.png)
The Homeschool How To
I don't claim to know anything about homeschooling, so I set out on a journey to ask the people who do! Join me as I chat with homeschoolers to discuss; "why are people homeschooling," "what are all the ways people are using to homeschool today," and ultimately, "should I homeschool my kids?"
The Homeschool How To
#91: Raising Half Your Kids in Public School and Homeschooling the Rest! This is Carmen's Story
Experience the inspiring transformation of Carmen Spotts as she navigates the world of homeschooling and holistic health. Discover how Carmen, initially overwhelmed by the challenges of teaching her younger children at home, found a lifeline in a Christian homeschool co-op. This pivotal community not only provided the support she needed but also sparked a curiosity that led her to question conventional health practices and embrace a more natural approach to wellness.
Carmen's journey into holistic health takes center stage as she shares her transition from wellness workshops to becoming a certified master herbalist. With practical advice on mindful eating, reducing toxin exposure, and exploring alternatives to traditional medical practices, Carmen's experiences provide valuable insights into achieving a balanced and healthy lifestyle. Her passion for passing on this knowledge is also captured in her new children's book, "Gracie's Healing Garden," which aims to educate the next generation on the joys of gardening and herbal healing. Join us for a heartfelt exploration of homeschooling and holistic health, filled with personal anecdotes and actionable insights.
Gracie's Healing Garden on Amazon
Signed copy of Gracie's Healing Garden
https://livewellwithcarmen.thrivecart.com/divine-design/
Let's Talk, Emergencies! - Cheryl's children's book, and don't forget
The Activity Book!
The Tuttle Twins - use code Cheryl40 for 40% off ages 5-11 book series
Earthley Wellness - use code HomeschoolHowTo for 10% off your first order
TreehouseSchoolhouse for your Fall Nature Study Curriculum- use promo code: THEHOMESCHOOLHOWTOPODCAST for 10% off entire order (if code puts you under free shipping limit- check out the traceable calendar to add to your order!)
PLEASE SHARE the show with this link!
Instagram: TheHomeschoolHowToPodcast
Facebook: The Homeschool How To Podcast
Welcome and with us today on the Homeschool How-To I have Carmen Spatz. Carmen, thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:So you had reached out, I believe. But I had been following you for a little bit because I like your information on Instagram about your take on health, and you know that I come from the background of, like, not really caring. Like, yes, if it's a medicine, it's gonna make me feel better. Please, by all means, give it all to me. And now I've kind of turned the corner where, you know, my, my second child has, doesn't even have a vaccine and you know I'm looking around for, like, people with chicken pox so I can infect her.
Speaker 1:So we're you know, getting the unpasteurized milk which is illegal in our state. It's just these things that I never thought to even look into before, and it's like once you open the can of worms, they just keep coming. So let's start out with how you connect with homeschooling in the first place.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I have six children all together. My first two I had really young and they went all the way through public school and about the time that they were teenagers, you know, I realized how quickly time goes and how little time you have with your children between the. You know, wake up in the morning, get them ready, get them on the bus and then get them off the bus, help them with homework, you know, feed them dinner and put them to bed, and do it all over again. There's like such little amount of time to really invest in your kids. And just, I love my kids and I wanted to be with them. And so at that point I decided homeschool my boys, who were kindergarten and first grade, and so I, just I kept the other two in public school, cause that's where they were at and that's where they were happy and that's where they were thriving. But I always told myself I'm only going to do it one year at a time and then I'm going to reevaluate at the end of that year how well you know what worked, what didn't work, is this right for this child or, you know, should we do something different for another child? The first year I really kind of felt it laid on my heart by the Lord to homeschool initially and I was feeling those feelings of, oh, I really want them home and I really want to have this amazing relationship with them. And then, but the logistics of it all really stressed me out and I did not know that I was qualified to do it. I didn't know if I had the bandwidth to do it. I had a brand new infant and so I thought, well, geez, if I just put them on the bus, I would have all of this sweet time with my brand new baby. What am I thinking? Why am I going to keep them at home?
Speaker 2:Our first year was a little bit of a struggle. I didn't have any connections to the homeschool community. I didn't have any friends that were homeschooling. I felt completely isolated, all alone. I felt like my children, my two boys their eyes were really big, a lot Like whoa mom is losing it today. We better behave. I was like so overwhelmed that first year and they humored me. They were so good and so willing to do what I needed them to do and I was just.
Speaker 2:I really felt like I was losing my mind and then I started looking into co-ops towards the end of that first year. One sweet lady who I'm still really good friends with now was like the head of that co-op at the time and I just shared with her what was on my heart and how much I had been struggling. My oldest son was about 15 at the time and he decided he was going to move in with his dad. So I was dealing with like the grief from that and homeschooling was heavy and I had an infant and I was just like anyway, she was so sweet and she invited me to be one of the founding families for this new co-op that she was starting. So I I just dove in headfirst, I was on the board, I was part of that homeschool co-op for we ran it for seven years and it was a lovely Christian co-op.
Speaker 2:We had between 12 and 22 members over those seven years every year and it just it was like a balm for my soul. It just blessed our family in ways that I can't even describe. Just, I feel like it was the thing that kept me going on my homeschool journey was just having that community of like minded people. So that's, that's kind of how I got started on that journey.
Speaker 1:OK, and so you had six kids all together, right? So you have the two that were older, like 15, 16. Then you had the, you had the first grader in the kindergarten, you had the newborn. Had the sixth child been born yet?
Speaker 2:no, no. So I was all done having children. When the new baby was eight years old, I found out I was pregnant with Grace.
Speaker 1:So like you have like three generations of kids there.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I started homeschooling when Ellie, who's now 14, was brand new and, um, it was about two years in to her life that I got introduced to the concept of reading labels on our food and questioning the medical system, like I'd always had this sneaking suspicion that there was a better, there had to be a better way of caring for our bodies and our health than to take a pill. But I was always. I was raised to just implicitly trust the medical system, implicitly trust doctors, to just implicitly trust the medical system, implicitly trust doctors. And anytime you had a sniffle, a cough, that's where you go, you take what they give you and you don't really ask questions.
