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I'm Sara, the voice behind Chasing Jupiter, wife to my best friend, and homeschool mom to our two young boys.
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  • “I just want to be five!” My youngest son said, or rather groaned when I was putting him to bed for the night. I lied down next to him and asked, why do you want to be five? Turns out he just wanted a later bedtime, knowing his older brother was still up playing in his room. • • • I made a deal with him that he could stay up late with us one night this week. That brought a smile to his face. So he said goodnight and quietly reminded me that he wanted a superhero party for his 5th birthday... which is well over three months away. What a kid. • • • Though the story is simply born of innocence, we never really stop rushing to the next big thing as we grow up. We rush to finish school, to graduate, to go to university, start a career, get married, have kids... even once we have kids the waiting never really stops. We wait for the next milestone, crawling, walking, potty training, independence... • • • Rushing and waiting for what comes next is easy. It’s almost like we’re wired for it. It’s contentment that takes work, it takes time, experience, and practice. • • • I heard a quote once that stated “My goal isn’t to raise happy kids.” It really made me stop and think, and I realized they were right. Our level of happiness is often a result of circumstance, but contentment, comes from within no matter what circumstance we find ourselves in. • • • How do we pass this on to our children? How do we teach our children to be present in each stage, to find joy, and to be content wherever they are. It’s something we’ve been working in our home this year, but I would love to hear from you. How do you exemplify contentment for your children day to day? 🌿
  • “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” -Henry David Thoreau 🌿
  • Today my son asked about feminism, a word he read on a International Women’s Day post. I have no desire to be associated with today’s feminism. But conveying that to my son was a different matter. I want my boys to grow up respecting women for their differences without apologizing for their masculinity. Which is opposite to what mainstream feminism is today and what international women’s day has become. • • • I love my sons for who they are. In all their boyness, for their differences and for the men they’ll become while today’s feminism wants to step on them. To see their masculinity diminish while shouting slogans like “the future is female!” No, this isn’t the kind of feminism I want my children to know or embrace. • • • So after thinking for a moment, I told him that for me, today I am reminded how lucky I am to have been born in this country, to be a wife, and a mother, and how lucky I am to have been given the gift of raising men. I explained that the freedom and respect women have in this country is because of the women who came before me and we celebrate them. We celebrate the champions of womanhood who have fought and will fight for the rights of women both born and unborn. Women who are raising the next generation with strong values and who can celebrate the uniqueness of both women and men. • • • I told him just as I was proud to have been born a woman and to celebrate women, he should be just as proud to be a man, for his differences and his strengths. I told him together we can celebrate women of the past and today without diminishing what makes him a man. • • • With that covered, I asked him what women he respected in his life. He mentioned aunts, grandmothers, friends, and me. He then added Marie Curie and Helen Keller. • • • Our boys are going to learn about feminism. Give them good role models, both men and women. Ask them about women in their own lives and what qualities they admire. Let them know what real feminism looks like because like many things today, the worlds version has been twisted up and is barely recognizable anymore. Let’s learn to celebrate it for what it should be. 💕 #internationalwomensday
  • The sun came out and the temperature went up to 0 today and it was so incredibly welcome and refreshing. We took a drive along the coast and explored the beach along the way. It was a whole new world to explore for the boys even though we’ve spent summer days at this beach many times before. I know I talk a lot about being present and not rushing time along but during these last few weeks of winter my mind is on spring... and it cannot get here soon enough. We need these days outside. Have you begun counting down the days until spring yet? 🌦🌷
  • “Everything old people say about time is true. For starters, it flies. As a kid living through semi-eternal summer vacations, this is hard to believe. But as an adult? Get married. Have children. And then sit back, stunned, watching an absolute roar of gorgeous moments and hilarious moments and exhausting moments disappear—quickly and in tragedy or marching off at the traditional pace, but disappear they must. Snap a photo or two. Read verses about futility. Watching one’s small humans age and grow up packs a serious punch. It’s like being stuck in a dream unable to speak, like being a ghost that can see but not touch, like standing on a huge grate while a storm rains oiled diamonds, like collecting feathers in a storm. Parents in love with their kids are all amnesiacs, trying to remember, trying to cherish moments, ghosts trying to hold the world. Being mortals, having a finite mind when surrounded by joy that is perpetually rolling back into the rear view is like always having something important on the tips of our tongues, something on the tips of our fingers, always slipping away, always ducking our embrace.” N.D. Wilson 🌿 • • • N.D. Wilson has a way with words. And these are the words I remember every time a Facebook or Instagram memory shows up in my feed. The pictures are little reminders to cherish the present, because these long days... especially those days of February, vanish so quickly I don’t always remember to stop and take notice of the gift that is simply time with the little ones I love so much.
