[00:00:00] Ana Willis: I was so desperate. I went to sleep in a little cabinet in my friend’s backyard because I was desperate for sleep and recovery. I took this book with me, and I read one sentence in this book that changed my life. It said, “Not every opportunity is your assignment.”

[music]

[00:00:23] Gretchen Roe: Welcome to The Demme Learning Show this afternoon, everyone. This is Gretchen Roe. I am so delighted to welcome my friend, Ana Willis. We’ve been waiting since last May to have this conversation.

[00:00:35] Ana: Yes. It is a privilege and a blessing to be here with you guys today. I think we have so much to share. We hope that everything we’re going to talk about today will really resonate with you, and encourage you, and give you the practical tips and ideas that you need to implement in your homeschool.

[00:00:55] Gretchen: Absolutely. Ana, tell us about you, and then maybe we’ll have a couple minutes to tell about how you and I met.

[00:01:03] Ana: I’m a homeschool mom of three, and I’ve been homeschooling since kindergarten. My son was four. I had a two-year-old, and I had a newborn baby, so some of you guys know exactly how it feels. We were pastoring a church, and we were at the church stand 12 hours a day with three little kids. I come from a Jewish background. I’m the first believer in my family. Now, obviously, my mom is a believer, my dad, my brothers, my children, but I was the first one to give my life to Jesus. My husband and I have been in ministry full-time since we got married 18 years ago.

I was already in full-time ministry before, and my husband, he’s been serving Jesus since the day he was born. Anyway, this is how our homeschool story started. There were two families that homeschooled in an entire town of Kenora in Ontario, where it was below 50s in the winter. We were one of them, and the other one was a Mennonite family that we’re still friends with to this day. From there, working at the church, helping with small groups, and the women, and the youth, and all the stuff that we do with three little kids, homeschooling.

Fast forward a few years, I burned out completely, and I end up paralyzed from head to toe in critical care at the hospital. I pushed myself so hard for three years, I cried myself to sleep in exhaustion.

[00:02:44] Gretchen: You were working, you were a wife, you were a pastor’s wife, you were homeschooling three kids. No wonder you were burned out. [laughs]

[00:02:52] Ana: Yes. All doing good things because we see the need, we want to fill in the need, so I would just carry my three babies around. I was really blessed that our first three years homeschooling, I know I was exhausted. We were ministering in the reserves around us. There was 11 reserves around us, and we would go and minister to the Native people around us. We were doing gymnastics.

[00:03:23] Gretchen: You had three kids in four years.

[00:03:26] Ana: Yes.

[00:03:26] Gretchen: Which was exhausting [crosstalk] [laughs]

[00:03:28] Ana: In four or five years. Anyways, I was really blessed that actually my office at the church had a door to the nursery at the church. I would literally put my babies down to take naps or play there while I was counseling the woman or the youth. I was helping my husband, and helping our senior pastor, and everybody else in the church. That was my life. I was out of the door at 8:00 in the morning with three kids, and I would come home like ten, eleven o’clock at night every day. I don’t know how many of you guys here are pastors’ wives or are involved in ministry.

There’s no weekends for us. [laughs] There are no weekends. Very hard to take the day off. There’s always somebody who knocks at your door or calls you and needs something. Anyways, that’s how we start our homeschool. Then I end up burning out completely. I shared this story with Gretchen. It was the darkest days of my life up to recently when I went through something that I never thought I was going to go through with one of our children. I don’t think Gretchen knows that part yet.

Anyways, it was so hard, and I burned out so badly. I felt like the Lord saying to me, “You need to step down from everything. Be fully focused on the ministry I gave you, which is your flock.” 1 Peter said that God has given us a flock to care for. We’re their shepherds, and we need to care for them. As much as I cared for my children, I cared for everybody else, and I forgot to care for myself. Going back, I’m a cancer survivor. I had cancer at age 25. It’s not like I can play with my health. I have five autoimmune diseases.

We just can’t afford to not care for ourselves and to not have boundaries and limitations because we are limited beings who serve an eternal God who can do all things, and we need to learn to rely more on Him, rest more on Him, and not try to do everything on our own. There’s so much that we can add to it, Gretchen. You know a lot of my story. You know a lot of what I went through. We’ve been homeschooling for 14 years now. I got three high schoolers. We all survived, and they’re all thriving. It’s a blessing. Even though we had some difficult days.