Speaker 2:And it wasn't until I was in that Christian co-op. We had lunch as a group, like in the foyer of this church, and we all put down like little tablecloths and we would sit on the tablecloths as like little groups and have our lunch together. And I sat down, you know, as a new mom there, or a new family starting this co-op, brand new to the year, and this lady I had never met before, another mom at the co-op. She was sitting there looking at what was in my kids lunch boxes and I had like the little snack sized Cheetos and some gushers, the little juice boxes, you know, just like all the garbage. And she, she looks at it, she says, do you even know what's in that? And I was like what do you mean? She's like you. You even know what's in that. And I was like what do you mean? She's like you. You've never read the label on that.
Speaker 1:Well it's not in English, like it's words that you wouldn't know anyway. So you just assume people that know better than me know these words and put it on our shelves, cause it's gotta be good if they put it on the shelves, right Can't be too harmful, yeah exactly.
Speaker 2:I was like I looked at the Cheetos and I was like, um, there's probably milk, cheese, corn. And then she's like, literally, look at the label. And I looked at the label and I thought, oh my gosh, I have no idea what any of this is. And so I went home that day I Googled everything, I just looked up everything and I looked at like the health risks of all the different things. And then it was like I just couldn't not know the things that I knew. Then I like, and I couldn't continue down that path anymore and opened up the can of worms.
Speaker 1:It's so funny that you say that too, because I've gone to like when I first started going to the homeschool play groups. You totally tell where people are in their homeschooling journey by what they bring as food. Cause, like I would bring, yeah, goldfish in the plastic baggies and not to say that I don't sometimes throw stuff in a plastic baggie. You know it's like I have to, it's baby steps. But if I can put it in a glass container, I tried to do that, or not have goldfish at all. But yes.
Speaker 1:Are they bringing their sourdough bread with homemade hummus in a glass container? Or are you bringing bologna and cheese on white bread with mayonnaise Hellman's? Mayonnaise which is genetically modified?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it is.
Speaker 1:It can get so overwhelming. So I'll just continue on with my questions about the homeschooling and then we'll move into the health field a little bit more. So how long did you homeschool the kids? Because right now you're not currently homeschooling, right?
Speaker 2:Nope not anymore, so I graduated my boys this last June From homeschool or from public school is 18.
Speaker 2:So I called Ben my super senior, just because I've always taught the boys at the exact same place. You know. I mean they have in public school like the two, three combo class or you know whatever. And I was like, whatever, I'm not going to teach, you know, one kid this, one kid that, like we just did it together. So the boys were always kind of at the same level. You know, every now and again they would kind of like one would get ahead of another one and then all of a sudden one would hit a growth spurt and their brain would catch up and get past and they kind of did that the whole way. But yeah, I graduated them.
Speaker 2:They did a semester at the community college for running start a couple of years ago and they did amazing. Like I told them, you know, I know you don't want to do this, but just I don't know. I think it was more of like a test on how well I did homeschooling them. I just wanted to see like, yeah, just do your best and you know, if you hate it we'll revisit at the end of the semester what we're going to do. And so they did their best and they both got like a three, nine, a four, point oh.
Speaker 1:Now, is that part of their high schooling, though, taking the college course, mm, hmm, so they got to carry those credits with them into college, as already have taken them, yep.
Speaker 2:Yep. So and they hated it. They absolutely hated it because they they just felt like they were having to jump through hoops the whole time, like doing busy work, and they're like, mom, this is so easy, I just don't want to do it. It's so boring. And you know, it just was like, well, I'm sorry, guys, it's what you got to do. This is the world we live in. Jump through some hoops. And so we did that for a semester. And then at the end of that semester I was like, ok, my boys skied and they really needed to get their math done. And so I was like, ok, you guys can take the winter off to ski, that's your physical education. And then we're going to work on math. And I gave them like a list of books that I wanted them to read. Some of it was personal growth, some of it was you know personal growth, some of it was you know history kind of stuff. And so we really spent the last probably year and a half just buttoning up math and then those other little personal growth and things.
Speaker 2:My husband is a paint contractor, owns his own business and has had our boys working for him since they were like 12 and 13, like in the summer and then when our newest baby was born six years ago, the boys were, I mean, they were what like 14 and 15, or 13 and 14, I don't know and um, they had worked a summer with their dad.
Speaker 2:Anyway, he got hurt on a job and had to take like four months off because he was laid up with like a shattered foot and ankle. And um, the boys were able to because I was homeschooling them. They were able to go to work and work with my husband's one employee and keep our business afloat. For those four months my husband was kind of like the last two months he was hobbling around on like a peg leg and like a scooter, he was in and out of the job sites. But the boys really like stepped up and did a lot of work for our family and they learned, you know, a really good work ethic. They learned how to communicate with contractors and homeowners and they just they learned a lot about running a business. Yeah, the scheduling, the finances, the tax withholding that yeah, there's a business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the scheduling the finances, the tax withholding, the yeah, there's a lot, yeah, and kids don't come out of, they don't even come out of college knowing that stuff from a bachelor's degree, knowing the ins and outs of it. You have to really do it on the job, which leads to the other question is is college actually necessary in today's day and age for most jobs?
Speaker 2:Okay, I have a couple of questions, so I don't think so.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I don't either. Okay, so you have your older two that went through public school, and then you have the boys that you homeschooled the whole way through. What were some of the major differences that you see in the outcome, or even just personality, wise work ethic through the years? Did you see in the outcome, or even just personality, wise work ethic through the years? Like did you see big differences?
