Who Are We?
Hey! We are Chris and Sam, homeschooling parents to 6 kids. Chris is a newly-retired Marine after going through the medical board process. Sam, the primary writer here, holds down the fort, teaching the kids and making a home for the family (except washing the dishes- that’s one of the many ways Chris chooses to love us in our home). Our hopes and dreams after retirement involve a simple homestead life, while Chris works IT “in the real (civilian) world,” and we can’t wait for this adventure! We wanted to use this blog as a place to document our journey, educate others who are going through a similar experience, and maybe eventually build community. During this transition period, we are renting until we can find the perfect home for our family!
Topics that will come up most often
- Homemaking with a larger family
- Transition to civilian life: from the perspective of both the Marine and the spouse
- Homeschooling
- First time home-buying with a VA loan
- Gradually starting a homestead
- Skills we are learning to prepare for this lifestyle
The Kids
We plan to use nicknames for the kids in our writing and won’t share many photos of their faces. We want them to have at least some privacy at these young ages, so you will typically see their nicknames.
- Moo is a fun-loving, confident, headstrong girl. She loves baking, art, theater, piano, and farm animals, and doesn’t love tuna
- Odd Cat (her nickname choice haha) is a strong-but-sensitive girl. She loves all animals and baking, is a really good artist, and is not a fan of tomatoes, peppers, or chores (actually she gave us a very long list of dislikes, but we cut her off).
- Bubba is a sweet, tough, loving boy. He loves anything related to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Lego, Batman, and Mario, and strongly dislikes pretty much any shows his siblings want to watch.
- Weewum is a very funny, very smart dude with a huge personality. He loves Dragons, Mario, and stuffed animals, and apparently doesn’t love “anything that Crazy Daisy likes.”
- Crazy Daisy is our feisty, silly girl. She loves Princess Peach, Spidey, and Ghost Spider. She also thinks “horsies, sheeps, cows, and chickens” are the best and wants to ride on all of them (she refuses to believe she won’t be allowed to ride most of those). She is not a fan of anyone getting in the way of what she wants.
- Tubba is a smiley one year old. He loves nummas (breastfeeding), his family, and doesn’t like when he’s not being held.
So What’s with the Name?
We have spent some time thinking about what we want to name our little homestead when we finally have it one day. We wanted something simple and meaningful that we could use to name our homestead, but also to brand any items we may make and sell in the future.
For a few years now, our family has had a devotion to Our Lady, Undoer of Knots [learn more here]. Through many trials in our life, both big and small, we have prayed through her intercession, and have come to feel very comforted by her. During the sometimes-overwhelming process of medical appointments, psychiatric evaluations, hearing tests, physical therapy, and the process of paying off debt, we have leaned on Momma Mary with full confidence that she would untie all of the knots that kept appearing, seemingly out of nowhere. When “Undone Knots” popped in my (Sam’s) head with such clarity, we immediately knew it would be a good fit for all of our goals, and it really felt like a confirmation that we are on the right track. We want our work to reflect our trust in God, and confidence in and thanksgiving for all of the undone knots which have allowed us to work toward our goals.