Jessica and Shannon Talk About the Difficulties of Juggling Homeschooling.....While Difficultly Juggling Doing Hair and Watching Kids

Hello!  Welcome to episode 17! 
Firstly - I am so thankful that Jessica let me interview her while trying to have a relaxing night for herself!  As a homeschooling mom of many little babes, having alone time to yourself, let alone pampering time, is almost impossible - and she was kind enough to work on this episode with me!
Secondly - I apologize 3000 percent for the audio quality in this ep.  There was basically a perfect storm of pooping on this session, not to mention that most of the files were corrupted by my father-in-law's hand-me-down external storage device......oohhhhhh dads.
So!  There was so much to talk about with Jessica and I am thankful that I was able to salvage at least one piece!  I think we are in need of some more "me" time.....but together haha.
And one piece that I would like to encourage you all with - remember, you never know what baggage that someone else is carrying with them!  Love your neighbor, ladies!

You can learn more about Jessica and all of her beautifulness on Instagram
or on Facebook
Remember!  15% off your purchase is NOT TOO SHABBY, BABES!
Ziya Site is here
Her Young Living site can be found here

Also - check out my new website!  I can't afford my own fancy domain name yet - but it's still an exciting upgrade! 

If you ever would like to donate to our show - please do so via Patreon here.
Thanks guys!
Music Credit: Scott Holmes- Happy Ukulele