Speaker 2:I did. I do think that, like my parenting style helped my older two, just that I didn't, I don't know. I remember having arguments with my oldest son, like when he was a teenager, about you know, can I have money for this, or can I have money for this, or can I have money for that, and I'm like, no, you need to earn it, so let's talk about how you can earn it. And so I feel like I feel like they were a little more prepared than somebody who just gave their kids whatever they asked for, right? But I would say their relationships with family are a lot stronger. I would say their ability to communicate with adults right out of you know, as teenagers and young adults, they're much more capable of having adult conversations, you know, and I don't know, I think that the level of responsibility that they're able to carry is greater.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know my daughter when she graduated. She graduated with her AA and her high school diploma. So she was very driven during high school, at public school, but there was a lot of influence there that wasn't helpful for her. It was distracting. It made it so that there were a whole lot more things that mom had to talk about and deal with with the older two.
Speaker 1:Yes, I would imagine things like and it's different because you're homeschooling the boys, but the things like, especially with the girls, the cattiness or the bullying. I would imagine that that would be a little bit worse in the school system versus when you're homeschooled.
Speaker 1:But everyone talks about this. You know almighty like socialization thing. Did you see your boys that were homeschooled lack any sort of socialization or any? You know like they spend too much time alone, they don't have any friends or even they're resentful because they don't have the prom or the football games, or you know that sort of stuff yeah.
Speaker 2:So I would say my experience was like we had our boys in soccer for many years and so that kept us busy two, three days a week and they didn't really have like close friends that were on the teams and so they did kind of feel like, you know, some of those kids went to school together already and they kind of felt like a little bit of the outsiders, but they still did really well in our co-ops. Our co-ops were always, you know, I mean, relatively small and for of my boys he was totally fine with that. You know, he we signed them up for skiing during the winter and a lot of the homeschool families were up there on homeschool ski days where it was discounted and they just had a blast. All of the kids did for the winter time.
Speaker 2:But there was a season of time when my son Colton he's the younger of the two boys was begging to go to public school because he just craved being around so many more people. He's like Mom, you know, I think what I think what it really boiled down to was that he he really wanted there to be more girls. Yeah, because he, you know, was interested in girls and a lot of the girls at our co-op were like I don't know, like a little stuffy or maybe not his type or you know. Just there wasn't a big enough pool of girls to choose from. So I think that was part of it. But I think that he did. He did crave just being around more people and and that was a hard season I did, during that season, try harder to like get him involved in things. And once the boys got their driver's licenses, the complaining stopped because they were able to go to the YMCA, you know, and hang out with some of their friends and work out and, you know, just do different things.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it was what state? Are you a lot?
Speaker 2:more freedom. I'm in.
Speaker 1:Washington State. Okay, nice, I have been there once, it was beautiful. So are your homeschooling laws pretty strict out there?
Speaker 2:I would say no, not really. We're not required to put our kids in education until they're eight years old. We have to every year fill out an intent to homeschool form and send it into our district office and let them know that those children are not going to be showing up for school. And we are required to do standardized testing once a year. And we can do that within our school district or we can do it privately and just keep it in a file folder. That way, if we ever get audited or you know somebody comes knocking on our door, we have proof that yeah, we did what we were supposed to do. That's basically it. As far as like homeschooling I mean like keeping transcripts for high school the requirements are pretty easy and they're not super strict.
Speaker 1:That's good. Well, first can you walk me through, only because my kids are younger. What does the testing once a year really look like? If you were to do that at your home, you can get online and then you proctor it as an online test or a scantron handwritten. You know where you.
Speaker 2:Just you grade it and keep it in the folder and report it to the school as their grade. I think that there are both. There's both kinds, so you can do an online type of thing. You just have to keep, you know, a paper record of their, the outcome of it. What we did we always, kind of as a group of homeschooling families we would order the is it the iowa basic skills test, itbs or I whatever? We would just order one of those and it would come to our home and we would it's like the little scantron fill in the bubbles, set it set a little timer for each little section If it was, you know, a child that needed timing. If they're younger, I don't think that we had to time the younger kids and then you send it in and within a couple of weeks you get the results back and you just put that in a file. So my kids hated it. We didn't do it every year. Yeah, my kids hated it.
Speaker 2:We didn't do it every year, yeah, but I mean also think that for Washington State you either have to have an assessment, like you can have a certified teacher sit with your child and just kind of go over some basic stuff and they can like write a short report and that could be your yearly assessment. You could also do it that way. I just never felt like bothering my friend that's a certified teacher to have her do it Right. But that was an option too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and in New York, where I am, we have some pretty strict guidelines on what we have to go over a year. Now what I haven't noticed that they're saying they say you need a certain like 900 hours of schooling in the year and we want you to keep attendance. However, they didn't say have this much time on this and this much time on that subject. But there are a lot of subjects that they're requiring. I have it right here. I wrote it down for K through 12. It's like patriotism and citizenship, which I'm like do they even go over that in school? No, substance abuse stuff. I don't think they have DARE anymore in a lot of the cases either. So it's kind of funny that you have to do it in homeschool but they don't do it in school. Traffic safety and bike safety, fire safety US history- and constitutions.
Speaker 1:I never really learned about the constitution all that much other than a paragraph in the textbook in school.
Speaker 1:But they're saying this is K through 12. Every year you have to go over this stuff and then grades one through six. You also have to add arithmetic, reading, spelling, writing, english, geography, us history, science, health, music, visual arts and physical education, and then I'm sure seven through 12 has another whatever. So it is funny being in New York and now that my, my kid is, he's in first grade, so I'm actually seeing what we are reporting, what was required of us and, as you were saying before, that you just made sure that they, you know, had their physical activity through the skiing and learning about business, through hands-on experience with your company and reading the books, the self-help, the history books and doing some math.
Speaker 1:But it's like, did you, do you one not have the same requirements that we have? I don't, I don't think many do, but can you all?
