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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
#121: Breaking Free from the System: Former Teacher's Journey to Homesteading, Homeschooling, and Home Birth
What happens when you choose to step away from mainstream expectations and reclaim your family's destiny? Mary Wainwright's journey from conventional life to intentional living offers a roadmap for those feeling trapped in industrial systems.
Mary returns to share insights from her new book "Taking Back My Life," which chronicles her radical transformation across every aspect of family living. She takes us through the stark contrast between her traumatic hospital birth and her subsequent empowering home births, revealing how this experience catalyzed her entire lifestyle shift. Rather than presenting her choices as the "right way," Mary simply illuminates alternatives many families never consider.
The conversation explores how modern society has systematically disconnected us from fundamental knowledge in just one or two generations. From growing food to understanding natural remedies, we've surrendered our self-sufficiency to systems that often prioritize profit over wellbeing. Mary shares practical steps anyone can take - starting a small garden, learning to make bone broth, or questioning medical interventions - that gradually build toward greater independence.
Perhaps most powerful is Mary's reflection on community building. She describes creating a "tribe" where families barter skills, share resources, and collectively raise children. This interdependence makes sustainable living not just possible but deeply fulfilling, addressing the isolation that drove many women away from traditional roles decades ago.
The conversation continually returns to fear as the controlling mechanism that keeps us compliant within industrial systems. By recognizing this pattern and making intentional choices about time, education, health, and community, Mary demonstrates how families can create lives aligned with their deepest values rather than external expectations. Her parting question resonates: "Are you living the life you want your children to replicate?"
Ready to reclaim aspects of your family's life? Check out Mary's book through her website marywainwright.com or leave a comment sharing which part of her journey resonates most with your own family's situation.
Mary's Book, Taking Back My Life which you can also purchase on Amazon !
What is the most important thing we can teach our kids?
HOW TO HANDLE AN EMERGENCY!
This could mean life or death in some cases!
Help a child you know navigate how to handle an emergency situation with ease:
Let's Talk, Emergencies! -and don't forget
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Welcome to this week's episode of the Homeschool how To. I'm Cheryl and I invite you to join me on my quest to find out why are people homeschooling, how do you do it, how does it differ from region to region, and should I homeschool my kids? Stick with me as I interview homeschooling families across the country to unfold the answers to each of these questions week by week. Welcome, and with us today I have returning guest Mary Wainwright.
Speaker 2:Mary, thank you for being here. Hi Cheryl, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:So you were on episode 98, which wasn't actually that long ago, because you know it was about 20 episodes ago, which actually I guess that is a few months Time just flies. You were talking about how you were teaching refugee students. You were an ENL teacher and that kind of led into you realizing maybe I want to homeschool. And I'm having you back today because you recently wrote a book and I actually read it, which is big for me because I know, being a homeschooler, we're all supposed to be avid readers, but I'm not the typical homeschooler, as I'm sure many people getting into this world are the same.
Speaker 1:I listened to a lot of audio books, but I read your book and it is so awesome. You don't even talk about just getting into homeschooling, but your whole revolution that took you from this crazy industrialized, unpersonal lifestyle that the world has put on us and you have reformed your whole life for everything from your job, childbirth, raising your kids, homeschooling, what you guys eat, how you spend your days, and I think it's in such a beautiful way that it's not overwhelming. It's just the steps that got you there. So congratulations on publishing your first book.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Yeah, it's been something I've wanted to do for 40 years. Now I turned 40 and I'm like I'm doing it this year and yeah, and it was perfect because now you actually have.
Speaker 1:you had to wait for all the pieces to be there.
Speaker 2:Right. I had the story to tell. Finally, I knew what the story I needed to share, and it's this story. I really feel that the story of my life was given to me for a reason and it was to share it. So, yeah, I had to push past any fear of, you know, the criticisms I could get for sharing the things I'm sharing Because I believe that people need to hear it, people need to see how much my life has transformed and that it could be possible for so many other people. I just can't imagine. Sometimes and you probably do the same thing Sometimes I have these days where everything's just so beautiful. I'm spending the whole day with the kids and we're in the woods and we're on an adventure and we're with our tribe, and I just have these moments of what if I didn't? What if I never quit teaching? What if I never pulled the kids out of school? None of this beautiful life that I have now would have unfolded for me, absolutely.
Speaker 1:I think about that all the time because I never thought I would leave a government job and leave a pension and I'm someone that didn't even want kids. Really in my 20s I was totally part of that. I spent my whole, I think, teens and 20s watching Friends and Sex and the City and just shows that like did not portray a family life or even the ones that do. You know I'm thinking I don't know, married with Children is coming off the top of my head. Not that I really watch that show that much, but that sort of that portrayed family life as this mundane, monotonous, like who would want that, you know? So I think society, I think that was all done by design.
Speaker 1:Now that I look back on it and I know what I know that was there to put ideas in our head.
Speaker 1:For a reason they do not want the world populating, and sometimes when I go to a busy store, I'm like I can understand why Bill Gates doesn't think we should be populating, as bad as that sounds.
Speaker 1:But when people actually take hold of their life and they live life in a beautiful way, there's no reason that we can't all harmoniously live on this earth, and especially for us when you're actually in tune with that, yeah, it's the best thing ever, it's why we're here, it's why we're living this life, not to be in a cubicle and not for our kids to be locked away. But your book, let's back up to the beginning because it's not just about homeschooling. So this book I would say for my audience, a lot of times my audience is the people who want to homeschool but it seems so unrealistic to really live that lifestyle Like they envision it as. Like we're all sitting around a table and you're standing at the front saying like today we're going to go over the letter C and it's so, not like that. So to back up to people that haven't even had kids yet or have little ones, can you talk about like the childbirth part and like you had an experience from the hospital which is where I had my kids?
Speaker 1:and then you had two home births later and that really, like, did it for me. I'm not saying that if I had another kid now I'm 41, I'm not having another kid, but if I did, I don't know that I would have the home birth. But I would definitely make different choices based upon reading your book. It was just so dramatically different the births that you experienced. Can you talk about that a little bit?
Speaker 2:For sure. I could talk about it forever. Second to homeschooling, my favorite topic is home birthing. They go hand in hand and if you had another one I would convince you to home birth Because we all can do it, we all that's. You know, we talk.
Speaker 2:You were talking about the things that we've been convinced, and one of those things is, you know, we've just been convinced through movies and shows and from the stories of other women who have gone before, who have done it in the hospital, that they just assume that's the way right. We need a doctor. And in the movies, it's so jarring for me to watch shows and movies where you know the woman goes into the hospital and has that experience and assume that's what it is. But, um, yeah, so for me. I I entered my first pregnancy after three years of infertility, which was another piece of the puzzle for me. I now believe the infertility was a lot because of the toxic world we live in, you know, and I started to see it back then, of course, like we're eating food that's sprayed with pesticides and I ate fairly, you know, a little organic back then, but not nowhere near what I am now, and not even just the pesticides, but also the quality of food.
