This is something we talk about and then talk about and then talk about some more.  It is definitely a balancing act at the beginning.  If you have read about us then you know we are committed to helping the homeschool community change the world.  Of course we love our t-shirts and want everyone to wear them, but we also desire to be supportive of homeschooling in other ways.

That is why we are happy to be a gold sponsor for the Plants & Pillars Film Festival.  This is a film festival created by a homeschool family of ten, who has a passion for not only film making, but for sharing that passion so others can participate as well.   We hope this is the first of many homeschool endeavors that we will be able to support!

On the other hand, for us to be able to support these types of activities we must receive support ourselves.  In saying this, we are very thankful for everyone who has purchased our t-shirts and are excited about the road ahead of us.  The only way we can continue to grow, besides producing a good product, is for our name to spread throughout the homeschooling community.  We started out doing a few conferences, where we received great support from many homeschooling families.  We then launched our Facebook and Twitter campaigns, which again has resulted in growing support (if you haven’t stopped by to like or follow us, please do!).

Now we are very thankful that two kind ladies have allowed us to be highlighted on their blogs.  Alicia Stunkel , of Confessions Of A Snowflake, gave us the privilege of doing this guest post, as well as a shirt give away, and Anna Molder of Molding Minds Homeschool was kind enough to do a review of one of our shirts along with another shirt give away.  Click on the links above and take a look.  We are thankful for the support and are hopeful of more opportunities in this area.  If you have any ideas, don’t be shy, let us know.

Like any business, we can’t exist without customers, so we’re asking you to help spread the word about us.  At Homeskoolie, supporting homeschoolers is what we do, but being supported by homeschoolers is how we exist.

I’ve spent this week completely laid up because last Sunday I ruptured my Achilles tendon playing tennis.  The fastest I could get in for surgery was 5 days later and in the mean time, the orthopedist put a cast on my leg, gave me some crutches and pain medication,  and told me to keep my leg elevated.  “See you Friday,” he said, smiled and went to see the next patient.

So home I went to fend for myself for a week (with the help, of course, of my lovely family).  Now I should mention that the leg I injured is my right one and so that pretty much eliminates any attempt I might make to drive anywhere.  And when the doctor says don’t put any pressure on it, it’s not because I’m doing him any favors.  An ounce of weight on my foot sends a shooting pain up my leg that reminds the Percocet who’s really the boss around here.

And so here I am, trying to make do with two new appendages that I’m still trying to figure out how to use and one that just won’t work.  I’m like an octopus with stiff legs hobbling down the hall.  And stairs! Yea, you should see that!  It’s probably worth a YouTube video.  And so the greatest challenges of the day, aside from avoiding pain, can be summed up in one word: balance.

Ever tried to go to the bathroom balancing on one leg?  How about putting on a new pair of shorts? Sounds easy, right?  Taking a cup of coffee from the kitchen to, well, anywhere for some quite time early in the morning?  Right, you gotta be kidding me.  How about trying to carry a laptop from one room to the next because I need a change of scenery, oh, and then remembering that I left my cell phone & some papers I need downstairs?  I have to confess that for once in my life, I actually thought I might use a man-bag if I had one (tell me I didn’t just put that in print)!

But my struggles with balance go even deeper than that.  Because while I’m attempting to shave while supporting myself with one leg on the floor and one hand on the wall, it becomes clearer how often I’m trying to balance things on a much larger scale.  For those of us who are managing life in the middle of some of the craziest years – those with young children – things are hard enough with work, children, marriage, family and church commitments.  Throw in things like starting new businesses, trying to write books, train for marathons, dive into new hobbies and, believe me, things can get really out of kilter.

So life becomes a question of priorities.  Since there’s only so much time in a day, no matter what strategies you use to get more productive or what you choose to sacrifice, you will inevitably hit a ceiling.  And as I’m laying on the couch thinking about that, it occurs to me that the answers are deeper than just itemizing what’s important for the day or for the task at hand.

One convicting thing for me in particular is the thought that I really can’t have it all.  If you’re like me and have more dreams and ambitions that one person can possibly accomplish in a lifetime (with the exception maybe of the biblical Solomon, and we see where it got him), it’s important to come to terms with that reality sooner, rather than later.  And when it comes to accomplishments, it may be better to spin the question, “What do I want to do?” into the question, “Who do I want to be?”  Because here’s the challenging and provocative point for folks that are achievement oriented: Your character and relationships are more important than your accomplishments and experiences.

Of course, it helps to be on pain killers when coming to painful conclusions like that, especially for those of us that have a tendency to measure our worth by the things we do.  But seriously, being in a relatively helpless state is a very good perspective changer.  Yes, it’s great to be “on” and hitting on all cylinders and movin’ and shakin’ and all that.  But guess what?  We weren’t always like that and we won’t always be.  Time and age will make sure of that.  And when our human frailty catches up to us in some way (and eventually it will), suddenly it will be the relationships that we have and the character that we’ve cultivated that will want so desperately to cling to.  And if we’ve gotten in the habit of living an unbalanced life, we just might find that all those things we once counted as gain are the very things we would gladly give up if we could.

One of the positive things about being laid up in bed with an injury is that I can catch up on blog posts that I’ve been wanting to write!  And here’s one that’s long overdue.

We were an exhibitor at the Southeast Homeschool Expo in Atlanta, GA on the 28th & 29th of July, and once again we had a really great experience.  That makes 3 conventions for us so far and that was a lot to swallow for a brand new start-up company!  This was our largest conference by far, with over 6,000 folks in attendance and traffic to our little booth was good, even though we were tucked away in the back.

First off, I’d like to compliment the Southeast Homeschool Expo event folks.  Of the three conferences we’ve attended, this was the smoothest one from an exhibitor point of view.  The venue at the Cobb Galleria Centre was very nice and the logistics seemed to us to go well.  We got in and set up with no trouble and once the event was over (we like to stay until the very last minute) we were able to get packed & loaded easily.

We were pleased with our overall sales at the conference.  We sold 80 shirts which is more than we’ve done in any of our other shows.  If we measure sales as a percentage of attendees it was lower than our other events, but we’re really still in the stage of getting exposure for our brand so people know who we are.  I don’t think a lot of folks come to homeschool conventions looking for t-shirts, so we consider it a success to have the sales that we did.

The surprise best-seller of the conference was our “I Think, Therefore I Homeschool” t-shirt, a play on the Latin phrase, Cogito Ergo Sum (I think, therefore I am).  We almost didn’t print this design thinking it was too much of a niche design for classical model homeschoolers but decided to at the last minute.  I’m glad we did, because we sold out at the conference!  Not to worry though, we now have more in stock.

But the best part of the conference, as with the previous shows, was the great people we were able to meet.  I’m always amazed by the many different folks who are home educating and so excited to see the kind of turnout that was at the event.  We had some great conversations about homeschooling with some of the other vendors who hadn’t traditionally marketed to homeschoolers.  It’s really neat to hear what they have to say about homeschoolers, particularly when this is their first homeschool conference.  It’s like they’ve been transported to this new world that they didn’t know existed and they’re still trying to figure out if everyone’s really as nice as they seem!

We were particularly excited to meet Cozi Zuehlsdorff, one of the stars of the upcoming movie Dolphin Tale, when she, her sister and friend dropped by the booth.  We were already looking forward to Dolphin Tale’s release in September, and now it will be even better having met one of the cast!

In addition to meeting Cozi, we also had a chance to meet internet blogger Alicia Stunkel.  Alicia was gracious enough to let us write a guest post about Homeskoolie for her blog, ConfessionsOfASnowflake, so if you haven’t been to her site, take some time to drop by and check out her posts on healthy living, weight loss and encouragement.

However, the biggest encouragement of the conference were the many folks (hopefully some of you who are reading this post) who stopped by and supported us by purchasing shirts, sharing great ideas for new designs and letting us know that they believe in what we’re doing.  Don’t let anyone fool you, starting up a business is tough work and particularly when you’re trying to get things off the ground floor, the support and encouragement of customers is appreciated more than you know.  When we tell folks at the booth or through the mail that we appreciate their business, it’s 100% true.  When we finally get this entrepreneurial experiment off the ground and to the point where we’re a mature business, it will be totally because people like you saw and embraced what we’re trying to do, liked a great product enough to buy and wear it, and took a chance on a little company with big ideas.  And for that, we want to tell all our new friends from the Atlanta Convention, “Thank you very much!”