Transcript

Shannon Earley: 0:04

Hey guys, welcome to Episode 17. This is Shannon Earley, the hostess of the Nesting With The Earley Birds Podcast. And for some of you guys that might be new listeners, because our numbers are growing, thank you so much. But for those of you that are new listeners, this podcast is just all about encouraging women and friends, all different kinds of ladies that are in the same or similar life circumstances as me, which basically the life circumstance is having a bunch of kids; dealing with it during COVID, being married, trying to learn how to love them. Well, while I love myself, Well, I love my husband, well, I have to take care of my pets, you know, guys the whole dang story. And basically, I just want to encourage others out there that you're not alone. We're all just trying to do the best that we can with what we've got. And we're trying to do the best that we can by learning from and with each other. Today, on this episode, I actually have a superduper cool chick. Her name is Jessica. And actually I'm not supposed to share her name with you. In the beginning, I was reading this thing about like podcasting and what you're supposed to do. And you're actually not supposed to tell the person's name while you introduce them. Because then you don't build up the excitement. But so far all you know is her name. This chick actually runs like two different businesses from her home, while she homeschools all of her children. And she actually didn't start this whole homeschooling gig like many of us did. She did it after her first son went to kindergarten, and they had a lot of struggles, a lot of different difficulties. And then she got my information because she knew I was a hairstylist, and she had actually grown up with my husband. So we had never, ever officially met. So everything that you hear us talking about is the first time we've ever talked about it. And it's the first time I've ever even spoken with her. I mean, yeah, we did some messages in the beginning about like, what kinda hair would you like, but never, you know anything in depth. Like, tell me your deepest sins. So, like 2020, this podcast had a lot of let's just say, it was very stressful after I got home. And I realized that, well, let me just say I have a father in law. This guy doesn't throw anything away. And he's super into contemporary electronics. Like every Christmas gets my husband new USB, like flash drive things, or even called flash drives. I don't know, the thing that you pop in, you download stuff on to it, upload stuff on to it, and you pop it out. Yeah, guys, I don't even know why I'm a podcaster. Because like, I obviously know nothing about technology. Anyways, he gives us one of his old used ones. And we should have known right then like, if Dad's not using it, it's probably crap. So I was like, oh, man, this thing looks like a beast. It has so much external storage. Because right now I'm doing everything on a Chromebook and I need extra memory. So I plug this jam in. I upload every thing that I've ever recorded from anything with my podcasts. I put everything on there that had photos, any kind of videos, sound bites, transcripts, everything that I've worked on my like hundreds of hours of work. I put it on this device. And I guess you guys probably know where this is going way faster than I do. But when I went to upload my episode today, because it's almost Tuesday, it said that the file was corrupted. And I was like this, this this can't be right. I'm going to do 3000 other things to try to get this file to work. Guess what guys, it never worked. I can tell you what God is good because I actually had learned to record things in little sessions. So every time you get like 20 minutes, hit the stop button, save it whatever. All I have is the very middle of our podcast episode. We have started you know talking about introducing ourselves kind of a little bit how we you know, knew each other. And also I was letting everybody know that I was there doing her hair. She was going from a dark Italian brunette hair. And she wants that frosty white cool as she toned colors on the top. And then the bottom she wanted fading slowly from a light caramel brown down to a deep almost black color. So this is one of those things that takes a very long time. So we talked to each other for a very long time. So when I was trying to you know fix this audio files, sometimes you might hear sounds of the tin foil that I was putting into our Her hair. Since I was doing a very heavy highlight any of you hair stylists out there, you know what I'm talking about trying to make it blonde not trying to put bleach on her scalp, you feel me? Anyways, so you're gonna maybe hear some foils throughout. Also, even though her sweet husband was watching the children, technically, one of her children really didn't want to leave the room, like ever. So we ended up putting her in front of a show on Netflix. And she kept wanting the show louder, because we were talking in the kitchen. If any of you have any children, you know exactly what I'm talking about they, they don't want to waste their time on what mom's got going on, they're gonna figure out how to make themselves comfortable. So basically, not only was the file corrupted, everything's missing, I then tried to fix audio on things that I shouldn't be in, you know, working on that stuff, guys, that is not my, I was gonna say bag of cheese, the word is cup of tea, I'm not good. good at it. So randomly, like it'll get real quiet in this recording, and then it's going to randomly get really loud when I laugh. I'm really sorry in advance. But I'm really glad you're listening because we had a great conversation about the difficulties of homeschooling, the things that maybe some people don't really talk about. And also, we tried to explain like why she even stopped going to public school in the first place with her son, what kinds of things he experienced, and also some of the difficulties that we face as homeschooling moms because any of you know that homeschools you're not just in charge of the homeschooling, you're still in charge of the momming and the wifing, and the housekeeping and the chaperoning and the doctoring whatever, and it can be very, very taxing. But anyways, this girl, just like I'm into podcasting and doing hair, she's got her own thing, guys. She actually is a super. Let's say hi in the game representative of a clothing brand. I think it's like an athletic wear brand actually called Zions ZI y A. And she said if you get in touch with her guys on Instagram or Facebook, she actually has a bangin code for you guys to get 15% off, which is a super big deal. She also works with selling oils. So I know for me, I get migraines all the time. And so I normally will use something like frankincense, or peppermint things like that. She has got a super great quality oil company. So you need to check her out on Facebook or Instagram. It's Jessica Messina or Jessica Mina Chino, she is beautiful and funny and smart. And she has experienced more loss and difficulty than many of us out there. But that's one of the reasons I think that her and I mesh so well, it is so encouraging when you meet another mom that has been through some of the real dark depths that you've gone through because you almost think that you're alone. And then you find somebody out there who looks like they've got it all together, and then you find out AM, their backstory is just as bad if not worse than yours. So remember that guys, when you're going out there and you see somebody beautiful, or you're jealous of them, or you're feeling envious, or like you're not good enough, we've all got our own baggage that we are carrying around and trying to figure out this world. So remember that God totally loves you all the time. Please enjoy Episode 17 of nesting with the early birds podcast with my beautiful guest, Jessica massino. Thanks, guys. Hey, there's a speech there. You're an occupational therapist and physical therapist. behaviorist, it's like everything. Oh, and friggin everything. And then when you are homeschooling, you're doing all those jobs. But you're doing it in ways where, you know, they're all trying to figure out, how can I make this kid more comfortable in life to just get life done? And like we're figuring it out like, okay, kid, why don't you do jumping jacks?