Speaker 2:We've been, you know, convinced they're taking fat out of milk, they're feeding people skim milk and convincing them that, you know, fatty meats are bad, and so people are eating these like nutrient deficient foods and then believing they can get pregnant. And if you, you know, look into Weston, a Price or any of those philosophies it's like. For thousands of years tribal people have been eating nutrient rich, fatty foods, fatty milk foods, fatty milk, and once we get back to that, for a lot of people I think getting pregnant would be easier. You know, there's, there are outliers, obviously, that fertility will be an issue, but it shouldn't be the problem that it is. Today it's too widespread to be natural, but anyways.
Speaker 2:So I entered with that, you know, that negative association with pregnancy, believing that I was flawed in some way. And so when I did finally get pregnant, within the first trimester, I was told that my baby wasn't growing, and they didn't know why, and they had me keep going. So I had two ultrasounds right at the beginning and then, after they said he wasn't growing properly, two week intervals of ultrasounds throughout the whole pregnancy. And when I look back now, this is 11 years later. I look back now and I never questioned it. I never thought to myself maybe he's just small, maybe he's just growing slower, like that's the piece that I want people to think about is, like so often in the medical realm, we hear these things and we don't. We just don't even question it. We don't do outside research on my own and this is one of the most painful topics for me to talk about it's one that I've barely talked about, actually verbally. I've written it in my book now.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so then at 32 weeks, 31 weeks maybe, they said that I needed to go to the hospital and have my baby induced. It was one week of just lying, waiting for this near death experience. They are near life or death experience where they had to wait for him to be big enough to induce me and take him out, and they had no answers. I saw a different doctor every time anyone came in the room. The woman that actually delivered my baby was completely disinterested. All she did was ask me every time she came in whether I wanted an epidural, and I didn't want one. But when no one believes in you, your ability to do it, naturally you eventually say yes, sure, give it to me. And so I got an epidural.
Speaker 2:I birthed my baby and thank God, he was born completely fine. They had scared me and told me he'd have trisomy 18. He didn't. He was small because they induced me and took him out early. And you know, I'll never 100% know the answer of whether he would have could have been born at 40 weeks or not.
Speaker 2:But now I look back. I know that I had a weird placenta with my, my most recent baby, and he was just born. Like all my babies are small. I'm small and yeah, I look back now and think I could have. Maybe I could have not endured, not have forced my baby to come out two months early and then spend two months in a NICU. Actually, he didn't come out two months early, but too early. He was two pounds two ounces. I spent two months in the NICU with him and it was horrific. It was a terrible start to life. Um, he's an amazing 11 year old human being now who I love so much and I'm so glad you know that I have him. But I and he could have been spared that that horrible experience, I believe, and that's a hard thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, reading your experience about the NICU, I think because and I have to be honest when you were like in the book, like okay, this is the chapters that I'm going to talk about my childbirth, and they were like three separate chapters, and I'm like, oh Lord, this is going to be grueling. But because I just to me, like most people in society, it's like, okay, you just, you go in the hospital, you have your kid and you, you know, like I never stopped to think about it. But when you really talk about it, it's not. I mean, I was crying, I'm not even a crier. My kids walked into the room. They're like mom, oh my God, what is wrong? And I was like, no, it's just, it's just Mary's book. They're like, why is she making you cry? But like I never thought about what people endure when their kids are in the NICU.
Speaker 1:And you, just you write it without it being this long drawn out process. You write it in such a way that's like, oh my God, like you think about the start to life and how you're supposed to be having the skin to skin contact and how everything is dictated by what the hospital is telling you. You kind of can't do to take your own child home. You know, it's not like you're a drug addict, where they're like we can't, this baby's not going to be fit to live with these people.
Speaker 1:You know, it's just. They were like your baby needs to drink a certain amount of milk and until he does this, you know these are the standards and it doesn't matter how well he's doing or whatnot, it's just these are their standards and if your kid doesn't meet it, you can't take your baby home. I mean, when you think about that, it's crazy. Someone else is dictating, and not even like someone that high. This could be just like a nurse on her first day of work, like oh, I'm sorry. No, the paper here says that your baby has to do this and he fell a little bit short, so you can't have your baby.
Speaker 2:I mean it's.
Speaker 1:That's crazy when we think about that kind of society that we live in, right, like what would happen if you just stole your baby and went home you would have got arrested, the baby would have been taken away, so, but maybe it would have been taken away. So I mean, I guess, when we just really stop and think about how things are set up and how things used to be and how things might be in other countries, that is I think you just expressed that beautifully and then when you get into, like what made you decide to home birth your other two? Hey everyone, this is Cheryl. I want to thank you so much for checking out the podcast. I'm going to keep this short and sweet because I know your time is valuable. I want to thank you so much for checking out the podcast. I'm going to keep this short and sweet because I know your time is valuable. I want to ask you a serious question Do your kids know what to do to actually save their life in an emergency?
Speaker 1:The most important thing we can talk to our kids about is knowing their first and last name, knowing mom and dad's first and last name, mom's phone number, dad's phone number, their address, what to do if they get lost? What to do if someone who's watching them has a heart attack, a stroke, an accident where they fall and your child needs to get help? We live in a world where there's no landline phones anymore, basically, and cell phones lock. Does your child know how to call 911 from a locked cell phone? It is absolutely possible, and my book demonstrates how to do that, whether it's an Android, whether it's an iPhone and, most importantly, it starts the conversation.
Speaker 1:Because I was going through homeschooling curriculum with my kids, realizing that, gee, maybe they skim over this stuff, but they don't get into depth, so my child's not going to remember this should an accident occur, right? I asked a couple of teachers what they do in school and they said they really don't do anything either other than talk about what to do in a fire during the month of October fire prevention month. So I wrote a book because this is near and dear to my heart. I have had multiple friends that have lost kids in tragedies and I don't want to see it happen again if it doesn't have to.
Speaker 1:We were at the fair over the summer and the first thing I said to my son when we walked through that gate was what's my first and last name? What is your first and last name and what is my phone number? And if you get lost, what are you going to do? You can get my book on Amazon and I will put the link in my show's description. Again, it's called let's Talk Emergencies and I really hope you'll check it out because there's just no need to be scared when you can choose prepared.
Speaker 2:You know I give a lot of credit in this book to my husband, my current husband.
