Let Me Help

#34: Through Her Eyes: A Conversation With My Daughter About the Life We're Living

Ashley

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0:00 | 23:20

In this heartfelt episode, Ashley chats with her daughter Ellery about their homeschooling lifestyle, family routines, and life values. The conversation offers insights into intentional living, the importance of peace and organization, and the dreams of a young girl growing up in a close-knit family.

In This Episode: 

  • Homeschooling lifestyle and routines
  • Family values and peace at home
  • Children's dreams and future aspirations

Chapters:
00:00
Introduction and Purpose of the Conversation

01:23
Summer Excitements and Outdoor Adventures

02:10
Favorite Parts of Homeschooling and Daily Routine

03:46
Balancing Calm and Busy Days

04:54
Sleep Schedule and Weekday Routine

05:33
Family Life and Social Interactions

06:52
Living as an Only Child and Family Dynamics

07:53
Outdoor Activities and Family Bonding

08:45
Living Next to Family and Community Life

09:32
Family Peace and Home Environment

10:55
Organization and Respect for Personal Space

11:29
What Makes Her Happy and Self-Reflection

11:56
Creating a Happy Home and Chores

13:10
Mom's Love and Favorite Activities

14:10
Self-Perception and Personal Strengths

15:27
Future Dreams and Aspirations

16:17
Ideal Life and Family Goals

17:21
Dream House and Living Location

18:42
Living Close to Family and Community Benefits

19:15
What Matters Most in Life

19:28
What Makes Someone a Good Person

20:08
Advice for Other Moms and Kids

21:13
Reflections on Life and Small Moments

21:40
Closing Remarks and Life Inspiration

Let's Connect:

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ashley.boyce.lind

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/ashleylind_insta?igsh=bmhyOGh4OHN2NzRo&utm_source=qr

TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@letmehelppodcast?_r=1&_t=ZT-93HyipOcgND



SPEAKER_02

If you've been listening this season, we've talked a lot about slowing down, living more intentionally, creating a life you don't need to escape from. And today I wanted to do something a little different. I want to hear from someone who is actually living inside that life with me every single day. My daughter Ellerie. Welcome to the Let Me Help Podcast, a lifestyle podcast packed with simple life hacks, organizational tips, real talk on faith and marriage, homeschooling insights, parenting encouragement, health and wellness conversations, and so much more. Whether you're busy juggling life, consumed in the chaos, or just craving some clarity, it's my intention to help make your life a little smoother. One episode at a time. Okay, guys, welcome back to the podcast. Today's episode is a really special one. And my hope for this conversation isn't that it sounds perfect, but that it feels real. Because at the end of the day, this is what all of those choices look like in real life. So, Ellery, do you want to say hello? Hi. I'm really excited for this because people get to hear me talk all the time, but they haven't heard from you in a while. So we're just gonna chat, okay? You ready for this? Yeah. Take a sip. Cheers.

SPEAKER_01

Cheers.

SPEAKER_02

So I have told everyone that you just turned nine. We're getting close to summer. What are you most excited about for summer?

SPEAKER_01

Turtle hunting.

SPEAKER_02

Turtle hunting. What do you do with turtle hunting?

SPEAKER_01

Go in the boat with my cousin Drew and catch turtles. Sure.

SPEAKER_02

In the pond, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Because we have a pond behind our house and it you guys like to hunt for turtles.

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

They're quick and they're hard to catch.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And he basically jumps in the pond. Yeah. For most of them.

SPEAKER_02

So you and I spend a lot of time together. What's your favorite part about our days?

SPEAKER_01

Learning.

SPEAKER_02

Learning, which is what we call our homeschool. Right. So we've never really called it like let's sit down and do school.

SPEAKER_01

We say Let's sit down and do some learning. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. So what what do you like about being homeschooled? Or what's your favorite part?

SPEAKER_01

To be home and where I can get to wear my pajamas until the afternoon, basically.

SPEAKER_02

When you say pajamas, what do you mean?

SPEAKER_01

Like comfortable clothes.

SPEAKER_02

Lounge clothes.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So you wear your pajamas, but what does it look like in the morning time? You still have a routine. What do you do?

SPEAKER_01

I brush my hair and brush my teeth and get some like comfortable lounge clothes on that's not quite pajamas.