Speaker 1:right, I'm basically going to say can you just finagle kind of what you are doing to make it work with what the school is requiring, or is it just like you know? Do your kids have to know the little things like I don't know? What is some like earth science? Sure, you want them to know about nature, but there were so many I mean, we spent a whole year in ninth grade on earth science. I can't imagine needing my child to know all that little stuff. Or you know some of the other needless classes that I remember taking and don't remember anything about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I believe like I don't I don't know the law inside and out, so don't quote me but I believe that, like you're supposed to spend a certain number of hours a year, depending on the grade, and I believe that through I want to say through, like the eighth grade, it's just you have to teach on these subjects and it's like you know English, math, history, yada y, yada, yada yada, you know the basic and then, but they don't say like how many hours you have to spend doing this subject or that subject, and and they don't say like earth science or biology or chemistry or whatever those things are.
Speaker 2:When it comes to school. I believe that there is, you know, they have like the credit kind of thing, I believe, where you have to have a certain number of science and history, but they also don't tell you like, oh, it has to be like British literature or it has to be, you know, world history. I do believe that there is a requirement that there has to be a Washington state history credit. But I mean, that's easy, we live in Washington and you can go see all the things and, yeah, it's pretty simple.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, you know, school is a lot of I was just talking to a friend about this yesterday at the play group a lot of like busy work because they're trying to occupy your child for the entire time that you're at work.
Speaker 1:So you know they expect both parents to be at work. So therefore they have to, you know, do things to keep your kids. But like, for instance, art, art is wonderful. But if your child's not interested in art other than introducing it to them as a child, if they don't want to do it, why do they have to? You know, is it really necessary that they take art every single year until they graduate, or something like music? Okay, you can introduce that stuff when they're young, if they you see that they have an interest in playing an instrument or just listening to certain types classical music or whatnot. But do you really need to spend, you know, an hour every day in their ninth grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, 12th grade on music?
Speaker 2:Because it's like they're just trying in school.
Speaker 1:They're trying to fill the day so that there's something to do with these children.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, in Washington state has like you have to be qualified to homeschool your child. You can't just be a parent. You have to have a certain number of college credits or you have to take a parent qualifying course. Wow, so, yeah, and I luckily, thankfully just had enough college credits, so I didn't have to worry about that. But there is like an actual qualifying course that you have to take or you have to hire like a certified teacher to oversee your homeschooling. Yeah, I mean it's kind of.
Speaker 1:That's the first I've heard of that. I'll have to start asking people from other states? Because no one's ever said that before, and I've never interviewed anyone from Washington state before, so that's super interesting.
Speaker 2:Now 45 college credits, so it's not a ton, but yeah.
Speaker 1:Now, how did this? You said it started your interest in the health field because you started seeing what the homeschooling families, just like myself, started seeing what they were bringing in. And even now it's, yeah, like this one this group of homeschoolers has, you know, beehives at their house and making their own honey, and this is all like foreign stuff to me. We started getting our meat from a local farm that butchers, you know, cows that were raised locally, pigs that were raised locally, you know getting, like I said, the unpasteurized milk locally, even trying to use more farmer's markets versus the grocery store.
Speaker 1:And then even little things like soap I mean stuff that I just never knew to look into, but like the chemicals that are in soap, laundry detergent, lotions, the Tylenol when your kid has a toothache or a fever not doing the fever because the fever is good for them. It's like this really snowballs quick and can make you feel so overwhelmed that you just throw up your hands and you're like, well, something's going to kill me anyway.
Speaker 1:Right so yeah, what do you recommend to people like getting into this? What's the most important things that we need to be aware of? Oh, and then the Wi-Fi stuff. Oh my gosh, you know making sure that, like your Wi-Fi is not on all the time, you should be hardwired and not use the Wi-Fi Bluetooth, I mean, I know.
Speaker 2:Where's?
Speaker 1:the sliding scale here what's going to kill us first and what can we slowly, gradually get it go into?
Speaker 2:Right? Well, I think everybody has to kind of look at how much bandwidth they have to deal with the things that need to be dealt with. So, like, first and foremost, I think that it's important to look in your like, what you're putting in your body, because that's really what you're making your cells out of and your cells are turning over all the time, all throughout your body. So I think that what you're putting in your body is the most important.
Speaker 2:Food is medicine or poison, right, like it's either killing us or it's healing us. And I do think that the body is amazing. You know sorting through, you know a Snickers candy bar and figuring out what can I use and what is garbage, and it takes the garbage to the liver and out your body, and it's meant to do that really efficiently. But because we have so many toxins and toxic ingredients, our bodies are dealing with such a heavier burden than they were ever intended to have to deal with. Yeah, so, first and foremost, I would look at labels and trying to reduce the amount of processed foods, minimally processed foods, as I guess, getting rid of the ultra processed foods. Those are ones that have all the ingredients that you can't pronounce.
Speaker 1:And would that be like everything on, like the middle shelves in the grocery store, like your chips, crackers, the cereals, that sort of stuff, yep, and the TV dinners and the frozen tater tots, and you know all those things.
Speaker 2:Right yeah, and I just opened my freezer last night and I saw my husband bought the giant Costco size bag of a Rida or whatever tater tots and I'm like oh my God, because I'm going to eat them. You know I don't want to, but they're there and if you buy them you're going to eat them. So try not to buy them very often. So that's, that's really what I would do. And if you're going to get processed foods, go for the minimally processed ones. You know the ones that have ingredients that you know like you can read them and you know what they are. And try to stay away as much as you can from added sugars, because sugar is super inflammatory.
Speaker 1:You know our body's just causing right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yep, our bodies are amazing. They really are designed to heal and they're doing it 24 seven with or without our help. But if we can come alongside it and support it, we're going to have a better outcomes, you know? Just feel better, have more energy.