Speaker 2:So I got a divorce after my first son, and then I am with Michael, my current husband. I give a lot of credit to him. There are a lot of alternative ways to living that he introduced me to, and I also think that my first birth was so traumatic in the hospital that I had to try something completely different one time after Merrick, and I did go back to the same nurse practitioner who I had gone to for my first son, for Merrick, and then I had a miscarriage with that baby and I think that actually helped me too to be like oh wait, you know, maybe I just need to completely change things and so, yeah, so that when I got pregnant with Micah, my daughter yeah, I was I was adamantly going to birth this baby at home, and by the time I had my third baby, mana, there was no I. If they had told me you need to go to a hospital or birthing center, I told Michael and I told everyone I'm, this baby's coming out in my house.
Speaker 1:And yeah, and it was sounded just in the book. You portray it so beautifully and I really think for anyone that might be having more kids down the line, this is definitely a book to read. You don't have to decide to home birth if you're not comfortable with it. But I think, seeing the vast differences between your hospital birth and your home birth, if you're not comfortable with it, but I think seeing the vast differences between your hospital birth and your home birth, it's worth exploring and just reading about, just so you know you can decide. No, that's not for me. I'm cool with the diet, you know that's totally fine. But until we know both sides, how do you make a decision? Right, you know?
Speaker 2:until you know women can do right, like if you can hear the story or watch home birth videos. You can just see the power and the beauty in it and the ownership as a woman of birthing in this way, even if you were to do it outside of the home, you would at least know your ability, which I think has been robbed from so many of us.
Speaker 1:And that's a beautiful way to put it. You're so right. It's been robbed, and you had a part in your book that I still think back to. It's when you were about to have the baby. I forget which one, or maybe it was both, you actually. You said I left my body and went to this heaven, took the hand of my child and led them into the world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was. So it was. That was amazing. Yeah, that was with Mana, my third, my most recent baby, and that's what it is. That's what when you choose not to have the epidural, that's what when you choose not to have the epidural, and that's real quick. I remember talking to someone who had a baby and she did it the very mainstream hospital home birth way. And afterwards, yeah, it was so easy. I went in, I got the epidural, couldn't feel anything, had the baby and it just hearing her say that was so sad to me.
Speaker 2:It's not supposed to be easy, it's supposed to be the most painful, difficult thing you experience and that's what is so transformative about it. When I had Micah, my second, that's what was so. It was like a psychedelic journey, if you will, where, like you know, michael told me after he was like a psychedelic journey, if you will, where Michael told me after he watched my body, my soul leave, my spirit just went to another realm. And you need to do that because it's so painful, but you want to do that, trust me. You want to experience that. That's what steps you into true motherhood and I think that's what makes motherhood the beautiful experience that it is. And I think when we don't do that, when we don't step into motherhood properly and we do it where it's just so easy and it's so manicured, we lose such an important piece of motherhood. And I think we could have, you know, ultimately a better society if we step into motherhood properly.
Speaker 2:And yeah, so by the time I had my third baby with mana I described it in the book of just the pain was so unbearable and I said to the midwives like what can I do for the pain? Obviously, you know there's no drugs or anything, even as an option. And the midwife, just, you know, they're all just sitting around me like no one's doing anything, it's just me and my body and they're just watching. There's two midwives and my husband and the midwife said all you can do now is birth this baby, get this baby out. And at that moment it's just like the pain pretty much stopped and I just left my body and I describe it as like I went to heaven or wherever babies come from before they enter this realm, and I just walked back in with Mana. And that is such a beautiful experience, experiencing my first home birth experience, that out-of-body experience. I needed to do it again. I wanted to have a third baby, but I did it because I was like I need to feel that again. It was so amazing.
Speaker 1:Which is just crazy when you think about the worst pain in your life. I need to go back and experience that again. Um, yeah, and I had. I mean I had one. Both of my births were in hospitals. One was, um, like a normal birth, with epidural, and then one was, uh, with a C-section, because they told me that the placenta was covering the cervix, like where the baby would come out. So, essentially I could, it could rupture and I could bleed to death. And I'm thinking, wow, it's a good thing I'm here with modern technology and they discovered that.
Speaker 1:But after reading your book and even kind of just getting into the more homeschooling, holistic lifestyle, I'm like, I mean, maybe, though, when everything expands, like it would have pulled the placenta out of the way and the baby could come out, I mean, I don't know. There's really you can't sit there and go back, like you with your first, with Merrick. You cannot sit there and go back. What of should, of could of? Everything happens for a reason. Everyone's here now healthy, we can only move forward, but what we can do is kind of open up other people's eyes to like, well, maybe there's a second opinion that you could get. Maybe you could talk to a midwife and see what their thoughts are, and they might say, yeah, no, you're going to need a C-section. You can't get this kid out, naturally, but because there were babies that died back you know, there were women that died home. Birthing, like it is a thing. But until you're aware of all the possibilities, like that's when you can make your informed decision on what is best for your situation. So I just love that. That was the what I thought would be a boring part were totally moving. I mean, even just talking about it now it's like choking me up. So it's funny that we talked about them robbing you of this experience and and due to society, because when I was nursing my daughter, I would like stay up and watch.
Speaker 1:You know, I get a role on like a Netflix show and this one happened to be called the Midwife and it's it's an adorable show. Like I do recommend it to people that are just like I want something cute and, you know, heartwarming to watch. It's called the Midwife, but they do set these little things in it about because so it's back in like I think, england in the 50s and so midwives would go to your house and help you birth your baby. And if there was a problem they'd call the doctor and whatnot. And yes, some were I'm sure some of the women in the show like died giving birth. So maybe they were planting those seeds, and they definitely planted seeds about well, this vaccine is out and it's wonderful, and this baby died because it didn't have the vaccine. So you know, I was like at that time I was privy to it.
Speaker 1:So I'm like, oh, they're putting this in shows to kind of like, what is it called when they, you know, make you subconsciously think some one way? But in in the show you gradually see their transformation from the midwife coming to your house to, oh, now they've built a hospital and this, what a wonderful thing. Now we can all go to these hospitals. They didn't put it in really a great light because everything's white white sheets, white mattresses, white walls, and it's not like the homey experience that the midwives were having at home with these women having childbirth there. But I do think that just that's an interesting tidbit to think about. Everything we see on TV, everything is put there for a reason, to make you think a certain way. Nothing is there by accident, it's all by design, to make you think something, because there's so much funding behind all of it.