[00:06:21] Gretchen: I know that those 14 years have gone very quickly. I also know that some of those days have felt like they lasted forever. I’m here to tell you those high school years will go faster than you can ever imagine.

[00:06:35] Ana: It is going very fast. I have to say it is going very fast. My son is now turning 18 and finishing his last year of high school. My youngest is 14. She’s so decided to become an archaeologist and studying at the University of Rome. My middle daughter, she’s turning 16 next month. She started doing enrollment at a Bible college, doing psychology at age 14.

[00:07:02] Gretchen: One of the things I’ve always said is that homeschooling is the longest journey you’ll ever love, but we have to have faith that we’re sowing into that journey, even when we don’t see the results of that journey. How does one go from being a wife, a mother, a pastor’s wife, serving the community, doing all of those things, and then finding the peace in the process so that you feel like you’re productive but not spread so thin you’re transparent?

[00:07:36] Ana: Yes. That is so important for us to actually get to that realization, first of all, that we can’t do it all. We can’t do it all. We can do a lot, but not all at the same time. We need to learn our limitations. Doing my burnout, Gretchen, I read a book. In this book, it’s called The Best Yes. I was so desperate. I went to sleep in a little cabinet in my friend’s backyard because I was desperate for sleep and recovery. I took this book with me. I read one sentence in this book that changed my life. It said, “Not every opportunity is your assignment.”

Not every opportunity is your assignment. Some of us tend to just jump in and feel every need. We just want to keep doing, keep going. We don’t want to ask for help. We get to a point where we’re burned out. Being burned out, you guys, it’s not just feeling tired. It’s like you are hurting your entire body, your relationships, your mental health, your spiritual health. In my peak point of burnout, I didn’t even have the strength to pray and read the Bible. The enemy uses those times and those weaknesses to corner us. To isolate us.

Then I went into a deep depression. We have to be so aware of those things. It is in that awareness that we start backing off from the things that are actually causing all of that exhaustion and burnout and to start asking ourselves, “What is my assignment?” instead of, “What are all the open doors in the upper opportunities?” During that time, that was the best thing we ever did. We cut off everything outside of the home. There was no extracurricular classes, no going anywhere for ballet, piano, swimming. We just kept it simple.

We just kept it just so basic and simple, and we did the best that we could with fewer things. I got off my phone completely for a whole year. That was life-changing. That was life-changing. It’s really learning to say no to things that overwhelm us, to things that distract us, that call our attention all the time. I remember teaching my kids the habit of attention, Gretchen, and I began to read them and tell them that paying attention is to put the full force of their minds in what’s in front of them.

Yet the first image that came to my brain was my children speaking to me while I was looking at the computer, and me telling them, “Just wait, Mommy’s busy.” How could I teach my kids to pay attention when I didn’t know how to pay attention?

[00:10:58] Gretchen: You said something very interesting, Ana. You call it the habit of attention. Tell us more about that.

[00:11:06] Ana: I can talk so much about habits. We tend to believe that our children are suddenly going to be attentive, obedient, but these things are not going to happen unless we teach them. I don’t remember I was ever taught to pay attention. Of course, my brain was always all over the place, but there’s something that we do in homeschooling called habit training that is part of our discipleship. It’s part of teaching our kids that it’s a game-changer, especially when you want to make sure your kids are engaged in the lesson that is in front of them.

Once they understand that paying attention is to put the full force of their mind in what’s in front of them or what’s in their hands, that is just echoing in their brain. “Wait, I’m not paying attention. Hold on. Let me fix that and go back to what’s in front of me.” That was a learning curve for me. At first, I had to identify what was always robbing my attention from what was in front of me, and then start cutting those things off. One of those things was this. I just had to say, “You know what? I don’t need this. I really don’t need this.”

Right now, it might sound weird, but we have no internet in our house. I’m using my neighbor’s internet today. She let me use it to talk to you on Zoom. What we do is we have no internet in the house. We go to the library for a couple of hours every day. We get all of our homeschool done there. Then we come home, and we do whatever we need online. Then we come home, whatever we’re doing with our books offline, that’s what we do. We rent DVDs from the library. We watch DVDs in the ’80s or the ’90s at home. We play tons of board games.

