BokrosLife

This past Saturday was Small Business Saturday and I will be honest it felt very strange not to have a business to share on social media.  For the past 6 years I have worked pretty tirelessly at running my own business and off and on for the 4-5 years prior to that!!   Most of those years have been spent in direct sales with some selling of handmade items and private health coaching mixed in.

And I have loved it all.

Shaklee was a fantastic company to work with, still to this day some of the most caring people I know.  I never met anyone within this company that I didn’t genuinely like.  I learned so much about the importance of a knowing your ingredients, living a chemical-free lifestyle and leaving a light footprint on the environment through the initiatives of this company.  I learned about building a legacy business, that allowed for generations within a family to work together to create a dream lifestyle for themselves.  I saw it first hand and I knew that it was what I wanted.  It was an extremely difficult decision to close my business 31/2 years ago, but I knew it was the right move to make.

Plexus was an equally fantastic company to work with.  The products positively impacted my health more than anything else I had ever tried.  The people were fun.  The company was fun and so, so very generous.  I experienced a tremendous amount of personal growth while I was with this company, as that is where they shine.    It was an equally difficult decision to leave this company and the relationships within it, but again, I knew the decision was right.

WildTree was my most recent direct sales experience and again I gained so much from my short time with them.  I learned how to lead with service in business as that is where they shine.  I met so many wonderful people in my community by helping them get healthy meals to their table.  I had never done a “party planning” style business and I can say that it got me out of my comfort zone in a really great way.  Again, it was difficult to leave, but I knew it was the right decision for me.

So where does that all leave me now?  To be honest I am still answering that question for myself.  I know that it has been a dream in my heart, since I was 19 years old, to build my own company with a residual style income that allows me to be fully present for my family AND impact those God has put around me through my business.  I will not compromise on choosing between the two.  I am an entrepreneur through and through, beginning with teaching the neighborhood kids trampoline lessons at 6 years old I have pretty much always had a business of some sort. I believe in the value of owning and supporting a small business.  I’m passionate about education and community. I have no problem going against the crowd or blazing a new trail.  But I also know that I am also very burnt out on the way Direct Sales is typically done.

In terms of what the future holds for me in my work, I know exactly what I want and what I don’t want…..a lot of failing forward will help you define that. 🙂  I am thankful for all of the times I have succeeded BIG, like earning free trips to the white sandy Ft. Meyers beach for a week for my whole family and an EPIC trip to Washington D.C. for all of us.  I earned another trip to Florida and passes to Disney and took my husband for the first time in his life!  I have learned so much about what I am capable of from those successes, but I learned more from the failures and the months when my numbers didn’t meet my goals and giving myself permission to QUIT when I knew God was calling me out of a season.  I am a fiercely loyal person by nature so quitting is hard, hard, hard for me.  But I will also say that there has been sooooo much fruit in laying down what I want in any area of my life, not just business, and trusting God enough to let Him take the lead.

So here’s where I am right now at this exact moment.  Resting in Him…..piling up all of the dreams in my heart, all of the plans and all of the experiences He has taken me through in my life and laying them at his feet and resting in the knowledge that He has a good, good plan to knit them all together.  He has said “Rest” (otherwise read as stop trying to figure it all out) and He has spoken very clearly that my achiever personality WILL NOT be the thing that accomplishes these dreams in my heart.  He will be the one to do it.

And this verse….I just can’t read it enough…

“Put God in charge of your work, then what you have planned will take place.” ~ Proverbs 16:9

For now I am focusing on supporting my oh so awesome husband in his new job (with lots of travel!!!!), keeping a great rhythm in our new schooling approach, serving in my girls AHG troop, managing adoptions that are still coming in through our Adopt A Harvey Family Website, and helping a few friends incorporate essential oils into their homes!

I get messages daily from people asking what company I am working with now, so I hope this helps answer that and explain some details.

And for real….no worries, if you can’t keep up with my life, even I can’t sometimes ;).

XOXO,

Maggie

No matter how much I prepare ahead November always kicks my behind.  Three of our girls have birthdays, plus Thanksgiving, plus beginning the holiday season and well that is really just a new level of insanity…..or blessings…..or both ;).

On top of the regularly scheduled Bokros November Insanity, this year my husband was in the midst of interviewing and accepting a new position, which required lots of travel for him and multiple trips to my knees.  He really had me honing my longsuffering prayer skills there for a bit :).

But we made it through and we are so ridiculously blessed.

Our baby girl turned eight and we celebrated her with a sweet friend, some crafting and a fancy ballet.

Our middle turned eleven and has finally made it to “tween” hood.  I am sure of it because she has reminded us many, many, many times.  She has not ever had her very own birthday party, which she also reminded us of many, many, many times……SOO…..we celebrated her with her very own unicorn party, complete with a unicorn cake made by her daddy.  I am pretty sure he felt on top of the world listening to all of her friends “oohh” and “ahhh” saying, “your Dad made that?!?”