Speaker 2:The things you were just talking about made me want to bring up language too. So you one, you were saying like with your, your experience, your second birth, and then with you talking about the show. You know, I, when people read my book, like I have to, I have to write it from a powerful standpoint and obviously there's outliers in every situation. Right, there's. There's situations where you know their medical intervention might be needed. But the big takeaway that I want people, like you said, you know, like just questioning, asking more questions, getting second, third, fourth opinions, um, but also just changing your language around situations like so often in hospitals or you know you go to the doctor. I hear people say like, oh, I have to do this. The doctor said I have to do this. Um, I remember when I was a little past my 40 weeks, my mom I love my mom but she said, like what do the doctors let you do? Like how long do the doctors let you go? And I was like, oh, no, no, the doctors don't let me do anything like that. I choose with my body and my baby at what point. Like you know, I wouldn't get induced. But you're making choices, right, you can get opinions you can of wouldn't get induced. But you're making choices right. You can get opinions. You can, of course. People are professionals. They went to college for these things. You can get their opinions. But changing your language around things, saying that it's your choice or you've made the decision, really can change your mindset on a lot of these things. And so you were talking about the show too, and how they they transform to start going to the hospital.
Speaker 2:At one point when I was editing the book, I was talking about hospitals and I wanted to say I was going to say the birthing room, and then I realized they don't even call it a birthing room. They call it a delivery room. Right, delivery is what the doctor is doing. The doctor is delivering the baby. So they even named the room after the doctor that's taking the baby out, rather than naming the room for the woman, the mother, who is birthing the baby. Like it's insane. But just notice, language is so important. I bring that up throughout the whole book. I really think that people can transform their lives with just changing their language.
Speaker 1:That's so true and I'm going through that thing right now, since I'm 41, every doctor visit I have is have you had a mammogram? Have you had a mammogram? Have you had a mammogram? And I'm like, okay, I'm not. I haven't done enough research to know that I never want one. I just know for right now. I've done a little bit where I'm like I don't think I need it right now, based on, like, my family history and whatnot, like I want to look at alternatives to it.
Speaker 1:But it is so hard. It's like when I went in having the babies and they're like, okay, this is their wellness visit, they need a vaccine. And before I switched to the doctor that we have now, it's like I really had to be in my stance about damn it, no, we don't. And this is why you know, like I had. I remember going through that research process and having just a notebook filled with the trials and you know that not being placebo studies and what was the death rate of the disease that you are vaccinating against before we had a vaccine for it. And then what's the death rate now? After?
Speaker 1:What else was going on in the world? Was sanitation a thing back then? Did they have clean water, did they have a way to get rid of our waste properly so that it wasn't contaminating the water? And so that was just something that I and I remember being in doctors the pediatrician, the one that I went to, thinking he was okay with not vaccinating, and he had me almost in tears. And then he was like we're going to schedule a visit, a one hour visit, for you to come back next month, and we're going to talk one-on-one about it, and I was like, no, I don't want to be lectured about it. You know, he was like your child could get tetanus on my floor right now and I'm like, well, how dirty are. And so until finally switching to someone that was perfectly fine with not doing it because she had family members, grandkids, that are not vaccinated, but so, but that was really hard for me. Now I'm going through that again with the mammogram thing and I'm like, ok, I understand. Like they make it sound like if you don't get a mammogram at 40, you will die of breast cancer at 41.
Speaker 1:You know it's like OK, I just, I just know that right now I need more time to research. It's hard and you're right at the language around it, in the force it's, it's very difficult.
Speaker 2:Right and it's, it's the language and it's the the putting negative things out in your mind and out into your, your existence. I talk in the book about, like, we don't have a TV in our house. We don't watch commercials, thank God, for a reason, right by design. But I remember being at a grandparent's house and just seeing commercial after commercial and almost all of them were about prescriptions. And I have this talk about it in the book, where there's this one where it's like, literally it's a prescription, that's, do you take this prescription for this and do you have this side effects? That that wasn't even like a bad side effect. But then you can take this extra prescription on top of that and to get rid of the first side effect. But then there's of course, like the underneath, on the bottom, all the horrible side effects you're going to get from that one. And my point being is that you know, if you're inundated with commercials every day telling you that you're going to have this illness, this sickness, and you're going to the doctor and they're, you know, fear mongering you, you're going to have this, this, this, it's putting that into your psyche. It has to negatively affect you, affect you.
Speaker 2:I remember a friend texted me that he was thinking of quitting his job and starting his own business. But he said the one thing he was afraid of is breaking. I don't know if he said breaking a leg, but like needing a hospital, you know, starting his own business, he wouldn't have health insurance. And of course, my response was like you, just you have to take the leap of faith. If it's really what you want for your life, if you want to have this reclaimed life that is wholly yours and no one owns your time, you just have to take the leap of faith. And I said to him like we don't have, you know, we don't have a job that gives us the best health insurance or whatever, and we just live holistically, we live healthy lifestyles and we're good. Anyways, fast forward.
Speaker 2:And this same friend texts me. He lives far away now, but he had texted me how are you? I say Good, we're doing great. He says, oh, I broke my leg. And I feel like it was his way of like. He wanted to be like see, I was right, if I got rid of my health insurance, I would break my leg. No, you created that situation. You created that by like, fearing that over and over. You're putting that out there. I'm not saying everyone that breaks their leg created that in their mind, but I think a lot of things are created in our mind and I know people are going to be upset with me for saying that, but I think that with a society as sick as the one we have out there, we have to be audacious enough to say things like that, to say that we, our minds, are powerful and we need to believe that we are whole, healthy, well beings. And when we believe that, that and we live that, I think it'll create a healthier system.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like a manifestation. Yeah, manifest the life that, yeah, that you want to live.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, You're right though too. Yes, we do have a TV here and we'll watch Little House on the Prairie on like whatever app we pay for it, on Peacock maybe. And I was paying like whatever app we pay for it on Peacock maybe, and I was just doing the cheap version and it was so it would show you commercials. After I read your book, I was noticing every commercial is for a prescription. It is crazy and we're one of the only countries that allow that. But you're right, that's putting in your head. You're going to have all these psoriasis and you need a prescription for it. And I do know a woman that died recently my friend's mother and I said to my friend how did she get cancer? She lived such a healthy lifestyle and she said honestly, she always had like skin issues. She was very fair skinned and so they would always give her a prescription medication to like put on her skin, for maybe it was like rashes or stuff. I think that did it.
Speaker 1:That was what? Maybe it was like a psoriasis. So I'm like, oh good Lord, you're right, though A lot of it is mindset. I always have this issue now that growing up from the childhood I had to like what I have now. It's like, you know, peaceful and you know, fairly easy. I mean my husband works a lot, but you know we have a. You know, fairly easy. I mean, my husband works a lot, but you know we have a good relationship, and I'm always like worried that something's going to happen to him on the road or something. So I'm like things aren't supposed to be just easy. And so I'm always like fearful, that like.