We do Bible studies together as a family. We had to learn to redeem our time. There are so many tools, there are so many things in our lives called “smart” that actually are not helping us to work smarter. It’s actually just sucking our time in a way that, instead of being more productive, we have been more overwhelmed and less productive because our attention has been in multiple places at the same time. The habit of attention is where I want everybody to begin. It’s one of the best things you can do when you’re homeschooling your kids because without attention, there’s no engagement.

[00:13:56] Gretchen: It’s interesting. I did an interview with Andrew Pudewa just about seven or eight months ago. Andrew, our whole conversation was cultivating the art of contemplation. It was such a valuable conversation to me because Andrew’s response is always so measured in all things. One of the things he had talked about, which I didn’t even realize was a habit until he talked about it, is getting your hands on first morning light and going for a walk in the morning, and how valuable that was. I know you and I have talked about that because we’re both walkers. Talk a little bit more about that.

[00:14:40] Ana: That is so important. The habits that you build in your life,– I mean, Charlotte Mason says the habits produce the character of the man. Actually, I just spoke about that in a conference this weekend. The habits that we build, they work like systems in our lives. If we want to be productive, you have to put systems in place, and even when it comes to our health. The first sunlight that you get every morning, it’s helping your circadian rhythm to work the way that it’s supposed to. Get up in the morning, open your windows, go outside, ground.

If you have a little bit of grass or soil, whatever it is, outside, go put your feet out there. My daughter is really good in doing that, and then I have to tell her, “Go wash your feet now.” [laughs] It’s so important to be outside, to do this, to reset every morning. Isn’t it beautiful that God says that because of His great love and faithfulness, His mercies are new every morning? Think about that. You go outside, and I like to go and tend to my garden and let my dogs out. Then I just remember that God is renewing my life today.

As Anne of Green Gables will say, “Tomorrow it’s a new day with no mistakes in it.” You have a brand new Canva. God has renewed His mercies. Your circadian rhythm, it’s being renewed and resetted. There we go. It’s a good way to begin the day.

[00:16:20] Gretchen: Ana, I think I’m hearing you say that less is more.

[00:16:23] Ana: Less is more, 1,000%. Gretchen, I’m so glad you brought that up because when it comes to teaching our children, the shorter the lessons, the more engagement and the more absorption they have.

[00:16:42] Gretchen: Of course, you know you’re right now singing my song, but–

[laughter]

[00:16:48] Ana: Yes, that is so important. You guys, you’re not in public school anymore. Shake it off. You have complete control over your homeschool. Keep your lessons short because it’s better to teach them in 10 minutes what they’re 100% focused and engaged on, than for you to be talking for 40 minutes with nobody even paying attention to what you’re saying.

[00:17:14] Gretchen: I know there’s people in the audience who have this question. This just occurred to me, being the mother of six. I’m a Type A personality. That was one of the things that drew us to each other is [crosstalk]. How did you promote this disconnectedness from the digital world and have your kids not give you pushback?

[00:17:40] Ana: That’s so interesting. We do a lot of discussions. We read a lot of books together. They are very in tune with the facts. They know that the younger you get into screens, it damages your brain. It literally damages your brain. Your chance of paying attention to anything, it’s so much less. Also, social media causes a lot of anxiety. There are great books out there for you to read about.

[00:18:14] Gretchen: It does. One of the most impactful ones for me in the last year was Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation.

[00:18:21] Ana: The Anxious Generation.

[00:18:21] Gretchen: That was a hard read, but boy, was it valuable. I’ll include that reference in our show notes for our guests today.

[00:18:29] Ana: I know it’s not the easiest thing to do, but I think education is always the key. Before you say, “Don’t do this,” talk about the benefits, the pros and the cons, and say, “Okay, how do we feel about that as a family?” The other thing, too, is building up your family culture.

[00:18:54] Gretchen: You said something really important about that, though, and that is you recognized that you couldn’t model attentiveness for your children if you were distracted by your phone. I think often, as parents, we’re juggling so many things. We’re like, “Hang on, I’ll be with you because I’m just trying to get one more thing done before I’m really with you.” What I’m hearing you say is “Being with you is far more important than getting one more thing done.”