Speaker 1:Well, and when you just think of how long humans have been on the planet and how much of that time we've been making food in like factories, I mean, so that's been like the last. When, would you say, the boom was like the 50s and 60s that they really started ramping up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yep. And then I think that, like you know, I was born in the 70s and it was pretty rare that we ever had like a TV dinner or we went to a fast food place. It was pretty rare, it was like a treat. So I would think that things really started getting out of hand in like the 80s, 90s, you know, when there was like a Taco Bell on every corner and you know into the thousands. When there's, you know, a starbucks on every corner and, yes, people can't even take the time, or energy to make a pot of coffee at home.
Speaker 1:You know they have to go out and get it and spend tons of money and put tons of sugar in it yep, and that's that's.
Speaker 2:That's another thing. Like I, I'm trying to teach my kids and you know, when I first went down this rabbit hole, I went full on like food Nazi and I got rid of everything that was processed and my kids were like you know, it was like they were grieving. They were like what is happening in my life? Mom is losing her mind. This is not okay. Where are my chicken nuggets and my mac and cheese? I was like I cannot, in good conscience, feed you this stuff Now that I know I just can't do it. It was probably two or three years that I was like no, it's not coming in.
Speaker 2:And then they had a best friend who was he was the pickiest kid on the planet and his parents were kind of going through some stuff and he was at our house a lot and I, my heart just broke for him and he was. He would come over and he would eat meat, but we would have, you know, a know a meat, a vegetable, a starch for dinner and he would just eat the meat, because those things he doesn't eat those things. And so I'm like, oh my gosh. So I started buying frozen pizza for him because that was what he would eat and when he came over, the kids could have frozen pizza with their friends. But that was like opening the Pandora's box all over again for the boys, because they were heading into those teenage years.
Speaker 2:And so then I was like more of the mind of, okay, everything in moderation, you don't have to be a Nazi, everything in moderation, it's fine, they're not going to die, their bodies are young, they're built for this, it's okay. But yeah, now they're on their own and they they've gone through seasons of life where they have not had a home cooked meal and they are eating, you know, taco Bell, their door dashing whatever, lots of dino nuggets and they're like I don't feel good. Good, I just need something green. Can I come over? Can you teach me how to make this?
Speaker 1:you know, and I'll, yeah, I'll help him it is amazing that, yes, my husband will do the same thing, because he eats very healthy and when we do have something like, say, you know, we go out to an Italian restaurant or something which we would never do on our own, just because he's not into that. But if it's for someone's birthday or something and he's like, oh my God, I feel so awful with all the gluten and the cheese and the just oil, and so it is, I have to be like suck it up. Your body needs to get used to that too a little bit. But yeah, when you look at the our society as a whole, I mean definitely once your women got more into the workforce.
Speaker 1:that's when the Taco Bells and McDonald's started you know, ramping up on every corner too, cause it was like, well, now we're just so busy. Both parents are working, like you started the conversation, with you rushing them out the door in the morning. You're rushing them back home just to rush them out to practice, just to rush them back in for dinner and bed, and then do it all over again. The weekends are always busy. So, yeah, they really kind of made it convenient. If it all happened by chance, that's pretty lucky. But you know there might be a bigger design to it all too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, and yeah I think I was going to say you know, my, my husband took the girls to the gas station the other day and right when he was getting ready to pay, a teenage daughter threw down like three things that I would never buy her. And he bought them for her and I saw them in her room and I was like, do you understand that? Like there's food science here, like there are researchers who sit down in a laboratory and they study the effect on the human brain, what is going to give them the biggest dopamine hit? And you just like you bought all these things and they're going to give you that dopamine hit. They're going to make you feel amazing when you're eating them, because that's what they're designed to do. They have all of these health risks and she's just, you know, she's 14. So she's smarter than me and it's fine, but you know, somewhere in there she's listening.
Speaker 1:That's an important conversation to have, because it's not explained to people that way. A lot and alcohol is much the same way. Huge dopamine risk and the dopamine surge and endorphin rush in the beginning, only to leave you feeling depleted because your body is trying to get back to homeostasis and get rid of all of the. I think they call it. The dynorphins are really into full drive because they're trying to rid your body of the poison, so it's actually making you feel worse off, like that effect is actually worse than the alcohol itself. Whatever damage that would have to the liver is not as bad as the dynorphins that are trying to basically get your body back to the homeostasis. It puts your body through a lot.
Speaker 1:I still have a glass of wine every now and then or a dirty martini but, I, really try to think about that before. Let's think about this whole process. This is why I feel this way. This is why tomorrow morning I'll feel that way, even if it's one drink. It still makes you feel like dragging a little, like a little cloudy headed and you know way. Is it worth it or not?
Speaker 1:And yeah, the junk food is definitely the same and you're right, there are. There was an amazing book Annie Grace wrote about alcohol in that way and she explains it just like you did about the food, like there are. She was in advertising. It's called this Naked Mind. But she was in advertising. So she's like, yes, the advertisers sit there and, like you said, food scientists, how can we get the biggest hit so that they are coming back for more? Just like caffeine and soda, just like nicotine and cigarettes. We're pretty much just yeah, like experiments to these people so that they can make more money. It's pretty nuts.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I guess, like once I was, my eyes were opened to the fact that the three letter agencies that are responsible for our food and our medicine were not wholly looking after our best interests. That's when I decided like, okay, if they're not going to do their due diligence, then it's up to us. And so I started learning about herbs and just on my own, just picked up an herb you know, herbs for beginners, or whatever book and noticing that these things are like things that I've seen for years growing in my backyard or up on my property or you know, all over the place, and I'm like what that has medicine in it, like a dandelion has medicine in it, you know, and red clover and plantain. And I was like my mind was blown. I was like I had no idea that there was medicine in plants, no idea me neither.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I grew up in more the city life. I don't feel like I grew up connected to nature at all. It was just like that. That's that out there. You're in these cement walls living your existence, and they're completely separate and apart, and you spray everything.
Speaker 2:You just kill it. You spray it.
