Our One Room Schoolhouse We Designed & Had to Leave
Written by Bethany Curee, God’s Daughter – Freckled & Free

BACKSTORY, WHY DO YOU NEED A ONE ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE?

If you would have asked me if I would have homeschooled before I had children, I think the answer would have been I’m not planning on it. To be honest we were still kids ourselves. Married at the young age of 18 and 19, we were taking life one day at a time.

We learned a lot those beginning years of our marriage—in fact we still are. What hasn’t changed…is that we really like each other. Like…stinking love each other.

We have found we are quite worth fighting for.

Tom and I always knew we wanted kids but we didn’t know all that would entail exactly. We knew both our parents got married the same age as us and both had four kids. Tom’s parents, Mike and Aileen had four boys and my papa and momma, Mike and Kim had four girls. Tom and I both landed at number 3 in the birth order so we’ve always found that rather special.

Meant to be? I think so.

You won’t be surprised to hear that our hearts too were set on four little ones.

(Insert silent prayer, requesting four kiddos Lord please, if that be your will and all).

Let’s be honest—it just felt right. We watched both our parents survive just fine despite hard times. We ought to be able to give it a go?

Thankfully, the Lord does care about the desires of our heart. Does He always give us what we want? No. But in this case, yes, yes, He did.

Let’s see how this unfolds.

DREAMS ACHIEVED. DREAMS SHIFTED.

As I’ve shared in other posts, serving Jesus of course was our number one goal and dream since the beginning of our marriage in everything we would do—but for me individually, my next biggest dream I thought was becoming a Graphic Designer. That sounded like the best career I could think of. Getting to be creative, draw and get paid for it!? Heck yes, sign me up.

And it was in fact a dream. A dream that was an answered prayer God had said yes to in that season and time of my life. It was indeed a wonderful season of much learning. My beginning designs impressed many, at age 20 even, but looking back on them now it would be quite the laughing stock. It definitely took many years to learn how to “design” for business. Thankfully, that company was learning and growing right along side me. They had the grace for newbies because they were one too. I was serving in other various roles at the company starting at age 19, and within months was hired in the marketing department for the first Graphic Design role they ever had and I was the second employee added to the marketing team. I was hired before I even graduated from college due to my volunteer work I had initially offered. It was from hard work and especially God’s favor, I got to reach this dream and conquer it. In fact I worked there for a total of 10ish years (9 years in the marketing department in various roles).

I vowed growing up that no matter what I wanted a job I would love to get up and go to. I didn’t want to go my whole life dreading to go as others in my life had.

While it truly was that dream job for me that I was thrilled to do everyday and for which I was thankful for—at age 23, I got pregnant and delivered my first little girl. Beautiful and lovely, Nakoda Taylor. That precious little joy, changed my world forever. Meeting her little baby face at that first glance, shifted an awakening of something in my heart, my life goals and my dreams. My desire no longer belonged in the office. It was 100% stolen by her.

A dream for whatever reason I hadn’t even consider up until that point. The beautiful, God designed dream that is fulfilled in being a mother. A dream He had placed inside me. Designed for me.

That gift of motherhood.

Unfortunately, we didn’t know I would want to be home once we met our child. Like I shared earlier, in our youthful marriage we hadn’t even thought of those things yet?

The joy I once found in my first dream and career, began to feel like a lost joy compared to holding her in my arms. My heart was throbbing and aching to be home like never before.

We however, were not financially able to make this happen. So, with a broken heart and many tears I had to work for 3 1/2ish years before I could finally become my new dream—a stay-at-home mom.

I will never forget that day.

We had just had Judah Michael, our first boy and second born. My heart was set and sealed to forever be a full-time mom meeting that little hunk. Somehow. Someway. I could not possibly go back to work and leave my babies again. This dream was what I was now living for.

During maternity leave, and after much prayer, we took a HUGE leap of faith, even though we were lacking the funds to make this happen. We made every sacrifice possible to make it work. Even going down to one vehicle. No luxuries were had, but I was home and I would not take it for granted. We traversed lots of rough patches, but I was more free than I had ever been and loving every second of it.

I knew I was in the right place. The right role. Living my God given purpose to love and serve these children with all my heart. To dedicate and sacrifice, to pour into, sow into, and set the foundation for their lives. What an honor!

Fast forward several years to another arrival, Naomi Ezra, our second girl, third baby now, and Nakoda is beginning to approach schooling age. A decision that can’t be put off. A decision we haven’t thought of. I’m knee deep into this motherhood thing and we’re smacked with another big life decision to make. Like now.

THE WEIGHING SCHOOL DECISION

After missing 3 1/2ish years at work away from Nakoda, I felt like I had to make up for lost time and the thought of her going away from me right when I got home finally—I couldn’t bear it. I wanted more time with her, and them. I wanted to be with them 24/7, not send them away to anyone. These precious little humans that God had bestowed upon me to raise and nurture and pour into…I wasn’t going to pass that opportunity up.

Not only that, but we were back on our feet again and had moved to what we thought was our forever home in 2015, right in the smack of our darling hometown where we had been searching for for years.

In the home of our dreams I was feeling 100% in love with all God had given upon me. A home we had dreamed of forever and the ability to be home with my babies. This was exactly where we all belonged. A crazy itch began to stir as I had to face Nakoda’s education head on and make a decision.

