Thriving on the Homefront, a deployment hobby to successful business, with Navy Wife Emily

[00:00:00] Alison: Today we are finishing out our mill spouse, holiday shop, spotlight. That's probably different. Again, it's probably different every single week. I can't remember what I ever call it, but today we're talking to Emily and Emily is a fellow Navy wife, which is exciting. I feel like I don't talk to a lot of Navy wives. 

[00:00:18] Alison: And she has a shop called thriving home front that makes all. Things, hair accessories, like hair bands like headbands and little oh my gosh, what do you call it? Like bands? Like that are actually, they're like bands, right? That are like the circles, the full circle. Yeah. Yeah. Like all the things I, the circle, like all the things, all the things, like the full circle thing, like both of my daughters are literally wearing them at school today, but I can't think of what you call them.

[00:00:46] Alison: Like a band, a hair band. A headband is like where that ends at your ears. Right. But like the one that's like the full circle that you like, you pull over and then you still call it a headband. Oh, okay. Okay. I thought it had a different name. All right. There you go. Okay. So so Emily, welcome to the show.

[00:01:05] Alison: I'm happy to have you here. Yeah. So it's, this is hilarious because this, I feel like we were just talking about this. I feel like this happens every time I do one of these interviews. We had a really great conversation about deployments and And navigating that with kids and all this other stuff, and I didn't record any of it.

[00:01:22] Alison: So hopefully we just had a great conversation. But so we'll keep going. We'll see, you know, see where the conversation takes us. But Emily, so I always like to start off the show with, you know, what's your military affiliation and what has your military life looked like so far? 

[00:01:38] Emily: All right, so we are I'm a military spouse.

[00:01:41] Emily: My husband is in the Navy. He's a rescue swimmer, and I met him after he had already been in the Navy. So I met him when he was at his first duty station in San Diego. I was currently going to college at school in Indiana, and we met between my freshman, sophomore year. at a summer camp in Wisconsin. It was the camp that he had grown up going to and some of my college friends had told me to be a camp counselor over there for the summer.

[00:02:03] Emily: So we actually met at the zip line. I think Nicholas Sparks needs to take on our story because he loves writing novels about military. And at the time I was going to school to be a teacher, but we met at the zip line. He friended me on Facebook. He was on his two weeks leave before his first deployment.

[00:02:22] Emily: Oh, wow. So then he deployed right away after he friended me on Facebook and we wrote messages the entire deployment. I was trying not to lead him on because it was my only my sophomore year of college. And it turns out I was the one who was emailing him the most out of everybody. So he came back and the first day back in port, he immediately called me and asked me out.

[00:02:41] Emily: And I was like, Not right now, so I printed out a couple times, but then halfway through my senior year I saw light at the end of the tunnel and Ended up dating our I feel like from then on it was kind of like a classic military relationship We dated long distance for eight months And then we got engaged and we were in the same city in San Diego for about Three and a half, four months, got married, and then we found out three weeks before the wedding that he was deploying 12 or two weeks after the wedding or 12 days after the wedding.

[00:03:17] Emily: Wow. We got married. We were able to go on a honeymoon, thankfully. We went on a one week, again, we had booked it before we knew, a one week cruise. The 

[00:03:27] Alison: irony! After 

[00:03:29] Emily: getting back, I went back to teaching. It was my first year teaching. I went back for three days, and then that Thursday, he took me on base to sign me up for DEARS and all the dependent stuff, TRICARE.

[00:03:42] Emily: And then from there the next morning at 6am, I drove him to his base and said goodbye. And so then we were in San Diego for about two and a half years, and then we got new orders to Southern Maryland to Pax River. We were there for about three and a half years, and then from there we went to Virginia.

[00:04:03] Emily: We were there for about three years, and now we're here in Pensacola. I started off a teacher. I was a teacher at my first two duty stations. First one, I worked at a private special ed school as a Special educator. And then the second one. It's so interesting because every state has different qualifications for teachers.

[00:04:23] Emily: Yeah. So I moved to Maryland, and they told me I wasn't qualified to be a special ed teacher in that state. Not sure why. I didn't really get to the bottom of it in time before I got hired as a middle school math teacher. They told me as long because I had taken the teacher test, which is the praxis you know, nurses have the NCLEX, lawyers have their thing.