[00:19:26] Ana: That’s right. I can’t tell my kids, “Don’t be on your computer all day,” if I’m on my computer all day, because they will call me a hypocrite right on my face and say, “Mom, you’re doing that, and you’re telling us not to do.” It has to start with us. It really had to start with us. Also, my daughter is saying, “Mm-hmm.” She’s here in the kitchen saying, “Mm-hmm,” my 15-year-old daughter. If you don’t listen, can I just be honest? We heard that so many times in our lives, monkey see, monkey do. If whatever you’re doing, your kid’s going to end up repeating it. My mom, growing up, she used to say to me, “Do what I say, don’t do what I do,” but that doesn’t work. That doesn’t work. You need to start modeling to them, and you need to explain to them. They need to understand the why behind things.

[00:20:25] Gretchen: Ana, I want you to tell me a little bit more about your family reading time because I am finding in conversations with families that this is an art that is disappearing. It is so necessary to give our kids rhythm and cadence that comes from being read to and hearing words read aloud to them. We don’t even realize the depth and breadth of the neurological benefit of doing that. Tell me how that has evolved for you. How do you all decide on a book together? What does that look like?

[00:21:01] Ana: We did a lot of read-aloud since they were little. That was just part of our family culture. Again, it’s really creating, cultivating that family culture. Today, obviously, all high school levels, we don’t sit and read aloud as much as we used to, but these kids always have books in their hands. I don’t know if you guys can hear them, but they’re behind me like, “Uh-huh. Uh-huh.” I don’t know if you know this, Gretchen, we’re moving countries for the fifth time. We’re packing up at the moment.

[00:21:34] Gretchen: Yes, I [crosstalk]. It’s actually on my list of things to ask about.

[00:21:38] Ana: The hardest thing for us right now is, how are we going to let our books go? How do we take it with us across the ocean?

[00:21:49] Gretchen: I can certainly understand that when we move back to North Carolina.

[00:21:51] Ana: I could leave all my clothes behind, my purses, my shoes, I don’t care, but when it comes to books, we have such a love for learning. That is very important. It’s modeling that love for learning. If you read aloud to your children, if you make that the most exciting time of, we’re just sitting, we’re reading stories, we’re having conversations, we do narrations, we do discussions, that becomes a habit. That habit now turns them into independent readers, and they will continue to read books. When your kids love to read books, the sky’s the limit.

They will learn anything they need to learn at any point at that time. I can just get a book and read. I can just watch a YouTube video and learn something. Your goal is to turn them into independent learners, but you’re the facilitator and the role model. Those things you need to start building into your homeschool. Now, I want to say, for parents who are starting to homeschool, who do expect their children to sit and not move doing read-aloud, you are planning for failing.

When you’re reading aloud to your children, if they need to have their hands busy with whatever it is, Play-Doh, Lego, whatever it is, let them, coloring pages, let them have it. I had a child who had to walk around in circles because he had some special needs. That’s okay. That doesn’t mean that they’re not paying attention because, remember, you taught them to pay attention. Because we narrate and we have conversations, we have discussions after, I know how much they remember, how much they absorb from what we’re reading.

[00:23:49] Gretchen: How long is a reading period for you, Ana?

[00:23:51] Ana: It depends on the books. There are books that my kids could just like, “Mom, can we just do more? Can we just keep reading another chapter?” If you’re starting, keep it short, keep it simple. If you keep those two things in mind, keep it short, keep it simple. If you cannot read aloud for some reason, put the audiobooks on. What I love about reading aloud is that, something that Charlotte Mason talked a lot also, the way that she taught, it’s good for the kids to hear and to see the words. Because stories are the way that humans learn naturally to begin with.

It helps us build vocabulary. There’s tremendous benefits for reading aloud. Sometimes, if for some reason I couldn’t sit down and read to them, I will put an audiobook, but I’ll give them the printed version of the book so they could still look at the book, they could still look at the illustrations, and listen to the stories. I’ll tell you a quick story. I went through a very traumatic pregnancy loss, where I was hospitalized five times. I was in bed for almost six months. It was very traumatizing. We not only had to learn to grieve for the first time as a family, but I had severe consequences.

It was a very difficult time in our homeschool. We had to keep the absolutely basic going on. It was our math still going, and it was our audiobooks going, because Mom didn’t have the strength to get up and read and do anything. My kids sat around me on my bed to do their homeschool every day. I call this my paper plates and audiobooks season of life. I just want you guys to keep that in mind. Your homeschool doesn’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to do too much every day. If you create good habits, and if you have consistency, and you give your children a love for learning and a love for reading, then everything continues to flow.