Unknown: 9:15

You don't want to say yeah, I think Well, yeah, you know your kids fast. Yeah. And it's easier at least I think any kid I don't even think they need to be a special needs children. But every kid learns differently. I think it's just so much easier when you know that and you're at home and you can teach. We're gonna shoot them fast. And then they'll actually enjoy school hopefully. I mean, not every day, some days of school, but it's not like you're sitting in a classroom having to learn the same way as everybody else. Right? And if he doesn't get it, and he feels bad about himself or spend hours going over it over time, I mean, I don't know. But yes, like you wear many hats as a homeschool, yes.

Shannon Earley: 10:04

Believing things like tests, okay, like, I know when my kids know us, because we'll talk about it. And I'll know they know it. And I feel like those are the kids like in a public school, for instance, on your legs that I'm like it kind of left behind just like tests make it look like they don't actually know the material. Really? Yeah. So what made you decide to?

Unknown: 10:35

Um, I have a friend who has always homeschooled her two boys, and I was interested in it, but I'm sure like most I doubted myself. I was like, I don't know. homeschool child. Yeah. So my oldest went to kindergarten. And you know, I'm not knocking Robert school if that's what works for your family, right? It didn't work for ours. He was in kindergarten, his kids five, almost daily, you would get in trouble for talking too much, or whatever the case may be. And then, you know, he would try to be quiet. So then by the time he got to lunch, where he had 20 minutes to actually socialize. We were eating. Yes.

Shannon Earley: 11:23

Yeah. Well, in the cafeteria, a sensory overload. Yeah.

Unknown: 11:28

It's just too much all the noise. He wasn't eating a lot. He would be starving. I picked him up. And then we had some. I wouldn't say bullies, but just the way that a lot of children act is not really. How do I want makeup acting? And I'm not saying My children are angels. They are not right. But my oldest in particular, he's a very sweet boy. He's a very kind hearted, gonna change the world one day. He has the sweetest. He wants everybody to be friends. And he doesn't understand why people aren't and those kinds of things. So sweet. Yeah, he's poor. And I just want to keep him that way for as long as I can. Yeah. And we did. We had homework, Tom, would be very frustrating. It was like he didn't learn it. So I had to get him anywhere. Yes. And I kind of was like, okay, we're just gonna do it. We're gonna homeschool next year. Right. And he totally went back.

Shannon Earley: 12:54

Did you get a real taste of? No, because they had to teach. me teach first of all.

Unknown: 13:02

Does that make sense? Yeah.

Shannon Earley: 13:04

It didn't get a fair shot,

Unknown: 13:05

which is what I tried. Yeah, you're right. I try to tell my friends that who are kind of on the fence about it like what you're doing right now. Don't get the wrong impression about it. Because if we had to do that, we would not have it. Okay,

Shannon Earley: 13:23

any viewers out there?

Unknown: 13:37

Oh,

Shannon Earley: 13:38

I'm gonna say what frustrates me is that doing this? It's still for so many hours a day.

Unknown: 13:47

Wrap town. Okay, so I've always I've been wondering about this, because I don't know about your pediatrician. But it's always like, how much screen time do they get? And they're like, don't don't get them more than two hours a day. And we have been limiting hours anyways because of behavioral issues. Big difference, right? Huge difference, but then I'm wondering, okay, so if the kids are sitting on a computer for like, four or more hours a day doing school, sometimes a lot. Doesn't that go against what all the doctors are telling us when we're raising our children? It just strikes me as odd regarding screen time, dude. Oh, for sure.

Shannon Earley: 14:31

It's embarrassing. Moms are like never like, Oh,

Unknown: 14:40

yeah, they've never and then they're like, we just watched. Yeah.

Shannon Earley: 14:45

Yeah, well, meanwhile, like, honestly guys making appointments and, you know, calling whatever pediatrician is a mortgage company. I mean, you've got your kids right. It's not like you have nine to three to get your stuff done. So there's a lot I mean, that's oftentimes what I use screens for is like,

Unknown: 15:10

Yeah, what about you? Um, lately, we've been toughing it out. They're actually watching something right now, because I'm getting my hair done. But typically, they have not earned it. So yeah, I wouldn't typically let them. So do you do like an earning like a reward system? Kind of? Yeah, if we've had a lot of bad behavior, then they know they're probably not gonna watch TV. It's 100%. And then video games. I don't know about your kids. But my eight year old loves video games. And so now all of them do. But it became a thing where that's all they asked for. Yes. I mean, it was like they were addicted, they would wake up and we play games. We play games all day long. So I was like, this has got to go and earn it. They get an hour. And I would like to do it only on the weekends. But right now I'm just they've got to earn it anyways. So we just needed that to be locked it so

Shannon Earley: 16:10

I'm not trying to put a my kids under the bus if you ever hear one day, but there was some sneakers going on. Ain't nobody got time for sneaking in? About

Unknown: 16:21

video stuff. That's awful. I know. It's insane.

Shannon Earley: 16:26

You guys were listening?

Unknown: 16:32

I would really suggest

Shannon Earley: 16:36

see how their little brains?

Unknown: 16:40

Yeah, I would do I would you know, they're gonna be upset and asked about it every minute. Yeah. They have to, like come down from their screen addiction. So once you get past that, I mean, my kids were actually behaving better. They're still kids. So we're still gonna have our moments. But they were getting along with each other. They were playing with things that I haven't seen them play with in forever. My son is like, willingly reading his book for fun. I mean, if you really want to see your kids get creative. The creativity. It's amazing. I know. So try to mean no shame, if you like to put YouTube on or shows or whatever. But if you do struggle with it, give it a try to cut it out for a week. See what happens.

Shannon Earley: 17:33

So okay, here's a question. What about moms that are feeling lonely? How does that

Unknown: 17:43

days, you know, we stay so busy? Because if we're not schooling, then somebody's got cheerleading or karate or soccer? Or doctor's appointments. Yeah, big shots. But, yeah, there's definitely times where you're like, man, I want to talk to another adult and not my children all day.

Shannon Earley: 18:04

Yes. Which is actually why I love doing here. Empire. Like on the way here, I was looking to metal. I had the windows down, which is like, when mother partners

Unknown: 18:22

like a mom saying when we roll the windows down

Shannon Earley: 18:25

to another minivan, you can still look sorta like I might not know, minds immediately, like roll

Unknown: 18:32

out. That mom has some free time.

Shannon Earley: 18:38

Watch out. I'm like getting like road rage. Get out of my way and choke off. But I do really enjoy doing here. Are you guys listening? I hope so I again, I'm so sorry about this audio quality. It's terrible. I 1,000% need to get Jessica for another interview. It's not done yet. But I did want to remind you to share my podcast. Even when I have terrible audio. This just means that somebody out there has got to buy me a new computer and maybe like something to hold a better microphone. Because Listen, like if I got all that stuff. I won't even have to do hair anymore. Wouldn't that be amazing? So maybe just think about sharing it. That would be great. All right, guys. Stay tuned. Yeah. So okay, so you don't necessarily that's not something that you

Unknown: 19:34

struggle with. But if you do struggle with that, there's all kinds of like homeschooling groups that you can join in to connect with other moms and then your kiddos can connect. Or I mean, we're talking about screen time, but social media, you know, chat with your friends. Or what about Have you ever had experiences where your friends or family just don't you Did they all? My parents? You know, I can't remember. I think they had a lot of questions. Yeah, at first. A lot of doubts will house you know? How are they going to get socialization we are so busy, like we have to pick and choose what we want to socialize with. Yes. But now they're all for it. And if we do have any, like extended family that's like homeschooling, my mom is usually the one to be like, actually ahead, or you know, he loves it. He's doing very well, whatever the case may be. It's real frustrating because

Shannon Earley: 20:41

my mom, sorry, mom. Even though she loves us and everything and like knows that we love homeschooling, there's always the comments. Like, if I'm inventing a new banana, it's like, that's

Unknown: 21:01

not the answer. And if you knew me and all that, you would know, that's not what are you know what i'm not what we're trying to do. What else?

