It is hard to juggle it all and I wouldn’t dream of claiming to have it all figured out. It’s all about listening to God and walking in humble obedience. There’s a constant shifting, i think. My daughters are older now, 19 and almost 13. My oldest is in college (lives at home and is a HUGE blessing and great help). Lots of pressure for her to go to a “good school” somewhere far away because she is absolutely brilliant. But guess what? She is content at home, attending the local community college. She’s not on the fast track to success, but she doesn’t care. She wants to be a missionary and hasn’t bought into the whole world system AT ALL.

The younger is very self-motivated and basically schools herself with material we selected together. Our priority is for our children to: Love God, love our family and serve the world. So we don’t make ourselves crazy about filling in worksheets and “covering” certain material. So homeschooling is not stressful because I refuse to let it be stressful.

Certain people in my life were so certain my loosy-goosy style meant my children were ‘ruined’ academically. so last year I put my youngest daughter in public school. She immediatley scored into Advanced Placement in every subject and secured straight As the entire year. She was very happy and quite popular….she also said, “Mommy, I prayed about and I want to come back home now.” She missed being at home.

As far as your business, yes, boundaries are important. LISTEN TO YOUR HUSBAND. Oh my my my. LISTEN TO YOUR HUSBAND. It’s just flat out uncanny how right most husbands are when it comes to boundaries for their wives. It is God-given. Unless there’s something ridiculously dysfunctional about the husband….and even then, God can still work through him. Go figure. Yeah, God’s that big!

Hope that helps! (’cause it was really from my heart, as you can probably tell)