Either you’re capable of doing 100% of things or 10% of things at that moment. I also want to speak that to the heart of the mom who just had a baby, or has a surgery coming up, or there’s sickness. Whatever happened, we will go through difficult situations in life. Homeschool doesn’t have to stop completely, but if you do need to stop, please do it. There are days in our lives. It’s totally okay to put the books aside and go outside instead. Go for a walk instead, and you’ll pick up the next day.

[00:26:50] Gretchen: Ana, here you are now, though. It’s 14 years into the process. You have three teenagers, and you’re running a business, and you’re doing speaking engagements.

[00:27:02] Ana: And I teach Hebrew.

[00:27:04] Gretchen: You are still that Type A personality. Tell us a little bit about how it evolved for you to teach Hebrew, because this is a fascinating part of your story, and I want to make sure it gets included.

[00:27:19] Ana: Yes. Oh, I want to share that. I always tell people Hebrew is my love language. I love Hebrew. 70% of the Bible was written in Hebrew. As being a Jewish believer in Jesus, who had the opportunity to live in Israel for many years, and study in Israel, and until my babies were born there, it is life-changing when you’re able to read the original language of the Bible. I say this with joy and with sadness at the same time, because we lose a lot with translation. We lose so much with translation.

People don’t understand, especially that the majority of English translation comes from a translation, which is the Septuagint, which was translated into the Greek and then translated into English. We can’t translate as a person who speaks five languages as well. There’s a lot of things you cannot translate word-for-word, because words might sound the same and look the same and have different meanings. I am very passionate about Hebrew. As I said, my kids were born in Israel. We lived in Israel when we got married.

We started serving in a full-time ministry there as youth pastors.

[00:28:32] Gretchen: Did you grow up speaking Hebrew?

[00:28:35] Ana: No, I didn’t grow up speaking Hebrew. I had Hebrew around me. My family was very secular, but we lived in a Jewish neighborhood, and all my friends were Jewish, and all my boyfriends were Jewish. We had nothing to do with God or anything, or Hebrew or synagogue or nothing. We were completely secular. I went to a Catholic school as [laughs] part of my life, of my upbringing. Totally random.

[00:29:09] Gretchen: I don’t think I know this portion of your story. Were you born here in the United States?

[00:29:14] Ana: No, I was born in Brazil. I was born in Rio and came here when I was 21. Yes. I was born in Brazil. There’s so much that I could talk about it. There’s a great population of Jewish people in Brazil. Brazil was actually colonized by the Portuguese, and the majority of what are called New Christians who colonized Brazil were the ones who were forced to convert from Judaism to Catholicism. The Jewish influence, it’s very big, although the majority of people don’t even know that they come from a Jewish descendants. It’s very interesting. Culturally, it’s very interesting. I fell in love with Hebrew when I fell in love with Jesus. I fell in love with Judaism when I fell in love with Jesus because I was like, “[gasps] My Messiah, He’s Jewish. The Hebrew Bible is the Jewish Bible. Israel is a real place on the map.” This is where all of those miracles happen, which is so twisted when we hear what people are saying today about Israel and the Jews. It grieves me so much. I can only imagine how much it grieves the heart of Jesus. I fell in love with all of those things, and I started studying Hebrew.

God made such a big miracle and sent me to study at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, but not in Jerusalem. Long story, I was approved to go to Jerusalem to study at the Hebrew University when there was a bomb that exploded at the cafeteria at the university. I don’t think I shared that story with you. I got a letter saying, “Unfortunately, because of the terrorist attack that we just suffered, we’re not taking in international students.” I grieved so much because for years I was preparing myself to go there.

Then I prayed, and I prayed, and I said, “God, if you can’t take me to the Hebrew University, can you bring the Hebrew University to me?” Lo and behold, I got another letter in the mail a few months later saying, “For the first time in history, the Hebrew University is bringing their intensive Hebrew courses to Columbia University in New York.” I ended up going there. I was the only believer in the program. I was called into the director’s office and told that I could not speak to anybody about Jesus. I couldn’t tell anybody about Jesus, but I could tell everybody that God healed me from cancer and that I just love God.

I carry my Bible with me everywhere. I hang out with all my teachers. They kept asking me, “You have such a joy on you. What is it that you have different?” On the last day after I finished my last final, I told them all about Jesus, and I left. [laughs] One of my teachers at that time, she was the first one to pick me up in Israel when I moved there, and take me to her house, and tell me to just “Tell my family what you told me.” The doors that got open. Anyway, this is just to share a little bit about Hebrew.