Speaker 2:You know it's growing there. You didn't plant it, it's a weed, you spray it, you know. And so I just I don't know. It was weird. It was like I just had this great awakening and I was so excited and I started like hosting women's workshops in my home. Like, hey, let's make an immune booster, you know, make something for our skin, let's make something that's going to help us detox, you know. And all these women would show up. And then it was pretty quick that I had like a room, like my house was full of like 40 women and my husband would come home and he's like what? Like yeah, I probably should know what I'm talking about if I'm teaching, right, like I'm just having fun.
Speaker 2:But so I got a certification. It was was a correspondence course, so I stayed home and I could do that while my kids were homeschooling. And I got certified as a master herbalist through the School of Natural Healing. For the seminar and like finals and whatnot. I had to go down to Utah for that for a week, but it was not a big deal and I got certified and then was all set in 2017 to start a clinical practice where I can help other people get healthy and start thinking about these kinds of things and changing little things to help improve their health. And then I found out I was pregnant with Grace. I was like what you know I'm 41.
Speaker 2:I'm not supposed to be pregnant. So that spun me a little bit and yeah. But then after she was born I started my clinical practice a little more seriously and now the last two years the girls have been in a private school. Up until that point I was trying to still homeschool and, you know, just do all the things. But then I realized that like it really wasn't what I was called to do and my 14 year old she just has. She just has a different personality than the boys.
Speaker 2:Maybe it's mothers and daughters, I don't know. There was just less of a desire to come under my leadership and more of a desire to rebel and not do the things that I wanted her to do. So it just got hard and I decided to put her in a private school and that private school was not necessarily the best fit for our family and so the girls are at a new school this year and this is like the first year that I feel peace about sending them somewhere else. You know, that goes for the kids that were in public school, that goes for the private schools that we've tried, for the kids that were in public school. That goes for the private schools that we've tried.
Speaker 1:This is the first time I feel sending them somewhere else is it's okay and I feel good about it, so yeah, yeah, and I love that, because people sometimes feel like, oh my gosh, if I homeschooled and then send them back to school, that I'm failing and it's it. And that's a mindset that you're putting on yourself. It can be for a season, it can be for a certain child, like whatever works for your family, you and the child at that time is what is the best.
Speaker 1:We're all doing the best that we can, so why fight your daughter through it, which would probably end up distancing your relationship and putting a wedge in it If? You have the business that you want to grow further in and she wants to be in school. Why pressure yourselves just because you want to say, oh, I homeschooled all my kids.
Speaker 2:It just yeah, people need to know that that's not a failure, it's just living life as a family, doing what works for everybody.
Speaker 1:That's true.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So one thing I wanted to share while I have you on here. So because of my journey, having my eyes opened and raising so many kids and kind of seeing the struggle that it is as a parent, like really getting your kids to understand the gravity of the situation, with the three-letter agencies and the food that's on the shelves and whatnot, and I'm just so passionate about helping people with their health and catching them as young as possible, while they're still able to change their health habits because they're not as deeply set, you know. So for years, like the last three or four years, I've dreamt of reading or writing a children's book. And sorry, and I was talking to a friend who is an artist and I was like, oh, I've always wanted to write a children's book, like I've I started, you know, at one time she's like, oh, you should, and anyway, so I did and she illustrated it for me and it's my little Gracie's healing garden.
Speaker 1:So my goodness, that's adorable.
Speaker 2:Gracie's healing is actually my youngest daughter. She has fiery red hair. She's the only one in my family that has this crazy like vibrant red hair and she's really the only one of my kids that you know. If she sees me put on my my rubber boots and get my gardening gloves on, she's all about it. And she's like are you going to go out to the garden? Can I go? And I teach her all about the herbs that I'm growing and things, and she goes out there and she'll pull a little leaf of lemon balm or she'll pull a little you know, chamomile flower off and she'll pop it in her mouth, or a chive flower. And now I have grandchildren from my two older kids and Gracie is six and they're four and two and a couple of babies. But she'll take the four-year-old and the two-year-old out to the garden and she's like here, try this and here, try that. And sometimes, like you know my son-in-law, he'll look at me and be like is that edible? Can they eat that?
Speaker 2:yes, it's totally fine, but yes, it'll get her now she's teaching them not those kinds of herbs I love that it's a cute little story of her, like you know, just helping me in the garden and taste, testing some of the different things that are growing out there and, um, and just you know, making little herbal remedies and giving them to our neighbors. And there's also some recipes in here. There's like, uh, there's like this page here where she's got a tummy ache and there's a soothing tea for her tummy, a little recipe for that, and just like a recipe for a bug bite salve and a little immune booster. And it's kind of an herbal book, but it's a little storybook and I'm pretty proud of it.
Speaker 1:I love that. Well, I will put a link to your book in the show's description so people can go in there and check that out if they'd like to, and I know that yes writing a children's book is no small feat. I just finished my children's book back here about they'd like to, and I know that, yes, writing a children's book is no small feat. I just finished my children's book back here about how to handle emergencies and it is like, whew, you have the idea, and then like writing the book is literally the smallest part of it.
Speaker 2:It is. It is yeah, Getting it published and all the things.
Speaker 1:Getting the illustrations done and I self-pub published, because I was like I don't even, I don't have time to write to these different people. But even that formatting and, yes, getting it out there in print, making everything looks right, and then, oh my goodness, it's a little bit off, and then selling it it is a lot. So, yeah, I really hope people check out your book, because even for myself.
Speaker 1:I don't know any of that stuff. Like I said before, I'm trying to make sure we're getting it out of our laundry detergents and our soaps and our lotions. But this stuff that we can just easily grow in our backyard and I've, like I've read before that even sprouts I don't know how close that is to herbs, but sprouts- carry so much like vitamins and minerals, and it's easy to just throw a sprout in your sandwich or a salad or you know, right into the food where the kids don't even know that they're eating it.