Speaker 1:And then I'll envision in my head like getting a phone call saying like, oh yep, there was a car accident, chris is dead, and I know this is like scary to say and I'm putting it out in the world. But I've even like gone to a psychic because I was like I just fear that this is going to happen. How can I change it? And she's like, okay, first of all, you got to stop thinking about it, like that's not going to happen. Envision your life as old people sitting in your recliners or your swing outside or taking care of your animals or on a beach. That's your life.
Speaker 1:And so she spent the whole session. I'm like, okay, now my dad died, is he saying anything? And she's been the whole hour and I know people probably have issues around talking to psychics, but whether it was true or not, she spent the whole time talking about my life with Chris as old people. I thought it was so cute because she was just like you need this right now. You need this. But yeah, I think you're so right. I never really thought about that.
Speaker 1:And then when you think about social media or TVs or movies, it's not a movie, it's not something watchable until something really bad happens in the beginning and then you got to see how they sort it out. So that's super interesting too. When you think movies and TV and social media hasn't been around for that long. That's fairly recent in the timeline of human beings. So before it was just this foraging for food, your fear was that you would get eaten by something bigger than you know, an animal or something or another tribe coming in to take over your land. Interesting, it is what we were so comfortable really in life now food, shelter, water that we have to make this stuff up and put it in social media movies and TV shows.
Speaker 2:That's a really good point.
Speaker 1:You guys know I am a big fan of the Tuttle Twins. I had Connor Boyack, the writer of these books, on episode 24. I reached out to his company asking to let me be an affiliate because I strongly believe in their books and their message. In the H5-11 book series, which I read to my son all the time I mean, he actually asks us to read these books with him.
Speaker 1:Book 5, Road to Serfdom, talks about what happens to a local town with local businesses when corporations start moving in. Book six, the Golden Rule, talks all about Ethan and Emily's experience at summer camp through a series of cheating and manipulation on certain races that they're required to complete. It talks about how the golden rule of treating others how we want to be treated ourselves is how we all should be conducting our lives. Education Vacation talks about John Taylor Gatto and the creation of the school system and what it was actually intended to do, which you get to learn about by following Ethan and Emily on a trip to Europe. And book 11, the Messed Up Market, takes you through the journey of kids trying to create small businesses, as they learn all the laws and rules that government has put in place to actually make it very difficult for them. You learn all about interest savings versus borrowing, low interest rates versus high interest rates and supply and demand, and these are just some of the books in that series.
Speaker 1:Use the link in my show's description or at the homeschoolhowtocom under the listener discounts page. I also want to let you know about some other books that the Tuttle Twins have out America's History, Volume 1 and 2, which teaches all about the inspiring ideas of America's founding without the bias and hidden agendas that's found in other history books for kids and most likely in the schools. There's also books on how to identify fallacies, modern day villains all stuff that we want to be talking to our kids about. Whether you homeschool or not, these books bring up important discussions that we should be having with our children.
Speaker 2:Use the link in my show's description or, like I said, at the homeschool how tocom under listener discounts the thing about the fear that used to exist when we were more primal is and I think for most animals it's like that fear isn't present until you see the lion. Right, you're not. You know you're living your life. You see the lion, then you switch into fight or flight and then you get away. The lion goes away, you go back to homeostasis. The problem is now right with the lack of lions around where.
Speaker 2:I live and where you live, lions around where I live and where you live. We have created a fear that is just omnipresent. It's there all the time and it's fear of the future. And fear of the future is anxiety, right, like fear is healthy, fear is something that is tangible. That's one of the things I saw with the students I taught. They were refugees and they had that. They still that. Most of their lives they had had real fear. Right, there were actual things they were fearing and so, on the whole, they didn't have anxiety. They there were tangible things that they feared. There were. There was purpose and connection built around those things.
Speaker 2:I think one of the things in my life that when we lived off grid, it made our lives be more, you know, more real. I guess where not that there was fear all the time, but like we had to work at things right. We had to make sure the wood stove always had wood to keep it warm and we had to wash our clothes with water from the stream, things like that, things from long ago. But in modern life people have floors that just heat up when you step on them and cars that drive you. You no longer have to drive yourself. I guess Just stop making your life so cushy, stop making life so easy, because it takes the realness away from life.
Speaker 1:We're supposed to still need to do things to keep ourselves alive essentially yeah, and I've said that in a few of my episodes when I had that realization that they've actually going back to the word you use, robbed us of the ability to basically grow your own food and then have pride in that and eat the food and watch it, nourish you and your children, whether that be in a garden or with a cow or chickens or whatever.
Speaker 1:It doesn't. I mean to tell people, okay, go ahead and get a cow and chickens and grow your food and, you know, prep for the winter and all that. Yeah, you don't have to do all that. But like one little thing, just one little thing, like I remember the first time I grew peas and my son ate it, which he won't even eat them now, but when he ate it, that like brought tears to my eyes. I'm like, oh my God, you ate something that I grew from the ground that was so foreign to me. I didn't grow up that way and then and I think we're so detached we think that people lived that way thousands of years ago.
Speaker 2:We don't understand.
Speaker 1:It was your grandma, your grandma, and in one generation they have removed all of that. They have removed our ability to know how to live self-sustainably. If the power went out tomorrow which is completely feasible, whether it's our own government or another nation doing it, to us it is completely feasible or a natural disaster, quote unquote A hurricane comes through or a tornado whatever, and you didn't have power for a week or a month, who would be able to really sustain themselves? I mean, you'd be looking for the government to send in FEMA or whatnot.
Speaker 1:And we've seen, just in our own country in the last couple of years, they don't do a whole lot. They're leaving a lot of people dead out there. So I think it's our obligation to teach our kids and to be somewhat self-sustainable. Whether you practice it in your daily life, it doesn't matter. You need to know how to do it because you got to teach your kids how to do it, because you don't know that their kids are they going to need it or their kids are they going to need it. And if you're the generation that that information is lost from, you're not passing it along and you're just, you're leaving the rest of your generations to come unequipped.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, amen, cheryl. Um, I talk in this book, maybe more than I should, but I talk about COVID, the COVID times, right, not the virus, but, um, I had to. I felt like I had to because it was such a turning point in my life. These, you know, the lifestyle that my husband and I live with our children now is what we wanted, it's what we manifested, we put on vision boards, we prayed for it to happen and it did. But going through the scary times of COVID and fearing, you know, like, can they just like not let us go in the grocery stores because we won't do X, Y and Z that they want us to do. That really, that really was the nail in the coffin. Like, we need to make sure that we have access to our own eggs. Um, we grow so much of our own fruits and vegetables, um, and we don't have meat animals yet, but we have friends, close friends and connections with farmers that we know that we get all of our meat from, all of our dairy from, and so giving that to our children, just knowing, like our children just know that as the way we live.