Then one day, I decided on my Facebook group to post and say, “Hey, I’m going to teach my kids Hebrew because they’re forgetting everything.”

[00:32:46] Gretchen: I remember you saying this.

[00:32:48] Ana: Do you remember that? I’m like, “I’m going to teach my kids Hebrew because they forgot. They’re not speaking any Hebrew at all. Does anybody want to join me?” We had no sales page, no nothing. I had a link to my PayPal. We had 141 families joining me to learn Hebrew. We call it Hebrew for homeschoolers. We just received our second award this year. It is just a joy. I’ve taught thousands of homeschool family. Everything that we do is with the Bible. We go to the Bible. We learn all the Hebrew words, and verbs, and idioms, and cultural things.

They memorize Bible verses. It is so powerful. It’s just a joy. It’s much more than just learning a language. It’s really understanding the Bible. That’s what it is.

[00:33:47] Gretchen: You all can see why I wanted to have this conversation. I knew it was going to be rich and deep. Ana, in the closing moments here, what would be your final thoughts to parents? Of course, we had parents ask about Hebrew. You and I have touched on that. I will make sure that we include a link-

[00:34:07] Ana: Thank you.

[00:34:07] Gretchen: -to your website in our show notes so parents can find out more, because what a fantastic experience that would be. In the closing minutes, what would you like to leave in the minds of our guests today?

[00:34:22] Ana: I want to say something that resonates so much with me and changed the way that I did everything. Charlotte Mason said that the Holy Spirit is the supreme educator of mankind. You are not meant to do this alone. If you take on homeschooling as a chore and a task, you will burn out, but when you partner with the Holy Spirit every day, and you just thank God for the blessing that you have to shepherd that flock God has given to you, and you do it in partnership with the Holy Spirit, it changes everything.

It changes everything. It becomes your ministry. It becomes– oh goodness, it’s really discipleship. Homeschooling is not about checking off things from the list. It’s not about how much more can we– It’s not about “If I do more pages, I will learn more.” It’s not like that. It’s not like that. It’s really God-sent paper [laughs] because we will grow as we teach them. You are going to learn and grow with your children. You’re a facilitator of learning in your home. Keep that in mind that don’t do it alone. Don’t do it as a chore and a task. Do it because you got to do.

It’s a blessing. It’s a gift. You don’t do it alone because you do it with the Holy Spirit, who is the supreme educator of mankind.

[00:35:58] Gretchen: I love the fact that you said, be a student of your child. I know in retrospect, I often had the misapprehension, upon occasion, that all my kids learned some particular task the same way. I look back in that, in retrospect, they did not, not in the least. They were all wildly different. People will say to me, “But you had six children.” I had six children, and I spread them over 20 years. I had four and eight, and then I waited six years for five and six more for six. I had the privilege of a group of children, but then I had the privilege of only children as well.

When I finally embraced the fact that each one of them was wildly different, our relationship changed, and it became richer. I think your children have that blessing because I hear that in your voice and the things that you say about them, how each one of them is different. You’re going to have to come back and join me again after this giant-

[00:37:02] Ana: I will.

[00:37:02] Gretchen: -move-in because I can’t wait to see what it’s like. There are families who were like, “I’m going to have to quit homeschooling. We have to move.” You’re [crosstalk]

[00:37:13] Ana: Oh no.

[00:37:14] Gretchen: That’s your lifestyle. You’re going to have to come back and tell me. When does this great move happen?

[00:37:21] Ana: Oh, well, it’s going to start in four weeks, and it’s going to go in stages. We’re actually doing our last big RV road trip in the States. We’re going to Canada for a few months, and then I haven’t disclosed where we’re moving to yet. I thought we were getting to one place. God is calling us to another one, but to build a hub so we could be in both places at the same time. God is opening up something really exciting, but I’ll tell you this, make the best out of what God is putting in your life at that moment. It doesn’t have to be a drag.

It doesn’t have to be a trauma. It could still be pleasant, and we’re already researching all the castles and the places that we can visit once we move to this new country. We’re excited. We’re excited. Not to say that it’s hard packing everything and getting rid of things and stuff, but you are also responsible how you present that to your children. Yes, it’s hard. We talk about the hard part, but we also talk about the new adventures God is bringing to our lives. Every child will always welcome adventures.