SPEAKER_02

Right. So for instance, right now you're wearing this adorable. Tell people what you have on right now.

SPEAKER_01

I'm wearing this peach sweatsuit.

SPEAKER_02

Your grandma got it for you for Easter, right? It's like a coral lounge set. It's super cute. So you still have to get dressed for the day. You don't get to just be in your jam jams all day.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Cause some people might think that homeschool kids don't have to get ready.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But we still get ready for the day.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Right? So what does a normal day look like for you?

SPEAKER_01

Wake up, brush my teeth, brush my hair, get dressed, then go downstairs, get some breakfast, and then do learning and then free time.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. It's springtime, so we're gonna start to begin our mornings outside with walks, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Do you enjoy that?

SPEAKER_01

Yes, I do.

SPEAKER_02

I think that that really makes a difference with our learning when we first kind of wake up, get ourselves a little bit ready for the day, get some water in our systems, go for a walk, then come back in.

SPEAKER_01

Do learning.

SPEAKER_02

Jump into learning while we make breakfast. How about making breakfast? How's that gone this year?

SPEAKER_01

Pretty good.

SPEAKER_02

Because that's something kind of new and fun.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, because I've started to make my own.

SPEAKER_02

Yep. Make your own eggs and toast and get your fruit all cut up and everything, right? Yeah. That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So let's see. What do you feel like your days are like? Do they feel calm? Are they busy? Are they rushed? Are they relaxed? Like how would you describe how it feels to be home?

SPEAKER_01

Well, it's like some days were rushed, like yesterday, to get up, go to church, and then go to the theater for Easter and then go to grandma's. Yep. So that was kind of rushed, but most of the time it's like not that rushed. We get to sleep in.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, what time do you usually wake up? People are probably curious about our schedule.

SPEAKER_01

Eight seven thirty.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you're usually up by eight. I think if you sleep past eight, that's good. Rare and it's sleeping in.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But you're probably not up usually before seven.

SPEAKER_01

I'm like up seven thirty.

SPEAKER_02

Probably, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Or at 7.15.

SPEAKER_02

What time do you go to bed?

SPEAKER_01

Like nine, but kind of 10-ish.

SPEAKER_02

Yep, I'd say probably not earlier than nine, but not later than 10.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, so you described Sunday being busy, but how would you describe our like Monday through Friday? The weekdays.

SPEAKER_01

Monday through Friday.

SPEAKER_02

You know, the days that we do learning. How do you describe the feeling of those days?

SPEAKER_01

Friday's not that rushed, but we do have my cousin over for learning. So it's like fun. It's like one of the funner days for learning. Um, and the other days are calm and fun and kind of relaxing.

SPEAKER_02

We kind of have different things that we do each day, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Tuesdays you either come with and you get to do homeschool with some of your friends, right? For in Brooklyn. And there's on Fridays, we usually have um my our niece with us. So she has her cousin here. So two days out of the week, I'd say she gets to do school or homeschool with other kids. Yeah. And then I don't know, like Fridays, like we clean the house on Fridays. So that has a different, you know, we grocery shop one of the days, right? Yeah. So every day kind of has something different built into it. But we're pretty, we do pretty much stay on routine, don't we?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Do you like that about our life?

SPEAKER_01

I do.

SPEAKER_02

Why?

SPEAKER_01

Well, it's just like not as busy as other people's lives. Like, for instance, like other people who have like public school, they have to get up really early and they're kind of rushed. So I like about our life that I can sleep in and I don't have to wake up by like seven a.m. every day.

SPEAKER_02

I've had two kids get up earlier than seven to go to school.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, like six, I don't know. I've never been.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, so you have always been an only child. What's that like? It's fun.

SPEAKER_01

Like sometimes it's really fun to have some alone time, but sometimes it's kind of boring not to have someone to play with. So in the summertime and like late spring or early spring, I s will go to my cousins a lot more often. But it's really nice to have some peace and quiet.

SPEAKER_02

So for those people who don't know, we my husband's brother lives right next door to us.

SPEAKER_01

With five kids.