Speaker 1:Something like I don't know maybe it was mustard sprouts and broccoli sprouts. I don't know, is that stuff that you also like? Grow in your yard and learn about or recommend people do Like.
Speaker 2:I guess where's the starting point, that we should start begin gosh as far as like how to get started with using herbs.
Speaker 2:The way I did it was I just got like a very basic book on herbs and how to identify them, what they're used for, and so I created a little 21 herb guide and it also includes like seven of my recipes that I use for um different herbal formulations for common cold and um, sleep remedies, anxiety, you know, just common things that people deal with pretty frequently, and so I have those recipes that I added to what I call my medicinal nutritional bundle.
Speaker 2:And that was kind of what I created for the person that I was in the beginning, like I wish I would have had that guide and those recipes right off the bat instead of, you know, having to kind of dabble myself to figure out what would work best. And so I created that and that is available on my website. And then I also have my book Divine Design, and it's a holistic path for healing and health, and I wrote that book for the person that I was in the very beginning, like some of those very basic things that you have to start thinking about, like swapping out detergents and soaps and lotions and, you know, thinking about the containers that you're buying your food in the plastics. Just practicing grace on that journey and forgiving yourself for not knowing what you didn't know, having patience with yourself, because it's always a journey and there's always more to learn. So it's just a book that I wish I would have had in the very beginning of my journey of holistic health and healing.
Speaker 2:And then right now I'm working on recording videos and putting together a 30-day divinely designed devotional that kind of ties herbs and scripture together so that Bible-believing women can feel confident learning about herbs, because so much of what the Lord gave us has been manipulated by the enemy, and so I want women that are Christians to feel confident, knowing that there's a way to use herbs that is honoring to the creator, a way that he designed for them to heal and strengthen and nourish our bodies, can take that kind of day by day step in the word and also learning about his creation, how it was designed to heal and nourish and strengthen our bodies. So I'm working on that right now and I was hoping to have it all dialed in and buttoned up by like the beginning of next month, which is just a few days away, so I'm thinking maybe middle of October. So by the time this airs, maybe it'll be available and on my website for purchase. So those are the things I've been working on that I think would be really helpful to get started, awesome.
Speaker 1:Well, give me the links to those so that I can put them in the show's description. So if anyone wants to check it out including myself, because that's where I am I'm like, okay, I can probably grow a mustard seed, but what the heck am I going to do with it? What's it good for? Like where would I put it? In a sandwich? And I don't know.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, that's perfect. And I was just listening to Ron Johnson's round table. I don't know if you are familiar with that or the high wire or anything, but he just had so many panelists talk about the microplastics that they are finding in our brains these days and just everything in the food, and yes, it is overwhelming. So guides like this are so helpful and to allow the grace for just you can't do it all. Okay, like last the last few months. I was like so the last few months I'm like you know microwaving my morning, you know half and half for my coffee, and now I'm trying to warm it up in the toaster oven because if I put so much in that it makes my coffee cold. I can't stand it.
Speaker 1:So I'm like let's try to get away from the microwave just little things like that and not having plastic bottles that we drink water from, but can we find a way to just drink out of glass? And the soaps, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. This family farm just sent me a sample of their stuff to try and I've loved using the stuff so far. In fact, let me get it so I can just say it hold on, faith. Farms goat milk, soap and they have all different goat milk products. They have all different goat milk products. So, um, it's really cool because it's nice when you can buy more things in one place but so you're not getting soap from here and lotion from there and laundry detergent from there they have a laundry detergent too.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it really. And then now I'm now into the um, I'm now into the. What are we sleeping in?
Speaker 2:our bed sheets and everything's polyester, and you know our clothing and it's so overwhelming it's just like one little thing at a time just you do.
Speaker 1:you wonder how are any of us still alive? I know how are we making it. I know you mentioned it earlier Our bodies are amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they are. And so like those guides that I put together are kind of the first step and then once you kind of read through those and you feel like you've got a good grasp on the things that you need to start considering. There's a lot of people that I sit down with for the very first time in my clinical practice where you know they've struggled with all kinds of different symptoms for years and they all seem so unrelated and they go to the doctor and the doctor is like, okay, so for this symptom I have this medication, and for this symptom I have this, and now for those maybe an antidepressant. Because you know it's all in your head and they, they come to me and I'm like everything is connected. Everything is connected. If you've got, you know, I don't know like IBS, you know you could also be getting headaches. You could also be having weird twitching in your body or blurry vision, you know, because of nutritional deficiencies, because your body or digestive system isn't absorbing your nutrients, and like everything is so intimately connected.
Speaker 2:And so I put together also it's called the balanced body training series. It's like I think it's five modules and it really takes a client from understanding what signals their body is sending them, how to interpret those signals. What does it mean when I have these types of symptoms? How do I support my body in coming back into balance? Because our bodies are always trying to get back into homeostasis. So how do we support it? What things are we putting in our body or not putting in our body that is maybe interfering with the body's ability to bring itself into balance?
Speaker 2:And, like I get so many questions like what labs should I get? Drawn, you know, should I worry about getting these tests? And you know this and that and so I talk about that in my training series too is like how do you decide what testing to get and should you get any testing and what are some of those signs and what tests are out there? Just kind of really teaching you to listen to your body, interpret its signals, how to support it and taking those steps in the right direction, like planning your own holistic journey to heal your body yourself and when to get conventional medicine involved or naturopathic medicine involved and what that can look like for an individual, you know, on like customized basis.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you one thing then, because I'm 40. What are your thoughts on mammograms? I know you're not a doctor, so nobody can hold you accountable for your opinions, but what are your opinions on those?