Speaker 2:I was lucky too. I did grow up. My parents always had a garden. So I shout out to my parents for giving me that childhood. But yeah, my kids, my daughter, thinks that this is just how everyone lives and so how beautiful that they will have ownership over that and they won't need to have the anxiety like it takes some of the anxiety we were talking about away, because the anxiety can be like, oh well, this could happen. Right, the government can do this to us, and you have all that anxiety and I talk about it in the book. You know, during the COVID times we did get caught up in the anxiety of, like, the overreaching government and all the things that they can do, and that is a very real problem and I'm glad for all the people who are still fighting the fight against the government.
Speaker 2:I believe that it's very important to also do the step of making sure that your family can sustain themselves, and then you don't have to be as concerned about what the government's doing, because you know you can. You can go outside and get your own food, and it grows everywhere.
Speaker 2:It grows, like even learning to forage food. Forage food and medicine, right, like we can. I got. I had a horrible sore throat recently, like the worst sore throat I've ever had, and I just used like natural stuff, like fire cider that I always have in my house, that I've made like oregano oil that a friend had. And the next morning I woke up and I was totally fine and it was like if people just knew that you can do this and you don't need a drug. You don't need a pill that you have no idea what's inside of it or how to make it yourself.
Speaker 2:That's when you give your power away. That's when you think I need, I need drug companies and I need the super, the pharmacy that's going to sell it to me. And I need this because that's the only way I know how to live. But if you have the power to heal yourself, to keep your children healthy, to grow your own food, that's what this whole book is about. You know, being an adult not you know we're not really adults until we can care for ourselves, and much of society has forgotten how to care for ourselves.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think the easiest way to think about it is if a tornado hit your town tomorrow and you couldn't just go to the grocery store and get what you needed you know, maybe there's no electricity or water how long could you sustain yourself and your family? So like that's just an easy, feasible. You know there's no conspiracy behind a tornado coming. If you had to, how long could you sustain yourself? And if you're not comfortable with that answer, what provisions can you make to make yourself more comfortable with the answer? And it does not have to be that you're getting the cow, but do you know someone that does sell me? Cause that, to me, was also foreign.
Speaker 1:I was like what do you mean? You find a farmer? Where am I supposed to find a farmer? We live in New York, but when you look they're everywhere. They're literally everywhere.
Speaker 1:I've got one that I get our meats from. I got another person that I get chicken from, when they don't have chicken. I know a different farmer that they sell chicken. So it's like, oh, and then I just had to learn how to like make a whole chicken, which I had never done before. I thought they just came in chicken breasts.
Speaker 1:And then I'm like, oh well, what do I do with this big whole carcass? You can make chicken broth. And then I'm like oh, look, there's all these things I use chicken broth for now. It's, you know, to cook pasta with, to cook rice with. It's actually very useful in stews and all that.
Speaker 1:So not only is it better for you because you've got the bone in it, the marrow, but you're actually saving money in the long run too, because when you buy good, organic chicken broth with bone broth it's like $6 where, if I can make it for free, I'm actually saving money. So, yeah, it's a lot. So I mean, nobody can just listen to this and think like, oh, I can have that tomorrow. No, no, no, just like little steps at a time you just open the door to. It might take five, 10 years for you to really get to the point that you want to be, but that's okay, because if you don't take any of the steps, in 10 years you're going to be exactly where you are today. So you got to. You know, take it easy and really just ease yourself into it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I look back and again, this is why I had to write the book. I look back and I remember making a vision board that had beehives on it and chickens and like a like, idealistic picture of my family. And it's just like I. I have it all now and it's crazy, but of course I have it right. I, that's what I set my mind on, that's what I wanted. So, like to the listeners what are your priorities? What do you dream for your life? Dream it big, like and, and, piece by piece, like you said, it will unfold and then, before you know it, your life is completely different. But it's not overwhelming because it happens slowly, right, like, if I look back, if I rewind to where I was 10 years ago, right, to just quickly make the jump would have been crazy, but like, slowly, things just happen. And then you look back and you are so grateful that you made those choices right.
Speaker 2:I didn't live anymore in a place of fear. I, I again I'm going back to fear, but I really think that's something that holds so many people back and keep so many people small. And we keep talking about the, the powers that be that want to keep us small. Right, they want to. They want to instill fear in us constantly, because that keeps us manageable. We're billions of people and they want to manage us and keep us small. But we are not small. We are powerful beings and I truly believe that anything we desire we can, we can make come true. And yeah, so if it's a beehive, imagine it, and then you'll soon have these.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we are also so trained in society through school and the media that money is what success is, and that couldn't be further from the truth.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I was thinking that earlier. Thank you for bringing it back, because I remember hearing a comedian years ago and I don't know who it was and I won't do it justice but he was probably killed.
Speaker 1:He was probably killed by the CIA anyway.
Speaker 2:But he was saying how, like people make the excuse, well, I need to work because I need money. Like people make the excuse, well, I need to work because I need money so I can buy food for my family. And then he makes the joke of like God is like I put food all over the place for you for free, right, but we, we. But I still see people just mowing their lawns and like, mowing all this stuff down and we still have money coming in. I'm not saying we're not down and we still have money coming in. I'm not saying we're not, we're totally living self-sustainably. My husband went off to run his landscaping business right now, but um, mowing a lawn.
Speaker 2:No, he does not. He does not. He plans edible food for people. He tries to convince people to. I didn't know that. Yeah, I mean, you know a lot of his customers do want more like aesthetic landscapes, but whenever he can, he convinces people to grow a mulberry tree.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, my point being that, like we, we are making this money to buy food without realizing that we can. We can access so much of the food without money, right?
Speaker 1:Well, and it so. The other day, someone, um uh, brad, actually, who you want to meet so badly and um who might be listening to this?
Speaker 1:Hi, brad. So he said my mom needs a starter for her sourdough. Could I, you know, steal some of yours? I'll pay you. I'm like you don't need to pay me for a starter. And he goes well, we grow asparagus, I'll just give you asparagus for it. So it was like so funny. I left the starter in the front seat of my car and then I come back to my car and there's a bushel of asparagus there that we made last night and that's what it was in Little House on the Prairie that we watched. You, barter, I have something that you need and you're giving me something that I don't grow. That's so cool.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I know that's just such a little example, but there are. But hey, I can build a house. I will build a house for you if you maybe educate my children, because we don't have the time to homeschool. It's like it can be on a grander scale.