SPEAKER_02

With five kids. And we live in the country, so we're both kind of secluded. There's like some fun woods just between our house, and the kids really enjoy outdoor life.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

You know, like we already mentioned, searching for turtles in the pond and going through the woods. What are some other things that you guys like to do?

SPEAKER_01

Well, my well, from the five cousins, uh, the youngest one likes to capture frogs. I don't really like frogs, they're kind of slimy and groves. I do, I will hold them sometimes though.

SPEAKER_02

But you go along for the adventure.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Or salamanders, yuck. But I still go on the adventures.

SPEAKER_02

So they're a little bit more um crazy. I was gonna say adventurous or daring than you. But you seem to fit right in.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So do you ever wish you had your own siblings?

SPEAKER_01

I do sometimes.

SPEAKER_02

But you know that they'd live here with us full time, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Or we could just send them to my cousin's house.

SPEAKER_02

No, that's not how that works. I think you kind of live the best of both worlds, being that we have cousins so close. Yeah. I really look at that as an answer to prayer and a godsend to probably to them and to you, because when they need a little bit of a break because they have so many siblings, they can always come over here, right? Our door is always open. This is like a second home for them where they can come and have a little bit more of a peace and quiet situation. And when you're bored here or looking for some adventure, you can always go over there and find some random stuff. Yeah, some chaos and some fun, right? What do you think our family does differently than other families that have more kids? Like, what do you see as the difference?

SPEAKER_01

Peace.

SPEAKER_02

Why? Do you see other like do you see big families as being chaotic?

SPEAKER_01

Yes, that's really funny. For instance, my cousins.

SPEAKER_02

What does it feel like to be a part of our family?

SPEAKER_01

Um, happiness, love, and peace. Be quiet.

SPEAKER_02

That sounds like I told you to say that to people. Why do you come up with those three things?

SPEAKER_01

Because it's true.

SPEAKER_02

So you keep kind of saying peace and calming in our house. Is that important to you?

SPEAKER_01

Well, I feel like it's comfortable not to be like other people screaming and having a TV on the whole time.

SPEAKER_02

So we do not, we really rarely turn our TV on. I mean, at nighttime we have it on when we're ready to sit down and relax and watch something, but we are not a family that has the TV on a lot. And we notice when we go to other houses, so many people keep their TV on all the time.

SPEAKER_01

On like full volume. And it's kind of disrupting and annoying.

SPEAKER_02

It's a lot of um, it's just a lot of noise when you're not used to it. So maybe that's a tip for some listeners. If they have chaos in their life and maybe they don't even realize that they have their TV on full blast, right? Well, pro tip, maybe just turn that down or off. What do you think is special about our family?

SPEAKER_01

What I think special is Well, what do you think special is like our calming and how we like to keep our things organized? And like none of our houses are messy.

SPEAKER_02

Do you like that?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Do you think that you'd be like that if you had more siblings, or it'd be harder to be a little bit more organized?

SPEAKER_01

Probably a little harder.

SPEAKER_02

How do you feel when people come and mess with your stuff?

SPEAKER_01

Um, I'm kind of annoyed.

SPEAKER_02

Oh my gosh, you probably get that from me. You think you get that from me or dad? You okay. What do you love most about your life? My life? This is personal now. You don't have to think about it just me and dad and you as an only child, but just you personally. What do you love about your life?

SPEAKER_01

What I like about my life is um well here, how about this?

SPEAKER_02

When do you feel the happiest?

SPEAKER_01

I feel the happiest around my family.

SPEAKER_02

Um, what makes a home feel really good to you?

SPEAKER_01

Our home or just at home?

SPEAKER_02

Our home, but maybe like when you get older, when you have your own home, what will you want it to feel like?

SPEAKER_01

Clean.

SPEAKER_02

Clean.

SPEAKER_01

Happiness, joyful.

SPEAKER_02

Want people to be getting along and enjoying each other in the house and being happy about their days and their let's talk about that. What about when we have chores to do? You know, for instance, this morning we've already made breakfast, done dishes, done some learning. Um typically in the mornings I have you pick up, like clean up your room a little bit and that kind of stuff, right? What what does it feel like to have chores to do?

SPEAKER_01

Well, it's like medium fun. Medium fun? Yeah, it's like not the well for me, it's not the happiest thing to do right as I wake up. But it's also pretty fun to organize my things. So like medium.