[00:04:42] Emily: Yeah, well, to take the praxis because I had already taken a praxis and I had a degree in teaching, they said as long as I took the praxis again, but took the secondary or math one and passed it, they said that I was qualified to be a middle school math teacher in the state of Maryland. Luckily math is my favorite subject, so I was like Oh goodness, good.

[00:05:02] Alison: I'd be like that's not 

[00:05:03] Emily: my thing. Yeah, that first year it was kind of trial by fire, but we did, you know, that's I just kept telling people, I was like, you know, military life has trained me for this. I adapt as I go. I've become flexible. Sure, I can do anything for three years. So did that, loved it way more than I thought that I would, and then we were moving to Virginia and I was eight months pregnant.

[00:05:30] Emily: We didn't really plan all of the moving with the pregnancy very well. So we moved at, when I was eight months pregnant and I was due at the very beginning of August. And so we just, for my second actually, and so we just kind of decided. It would not be good for me to teach because a teacher salary would basically at that point be paying for two and daycare and we also find out my husband was about to deploy.

[00:05:56] Emily: And so we just decided, Nope, we're gonna go ahead and have me start staying home. So about A year later I just, I love to work. And so, I don't want to say I was bored at home with two children, two, two under two during a deployment. Right. But like, I just wanted something else. I wanted something on my own.

[00:06:18] Emily: And so, that's when I decided to become an entrepreneur and open my own shop. I started off I always try to tell spouses during a deployment to try something new. Because that's the perfect time to do it. It's okay to fail. It's okay to try something new. So I decided my something new, that deployment was going to be to teach myself how to sew.

[00:06:38] Emily: So I've always wanted to learn how to sew. Nobody in my family sews, so I never was able to learn. But before our wedding, I had registered for a sewing machine, just like. Middle of the line. It was a random one in Target and I scanned it with the registration scanner thing and people got it for me. And so I was very thankful for that, but it had traveled to a couple different States at this point and I had never touched it.

[00:07:04] Emily: So I pulled it out and I taught myself how to sew via YouTube during naptime and after my children went to bed and started sewing headbands. And so then I started sewing mommy and me headbands for my girls and I and then I started getting a lot of compliments and people were asking if they could buy them from me and I just felt like You know, insecure, because I was like, I just taught myself how to sew via YouTube.

[00:07:27] Emily: Are you sure you want to buy something? Right, yeah, right. Are you sure? I don't know. But they did, and so I opened my shop, and that was the start of it. I just kind of took a leap of faith and went for it, and... I'm so glad that I did. Yeah, 

[00:07:43] Alison: I love that. I think there's a lot of little nuggets in there. And I think the first one is that obviously you have been through a lot of deployments and will continue with the job that your husband has continued to have a lot of deployments.

[00:07:55] Alison: And I think that one, I think you're right. And you hear that a lot, right? Is if you are a newer spouse, or even if you're not a new spouse and your significant other is going on deployment, fine, pick a hobby, find something new to learn and do actually I was just talking to you about Ashley that I interviewed last week, the woman and warrior and the woman and warrior.

[00:08:15] Alison: What if she likes that title? I'm just going to call you the woman and warrior. But we were just, we were just messaging each other back and forth this morning because she was talking about how she had, she bought this like old out of tune piano when her husband deployed the last time. And she was gonna like, she was sure she was going to teach herself to play piano and be like this.

[00:08:35] Alison: Yeah. Piano prodigy by the time he came home from deployment. She's like, what did she say? She can play happy birthday or twinkle twinkle. I don't know. Something like that. And I'm like, I feel you because I got a guitar for one of my birthdays, like right as my husband left. And I'm like, I'm going to learn how to play this awesome.

[00:08:52] Alison: Like, I think I decided that I was going to play this Nora Jones song. Like this was a while ago. She was really popular then. And It never happens. I can hardly play it yet. It is still moved with us from duty station to duty station to duty station. So I think a lot of us can relate to that. But so, so I love that because I feel I, I actually, my mom, so my Nana, my mom's mom was a seamstress.

[00:09:18] Alison: She made beautiful. Drapes she had drapes in government buildings in D. C. Like, I mean, really beautiful, , and so she's always so, and she would make me stuff like, so like, there's definitely that in my family. I can cross stitch, but that's it.