Speaker 1:You just have to like really wrap your mind around it. I mean, homeschooling seemed completely ridiculous, utterly ridiculous to me. If you asked me 10 years ago, will you be homeschooling? I would have been like, well, I don't even know if I'm going to have kids and two. Oh, hell, no, no. And then now I just couldn't imagine it any other way, and we talk more with you about your unschooling approach and living completely in a tent back on episode 98. So definitely go check that episode out if you want to hear more about Mary's lifestyle with the homeschooling and how she unschools and how she lived, for how long A year and a half.
Speaker 2:A year and a half.
Speaker 1:Yeah, go ahead. So cool, it was so cool. Check out that episode. But, yeah, just this. I mean, I don't know, I never would have envisioned myself here. Yeah, I would have been a million dollars. No way that I would not be living that lifestyle and I'm so happy I am.
Speaker 2:But you're touching on another chapter that is so important and really was the jumping off point to this whole new life for me was tribe. I have a chapter called taking back my tribe and it's your what you're describing, where you give a starter and someone gives you asparagus. I literally have radishes in my sink right now that I'm bringing you later.
Speaker 1:Because I have never eaten a radish in my life and couldn't believe it.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that's what's so beautiful about this life too, is that we live in a tribe where it is common group. Text messages on my phone are so often like hey, you know, my kid has this ailment, does anyone have something for that? And then everyone's chiming in with like remedies they have or things that they could offer someone. You know, when we built our hoop house, like our really great friend Greg, he comes over and he helps build the hoop house and then when he needs to borrow my husband's tractor, he borrows the tractor and yeah, and we all homeschool our kids together, right?
Speaker 2:We all are in this tribe where we have the same vision for our children we and we can. We can work together and do it together. And that also led to another chapter where I talk about taking back my femininity. And, um, I try to portray in that chapter why why I think that so many women around the 50s just wanted to get away from being in the kitchen, that typical women role, female role of cooking for your family and taking care of the kids. And it's because the communal part of it was all taken away around the 50s. They created all these things to make life easier. You can have the washing machine and you can have the refrigerator and you have all these things that you can do it by yourself.
Speaker 2:But that's lonely right. We're not meant to do it by ourselves, we're meant to like the Afghani families I taught in the past, where all the women are together, they're raising the children together, they're cooking the food together, and we're meant to still live like that. And so, of course, women of the 50s, when you watch I don't know you watch the shows they look so sad because they're in the house all day, the husband goes off to work and they're doing it all by themselves. But if you're doing all these things together with your sisters, your chosen sisters, you're one of them. For me, we're all raising our kids together. It's not lonely. I get to spend my day with these women and men who I love and I admire and have an amazing conversation with, and so I love being a woman, being a mother. It's the best life I could ever imagine.
Speaker 2:But when I first became a mother, I didn't feel that. I remember even saying I think I wrote a blog post I loved my son, but I didn't love being a mother, and that's because I was doing it the mainstream way. I was sending him to a daycare, I was going off to work and then I was coming home and I was, you know, having a couple hours with him and then doing it all over again, all over again, and it wasn't beautiful. I was happy enough, right Like you could, you might have a happy enough life and I could have lived that life forever. But now I have an abundant, rich life that I'm so proud of and that I want for my children to replicate, right Like that's another piece of it too, Are you living now the life that you want your children to replicate?
Speaker 2:Because our actions mean so much more to our children than our words and we can say live this way. But if you as an adult, if you as the parent, aren't living that way, then it doesn't mean anything to the kids. So, yeah to all the listeners out there. That's a question I want you to ruminate on today is are you living the life you want your children to live?
Speaker 1:And that's so powerful, even just when I think back to working my eight to four, I'd have the hour commute pretty much by the time I would drop my son off at daycare, and that was so early. Just waking him out, shaking him out of bed, you know, come on. I tried to sing to him but eventually you gotta be like, oh, wake up, you know, at 6am so that I can get him to daycare by seven, so that I can get to Albany by eight, and then just sit in the cubicle in this dingy office breathing God knows what they're putting in the air. I I mean, my husband actually works on air conditioning systems in state buildings and hospitals and schools and he's like you should not be breathing that in um, no open windows. And then my breaks were, you know, in the city, and sure, I was on the hudson river, so like a little cool, but I wasn't taking advantage, I didn't like even think about being on the Hudson there, you know, you just all this traffic and smog. And then I'd pick them up at the end of the day and rush to put something on the table, which was annoying because, like you said, you're living in this mainstream, you're doing it all by yourself. Oh, what can I put on the table for dinner tonight? And then getting them in the bath and rushing to bed.
Speaker 1:It's like I didn't even know him. I didn't know what he did all day. I didn't know the little things that he said or actions, or how he felt if he needed a hug. I didn't know any of that. And just now I've been with my daughter since day one and all the things that I see her do are little things that just make me smile or give you that warm-hearted feeling because you see your two kids doing something together that makes you proud. He was working on her with a puzzle yesterday and I didn't ask him to, he just started showing her. This is a J. Where could it go? What do you think it looks like on the puzzle? And they're 6 and 2. That just warmed my heart so much, not to say they don't fight, because they totally do, but that's a learning experience too the fighting. And how are we going to work through this?
Speaker 1:And you're making mom crazy. So how are we going to mitigate this? But also it's springtime here in upstate New York and I'm now, for the first time in my life, noticing, like, look at, these birds are building a nest. That's cool. Let's see the progress they're making every day. And then yesterday I noticed that and like what kind of bird is it? And it took us like a week to listen to the Merlin app at what the sounds word that identifies the bird, and then looking it up and is that the bird that we're seeing? And looking it up online or in a book. And oh my God, these are Eastern Phoebes. Are they rare? Or what they rare? What are the habits? And then I noticed yesterday a bird's nest right on my daughter's windowsill so we can actually watch if they lay eggs there. We'll actually be able to watch the process in real time. This is just stuff I never would have noticed if I were still working in a cubicle and they were at school or daycare all day.
Speaker 1:And it's like I'm so thankful for this. It's worth giving up the $100,000 a year paycheck that I had. It was so worth it 100%.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the biggest thing. I believe it's my first chapter of my book Taking Back my Time. It is our most valuable resource our time and most people are giving most of it up to somebody else, to a company's bottom line, to an institution they maybe don't believe in. They're giving their time away day after day. And, yeah, when you reclaim your time, you put it perfectly your kids get to sleep in and wake up, whatever the time they want. You get to have slow days where you just notice birds, like you notice a nest. It's, it's so beautiful.