SPEAKER_02

So maybe just the timing of the day?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, probably. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So it sounds like you really cherish your mornings. You don't like to be rushed and you don't want to have to jump into something right away in the morning.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So remember when I put a picture of you online and I asked people some questions that they wanted to ask?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. They some people want to know what do you love most about your mom?

SPEAKER_01

She loves me.

SPEAKER_02

How much I love you.

SPEAKER_01

And uh I just really like how much she loves me and takes care of me.

SPEAKER_02

I love taking care of you. That's one of my favorite things. What's one of your favorite things that we do together?

SPEAKER_01

Shopping.

SPEAKER_02

Like grocery shopping or yeah, grocery shopping. What do you love about grocery shopping? Cause I love it too. I just I bet you people might think that that's kind of funny. Like, what? I love grocery shopping. Well We do.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, because I get to see Auntie Kim. Mm-hmm. And I don't know, it's just fun.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know, it's just really fun.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. Um, how about what are some things you really like about yourself?

SPEAKER_01

Do we just do this one?

SPEAKER_02

No, this is that was about your life. Now this is about you.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, um, what do I like about myself?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Um I like how I'm a leader. And I I like my smile.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I love that you're a leader. That's one of my favorite things about you. What do you think you're really good at?

SPEAKER_01

Uh what I think I'm really good at? What I think I'm really good at is probably I don't really know actually.

SPEAKER_02

You don't? I don't.

SPEAKER_01

This is actually it should be an easy question. I don't. Well, you're good at a lot of things.

SPEAKER_02

I know.

SPEAKER_01

I can't think of any for some reason.

SPEAKER_02

When I look at you, I mean, throughout the entire time being your mom, even as a baby and as a toddler, you have always been such a good listener. You are very respectful, you follow the rules, you don't want to get yelled at. You just don't ever want to rock the boat, like make any sort of drama or problems. That's a really good thing.

SPEAKER_01

And I'm terrible.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Um, and I'm a really bad liar, which is good.

SPEAKER_02

That is good. Not she cannot tell a fib. You can see it right on her face. And I tell her that's a wonderful thing.

SPEAKER_01

But for April Fool's Day it was not that great. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

She had a hard time with April Fool's Day trying to mess with us.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. Future. What do you want to be when you grow up?

SPEAKER_01

Like as a job or anything.

SPEAKER_00

Well, for my job, I want to be a um, okay. I want to be a cashier for my job.

SPEAKER_02

Because you want to scan food? Yes.

SPEAKER_00

It's fun.

SPEAKER_02

What else? What about when you get like older, older?

SPEAKER_01

Get retired. You want to retire?

SPEAKER_02

If you could do anything in the whole world, what would you do? Be cashier. No. You are thinking too small. Like you always talk about going to space, swimming with orcas, like anything in the entire world, Ellery.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, that's these orcas.

SPEAKER_02

Swimming with orcas?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Or having a pet orca, which is probably illegal.

SPEAKER_02

I don't think you can have a pet orca, but what are some of your dreams for your life when you get older? What do you want life to look like when you're an adult?

SPEAKER_01

Um, probably have a clean house and go to s like what do you mean?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, like that. What do you want your life to look like? Are you married? Do you have kids? Do you want to be a mom one day?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

How many kids do you want?

SPEAKER_01

Two.

SPEAKER_02

Two.

SPEAKER_01

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02

Uh boy and a girl, two boys. What are you thinking?

SPEAKER_01

Two girls.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, so you want a clean house, you want some kids. What do you want your relationship with your husband to look like?

SPEAKER_00

I want him to have a job.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, I hope he does. What else?

SPEAKER_00

Like, I want a job like you where I can still be at home with my kids, but also still have a job.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, that's a blessing. It's a blessing in my life. That would be awesome for you.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

What do you want your marriage to look like though?

SPEAKER_00

I don't really know how to think about that since I'm only nine.

SPEAKER_02

Well, do you want to like laugh a lot with your husband? Do you want to b like build a business together? Do you see your guys, you know, traveling and working a lot, or do you see yourselves like being home and relaxed a lot?

