and it was like the size of a dime right on my leg and  it's one of those hotels where  even the workers are looking at you above their glasses, you know, like an old lady would look, you're like, they look above their glasses, they're so snooty. 

It's like snob culture and I'm walking up in there with a big ol brown stain on my head.

snooty. It's like snob  walking up in there with  

Okay, and one more thing. Now I can tell you this has happened to me two or three times. Set your kids up for success. So that, They can learn to be prepared because you're preparing them like with the snack bags with they have this job to get out the door Well, this has happened a couple of times.

I see a kid running around This was like one time it was at soccer practice one time It was at another practice and I this is not my child But I see that their shoes are untied and I see they're at that age where okay They probably aren't that great of a shoe tire. So I'm like here. Let me let me tie your shoe, buddy But here's the problem the shoelaces frayed  And you can't get it back through the hole.

The shoelace is  out of the shoe. So  I can't help this kid because his shoelaces Jimmy rigged all across the shoe with one halfway out. And I just felt so bad for the kid because , well, A, that would take so much, you gotta find a safety pin to, , work it back through

You can't do this

what do you, you can't do this on the fly.

And so, this has happened,  a couple of times where the parents are so busy, and I get it, because I'm the same busyness too, but they're so busy that they can't, they don't have the time to, to  Fix their kid's shoelace  , as homes, as homeschool moms,  you can't not be busy.

But those little details, think about it. The kids running around playing soccer, what's going to make their life so much better? A shoe that's tied,

Right.

So. So.  the little The little, basics. So we hope some of these basics work for you. We thank the Lord for showering us with grace on this camping trip to keep our kids safe and we are going to have to do a Bible study about cussing because like our 10 year old's like, why can't I cuss?

This is keep coming back

throw it around, but I don't think he's got the courage to do it. That's the

courage to do it, not the problem. Oh, yeah, he's okay with that because he doesn't 

doesn't  

what 

really know what he's

saying.

Well,

then my other daughter looked it up and apparently Konyo means a couple other things in other languages. It's even a worse word. So I'm like, okay, we're not saying that, but yeah we are going to be, I'll let you guys know in a episode or two about our cuss word Bible study because the Lord says it's not good.

Profanity is not good.

And I honestly, I think to this day, 

I haven't ever in custom from my parents. 

one of

It's just one of those things that I 

wanted 

wanted to do or found the need to 

mean, I  cussed like a truck

I mean, I cuss like a truck driver in front of my friends.

my friends. But  parents.  And we do let them fly every once in a while I say some he doubled hockey sticks and once in a while and our kids will call us out you're cussing So we try not to but it's it's a poison in the culture that we're gonna have to teach our kids Why this is not okay for us as christians.

So that's our next goal. That's our next thing. We're gonna be battling Okay. Well, thanks for listening    📍 We  

 

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