And for the grand finale, our oldest turned sixteen.  I am seriously stumped about how this happened since she was just born last week.  We celebrated her with Ugly Christmas Sweater Cookies and a day of Christmas fun!

Thanksgiving Eve we celebrated our finishing of THE FIRST Harry Potter book (I know…I know…we are so behind) by watching the movie.  We have been reading the book aloud together in the evenings.  I have no words for how fun it was to watch my kids see all of the characters on the screen comparing them to how they had imagined them, while we were reading.  So.so.fun.

Sandwiched in between all of the birthdays, we opted for a quiet Thanksgiving at home, just us.  Just the way we wanted it.

While the Turkey baked, we crafted Harry Potter Wands and cast spells on each other.  We cooked, ate, played at the park, napped on the couch and ate some more.  It was perfect.

By the end of Thanksgiving night, our eight-foot chalkboard literally could not hold another “I’m Grateful For”…..it was filled to capacity with all of the blessings in our lives, much like our hearts.

Grateful.  Thankful.  Blessed.

I truly hope your November was the same.

XO,

Maggie

“and all at once summer collapsed into fall.” ~ Oscar Wilde

Invitation to explore spiders and their webs

All the seeds of tomorrow are the flowers of today.

{Harvest Squash Puzzle}

But these are the days we dream about

where sunlight paints us gold.

The trees are about to show us how lovely it is

to let the dead things go.

{Autumn Leaves Bundle}

Find our list of Fall Read Alouds here.

Happy fall y’all!

Maggie

I have been an avid reader since forever, so naturally, I have worked to instill the love of reading in our kids.  Our kids have been going for weekly library trips since they were in the womb :).

We have always incorporated great quality living books into our schooling and now that we are freeschooling our books have become even more foundational in our learning.  I get asked often how I find “good” books.  I don’t rely on one resource, but several.  I have lists I have been referring to for years and I am always looking for new resources.

Two of my favorite current resources are The Good & The Beautiful Book List and Sarah Makenzie’s blog and IG Feed at Read Aloud Revival.

(Click here for a special link for a free download of TG&TB Book List through 11/11/17)

I thought it might be fun to document here what we are reading as a way of keeping track for myself, but also for those of you who need some more ideas!

So here’s what is currently being consumed at our house!

Morning Read Alouds (for everyone)

~ I spend about an hour and a half reading aloud to everyone to start our school day.

• The Giant Pumpkin Suite, Melanie Heuiser Hill
• 10 Girls Who Made a Difference, Irene Howat
• Emily Dickinson Poetry for Kids
• Every Living Thing, James Herriot
• 100 Dresses, Eleanor Estes *
• The Llama Who Had No Pajama, 100 Favorite Poems by Mary Ann Hoberman *

*finished in October

Monday Read Alouds (for my younger three)

~ On Monday’s I get some time with just my three younger kids and I pick some fun books just for them.  I typically read 3-4 a week and then we chase the spark for our lessons that day from something that interested them in the reading.  

~ These books go with our Autumn Leaf Study and lead to some great discovery about hibernation and how to tap a Maple Tree to make your own syrup!

• Ox-Cart Man, Donald Hall
• Little Tree, Loren Long
• A Book for Bramble, Lynne Garner
• A Tree is Nice, Janice May Judry
• I am a Bunny, Richard Scarry
• Luck, Jean Craighead George
• The Lion Inside, Rachel Bright
• Aesop’s Fables
• The Nutty Nutchase, Kathryn White

Personal Reading 

~ Part of our school day is time set aside for independent reading. 

• My Seven Year Old ~ The Courage of Sarah Noble, Alice Dalgliesh
• My Ten Year Old ~ Jeremy: The Tale of an Honest Bunny, Jan Karon
• My Twelve Year Old ~ One Crazy Summer, Rita Williams-Garcia
• My Fifteen Year Old ~ A Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett and she just finished Heidi, Johanna Spyri (*she prefers audiobooks to get her reading done)

On My NightStand

• Atomic Weight of Love, Elizabeth J. Church
• When Children Love to Learn,
• Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv

AudioBooks

~ If we have a day of errands or a road trip we usually have an audiobook going.  I watch for deals through Sarah’s site and stock up when they are under $2.

This month we have listened to:

• Hank the Cowdog: The Case of the Halloween Ghost, John R. Erickson
• Tumtum and Nutmeg: Trouble at Rose Cottage, Emily Bearn

Bedtime Read

~ My husband and I are taking turns reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone to our three younger kids before bed.  We are right at the end and they BEG every night for more!  They can hardly go to sleep wondering what’s going to happen next!  

What is your family reading right now?

Maggie

PS – I didn’t include my hubby in the lists above, but he just finished Chip Gaines new book and LOVED it!