[00:09:38] Alison: That's the extent of my abilities. And I've always said, I've been saying it for years. I'm like, I would love to learn how to sew on a sewing machine and be able to like hem a. Yeah. My own clothes, right? Because I don't understand. And this is like a total random tangent, but for why, I don't know when you buy a shirt, it is either a crop top or it comes down to mid thigh.

[00:09:59] Alison: Can we not get like a hip lift on her stock? Can we not? So I like, I'm like, I would really like to be able to just. Fix those myself, you know, instead of taking them somewhere. So so I feel you on that. I definitely would like to learn how to sew on a sewing machine as well. That's it's on the bucket list. 

[00:10:15] Alison: But what made you pick headbands of all the things to learn how to sew? Was it just because it was like easy? Do you, have you always liked headbands? Like what 

[00:10:25] Emily: was that? Nope, none of the above. I actually saw somebody on Instagram sewing their own headbands. And so. In my mind, again, because I knew nothing about sewing, I was like, Oh, if, if she can do it, then surely I can do it.

[00:10:39] Emily: Later, I found out this is probably like six to eight months after I'd opened my business. Yeah. I make my headbands out of knit fabric. So this fabric is super soft. Yeah, I'm to find out that's one of the hardest fabrics to sew. Oh, there you go stretches as you try to do it through the sewing machine and I didn't know that and so After about six to eight months into opening my business.

[00:11:05] Emily: I decided to start sewing scrunchies and those I make Some of them with knit fabric, but I started sewing them with cotton fabric. Oh my goodness. It was so much easier I just it would fly through the machine straight lines everywhere. I was like, where's the spin? Yeah, but I will say because I taught myself To sew with knit fabric, one of the hardest fabrics.

[00:11:29] Emily: And then also because I had to teach myself even how to use a sewing machine, how to like refill my bobbin and thread the bobbin and thread the needle and do the whole machine. Right. I feel like I had to. Truly, like I had to do, I had to do so many like YouTube, like how to fix this problem. This isn't working.

[00:11:51] Emily: I had to do so much of that, that I feel like it made me into a better sewer. So much so that when 2020 hit and when COVID hit, I started sewing masks and then I got a connection. I got picked up by a big subscription box company that wanted to start using my headband. So they put their first order in with me. 

[00:12:12] Emily: So it was my first wholesale order. Again, first wholesale order. I had no clue what I was doing. And they just ordered a couple because they wanted to trial them for their online shop before putting them in their boxes. So I think the first order was maybe for 15 or 20. So I got the most 15. I guess they sold out so quick in their shop.

[00:12:31] Emily: So then they place another order for 45 and I was like, Oh my goodness, 45 headbands. And so I sent them to them. And then I think the next order was like 75. So I sewed the 75 headbands turned them in. Well then again, COVID hit. And they decided then a couple months into COVID. So I probably got contacted end of May, beginning of June by them, that they wanted to put my headbands in their boxes.

[00:12:55] Emily: And then, so I said, okay, you know, they said it'll be a little bit bigger of an order, and I was like, okay. And then I opened my email to the invoice and it was for 3, 800 headbands. Holy cow! I had a little bit of a panic attack. A panic attack! Because 

[00:13:11] Alison: I was like, I 

[00:13:13] Emily: can't sew 3, 800 headbands! And I also had, again, two small children at home.

[00:13:19] Emily: I was like, I don't have time. And so, my... Sister's mother in law, my sister had been dating, or has been dating her, or had been dating her husband like all through high school, and so we used to go hang out at their house. I just knew her very well, and so I knew that she sewed, and she had just retired from her teaching career, and so I contacted her and said, Would you be willing to learn how to sew these headbands, and would you sew half of them for me?

[00:13:47] Emily: And she was like, I can do that. I can do that. Cause she had just retired. They had just moved somewhere new. She had no friends yet. So she was like, yeah, I could do that. So she and I split that first order of 1900 headbands and halfway through that order, but it was also stressful to find fabric because again, COVID and finding.

[00:14:04] Emily: Oh yeah. I had to order because I was living in Virginia on the East coast. I tried to find a bigger factory to get excited to get several hundred yards of fabric. And so I contacted A fabric factory in New York was the big one on the East Coast, and it would have taken just a month to get me the fabric, and I had to turn these headbands in and like, a month and a half.

[00:14:31] Emily: So I was like, that's not gonna work. So I found a place on the west coast and had to ship these rolls of fabric across the country. It was a mess. So I'm halfway through done with this order of sewing my half of 1900 headbands. And then I get a second order from them for 58. No, no, no. For 10, 800.