Shannon Earley: 21:11

What do you think? Um, as far as homeschooling goes, explain more about unit

Unknown: 21:19

or unit studies?

Shannon Earley: 21:20

Like if moms don't know it, what is it? Ah, okay,

Unknown: 21:23

so right now. So for our unit studies, it's where you kind of learn about a certain topic. What was our last year? together? What was her last? Oh, the human body. So that was super fun, because we're really into that. And it was kind of like, anatomy and physiology, but for elementary schoolers. So we learned about the bones and the muscles. And every day was a new lesson on a topic about the human body. And in the lessons and incorporates all the subjects except for math. So there's like a bit that has language arts, and then there's social studies. And then there's an art section, but it's super condensed. So we're not spending hours on various different subjects. Right? It's really nice, right?

Shannon Earley: 22:17

What would you say? Okay, so like, obviously, no? struggling? What do you suddenly think? Like, okay, we talked about, like, just trusting yourself, knowing you're going to stick it out. But the difference of those? What is something you would say? courage?

Unknown: 22:43

Um, well, I know I, I have a lot of friends, at least on my news feeds that are struggling with the virtual learning. And what I really want to say without pressuring you guys to be full fledged homeschoolers is to give it a try, like, try it for one year. And see how it goes. Because you're making it, it's so hard on yourselves. And I promise that if you were to try homeschooling, it would be 1000 times easier, then trying to do the virtual learning that I see everyone complaining about. And that's true, if you can, if you can swing it. I know all families are different. There's different hurdles that everyone is having to deal with. But if you try it, that was what I told myself, I'll try it for a year. And if I can't do it, or if it's not working for us, then he can go back and it's not a big deal.

Shannon Earley: 23:42

Well, you're adventurous anyways, your hair is gonna be badass. So I know. I agree. Like, just taking that first step is so scary, because you have these fears.

Unknown: 23:56

Yeah, what if I'm not good for it? You

Shannon Earley: 23:58

know what I'm saying? And it's like, No, dude, no, you're kidding.

Unknown: 24:04

And it doesn't have to be that serious. I had so many people worried, like, how did the tests work? And what about this, and I'm like, we don't do that. You can, you don't have to. So it's just, there's so many different things you can do. I would encourage you to explore some more. If you're just gonna try to tough it out with virtual learning until there's some kind of normalcy that's returned to our world, right? Just take a lot of deep breaths and try to take breaks. I mean, gotta be giving these kids some grace. So you know, if your kid isn't logged in for four hours and paying attention and needs a day off, do it.

Shannon Earley: 24:44

I agree. I know just hit the mute button and stop the video thing or whatever. And I'm like, oh, they're there.

Unknown: 24:51

Don't make cookies or something. Yeah.

Shannon Earley: 25:02

You guys, thank you for even getting to this point if you even possibly could. You're an angel, you're an angel, and I love you. So I really did have a really good rest of the night with Jessica, we talked so much more just about, I don't know, even caring for dogs and how that's difficult right now and how COVID is affecting homeschooling, and how we feel so bad for our friends because they're just thrust into this terrible idea of homeschooling, which has nothing to do with the real thing. And we just wanted to remind you guys, that if you ever need to have a day of just Netflix and chill all day, that is okay. And if you decide to make up for all of your homeschool failures for the week for just one Thursday, that's okay to you. God loves you totally all the time. And as long as you're caring for your children, and you have their best intentions at heart, while you still understand your limitations, and there's nothing that you guys cannot do as a family. Thank you so much for listening and please remember to share