This September we started our 10th year of homeschooling and I can honestly say that so far it feels like our best year yet.  And it does feel unbelievably good to say that, coming from what the last few years have felt like.

When I started thinking about our year and what I wanted it to look like God spoke one word to me over and over again….Depth.

I penned the word in my journal and prayed and really tried to think through what He meant for me to take from that word and how to apply it to our school year.

I prayed over co-ops and curriculums and all of the things we have done in the past.  I considered many, many new options.  Every single one God gently said…”no” and continued to lead me in the direction of what I am now calling freeschooling…..just for the record I HATE being bound by labels, but this one is so different for me ;).

Freeschooling for me is all of the freedom and none of the boundaries.  It’s everything my kids individually need, right where they are, and none of the arbitrary standards someone says they “should” know.  It’s letting them run wild and free with their strengths and their interests.  It’s not limiting their education to a curriculum, a methodology, a desk/kitchen table or even the four walls of our home.  It’s filled with space for wonder and discovery and challenge and thinking and absent of fear and forcing and finishing a lesson or a curriculum, because of a self-imposed deadline or need to “check all of the boxes”.  It’s me learning from them, more than them learning from me.  Freeschooling is fluid, with movement and growth.  It leaves room for ME and care of myself.  Freeschooling is relationship based and lead by grace.

And then I went and did something CRAZY!! I sold all of my curriculum….I really did.

We started with a family vision night, where we each shared our vision for what we wanted school to “look like” and things we wanted to learn (yes…me too).  We put it all down on paper.  Then I started searching for resources to support what and how we wanted to learn. As you can imagine finding curriculum that fits into all of the freeschooling dreams of my heart might be quite a challenge.

But God 🙂

I don’t know how in all of my homeschooling years I haven’t even heard of The Good & The Beautiful, but it has been THE THING that God has used to breathe life back into our homeschooling days.  I can say with my whole heart that it has not only met, but exceeded ALL of my expectations in a curriculum.  It has fit perfectly into my freeschooling approach.  I cannot say enough good things about this curriculum and the heart behind it.

And every single one of my kids LOVE it.  Yup….you read that right!  They LOVE it!!

We made this short video to tell you the things specific things we love the most!

Homeschooling Mama…..if you or your kids are not thriving in your school days, don’t wait to make a change!  Stop, pray and go where God leads, even if it doesn’t make sense at first!

Also, many of you have asked me how I find all of our great Read Alouds and this is one of my favorite resources!!!  AND IT’S FREE FOR YOU THROUGH TOMORROW (11/11/17) , compliments of Jenny Phillips at The Good & The Beautiful!!!  Use this link to download for FREE!!

I plan to go into more details about the ins and outs of how our days unfold and what each child is working on currently.  If you have other questions about my approach, please let me know and I will do my best to answer!

Blessings,

Maggie

PS – For honesty sake I need to disclose that I am entering this post into a contest to win free curriculum from The Good & The Beautiful, BUT I’ve had this post written in my mind for a month exactly as it is….the contest just pushed me to finally do it :).

To Your Health!

~ Maggie

If you are always pointing out your spouse’s annoying habits, do they not grow into the only thing you can think about when you think of them!?  On the other hand, if you give your attention to the things you love about your spouse and regularly compliment those things, then it’s quiet possible your love for them will grow (as that annoying way they swallow quietly disappears into the background…….right hunny ).

1. Look for them – as I said above….be intentional about looking for the good things and noting them.
2. Build Them Into My Routine – I have a pretty regular routine I go through to begin and end my day.  If I want to make sure something gets daily attention, then I add it into my routine.   I also take big goals and break them down into daily steps in this way.  For example, one of my 2016 goals is to develop a deeper prayer life.  The daily action step of that looks like me taking time each evening to pray through my Prayer Points.
3. Keep A Visual Reminder – I am a visual person.  I really have to keep things in front of me in order for them to stay on my mind.  I use notes on my bathroom mirror as reminders.  I keep my planner open on my breakfast table at all times, with action steps toward the “good things” I am working on written in it.  I also keep my Monthly Tending Sheet out at all times, so I can see where I am headed for the month! 
4. Make Space for Them – I’ve done A LOT of shifting of priorities in my life lately, so I can really hone in on the things that matter to me.  The bottom line here is if you don’t make time for the things you really want in life, they will not happen.  Plain and simple.
5. Daily Check In – The things that are important to me get my daily attention.  I am working on growing my income, so I check my bank balance and the each day and thank God for what is there and pray for more ways to put my value into the world.  I also check-in daily with other aspects of my business.  I am working on growing good things in my marriage, so each day I take time to fill a need of his that my husband voiced to me awhile back. You cannot expect a beautiful, fragrant rose bush after months of walking past it without a second glance.  And of course the box checker in me loves the Tending Sheets from Lara Casey for this!