Speaker 2:Um, there was one other, oh, and you were talking about the relationship between your kids. I was just talking to someone yesterday and or not I don't know about homeschooling, and she said something about her kids don't get along. She has two kids. I don't know about homeschooling and she said something about her kids don't get along. She has two kids. They don't get along and they need to do things differently. They need to keep them separate. And I don't know this person well, but from what I know, you know they're in like five sports a piece and they go to daycare or whatever. Um, they're never together. Of course, they don't get along right. And and I had the audacity to say that to her Like if you homeschool, they get to know each other, right, they get to grow up together and, yeah, my kids have the most amazing relationship.
Speaker 2:They're 11, 4, and 1.
Speaker 2:And so they're big age differences.
Speaker 2:Like the Merrick and Micah, 11 and four, they can play for hours together and it's just the sweetest thing to watch unfold.
Speaker 2:You know they'll wake up in the morning and, like they just have one of them has an idea of this imaginative game they're going to play and they just go into this other world and it's so sweet and it's a huge learning experience that is taken away from most kids that don't get to stay in that side of their brain, right, like we just ship them off to school and they, they I think it's left brain, left side of the brain, right, that's just intellectual and you, just you sit down at a desk and by pre-k I think they're now having like tests where they have to know these certain things, and so they're not getting that time to just have an imagination, be creative. They're, they're, you know, being programmed. They're just treating our kids like objects in a factory, but it's. There's so much more that's possible and there's beautiful relationships and there's beautiful experiences out in the world, when you have time, when you've made that the priority for your family.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and screens rob them of that too. And I mean, we are, we do have screens in our family. I try to mitigate what I can, but I do notice that if I'm just like, oh, the remote's lost, there's a little bit of a fight, but then they will find something creative to do and I'll just sit back and watch and like, oh see, yeah you, you could have just done that in the first place.
Speaker 2:Yeah, another big shout out to my mom. Like my parents, they, we didn't have cable growing up. We did have a TV, but my mom, like, the rule was we couldn't watch the TV till dark when we didn't have cable. So there was very little to watch and I was angry at my parents when I was in high school, you know like, for not giving us cable. Had I been homeschooled I wouldn't have had the pressure of public school kids and feeling like I was missing out on anything right, like I would have. That just would have been my existence. But the point is is that now, when I became an adult, I can look back and thank them and realize they were right. I was wrong and I'm so grateful that instead of cable, I had, you know, acres of woods behind my house and trees to just climb and streams to walk in.
Speaker 2:That's what education is. Even when I was a teacher in public ed, I was just like you know. You create a world, a rich environment around kids and then you, like you know you create a world, a rich environment around kids and then you just let them exist in it. Right, it doesn't have to be so curated Like we want to curate everything for our kids. We want to give them all these contrived ways to learn. But if we just create rich environments and we take away the screens like I don't use screens a lot, as you can tell, because it took me like half an hour to- get on this call with you, but it's and I don't hang out with a lot of people that have cell phones present a lot, so I sometimes forget what the rest of the world is like.
Speaker 2:But when I go to places like you know waiting room or restaurant and I just see people on screens all the time and I know this, people know this. I'm not the only one that people know like we got to stop looking down at our screens, right, we got to stop, we got to look up, we got to reclaim this beautiful world we live in beautiful world. We live in and if we're, if we're aware of it as adults, it is our obligation to model for our children what we want and if we don't want our kids on screens all the time.
Speaker 2:You know, like you're running a podcast, so like that's your, that's your work, but you're not walking around just like head down on on a phone all the time, right Like we need a little too much.
Speaker 1:I need to be I do need to be more aware, yeah.
Speaker 2:But, like the title of my book is Taking Back my Life, and one thing I think we need to take back is our upright bodies, right Like stop slouching over everybody and looking at your phones. Take back our human connection with people.
Speaker 1:I love that, so okay, is it on sale now at my website, marywainwrightcom.
Speaker 2:So cool to have a website, um, and uh, it's being sold from Troy Bookmakers, um, so my website will redirect you to uh, theirs. However, it will also be available on Amazon, um, I did choose to. So you do still have to pay for shipping on amazon, um, but I chose to publish self-publish outside of amazon with, uh, with a publishing company, because you know it's it's all about taking things away from Jeff Bezos and the powers that be. So. Long story short, you have to pay for shipping, but do it. It's worth it. I think it's. I really think it can change your life.
Speaker 1:And so that's for the physical book. Is there, like the Kindle version too, if someone didn't want to pay E-book?
Speaker 2:An e-book? Yeah, An e-book will be. My publisher will be making an ebook shortly after the physical books come out, so if that is how you prefer to read, you can also get that from Amazon too.
Speaker 1:Well, I will put all of the links in the show's description and so you can easily click through and see what you're comfortable, you know with. But I definitely think this is a book that you should read, or even gift it to someone who is maybe pregnant and should maybe just be looking at all sides and thinking of the things to ask, right along with the vaccination if you're pregnant. Right, because something I wanted to touch on earlier like my sister's kids, you know, they got everything on the CDC schedule. They're always in the doctor, always, and she they didn't go to daycare or anything but ear infections, this and that, and like always, oh, he's sick, she's sick, he's sick. You just think that that's a normal way of life. And like, since we stopped doing the CDC schedule, knock on wood, we don't have doctor visits, other than I do take them to a wellness visit every year. But she just kind of looks at them and talks to me and, okay, how are they doing this? Let's see their speech. And like that's it, that's the extent of it.
Speaker 1:Like I don't my daughter she's almost three, she's I was just thinking about this this morning she's never even had Tylenol or like ibuprofen, and that's so foreign to me. I didn't grow up that way. It was like, oh, you have a little headache, here's some Zadvil, you have a little fever, here's some Tylenol. And it's like maybe you don't need all of that if you're not doing all the other things that cause it. So yeah, I love this book that it just opens people's eyes. I don't think it's pushing people in any way to be this way. This is the right way. It's just opening people's eyes to that there is an alternative and it's not crazy. It's just getting back to the roots.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, thank you, Cheryl. Thank you so much for everything you've done to help support me and this book, and yeah, hopefully it'll change some lives Awesome.
Speaker 1:Thank you for being here today, mary. Bye-bye Bye. Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of the Homeschool How-To. If you've enjoyed what you heard and you'd like to contribute to the show, please consider leaving a small tip using the link in my show's description. Or, if you'd rather, please use the link in the description to share this podcast with a friend or on your favorite homeschool group facebook page. Any effort to help us keep the podcast going is greatly appreciated. Thank you for tuning in and for your love of the next generation.