[00:14:55] Emily: Headbands. Oh, my God. 

[00:14:56] Alison: Oh, my 

[00:14:57] Emily: gosh. I'm really freaking out because I was like, I can't I can't just split this one in half. I need more people. And the thing that really helped was the church that we were attending at the time had a sewing ministry. Oh, it together and so different things for foster care children or.

[00:15:15] Emily: Whoever needed stuff. So I luckily knew that people in there, it was, there were two groups of people in there. There were people who were older and retired and, you know, the older women that just love to sew and have always sewn. And then there were a ton of young military spouses that had young kids at home.

[00:15:34] Emily: And so I contacted a bunch of those people and said, Who wants to learn how to sew some headbands and bust them out for me. And so I pretty much sent everybody home with the roll of fabric and I, but it was a blessing because a lot of these people needed the extra money during COVID. And so I'm thankful that I was able to help them during that time.

[00:15:55] Emily: And I love that I was able to hire military spouses. I ended up having to hire 13 different contractors. So I was managing 13 people sewing, doing quality checking. Being a full time stay at home mom, and then I found out that I was pregnant for my third. So it was all, it was all a lot. Yeah. Then when I was halfway through done with the 10, 000, almost 11, 000 to order, then they ordered 5, 800 more.

[00:16:20] Emily: And then after that, I, after I had turned all those in, I realized I can't do this. This is not sustainable. So No longer take that big of orders. I said, maybe in a couple of years when my children were all in school or something, you know, but not right now. But yeah, so now I do smaller wholesale orders.

[00:16:40] Emily: I no longer do the big ones. But anyway, while so while I was teaching the whole point of the story, sorry, tangent. No, you're fine. Of that was I was having to go into some of these women's homes. And some of these older women have been sewing almost their whole lives. And they Couldn't figure out how to sew knit fabric because they'd only sewn cotton.

[00:17:01] Emily: And I was, so then I was having to go through and teach them on their sewing machines, which are not my sewing machine. And also in machines are slightly different in a different setting. And so I had to teach myself a bunch of different sewing machines and I was teaching these women like how to sew knit fabric.

[00:17:16] Emily: And so I just like. Was like, I can't believe I've, and at that point I'd only been sewing for 10 or 11 months. And so I was having to teach these women and man, and like, give them feedback on their sewing for people that have been sewing for like 50 plus years. And here's me, I haven't really sewn for 10 months and I own a sewing business.

[00:17:34] Alison: Isn't that funny? Here we go. It all works out. Right? Yeah. Yeah. For sure. So what? That's amazing. Well, that's amazing that you, that you grew that and then it, it got too big that you were like, Whoa, I can't, I can't do this. I think that that's what a blessing that that is though, to be able to be like, okay, that's A little bit too much.

[00:17:55] Alison: Yeah, I can do, this is what I can do in, in the space and the capacity that I have right now. Did you ever, this is totally random and I can edit this out too if we don't like it, but is, did you ever, did you ever look into trying to outsource that to somewhere so then like, this is the design and give it to like a mass manufacturer to make, to be able to get larger quantities?

[00:18:18] Alison: Did you ever look into that? I, 

[00:18:19] Emily: so I had thought about that. But part of my brand, a big part of my brand is that I'm a military spouse owned business and that I was sewing the, the headbands in America, you know, American owned business. And so I really wanted to keep that as a core of my business. And so, yes, I could have outsourced, I could have made more money and kept growing my business and, you know, that sort of thing, but that's not, that wasn't the core of why I started the business.

[00:18:46] Emily: And so like, 

[00:18:49] Alison: Not where you wanted to go. Yeah. Didn't feel right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, I totally get that. And I totally respect that. I was just curious. , that's great though that, and, and again, to probably a blessing for a lot of families, right. That are, we're struggling.

[00:19:02] Alison: There's a lot of families that were having a really hard time. time going through COVID and there was, and there was a lot of isolation and like, and so I think to have a purpose, right? Like, okay, I got to get this stuff done. It was probably really beneficial for a lot of people. So I think that's a really, yeah, that's a really cool thing.