Thanks so much to those of you who e-mailed & tweeted me your well wishes.  While tweeting in the ER to take my mind off the pain, it sure was nice to hear from folks.  Anyway, after a visit to the orthopedic surgeon this morning, we confirmed that it’s a ruptured Achilles tendon and I’m now scheduled surgery for Friday morning.  Looks like I can plan on at least 3 months of rehab before getting back up to speed.  So I guess that means I’ll have some time to come up with new Homeskoolie t-shirt designs!  That’s a great way to redeem some down time.

Also, I think that injuries like this are God’s way of slowing us down and particularly for me, a perspective adjustment about what’s important and what’s not.  While it’s been a painful couple days dealing with this injury, I’m reminded of how fortunate I really am compared to so many other folks.  This is a relatively minor injury compared to serious diseases or injuries that may have a permanent impact.  Also, now that I’m scheduled to having a surgery (I’m not really sure that I’ve ever had a serious surgery before), there’s certainly a little anxiety about it and along with that a sensitivity to other folks dealing with injuries & sicknesses.

Around here in the south, it’s pretty common for folks to toss out an “I’ll pray for you, brother!” at the slightest little thing, and sure, I’m guilty as charged.  But when you’re on the other side of the fence, it sure is a comfort to know that others may actually be doing just that.  So this is certainly a good reminder for me to make sure the next time I’m tempted to drop an “I’ll pray for you” as filler for the uncomfortable silence in a conversation, that I actually do what I say!

I was an interesting afternoon for the Homeskoolie team!  Jeff & I regularly talk about how it’s hard to really practice tennis when most of the time we’re with the children helping them work on their strokes or serves.  That’s great for the kids, but sometimes you just want to get out there and totally rip it back and forth.

So this afternoon while the families were resting, we met up at the courts to smack the ball around a bit and get a little competitive.  Of course, Jeff’s a lot better than I am, but after we got through the first match 6-2, I still hadn’t had enough so we started up again.

We were tied up 30-30 in the first game of the second set and I’d had a decent serve and volley.  Jeff, sent a return shot right at me and I stepped back to drill it back at him when I heard a loud “crack” as if someone had slammed a basketball right behind my foot and suddenly I was on the ground.  Did somebody actually just smack the back of my leg with a baseball bat?  I had a pretty good idea what it was even while I was writhing in pain on the court.  The ER doctor confirmed it after an x-ray; a torn Achilles tendon!  Ouch!

(But hey, look at that cool Homeskoolie t-shirt I’m wearing!)

At this point, looks like pretty much a complete tear and most likely surgery & rehab, not something that exactly fits in my plans.  But that’s kind of like life isn’t it.  So, in addition to the usual fare at the Homeskoolie blog, I’ll be posting updates about my progress and rehab from time to time, in an attempt to provide myself with some accountability for rehab exercises!

And if anyone’s ever wondered if tearing an Achilles tendon really hurts that bad, the answer is, “yes!”

Just posted our newest Homeskoolie video on YouTube!  Find out the Homeskoolie way to fold your t-shirts & show off your new skills to your friends & family.  It will make folding laundry, like, fun!

If you like this video, just head to our store and purchase a couple official Homeskoolie T-Shirts so you too can try it out!

Hi Christopher & family!  Thanks for stopping by the Homeskoolie booth last week.  It was good to see your family again & we really appreciate the support.  We hope everyone loves their t-shirts!

As promised, here are a couple links for some guitar resources.  Recently, we got a follow from Fret Zero Guitar on Twitter.  Turns out that Zac Sullivan is practically in our backyard, south of Birmingham, Alabama, and teaches guitar lessons to a number of homeschool children!

Zac has some great resources on his website and he also has a YouTube channel where he does a good job teaching some basics & strum patterns and stuff.  Since I love to play, but am pretty rusty since I haven’t been keeping up for quite a while, I’ll be visiting his site for some refreshers for sure.