Large Family Homeschool Life – Week 25 of 2026

Lots of traveling and painting and swimming and realizing I need to work hard to make connections.

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Our 21 year old daughter arrived Sunday evening to stay for 2 weeks. Her husband has a job near here, and will come to visit on the weekends. I am so thrilled to have her here! I’ve missed having her around.

This week, we repotted plants, went shopping, chatted on the deck for hours, and she even came to my Apples of Gold Bible study.

If you’ve never heard of this study, it was written in the 90’s I believe, but the concept is still quite worthwhile even today. Our church does it a little differently from the book, but the idea is to gather women together to allow for Titus 2 conversations. We share a meal (this week was my turn to make a side and dessert), have a lesson, and talk in smaller groups over topics relating to the lesson. It’s been lovely!

In case you are wondering what I made for my side and dessert, it was a Spaghetti Salad that has a mayonnaise and vinegar sauce and peppers, onions, and green olives incorporated throughout. Dessert was my Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Another thing my daughter and I did while she was here was test a percolator she found brand new at a garage sale that will give her the ability to make our family’s Christmas Hot Punch in her own home! It’s so fun when you find treasures like this!

This is percolator she found for only $15!

She also put together a Paint Party for me, my mom, and the little girls. We sat at the dining room table, each of us with a rectangle of art paper and a paintbrush and a myriad of paints and pens dispersed about us. We also had creamsicle lemonade (creamsicle tea steeped in lemonade), hot tea, coffee, and some sweet treats.

We each painted a background on the paper, and then passed it to the next person to add to it. We had a ton of laughs as each of us added something new to the artwork, sometimes pretty, sometimes humorous, sometimes downright odd, and then revealed the finished product when it made it back around to the original owner. Here’s what we ended up with…

The reason it was just us girls at the Paint Party was because the 3 teenage boys were at their 28 year old brother’s house for several days doing what they like to call a Par-Tay. They play games, grill out, and stay up entirely too late. I’m so thankful they have this kind of relationship with a sibling that is more than a decade older than they are. I’m sure when they were all little, they were a bit of a nuisance, but now that they are teens, they have more in common and share many common interests.

Besides my boys traveling, my oldest daughter was finishing up a European tour. She’s been living with us this past year while she worked in a neighboring community and regained her footing after a difficult 2025. She decided to take a trip to England, Ireland, and France to prove some things to herself, and I do believe she came back stronger and braver and ready to tackle the next big thing in her life – a new job and a move to a new state.

Also among the travelers was my husband, who has been at Ft. Bliss, TX for a while bringing soldiers home from overseas. Because he was leaving again later in the week, we decided to celebrate Father’s Day early. Our 21 year old daughter gathered all the younger children and they made cards for Daddy, and then on Thursday, we made a pasta salad and bought his favorite jumbo shrimp and enjoyed a lovely day celebrating him.

Because of all the traveling, school only happened on Wednesday and Thursday this week. We are studying the rumblings of the American Revolution just in time for our nation’s 250th! I love when things work out like that!

Now, for a few random things from my week…

A few years ago, I transplanted black raspberry and blackberry bushes from a friend’s yard. The blackberry bushes died, and the raspberry bushes never produced much. Finally, this year, they looked much healthier and ended up producing more than a few berries. Still not enough for a pie or jam, but enough to snack on.

I finally released a new podcast episode this week:
Creating a Meal Rotation That Isn’t Boring

I’m working on a new set up for podcasting, and it’s been a lot of trial and error. Hopefully, I’ll get my groove back and be able to put out more content.

And finally, our church’s BBQ and pool party was on Friday evening. Most of the family was able to go, including our daughter’s husband who drove in for the weekend. We had a nice time, however, I noticed something while at this party. I chose not to swim because it had been raining all week and was chilly. As I sat around the pool watching my children, I realized I am in a very different age/season, one that appears to be under-represented in a lot of places.

At this party, there were a lot of people in their 30’s – the ones pregnant and with small children, even the ones with bigger families and older children who are pushing their 40’s. There was also a group of late 60’s, 70’s and 80 year olds who hung out together. But my age group didn’t seem to be there.

Now, I have to think it’s because most people in their 40’s and 50’s are empty-nesters, and so a pool party makes no sense to them. And I have mentioned before how out of place it can feel to have younger children and yet not be considered a younger mom.

I am nearly a decade past my last pregnancy – which still blows my mind. I am sure you can tell by all the discussions I’ve had on this blog in the past few years, that navigating this season has been a little unsettling, and downright difficult at times. I have to remind myself that I’m not in my 30’s, while also allowing myself to look toward older women for potential friendships. And yet, I feel 30, and the age of my children makes friendships with older women not as easy.

I’m still homeschooling 5 kids, and yet, I have grandchildren.

I’m a walking dichotomy, standing in a generational gap. I know I’m not alone, but as I’ve heard from other moms living a similar season, there is a loneliness that naturally happens as you navigate these years as a large family mom.

You have to work to build relationships with new people and it even takes work to hold together old friendships – work you’re not sure you can manage anymore. You are busy in new ways, and life begins to feel like a lot…all the time.

And that’s why it’s important to go to Bible studies and outings and game nights and paint parties – especially now that the babies are getting older. You may feel like you are dragging yourself there when all you want to do is sit at home with your hormones and read a book, but loneliness will eat away at you if you allow that because your kids are growing up, and someday they won’t be there to help you become automatic friends with their friends’ moms.

Find your people. I’m not real sure where they are, but don’t give up! They might be in the church small group you’ve been thinking you ought to join. They might be in the Bible Study that seems like it is full of older women. They might even be down the street and feeling just as lonely as you are. And they might be an old friend – the one you lost you track of when both of your lives became busier.