Speaker 2:I think that it is an exposure to radiation. I think that in most cases it's unnecessary. I actually just had my very first thermogram this year and I'd had a mammogram probably six or seven years ago because they found a lump of some sort like on a breast exam. So I did have a mammogram years ago and it was just like a fibrous tissue and something to kind of watch for. So it was recommended that now that I'm 48, that I have a mammogram, and I was like I don't really feel like doing that because I know more now than I did six years ago. So I did the thermogram and everything looked great. I mean, if you think about inflammation, it's hot, you know it's going to show up, having more metabolic activity. If you have cancer, it's gobbling up all kinds of glucose from your system and so it's going to light up and I think that a lot.
Speaker 1:You're saying that the thermogram would light up. Yeah, Okay, I've never heard of it, I'm not sure exactly what it is or how hard it is to get a doctor to let you have.
Speaker 2:So doctors don't normally do thermograms.
Speaker 2:Thermography is relatively new-ish and it's kind of woo-woo, you know, in the conventional world.
Speaker 2:My doctor, she was like well, you know, you can try it, but it's not a replacement for you know, but it's an alternative that you can do and if something comes up then you can get a mammogram after that. But I think that the world of women's health in general is starting to open up and there's more research being done and there's just more of an open mind when it comes to women's health and how to support women on their healing journeys and just transitioning into the next stages of life and they realize, like, what's happening in their body when they're finally almost to menopause and they can look back and see that pinpoint, that moment in time where things started, where back in the day people would just say, yeah, it's all in your head. They used to call it what, like hysteria, like women were going. We're just hysteric, know, and they would put them into mental institutions or put them on medications. And nowadays people are more open to listening to women At least that's my hope.
Speaker 1:Yes, they're getting there, it's still. I still get the crazy looks from people when I say, like when I wanted to get my root canal tooth pulled, my dentist's office like the receptionist laughed at me. She's like you don't just pull a root canal tooth, so I had to go to a holistic guy and pay eighteen hundred dollars where it would have been free had I just really pushed my dentist to do it.
Speaker 1:But it's funny because, you're talking about the exposure to the radiation and you know the holistic guy is saying like, oh, this is how we do it. You know we, even if we were to take out your um I don't know if they're mercury fillings or whatnot he was like, oh, you only have a couple left, so that's good. I said, well, no, I'm sure I started with a lot, so how did the? I was exposed to all the other ones coming out, like, however, they take them out. And what about the dentists that are doing just taking out? You know, without the right precautions they're breathing all that in, and the hygienists and stuff. So it is. It is crazy because it's like how, how much is too much and how much isn't?
Speaker 2:and then you'd go crazy if you really tried to just eliminate everything yeah, well, and everybody's toxic load, like their ability to carry it, is so unique to them and it's, you know, based off of their genetics, what they were born already filled with toxins, and so everybody's limit looks different. And so I always say to my clients like there are people that are 98 years old, they've been smoking and drinking their entire lives and they sound like it, but they're still living their lives, they're still up and moving around, and then there's somebody who's in their forties, who's never smoked a cigarette in their lives and ends up with lung cancer or, you know, colon cancer or something, and dies at a really young age.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm thinking of people right now very close to me that I know, that are like, yes, late 70s smoke, smoke for 30 years or still does, just going about life, just fine. And then you know, my brother, in law's dad, 52 years old, melanoma, dies two years like never smoked a day in his life, always ate healthy, always active. So it is very and that was, you know, 20 years ago. So it wasn't even like we had all the fast food and all that exposure that you know, there was no wifi then. So it really is about the toxic load. Yeah, and you just don't know. I had an episode over a year ago now probably, with a woman that had, uh, with a woman that had a cancer diagnosis and that was kind of why she had quit her job and started homeschooling her daughter. But she talked about this toxic load as well and different tests that she recommends getting done, blood tests, which I fought with my doctor's office to get, you know, which is crazy because it's like I pay the insurance, I'm telling you I want this.
Speaker 1:Well, why do you want it? Because I pay for it. You will.
Speaker 2:You will do the test yeah, the thing is they have to have a diagnosis code for an insurance company to approve it.
Speaker 2:You know they have to have a diagnosis code. So you can't just say I want, I want to have my iron levels drawn. They'll be like, well, you know, I have to have a diagnosis to go along with that blood panel you want. So they have to say that you're, you know, anemic or you know something related to that lab that you want drawn.
Speaker 2:And so, like I've been to the doctor and I've been like you know, I have this weird feeling in my body, like he's like oh, that's restless legs here. Let me give you a prescription for a Parkinsonian medication. And I'm like I don't have Parkinson's, I'm not having tremors, oh, I know, but this is for restless legs and that's what it sounds like you have. And I'm like, no, I don't want your pills. I want to know why I feel the way I feel in my body now and I didn't before. What's different, what's changed? How do I get back to homeostasis? And he doesn't know.
Speaker 2:And so I do all this research on my own and I find out that you can have that sensation in your body if your ferritin level is low, and your ferritin is that protein that carries your um, the stores your red blood cells and so if your ferritin is low you can have this really gross sensation in your legs and you can have all kinds of symptoms anxiety and so I took the research to him, showed him like it's legitimate Harvard medical school research and I asked him like will you please run my iron panel with a ferritin level? And, and it's a, it's a really corrupt system. It's just, it's broken. It's just like your post today said. You know the school system. We say that it's broken, but no, it's working exactly as it's been designed. And that's the same with our medical system.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent. It's gross, so we have to do our own research. Yeah, awesome, carmen. Thank you so much. I hope people check out your book again. Um, I will put, like your Instagram page, the link to that and the link to your book in the show's description. So check that out. I will be sure to check out your book as well. And anything else you wanted to touch on?
Speaker 2:No, just if you order a book, I always have Gracie and I. We sign them and we personalize them if somebody asks. So that's like a nice little benefit to ordering off of my website, versus off of Amazon or Barnes and Noble or wherever online. But it's available all over the place, awesome, yeah, no, I just appreciate the opportunity to have this conversation with you. I hope that it blesses your listeners. Thank you so much.