[00:19:17] Alison: So then, so what does your business look like now? You said you capped it a little bit with. , I'm not going to take orders over this amount 

[00:19:24] Emily: and yeah, so I still am in a couple boutiques across the country and I still do smaller wholesale orders. I do, you know, I've done a couple subscription boxes since then, again, much smaller quantities.

[00:19:37] Emily: That are doable in the season of my life. Still do an online business. And then here in Florida, craft fairs and markets are very big, especially like handle it, Pensacola area. So there are so many. And so actually in Florida, I've done way more craft fairs than I did at our last duty station. I did do a couple in Virginia, but I've done way more here.

[00:19:58] Emily: And so that's been really fun to interact and meet with customers. And it's always fun. See like them interacting with the product and hear their feedback on the product. And a lot of the times what's interesting is what sells really well online doesn't always sell really well at markets and what sells really, or what doesn't sell really well online does really well at markets.

[00:20:18] Emily: And so it's funny to see who buys what. And the ages of people, because sometimes some of my biggest customers at markets are like an older population who are buying for like their grandchildren or for themselves. Yeah. And so it's just always unique and interesting. And so it's been really fun to kind of experience.

[00:20:38] Emily: craft fair and market side of my business and interact more with my customers. It's been really fun. 

[00:20:43] Alison: Yeah. And are you finding that the, the craft show or the, that kind of, those kinds of markets are as business wise, are those making as much money as you make online? Is it kind of equal? Is it more, I'm just, I'm just curious.

[00:20:58] Alison: Cause like, I always like to look at it from the lens of like, if there's other military spouses listening to the show and they're like, Oh man, I really want to do this, or I have this idea, or I have this product, or I'm doing this. But it's not, I don't know, like, I always like to just ask kind of those little detailed questions on how everybody does it.

[00:21:15] Alison: Right. So maybe someone is like, Oh, I haven't thought about that. Maybe, maybe I should try going to a craft show or see 

[00:21:21] Emily: how that goes. I will say in that. Prior to 2020 and even in 2020 online sales did amazing, like 2019, 2020, and then 2021 there wasn't as big of a push for shopping small. And so I started to see a slight decline in online sales and we moved here in 2021.

[00:21:44] Emily: And in 2022, I started doing more markets. And so I started seeing that like. The, my online sales still have not gotten to where they like back up to where they were in 2019, 2020. I'm still doing a decent amount of them to like still make it worth it. But I have noticed that like doing the crappier's hair have been an amazing supplement for my business.

[00:22:09] Emily: Yeah, I love that. 

[00:22:11] Alison: Do you have any special offerings for the holidays? Is it, what is the, what is your business looking like moving through the holiday 

[00:22:18] Emily: season? So I have more croppers than I've. Ever done before this holiday season, but I also still have a couple weeks ago.

[00:22:26] Emily: I launched a whole holiday collection full of like holiday and Christmassy themed accessories, you know, the headbands, the scrunchies, the hair bows I started recently making key fob bracelets that are super cute if you attach them to your key. So I've got some Christmas ones of those. So I still have that I did run a bunch of promotions over the holiday season.

[00:22:48] Emily: Holiday sales weekend, 

[00:22:50] Alison: right? I know we were talking about what do you, what do you call that? Is it it's Black Friday, but then there's pre Black Friday and then there's the small business Saturday and then there's cyber Monday. I just never know what to call it. I know. I know. I feel ya. 

[00:23:03] Emily: So yeah, I definitely, I'm going to be probably running like additional like smaller sales or things like that, you know, as the season goes on. 

[00:23:12] Alison: But okay. And do you have where, so where can people find what you have for sale? And do you have a cutoff date if people are looking for like gifts?

[00:23:22] Alison: Cause these would make a great, stocking stuffer. And again, if like grandparents for, for kids, , , sometimes it's hard to find stuff. , I think it's a great gift idea for sure. So where can they. 

[00:23:33] Emily: Yeah, or like nurses because I've got some nursing ones on there. They can find the best place to find them is on my website, www.

[00:23:41] Emily: thrivinghomefront. com. If you're local to the Pensacola area or close, I'll be at several different markets. I mostly advertise for them and do most of my advertising on my Instagram, which is just. at Thriving Homefront. But that's a good place to kind of like keep up to tabs with my next craft fairs or any promotions that I run.

[00:24:00] Emily: I do have an email list if people want to subscribe to that because that's also where I give, you know, better more up to date updates if the algorithm or whatever isn't. My favorite on Instagram. I, you know, 

[00:24:13] Alison: I seriously, , I feel like, like I wanna be present on, on Instagram and I love interacting with other military spouses on Instagram, but it's like, you know, I, you post something and it's like nothing and

[00:24:26] Alison: Yeah. You know, so, you know, 

[00:24:28] Emily: I've noticed is. Anytime I start posting about a lot, like a new collection that I'm launching or a big event that's coming up, my viewers or interactor or interactions or engagement, that's what starts tanking. And so this time leading up to the black Friday sales, I did not put one of those countdowns that people can like click.

[00:24:53] Emily: I specifically did not do that. Cause I'm like. Is that, , what's, , leading my engagement to Tank? , what is it that's happening? Because even over the holiday sales weekend, I think one day only 25 people viewed my stories on Small Business Saturday or something like that. 25! And I was like, Okay, I usually have way, way, way more than that.

[00:25:15] Emily: And so I'm just like, what is going on? So, all that to say, if you want to make sure you see my stuff, Subscribe to the email list. It's a great way to do that. 

[00:25:25] Alison: I know. I feel like, yeah. Cause it's like, am I even talking to anybody? Hello? Is anybody here? Me? Right. Cause yep. Cause you just never know. Yeah.

[00:25:33] Alison: You're not in charge of your stuff. Right. So that's a great, that's a great business tip too, is start that email list and build that because that's yours. You own that. And if people give you their email address. Like you're getting in their inbox, you have no control on Instagram, Facebook, Tik TOK on who sees your stuff.

[00:25:52] Alison: They decide who sees your stuff. Right. So like really nurture the point where you have direct contact with your customer and the other stuff is great. But like, really that email list is super, super, super important for 

[00:26:06] Emily: sure. And it kind of feels good as a business owner to build your email list because when you get somebody's trust to let them, it's, I feel like it's a big deal as like.

[00:26:19] Emily: to give somebody your email, to give a business, your email. Is it, they're trusting you with their email, especially with all the spam these days. Every time I get a new email, subscriber, I do a big happy dance out of all the things. Out of every aspect of my business, I just feel like that email is, when it grows, that 

[00:26:43] Alison: glory.

[00:26:45] Alison: I love that. 

[00:26:46] Emily: That's the ultimate, like, Trust me. So that's like, 

[00:26:51] Alison: I, I totally feel you. I totally feel you. I have been really bad about building my, well, I had a glitch in my email for a really long time. So I need to do, I need to fix my like I have a PCS checklist and the email, it wasn't working. So it wasn't delivering.

[00:27:08] Alison: The email, it wasn't delivering the list and like, like, it was just like, you're just in this circle of like, did I get it? Did I not get it? Like, what's happening? So I totally missed the boat on. I don't even know, like, but it's fixed now. So I need to like, redo the thing and be like, if you did this, I actually had a couple of people that were like, that emailed me personally and was like, Hey I haven't gotten this and I'm like, I'm so sorry.

[00:27:31] Alison: So it's finally fixed. But like, yeah, that's a whole thing. I mean, but that is, it is something. And I, and I feel like if you listen to any marketing podcast, so like actually, actually last week was talking about the gold digger podcast. That is one of her biggest. Things is build your list, build your email list.

[00:27:46] Alison: Yeah, for sure. So what, okay. So where, where do you see you're in a really tough phase right now? Like you have young kids and your husband has gone a lot. Where do you see the business? Are you happy with where you are right now? Like, where do you see the business going in the next few years? 

[00:28:03] Emily: But I will say I am really happy with where it's at now.

[00:28:06] Emily: It's at a manageable spot. I feel this year I started homeschooling my older two children and so I've kind of taken that on. And so right now I feel like my business is manageable for my current season of life. You know, I am doing a lot more craft fairs than I'm used to and I love that. So I still feel like I like, I'm going to work a little bit, which I love.

[00:28:26] Emily: Yeah. But one thing that I. I don't know. It's hard to say what the business is going to look like in the future because we are supposed to PCS next August, which you and I talked about prior to recording. Yeah. And we are still waiting on orders. We don't know where we're going to go yet. And even if we get, this is going to be our most stressful move out of every move we've done, because even if we get orders, my husband could promote and we've his promotion cycle is every August, and that's when we're technically supposed to move.

