Welcome to the Wild and Free Podcast, episode 79.

I'm Ainsley Arment, and this week we're talking with our friend and wild and free contributor, Rachel Alsbury, about how to organize your homeschool environment.

My daughters and I have a lot of negotiations about, hey, is this really a useful thing? Do you really need this?

And they're used to that process now of kind of calling through. And, you know, I take the opportunity

to teach them that when our environment's too full of stuff, we can't sit down and focus on

something to do. So let's just make sure that we're intentional about our environment and what we're keeping so that we can actually enjoy the things we have instead of feeling

totally overwhelmed by the giant mess that's in our bedroom. Plus, we'll share about our new

content bundle for the month of April called Heal. So grab a cup of coffee and join us on the front porch. Let's get started.

Nearly every single day, I hear from homeschool mothers who are ready to throw in the towel.

They don't blame their children for their circumstances, but rather their

own frailties. Oh, how I know. I often feel like there should be yellow caution tape

cordoning off our house, forewarning neighbors, friends, and even UPS drivers of anything

they might see, hear, or experience as they approach the door. It seems as if

the only time anyone stops by is when my kids are bickering, the laundry is piled high on the sofa,

absolutely no one is studiously at work, and I'm still in my pajamas at noon. It doesn't take much

to feel unworthy of the hearts we are holding. The great

challenge of homeschooling is that we cannot run from our humanity. But I don't believe we need to

give up on our dream over one or even a series of failures. We can be both broken and becoming. This is the great paradox of parenthood,

but it is also the beautiful scandal of grace. We can receive what we don't deserve,

and we can yet give what we didn't receive. I believe we can heal. I believe we can become whole again. We heal our homeschools

not by spackling the cracks or covering over our failures, but by learning from our mistakes

and growing through the challenges of being a family. Eventually, we'll come to see, as Leonard

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