Tolpin Academy Music Teachers

So yes, we home school, but that doesn’t mean I am some mom who knows how to teach everything. I have found that having talented music teachers, who double as great role models are one way to really instill the love for music in my children (along with loving it myself).  🙂  We have been so blessed with some amazing teachers over the years… for the sake of the length of this post, we are only going to highlight our current music teachers!

Miss Sarah from Legacy Music Studios teaches Kelsey (who has been playing for 6 years), Austin(who has played for 3), Megan (played for 2.5), and Drew will be starting this fall! We love that Sarah has not only brought a love for piano into our home but also the gift of worship.  We used to play worship music all day by CD or itunes, but now because we have two children playing worship we have live music as well!  I just love having the freedom to do family worship when ever we want or need to.

Miss Elizabeth our Violin teacher is also amazing!  She has been teaching Kelsey violin for about 2 years now and is not just a good violinist but a great role model as well. Both her and Sarah are!  I just love these girls.

And last but not least we have a newest member to the Tolpin Academy Team: Taylor our guitar teacher.  Austin has thoroughly been enjoying his time learning from Taylor.  Taylor is a pastor at heart, teaching the meaning behind such words in worship songs as “Hosanna” and bringing music alive for Austin.  These boys connect and I love to watch it!  So thankful for his godly influence in my son’s life.

So as you can see, between yesterday’s post, highlighting our other Tolpin Team members, we have quite a large crew.  Part of my duty is to manage/organize schedules so that we can all be most effective with our time.  I am so blessed to have their help and thankful that my children get to regularly interact with at least 6-7 of them every week!  That’s right, it is great accountability as a mom, I always have eyes on me, watching me… not just my own children, but other young adults as well… no pressure, right!  They see me screw up as a mom and deal with temper tantrums, race around the kitchen trying to get lunch on the table and get little ones down for naps while packing to race out the door to swimming lessons and all sorts of other things!  But God is good!  And I love my life and the people in it!

So as you can see, I can’t do it all!  Managing a home, a small vineyard, a garden & farm with chickens, and a dog, home schooling four children with two toddlers under my feet, running errands for my hubs and helping him as often as I can with the businesses is a lot and this year I have taken on a few extra ministries as well in writing and editing for Leaving a Legacy and writing my first book. Life is full, but this is how it works, for us. I have help!

I used to feel guilty to for having help, like I was a failure of a mother if I couldn’t do it all, but God has given me a different life, with a husband who needs my help sometimes, with six children, and so on.  I prefer to look at as proactively trying to live out Prov. 31.  She lived her life with community of people around her and it enabled her to do more … to carry out the vision God had for her life.

Proverbs 31:13-16

“She selects wool and flax
and works with eager hands.
¹⁴ She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.
¹⁵ She gets up while it is still night;
she provides food for her family
    and portions for her female servants.
¹⁶ She considers a field and buys it;
out of her earnings she plants a vineyard“

I used to feel guilty for needing help to get it all done. Then after reading these verses it occurred to me, the one who is worth far more than rubies, she didn’t do it all on her own either, she had servants. The word servant has been so misunderstood today- for the sake of true meaning here is the true definition of servant based from the Webster’s Dictionary: “A person who performs duties for others, esp. a person employed in a house on domestic duties or as a personal attendant.”

I do not view any of those I pay for their help as servants, but rather close friends, whom we share our lives with.  Most of them, know us better than anyone else because of the sheer time they spend and relationships we have built.

“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:15

I enjoy engaging those in our home purposefully, I believe that as they are helping me, it is a two way street.  I am to model hospitality and care for them as well!  It is called love.  I am so thankful for all they bless our family with and try my best to value them, in ways that are appropriate based upon each individual. I just simply treat them as friends, because in my book, they are my friends who are greatly helping me.

I know how hard it is to plant a vineyard, to buy and cook food for a family, and there is no way that back then she was able to cook meals while also being out in the field. It is not like once its planted there is no more work to do. It’s the same today.  I find if my energies are outside in the garden the house goes crazy and undone with responsibilities, because we are simply not in there doing them.

She clearly has help so she can “bring food from afar”. Though she has help though, it does not mean she does not work. I can fully relate to “working with eager hands”… there is much to do, and by having help, even around the house it does not mean I don’t work… if you have children you know how long a clean house lasts. We eat three meals a day in our home (for at least seven people, sometimes more), every meal is a big deal, not just dinner. We do between 26-31 loads of laundry every week, depending on how many wet beds and days of swimming outside we have. We have potty training boys, which means you know what for our bathrooms!  🙂

The point is, there is a TON of work. If I didn’t have help, we could work all day every day, only working and never studying, never playing, and still have work to do. I found up late into the night, almost every night.  Some nights up until 3 am writing, other nights 11 to 12pm after getting caught up around the house, then there is a occasional night of watching a movie with my hubs, all the while thinking of all I should be doing.

  I still sin… and all of these wonderful people can attest to it, because they watch me! lol  But I have the Lord in my heart and my home, and if you have Him in your heart and home, that is all that really matters… however you make life work.

Thanks for reading this long post… I had a lot of people to honor! And I in no way want you to be misled in believing my life to be something it is not, or to put what my life might look like from the outside on a pedestal. It does not deserve it. I am human and only have 24 hours in a day, the same as you.  I know that our family doesn’t do things like most families and I am NOT in any way encouraging hiring a bunch of people… just so we are clear; however, in our culture we need to see value in community and having impact on one another. Mentors need to rise up and be intentional in young moms lives, because many can’t afford the blessings I have in my life! That is part of why I had to hire help. I look forward to the day when I can purposefully mentor young moms without a cost to my family in time. Well, knowing me I could go off on another soup box… so goodnight!

Join us in 2 weeks for a series on weeds that my children and I have written together based on our experiences working hard together! It should be great!

God Bless,

Angie

This is a 2nd part in a two part series: “I CAN’T DO IT ALL AND I DON’T” PART I