[00:28:57] Emily: And so we could be packing up our stuff, potentially having shipped it on a truck to head to where we think we're going to move, and then our orders could get changed. So, and then also there's a couple other factors that could go into us getting different orders as well. And so this out of every move we've done is going to be the most stressful, I think.

[00:29:17] Emily: And so even then, like if we move somewhere new I mean, you know, that. I think, you know, I mean, for my husband's job, at least, in the Navy, we do sea duty, then shore duty, then sea duty, then shore duty. It alternates. Right. Yeah. That way everybody has equal amounts of turn to deploy and then not deploy and stay home.

[00:29:38] Emily: Yeah. And so when we were in Virginia those three years, it was... Sea duty. So these three years, my husband is on shore duty. He's an instructor here and I was going to say, 

[00:29:48] Alison: I was like, that's kind of tough. What do you do as a rescue swimmer and you're not on sea duty? That's going to be, but that's makes sense to be 

[00:29:54] Emily: an instructor.

[00:29:54] Emily: Yeah. He also in Maryland when he was on shore duty, he was doing station search and rescue for test pilot school. So when they were testing new aircraft and things like that, they always had them on alert in case something were to happen. And so that's what a lot of the, well, it depends, but that's one of the potential things for a rescue swimmer to do on their shore duty.

[00:30:16] Emily: And down here, my husband is an instructor. So he, this is the first time in our entire marriage. So next month, there'll be 11 years marriage. This is our first time that he is not on a flight schedule and flight schedules. When you are on them, they dictate your entire life. They're constantly changing.

[00:30:35] Emily: One of the biggest shocks to me when I became a military life was our military wife was, why isn't this more organized? But there's just so many factors that go into flight that. Things constantly are changing, so he'll get the he would get the weekly schedule the Friday prior and so. We would try to plan out.

[00:30:54] Emily: I'm a big planner. So I always love to meal plan. And so I would try to meal plan. Okay, you're going to be here for dinner this night. You're not going to be here for dinner this night. But you know, you're going to be here for breakfast this morning, but not this morning. And so it was just so confusing because it changed on a day to day basis.

[00:31:07] Emily: But then even like he would go into work at 6 a. m. And then they'd be like, just kidding. We need you on the night flight tonight. Takes off at 11pm so you need to go back home because you know you can't be in the work that long. And so it was, it's always just kind of been a mess. And him being an instructor here is actually the most time we've ever spent together in his entire career and in our entire marriage.

[00:31:29] Emily: And it's been such a blessing because I've been home for dinner every night, and I'm not going to lie, I've gotten really used to it because we've been here for a little over two years, and so part of me is dreading the next duty station only because he's going to be deployable again, and so I'm not going to see him much again, and that just makes me really sad.

[00:31:46] Emily: It makes me sad for myself. And then also part of it for the business, because if I'm, if he's gone and you know, I'm going to be solo parenting and having all of the tasks on me, then that means my business is going to have to take more of a backseat. Even though I started my business during a deployment and grew it during the deployment.

[00:32:08] Emily: Yeah, this time on I have three children. I'm homeschooling. So I there's going to be a lot more out of my control. And so I would love to say I'm going to keep, you know, growing this business. And that's what I would love to do. But I don't know, time will tell. It depends on the orders that we get. It depends on the deployment schedule.

[00:32:27] Emily: And yeah, job is going to be like Yeah,

[00:32:31] Alison: I know. I know. I know. I feel and it's and it's that and I, I feel like this part that you're in right now because I'm in the same place that you are like we're supposed to go. Well, we know where we're going. So we've been told we're going back to Washington state.

[00:32:45] Alison: We don't have hard orders yet, but we've been told that that's where we're going. And And it's just the, the, we don't, we don't know where we're going to live. Like, where are we going to live on base? I don't know. You can't even get on the housing list or find out housing availability until you got orders.

[00:33:01] Alison: So stand by for that. Right. And then, well, hopefully it's the fiscal year, right? Just started. So like, let's cut some orders, shall we people? Come on, let's go. Let's let's deal, deal them out because right. Oh my gosh. Because again, I was just talking about this. I did, I did a little thing on Instagram, like a little meme thing on Instagram about that, that like celebrating getting your orders more than 30 days in advance of your, of your rotation date, because it is so common that you're getting your orders at like the last minute.

