Homeschool day 25 of 180
We have what will be about four more years of homeschool with our daughter Kelly and six more years with our son Christian. We very much enjoy our homeschool and the extra time we get to spend with our kids, but we have been thinking a little bit about what we are going to do when our homeschooling time is over. Lorena knows what she wants to do and is working on it now. She is going to school with the idea that she will work full time at something like home restoration when she finishes. That is a grand plan because she loves to do that sort of thing, she is very good at it, and there is potential to make a very good living at it. It is a little more difficult for me though. I love my job and want to continue in it as long as is financially necessary. My responsibilities as I see them include getting my kids through a masters degree (they are on their own for their Ph.D.), assuring that our retirement is funded, and paying off the mortgage on the house. After that, all we really need is day-to-day living money. Everything could change in an instant, but if it continues as it is now, all of those goals will be accomplished within a year or two after Christian finishes homeschool. I think that puts me in a similar situation to many other of my fellow baby-boomers. I will be well short of sixty with not much that I need to do to meet the minimum requirements to sustain house and home.
Lorena and I have talked about what we ought to do when the kids are gone. We know that right now our focus needs to be on them so that they are prepared spiritually and educationally to contribute to society. We know, though, that will come to a relatively abrupt end and we will be left with time on our hands with which we want to do something meaningful. That time will be disconcerting for us under any circumstance, but particularly so if we do not have any idea about what we want to do. We have seen many people fill their time with travel, hobby projects, outdoor activities, and all sorts of other things that do nothing more than take up time. It is our sense that we want to set some goals. Lorena has done that to a certain extent. She has a long term goal and is going to school and working to realize that goal. I however, need to figure out what it is that might make a meaningful contribution. I am very seriously thinking about taking on an open source software project that has to do with manufacturing, but that is just a thought with no end goal that has any specific way to contribute. My thought is that investing some time in identifying some way contribute will also set an example for Kelly and Christian. There are different times in life for which we need to prepare. Doing that preparation with an eye on contributing something meaningful to others has great value both for the doer and the receiver.