I’m a road-tripping, homeschooling mama… and I love it!
I can tell you where to find the best playground in California, the best milkshake in Idaho, and the prettiest back roads in Colorado. I can entertain and educate my kids all over the country… for free (Let’s just go ahead and have a moment of silence for whoever created the Junior Ranger program in our National Parks, shall we?). I know how to pack a car to its gills without everything falling out when you open the back hatch and how to squeeze a few educational moments into a 10-minute stop at a gas station. I am officially a road-tripping, homeschooling mama.
Some days it drives me crazy (I may or may not have recently offered my four-year-old a piece of candy to be quiet instead of helping him resolve his backseat conflict with his older brother… ahem!) but mostly I love it. It’s one of the hidden perks of being a missionary: every few years we get paid to travel around the country to visit with people we love and share with them the things we are passionate about.
It’s a crazy lifestyle and sometimes my brain has trouble keeping up (which state am I starting the day in, and in which state will I end the day?), but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
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The Schandorff family is currently on furlough here in the States, and their nomadic lifestyle is typical of missionaries who are taking a break from field ministry to visit with their supporters, family, and friends.