SPEAKER_01

Like oh, also one of the things that I want like to be in the whole entire world is also I want my house to kind of be like a bakery kind of.

SPEAKER_02

You live in the house and then it's the bakery also?

SPEAKER_01

There's like a part of my house is a bakery, but like a pe like this part would be a bakery, then up there would be actually my house.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. I like that idea. Where'd you come up with that?

SPEAKER_01

Um, a filter.

unknown

Oh.

SPEAKER_01

Like when I was on your phone looking at like filters. Um, it I did one that has a job and it had me as a bakery and I'm like, I kinda wanna do that. So yeah, that's how I decide that.

SPEAKER_02

Where do you want your house to be? Where do you want to live?

SPEAKER_01

Up on our hill.

SPEAKER_02

So explain that. People probably don't know what that means.

SPEAKER_01

Um, so we have a hill and me and my cousin want to build a house on it. Or we want so like up like up the road, we have a house that has a slide built into it. So either like buy that house or build a house on top of our hill.

SPEAKER_02

You want to live nice and close to us? Yes. I do. I hope that that comes true.

SPEAKER_01

I hope too.

SPEAKER_02

Because I I think a lot of people think it could be stressful to live next to family, but what have you found with living next to family? Fun and loving. It's fun, right? You've always got people to count on, or if you need anything, they're right next door. What do you think matters most in life?

SPEAKER_01

What do I think matters? Um, like what does that mean?

SPEAKER_02

Like to anybody, what's the most important part of life if you had to tell somebody?

SPEAKER_01

What's the most important part that I say safe?

SPEAKER_02

That you stay safe? Yes. Okay. So in your mind, safety is the most important part. Yes. You want to feel safe? What makes somebody a good person?

SPEAKER_01

Believing in the Lord.

SPEAKER_02

Believing in the Lord. Why would that make them a better person?

SPEAKER_00

Because wait, that's a great question, actually. Well, because they get to go with the Lord, so like they can come up to heaven.

SPEAKER_02

Mm-hmm. And while we're down here before we go up to heaven, as we're walking through this life, when you have a relationship with Christ, you can rely on him to have to help you make better decisions.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Right? So when we're walking with the Lord and we're confused about maybe something that we should do or not do, we can ask the Lord for guidance and he steers us in the right direction. Right? I agree with that. Yeah. Is there anything you would want other moms or kids to know? Mm-hmm that listen to this podcast. You know, a lot of people I think are just curious about our life that we are an only child family and that we homeschool. Is there anything that you want people to know about either of those things?

SPEAKER_01

If you want to homeschool, homeschool.

SPEAKER_02

Yes. Oh, I love that. That is so simple and it's so true. Do you know a lot of people deep down they have a desire or they're curious about homeschooling, but they don't think that they could do it. What would you tell them?

SPEAKER_01

If the Lord's telling you to homeschool, you should do it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I love that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I'm not gonna lie, that got me a little emotional. But this is why I wanted to do this episode because we can talk all day long about routines. And I have been I have been talking a lot during this season of the podcast to to these women who are listening about slowing down and building a meaningful life. But at the end of the day, this is really what it looks like. You know, this is our daily routine. This is our life. And I know not every season is easy. We've had really hard seasons too. And we're in one in some ways. Right now, we're in a hard season. But I hope this conversation reminds you of something really simple and really important. The way you're living your life is shaping someone, our babies, our kids, our nieces. Our nephews, maybe our neighbors or our coworkers, people are watching and people are picking up on the way you're living your life. And that doesn't mean you have to do it perfectly. It just means that the small everyday choices, they do matter. They matter much more than you think. And I truly believe that God is present in those small ordinary moments, in the conversations, in the time together, in the life that you're building one day at a time. So I just want to thank you for being here for this season. This one meant a lot to me. Uh, we're gonna take a short little break as we bounce into spring here and enjoy a little bit of summer, but we will be back. And until then, I just want to remind you to go love your life right where you are. God has a plan for you and you are meant to live on purpose. Ellery, you want to say goodbye? Bye. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening. I hope there was something that blessed you in today's episode. If you enjoyed it, would you take a second to subscribe to the show or leave a quick review? It helps so much. And if you know someone who could use a little boost, please share this episode with them. Until next time, take care and thanks for letting me help.