[00:38:48] Gretchen: Tell us where people can find you online. Give us your website.

[00:38:53] Ana: I blog at theycallmeblessed.org. You can also go to anawillis.com. It will take you there. You can find me on Facebook and Instagram. I don’t spend a lot of time on social media just telling you guys this, but I do get the messages.

[00:39:09] Gretchen: How could you spend time on social media when you only have two hours a day at the library? Come on, let’s be real. [laughs]

[00:39:14] Ana: I don’t. I’ll tell you this. Two things that I teach moms to do, outsourcing and automation. Outsource and automation. Part of all those systems that keep our house going and our families going. Yes, you don’t have to do everything.

[00:39:30] Gretchen: Before we go, tell me a little bit more about that. Tell me what outsourcing and automation means to you.

[00:39:38] Ana: Let’s talk about outsourcing. For example, instead of teaching kids math, you can get Math-U-See and have Stephen teaching the kids. That’s what I’m saying. That’s a way of outsourcing something. Get somebody else to teach your kids, or somebody else– We get meals delivered to us. We used to have HelloFresh, and they would deliver our meals every Monday morning. That’s a type of outsourcing. Now we do more of the meals, but we order our meats for the whole month, and that’s outsourcing, which actually means we keep in the budget, and I don’t have to go to the grocery store all the time.

Saves time, and we keep on the budget. That’s outsourcing. It’s getting somebody else to do something to take that off your plate and do it for you. My friend Jenna-Mae always taught our music classes online for the kids. That’s outsourcing. Now automation, it’s when, for example, my Roomba cleans my floor, and I don’t have to do. I love that. It is the fastest and most efficient. I don’t know. I don’t think so, but it gets dogs’ hair from the floor, and I don’t have to be home while I go to the library, it can clean the floor for me. That’s an automation.

Putting alarms on your phone so you don’t forget to do things, that’s a type of automation you can create in your– I’m actually right now, just for fun, I’m working on an app for homeschool moms so they can track all of their homeschool. I’m having so much fun on my two hours at the library, [laughs] working little bits and little bits on that project. Anything that you can outsource or can create systems, like a loop schedule for your meals, that’s a system. That’s automation. When you batch-cooking and you put those meals ready in your freezer, you’re making your life easier.

[00:41:46] Gretchen: Oh, absolutely.

[00:41:48] Ana: Look for those strategies that will make your life easier. I’d rather cook for two, three hours once a week and then just get everything ready for the week or not. Whatever works for you.

[00:42:00] Gretchen: I have to say, there was a book when I had been homeschooling about two years, and my homeschooling buddy called me, and she said, “We’re going to put 30 meals in the freezer.” I said, “You can’t do that, you’re nuts.” She’s like, “Yes, you can.”

[00:42:15] Ana: I used to do that.

[00:42:18] Gretchen: We started that, let me think now, 30-plus years ago. Ooh, now I’m telling my age. I still do that today. Before I start my conference season, there will be a list on the refrigerator because I don’t like to come home from conference, and there are 10 pizza boxes in my garage because I know that my adult sons and my husband have been, “It’s too much work, just one call does it all.” Instead, I know that if I have put 30 meals in the freezer, I know they have food to eat, and they’re happy to do that.

[00:42:56] Ana: Healthy, and they didn’t spend money out.

[00:43:01] Gretchen: True. Absolutely.

[00:43:02] Ana: By the way, I have a free master class that is called How to Run Your Home and Homeschool on Autopilot, where I actually go through all of that, and I give you printables for all of that, even on how to plan your meals in less than 10 minutes a week.

[00:43:18] Gretchen: You can find that at anawillis.com?

[00:43:20] Ana: Yes. You can find there, you go where it says– let me see, there’s three things on– one of the little options on the top, click on freebies, and you’re going to find it there.

[00:43:33] Gretchen: Okay. All right. We’ll make sure that we point people in that direction with the show notes. Thank you so much for joining me and [crosstalk]

[00:43:40] Ana: Thank you so much for having me.

[00:43:42] Gretchen: [laughs] I will be in touch soon. Thank you to all of you who joined us today, and we’ll look forward being invited into your home again soon. Take care, everyone. Have a wonderful day.

[00:43:53] Ana: Bye, everybody.

[00:43:54] Gretchen: Bye-bye.

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