  • This is definitely not my regular kind of post. And definitely not one I planned on starting with after my “hiatus” from Instagram while I’ve been unwell, but this has been on my mind and I can’t seem to get away from it. The hate filled comments I have received on Facebook after speaking out against the recent push for vaccinations was shocking to say the least. So without sugar coating it, I have to say this just once.... (and before you unfollow me I can assure you that political posts will not be commonplace here on my page) • • • Mandatory vaccination is a hot topic here in Canada, and government mandated medical procedures in any way shape or form is wrong. The mere mention of it should set off alarm bells. I don’t care if you are pro-vax, anti-vax, or an ex-vaxxer, it doesn’t matter, because it’s not really the issue at hand. Are we really going to allow the government to create a law that gives them the right to make medical decisions for our families? • • • As homeschoolers we may have a false sense of security believing it will only affect public school families. It will start there but once we’ve given the government the right to make medical decisions for our children it will only spread further, eventually reaching private schools and homeschoolers alike. • • • We cannot allow fear to guide our decisions and cloud our judgement. Do your research and stay up to date with what’s going on with our medical freedoms with your local members of parliament, and organizations like @picphysicians and @vaccine_choice_canada Education is power. • • • Remember no one cares about your children like you do. You are the best decision maker for your child. Do not allow anyone to tell you otherwise or we may risk losing the precious freedoms we take for granted. • • • “Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” -Benjamin Franklin 🌿
  • “When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive—to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love—then make that day count!” 🌿 • • • Young children are almost always excited to begin the day. They jump out of bed in the morning full of energy ready to play and explore. It made me wonder, what can I do to be excited for the morning? I want to wake up happy to see my children in the morning (preferably not until after 6am). I want to get out of bed and share in their excitement for the day ahead. • • • In the new year I began a few routines that help me enjoy my mornings a little more and make the most of the day ahead. 🌿 Making sure my house is clean before I go to bed. Laundry on, dishwasher on, counters wiped down, books and toys put away. 🌿 Laying out clothes for the kids and myself before bed, having breakfast ready to go, and school books prepared at the table. 🌿 I’m no stranger to the kind of stress and worry that keeps you awake at night. I have a time in the afternoon that I take care of bills and other worries, either by writing them down or talking to my husband. Then I make a conscious decision not to think about it again. (Stress doesn’t solve any problems anyway) 🌿 I plan one fun activity to do with the boys for the next day. Craft, art project, library trip, hike, movie day, anything that I’m excited to do with the kids. They help choose activities too. • • • My biggest struggle. Getting to bed on time. I love my time alone in the evenings so it takes a lot of self-discipline to get myself to bed at a good time so I’m feeling rested in the morning. It’s a work in progress. What about you? What helps you get out of bed with a joyful heart in the morning? 🌿
  • “If I have a friend with whom to share life I will have strength and support to hold fast to my ideals.” -Sally Clarkson 🌿 • • • Friends may be those we have coffee with on Sunday’s, or friends with children we plan play-dates with during the week, they could be people we only talk to on the phone every so often and other times we have friends we haven’t met yet but have connected with nonetheless. • • • Social media at its best, has offered a place to connect with likeminded people who encourage, inspire, and support one another. It’s wonderful to see women who have never even met still desire to see each other succeed in this homeschool journey. • • • Today for #followfriday I am sharing just a few of the homeschool accounts that I have found to be inspiring to me and I hope they will be an encouragement to you too! • • • @collinsschoolhouse for her inspiring activities and suggestions for books and a simpler homeschool. 🌿 @wandering__wild is a new friend and her beautiful family and photos are guaranteed to make you smile. 🌿 @amanda_henninger for her bright and beautiful pictures but most of all for her words. 🌿 @watsonhomestead shares beautiful photos of their homeschool days with words full of honesty about not just the good things but the hard things too. 🌿
  • “At any given time, we all have room to grow and bloom, no matter where we are planted. No matter our season of life, we each have opportunities to learn more, develop more, give more.” -Ruth Soukup 🌿 • • • There is a popular homeschool blogger I follow and not long ago I realized as I read her words and watched her videos I never left feeling encouraged to do better. Instead I would leave feeling content with “good enough”. A sentiment that has been spreading throughout social media for awhile now. Posts about unfollowing accounts that don’t make you feel good about your own homeschool days. Memes constantly reminding us we are “good enough” and that’s okay. But aren’t we called to more than “good enough”? • • • At the beginning of this month I decided I needed a change. I began to intentionally follow homeschool accounts that pushed me out of my comfort zone. Homeschool moms that shared photos of their clean house, their daily schedules, meal plans, and chore charts. Mothers who are striving for greatness while sharing the real life struggles of parenthood and refusing to be victims of their circumstance. • • • If my home is chaotic and cluttered and my days are overwhelming and stressful, it’s not because I am a homeschool mom. My days are (often) a direct result of my choices. If I choose to sleep in, or leave the laundry for tomorrow. If I let my kids watch too much television or ignore behaviour when it begins. If I skip lesson planning to “wing it” or leave the dishes in the sink for later, all of these little choices add up. • • • The seasons of motherhood and homeschooling look different for each one of us. But I truly believe we are so much more capable than “good enough”. When this season of motherhood is over I hope I can look back and say, I did my absolute best. That I strived for greatness more often than not, and I did the best I could with what I had and what I knew. 🌿

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