Tuesday Topics-4 Things I Have Learned Outside of School

This one is kind of tricky for me.  You see, I was homeschooled and so most of what I've learned in life, I was taught as part of my schooling.  When your mom is your teacher, and she's the one who taught you pretty much everything you know and believe as an adult, it can be hard to distinguish between what was learned "in" school and what wasn't. 

Somehow, I managed to come up with four things though.

1. Sew. 
My home-ec class one year involved me running the house (cooking, cleaning, laundry, shopping, etc) for one whole week.  Very educational for me and very smart of my mom who got a week off.  The one thing my home-ec class was missing was the sewing portion.  My mom can sew, but she doesn't like doing it so she didn't teach me.  I'm pretty much a self-taught sewist.  

Dress and shirt made by me and modeled by Princess and my nephew

2. How to drive.
My mom was too smart to get in a car with any of us kids while we were learning how to drive (unlike my dad who let my newly licensed brother practice driving a stick shift in downtown Minneapolis during rush hour).  Because we kids were required to pay our own way for the most part once we were old enough to have a job (this parenting technique not only saved my parents some money, but is a super way to teach kids responsibility and appreciation for things), I opted to wait until I was 18 before learning to drive so I didn't have to pay for the driving class.  At the age of 19ish, my then-boyfriend/now-husband and my dad taught me to drive so I could take the written test (twice) and get my license. 

3. Blog.
Okay, I don't know if I can actually count this one since I learned how to write in school, but blogging didn't exactly come up back then.  Was blogging even around in the 90's?  I don't know, but anyways, I didn't start my blog until 2009.  Of course, at the beginning, I assumed that blogging was just typing up a post and hitting the "publish" button.  Um, yeah.  If you want your blog to really go anywhere, you need to learn social media, html, networking and so much more.  Also things that weren't covered in school and that I have learned to utilize.

4. Choose Joy.
My mom will tell you that I've always been a definite a bit of a Negative Nellie.  In the past few years, I've learned that (just like my mom said!) I have the freedom to choose how I will respond to a situation.  I can choose to respond with worry, fear, anger, etc. or I can choose to respond with joy.  I'm not perfect yet, (although that's coming any day now!), but realizing that I have power over how a situation affects me is very freeing.     


Thanks so much for visiting Supermommy!...Or Not.  I'd love for you to like me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter!