Welcome to the Wild and Free Podcast, episode 84. I'm Ainsley Arment, and this week we're talking with our dear friends and fellow Wild and Free Mommas, El Salaia and Melissa Amy Simmons, about how where we live impacts our homeschools.

It shaped me and changed me to be a little bit more brave. You can't, you can't shelter your family

from everything. You have to embrace where you are. And I always just think people have lived here

for generations and generations. And there are ways to be safe and still get out in nature,

in the rivers, on the hills, in the long grass, and, you know,

do it safely and do it fun and do it wild and free.

Plus, we'll share about our wild and free conference in San Luis Obispo, California this April 14th and 15th.

So grab a cup of coffee and join us on the front porch. Let's get started.

For centuries, people have made Mary of bidding farewell to the old year and bringing in the new.

Poets and philosophers have imbued us with sentiment for commemorating this particular passage of time.

Perhaps it is because a new year begs us to make good on our one wild and precious life as Mary Oliver exhorted us.

Or perhaps it's because a clean slate invites us to contemplate the meaning hidden in new beginnings. Perhaps it is a little bit of both.

As G.K. Chesterton wrote, the object of a new year is not that we should have a new year.

It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose, new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes.

Unless a particular man made New Year's resolutions, he would make no resolutions, unless a man starts afresh about things.

He will certainly do nothing effective.

Whether a new year invokes a sense of anticipation in you or flood you with overwhelm,

a new year is inevitable. It is as any new day, an invitation

to start afresh about things. Despite the failures of the past, despite the heartache, the fatigue,

and the broken dreams still tender to the touch. It is a time to dream again. As wild and free

mamas, we are building a heritage of hope. After all, we are the beauty seekers, the wonder keepers,

and the hope bearers. We are the time spinners weaving together past, present,

...