College-at-Home, End of January, and Buying a Home Debt-Free

A new week - hopefully less busy than last, though I enjoyed every minute.  The panel we were on went extremely well, the house was packed, full of young moms and a couple dads who all had very young children, wanting to make the best decision for their child's education and future.  I knew it would be hard for me to not monopolize the conversation.  I had to seriously work at it.  I smiled at some of the questions.  We let two of the older children sit in on the event.  One of the dads asked the kids a couple questions, "So, who are your friends?"  In other words, "Do you have any?  Or do you just sit at home all day and not meet anyone?"  This dad, we found out, told his wife the reason he doesn't want to homeschool his kids is because he doesn't want them to turn out weird.  I may have weird kids, but I think it's in a good way, personally.  In fact, I joke with my husband that we actually want them to turn out weird!  Not conforming to all those around them, so yes, my kids might turn out weird, but that's fine with me. 

All in all, each question got answered and I think each parent there breathed a sigh of relief to meet people they could see in real life who didnt have horns growing out of their heads.... One mom bounded over to me and said, "I need to spend a lot of time with you.  My husband needs to come, too.  Can we please come over to your house?"  Of course.  So, I'm expecting a few visits this spring. But, again, I love that.

On Saturday, we went to a friend's 50th birthday party (we're getting up there, too!).  It was a 60s theme, as she was born in the 60s!  What a hoot - I borrowed a couple outfits from a friend and went in a vintage style dress with vintage hair and makeup.  My husband looked hilarious.  He had peace-patch pants, tie-die shirt and a bandana wrapped around his head - very hippie looking.  He even dyed his soul-patch beard with my mascara so he looked even younger.  I laughed out loud every time I saw him.

My 6 year old is quite tired of me leaving so much, so I think it'll be a quieter week at home, I hope.

Today is a very significant day for us, not just because it is Groundhog Day (ha!), but because today our daughter starts college!  Sounds crazy, but it's true!  We heard about CollegePlus (a distance learning degree program) before and looked into it a bit, but in November a friend of ours actually came down and gave a presentation on it as she is enrolled in the program herself.  It started to really intrigue us.  Our daughter had already decided to pursue piano and get the highest credentials she could.  She'd already been teaching, but we were noticing it wasn't taking as much time in her week as we thought.  She actually had a fair amount of spare time.

This degree program is offered with a Christian worldview.  It also allows her to get a Bachelor of Arts in music.  The more we looked into it, the more it appealed to us.  She is a very bright girl and longs to understand more about the faiths around her.  She wants to share her faith with others.  She was starting to feel she could take on more.  So, we took the leap and enrolled.  Her first exam is Wednesday and it's on critical thinking - CollegePlus is just that - college "plus" - she'll come out of this program with way more than just a degree in music.  She'll have her faith grounded in knowledge.  They make sure of it.

She also will be acquiring a coach in her life.  This is a young lady who knows the ins and outs of CollegePlus.  She'll call our daughter twice a month and mentor her through her courses.  This month her plan will be to create a degree plan with her.  They'll map out the classes that will best suit her, etc.  

By staying home, she can save a ton of money.  She'll still be able to have her students come to our house for lessons.  She'll be able to avoid some of the pitfalls of university, yet still get a recognized degree.  She'll still meet a lot of people as once in a while all the CollegePlus students connect, so that'll be fun.  The program also offers a whole bunch of interesting electives on being an entrepreneur as well, so that'll fit her piano teaching/photography business that she is pursuing already.  She'll be able to go as fast as she wants and if she goes through the summer, she could be done anywhere from 2-3 years.  She's starting very young as they allow younger students.  They figure they wouldn't be applying if they couldn't keep up, I guess!  So she'll be done by the time she's 20.  Her faith will be strengthened as a result of taking the courses on worldview....the list goes on and on.  She's got the time to do this now.  We're excited for her!

One of the things we like best about her choices is that she can still be a wife and mom.  Even if she were to marry in this process, she'll still be able to be at home with her kids, have students come to her, help supplement her husband's income if required, minister to the homeschool community by even offering lessons to them, etc.  That was definitely one of our concerns.  We wanted to give her an education for sure, but we didn't want her to become so career-oriented that she wouldn't be able to be home one day.  We long for her to love being a wife and mom and she wants that, too.  My mom was home with us which I think really gave me an appetite for that as well.  I went to university and even became a teacher, but the whole time, I just kept thinking about getting married and being a mom.  The day I found out I was pregnant with my first child was awesome - it was my ticket out of the classroom!  I couldn't wait to get home and be a mom.

We already have her piano studio set up.  Now we just have to move a desk and computer in there as most of it will be on-line.  Her brothers are being very gracious as the loft room above the piano was going to be their's for sleeping once RM got a rail and a staircase to it, but it looks like she'll be taking it over as her new "dorm".  She can't wait!  Financially, this is going to be a stretch, but we're trusting the Lord brought us here and that He will be faithful to help us pay for it all.

Yesterday also marked the beginning of a new month, but the end of January.  I diligently entered all the grocery bills all month and so now we'll do the assessment of where we saved and spent.  My grocery budget wasn't that high this month as I hardly had to buy any meat.  I suppose I should have included the amount of money spent on slaughtering, so perhaps in the end I didn't save as much as it appears, but at least we ate better meat!  I like the illusion of saving money just as much!

We continue to read the Maxwell's book "Buying a House Debt-free",  It's so inspiring to read the stories of just regular guys who got inspired to do this and then how God blessed their efforts by providing amazing opportunities.  The key we noticed was how prayerful they were.  Each of the Maxwell boys who did this (so far, the older 3 boys have bought homes debt-free, with cash!  The younger 2 are well on their way at only 19 and 23) were always praying along with the parents.  We had each child, including the 4 year old, pray, asking the Lord to show them how they could do this, how they could make an income that would provide for their families one day.  They were all very excited.  I live in constant anticipation to see how this will work out in their lives someday.

Now, a snowstorm is upon us...our vehicles are deeply covered with high drifts.  I'd send the kids out, but they might not find their way back home!  I'm sure the school buses must be cancelled as I haven't seen one go by yet....oh well, for our poor kids, school is on!