I knew I had several friends who homeschooled and had so many great things to say about it. In fact, I began to feel called by God that this was the path we were to take. These wonderful friends guided me and helped me get started towards feeling confident that I also could do it. Even though we loved our school district and both graduated from there, this just felt right for our family in this season.

So with peace and butterflies we came to the decision…

HOMESCHOOL IT IS

We jumped right into it. Figured out everything we needed to do to get started. Nakoda’s kindergarten year was going like an easy peasy breeze, because with only one kiddo teaching is more of a cinch! At first we did school in the dining room or wherever we could find a spot. Each year or so another kid joined in to be schooled. Getting more chaotic as we progressed. Mess after mess and we knew we needed to get a space dedicated to this little school we were running. My head was spinning in more ways than one. The cry for a dedicated space began…

HENCE THE NEED FOR A ONE ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE

Meanwhile, upon planting a church and remodeling it ourselves, having our fourth child and third girl, Harvest Dawn, birthing and raising children, running a household, teaching those children—all the while Tom too was working a very full-time job as president of a company, plus traveling with work in addition to preaching every week—you can understand why it took us quite a handful of years to get this beautiful one room schoolhouse finally built in our own home. (And, yes, you can take a breath now, my run on sentence is over). See why it took us so long? See why we were tired?

BUT WE DID IT.

We built the dedicated room.

We built the schoolhouse.

Our one room schoolhouse.

Home of the Tomcats!

AND…THEN WE DECIDED TO MOVE. LOCO EN LA CABEZA!? CRAZY IN THE HEAD?

Perhaps so.

UP FOR SALE.

Yeah I know right!? We just got the room done. Insert cry face.

We had moved in this house in 2015 and thought it would be our forever home. It was everything we wanted except land. A historical home built in 1855, redone completely with efficiency, but keeping the original charm in tact. We were absolutely in love. We did her well and only added to her charm with each project, being careful to keep it appropriate to her age, but also work for the functioning homes of today.

We made it 9 whole years here. That’s a lot of time. So much changed. Four kids later, a chocolate lab, a cat, chickens, adorable garden, playhouse, zip-line, shoffice, etc. we had packed into just under an acre of land. The rooms and yard just kept getting smaller while our dreams kept getting bigger. We had built a small slice of heaven in that time which made it cringe worthy to walk away from.

And even though it took us years to get the one room schoolhouse together, while we were there we fully utilized this room. Most of the time it was between being an utter disaster, being really clean for a few days, working a little more on it—to messy again. It became the catch-all room when company was coming over. We did get to really enjoy it regardless, and we got to use it for several months in its finished charm. Loving every second of it. Savoring its beauty, its efficiency and putting the room to great use in every way. To say the least, we used the heck out of that room no matter what shape it was in all those years living there.

The homeschool room once finished, was one of the hardest reasons to move. Along with the zillion other projects we had completed. For a season it kept us teetering back and forth on the decision to move or not to move. We were always keeping our eyes open for the right house to pop up that would make the decision for us. And there were a few that made us throw out offers too. One we had tried to get for over a year and it fell through. We considered just staying. Making this immensely beautiful home we had built work and buying land just to go play on. On one hand we felt so incredibly grateful for the home we had, and on the other we were feeling very trapped by space.

The call for that perfect historical home with land was pressing even louder. We were longing for privacy, space to possibly add more animals eventually, a place to hike on our own land. We were busting at the seams in everyway and could not find what we needed in our beloved hometown. So, when this 1830s historical home on 16 acres became available. We knew we had to let go of this home we had poured so much into. Not only that, but the church we had built, the community we had grown up in and moving farther away from our dearest family and friends was not an easy decision.

HISTORICAL HOME FOUND

God truly had to give us peace about the decision. We were leaving so much goodness behind and taking a scary step into new territory where we knew absolutely no one, and knowing only that God had a plan.

Spring of 2024 we officially bought the new old home and sold this one in the summer. Saying our farewells. The move took months and every fiber of our being. We had to neatly wrap up our finished homeschool room, our adorable kitchen we had just about completed, our lovely dining room, our killer garden and so many other custom and cozy additions to the home to hand off to the next owners. Goodbyes are hard. Memories create nostalgia—but, there is also much to be had in the present and the future.

Amongst all the crazy work to finish projects, prepare your home to sell, and packing like insane people, we had our hands quite full the entire year to actually pull that off. There was no time for making cute instas and sharing all that we had been working on. So, as we begin to catch our breath (sorta), the dust is settling and all the transitions have fallen into place—I’m at last getting to sit down and share some of the super cool projects we did at our favorite blue and red historical home that will forever be in our hearts. Even while we have already began new projects at our new home. Better late than never.

I hope you enjoy as I finally get to make my first post to my interior design section of this blog. I’ll be starting with this homeschool room aka, our one room schoolhouse which met so many of our needs, and that you now know, we have now left and no longer live here. I will be sharing the space in detail as we had it on my next blog post, Curee Schoolhouse Design, A Well Thought Out Space to Inspire. So, stay tuned to my socials so that you don’t miss this long awaited design reveal. But for now, one sneak peak below to stir the anticipation of the goodness to come. I hope they inspire you for whatever projects you are slowly or quickly accomplishing in your home. Wherever you are at, or whatever you are working towards, just keep dreaming and working at it.

One step at a time we arrive where we want to be. Be encouraged.

Written by Bethany Curee, God’s Daughter – Freckled & Free