Steve and Carmon Friedrich

Amy: Thanks for taking the time to chat, Carmon. Always a pleasure!! For my last query, inquiring minds want to know what a day in your home looks like.

Carmon: I guess this is where I am supposed to describe a typical day. Remember the factorial relationships? [See yesterday's interview.] With so much activity in 3000 square feet, typical is impossible to describe. Perhaps ideal would be easier. But people want to know what it’s really like, don’t they?

Well, when Mom is feeling well, the day begins about 7 am. Steve brings me my morning mocha to help me wake up, as I am not a morning person.

[Amy interupts: How do you like your mocha? Carmon replies gracefully to the rude interruption: Steve makes it for me every morning. He grinds French roast coffee beans and makes some fairly strong coffee. He fills my shiny red travel mug 3/4 full, adds a small amount of Ghirardelli cocoa powder, some Splenda and fills to the top with half 'n half. He mixes with love, then delivers promptly, to prompt me to wake up and start the day. Amy: Oh, OK. You know, it's these details that make the story, you know.]

Meanwhile, back at the ranch… One of the girls fixes breakfast, sometimes cereal, sometimes cooked cereal, sometimes eggs or pancakes. After beds are made, teeth are brushed and the kitchen cleaned, we begin school. The older children are pretty independent in their school work (I have written about how our family uses the Robinson Curriculum). I spend most of my morning time working with the younger guys on their reading skills and giving them assignments for math and writing. I also read aloud to them. We take a break for lunch at noon, then everyone has a chore to do before finishing up their school work. The afternoon is spent reading, practicing piano, playing outside, cooking or doing projects. Then it’s time for dinner, baths, story time and bed for little guys. Older children spend time visiting with Steve and me in our room, or we sometimes watch a movie together. Someone always has his or her nose in a book.

It doesn’t sound very exciting when I write it down, but there is so much activity in the midst of it all! There are conversations all day long. Somebody is always doing something creative. Lots of discipline and training takes place as we learn to live together in peace and harmony. Our children are being trained to work hard and have a cheerful attitude about it. We love to spend time with friends, but we limit the time socializing away from home as our family life suffers if we have too many late nights and too many interruptions to school and work. Because of our roller-coaster circumstances the past couple of years, I have not scheduled any long-term commitments into our life, but that has allowed flexibility to minister to people as needs arise. Our only recurring activities are weekly piano lessons in our home and a monthly art class for my daughters. Even though we stay home a lot, there are many interruptions and errands. Birthdays are a big cause for celebration here, and we have no shortage of those.

Because we live in the boondocks, we are at home more than in the car, which is unusual compared to a lot of people we know. I’ve been pondering ways to make our home a more productive place as I think that homeschooling means staying H-O-M-E. There is so much unrealized potential in our homes, but we’ve become dependent on others to do it all for us, from pre-packaged meals to making our fun…it’s all waiting for us at Wal-Mart ;-). Many, even Christians, are skeptical of the idea of women being homekeepers because they have such a limited conception of what home life is like. Some wonder, “What do you do all day?” because all they can conceive of doing at home is watching television and eating take-out food.

In a big family, of course, laundry, cooking, cleaning and other tasks are time-consuming and constant. But home as a place of hospitality, ministry, business, education and even cultural creation is something that has been greatly underappreciated and needs to be engaged in much more by Christian families. We are still just scratching the surface of this idea, but I hope we can set an example for others as God grants us health, ideas and grace to do so.