[00:33:32] Alison: And it's like,

[00:33:36] Alison: You know, like 

[00:33:37] Emily: why isn't it more organized like you just like it's frustrating and it's hard to explain to people not in the military world. Yes. They're like, even like me explaining to people now because we we had our second look for orders last month. And so we actually, we applied to one set of orders that were.

[00:33:54] Emily: Pretty excited about but several other people applied as well. And so since it's only my husband's second look Yeah, you technically have one more look chances are we probably won't get them, but we're like Really feeling hopeful, but in theory, we find out tomorrow if we get them or not, so exciting, but I, but I feel like I can't get excited again because I know there's so many circumstances surrounding this PCS that I'm like, I feel like I could not get excited.

[00:34:25] Emily: I'm excited until the truck is packed. Our stuff has been, our household goods have been delivered and we are physically in that next location. And then I can't even get excited when we get the hard orders. Yeah. 

[00:34:38] Alison: I don't know. Cause they could change at any minute. Right. Yeah, I know. I know. That's kind of so stressful to just sit in that uncertainty.

[00:34:47] Alison: And then. You know, I think, and what I just like, this is a complete total random side tangent, but what made you bring your kids home for homeschooling? And I'm asking because I just did a series on homeschooling like a month or so ago, and it was really fascinating to talk to Natalie Mack on and the home military homeschool podcast was on as well.

[00:35:12] Alison: And and it was really interesting to just hear. The different, and I think that a lot of military families bring their kids home for the, well, one, there's a lot of places that you are, if you're living on base that geographically are not great schools. That 

[00:35:30] Emily: happens. I don't know about other branches, but specifically the Navy, specifically the Navy school district right outside.

[00:35:36] Emily: If you live on base, you're districted for not so great. The top pick of schools, 

[00:35:43] Alison: we'll just say that. Yes, there you go, 100%. And then you also match that with optempo, right? Where are you gonna go? So, like, if you're homeschooling your kids and you're in this really uncertain time of where are we going?

[00:35:56] Alison: What's happening? There's a chance they could change at the last minute. But if you've got that education piece locked in, it doesn't matter, really, where we go. We can still learn from anywhere. That kind of, I think helps smooth out that just a little bit because like we, our school, our girls are still in public school and I'm like, I don't know where my kids are going to school next year.

[00:36:15] Alison: No idea. I, and I, and I won't know probably four months because we don't know where we're going to live yet to know what schools are even available. You know what I mean? So, yeah. So what was your, what, what, I mean, you don't have to get like super personal or anything, but like what made you, what made you guys choose to 

[00:36:32] Emily: homeschool?

[00:36:33] Emily: So there were a couple of reasons. They so my daughter went to public school last year for kindergarten, my oldest, and in her class, there were just several behavior issues that I had a couple of concerns. And when I would try to ask the teacher about them, she would just say that my daughter was doing great, which she was, but she wasn't able to really, like, give me the details that I was asking for.

[00:36:58] Emily: And as a prior educator, that really bothered me because she was so focused on the bigger behaviors in the classroom, like one of the other kindergarten students in the first, like, month or two of school stole the teacher's laptop and made it home with it. Like, there were some pretty big behaviors, which part of me is shocked, but the other part of me is a little, like, proud of that.

[00:37:16] Emily: Like child, like how can you pull that 

[00:37:18] Alison: up? Yeah. Right. Yeah, for sure. Who would even think to do that? Like what kindergartner would think to have that. Yeah, right. , that's 

[00:37:27] Emily: exactly, so there were just some big behavior issues. I feel like. I kind of just felt like my child was getting overlooked, and as somebody with a teaching degree, I'm like.

[00:37:37] Emily: I could do a better job. Not that my, not that the, it's nothing against the teachers. She was doing the best that she could with that's it given. So I don't blame her at all, but I just know that like, I could do better. And then I also, my oldest, you know, she was in school all day and that she had been to preschool, you know, a couple years prior to that at private private, like preschools. 

[00:38:03] Emily: And this was her first time in like full day school and she would just come home and be exhausted and just say , Mommy, , I miss you. , I want to spend more time with you. And. I know, , the years are, they're going quick and I know she's not going to stay that much longer and so part of me was like, it was pulling at my heartstrings, , I could spend more time with her if I homeschooled her.

[00:38:27] Emily: So that was another piece of it. Another reason we homeschooled. We with this next move again, we are potentially moving in August, but it could easily be delayed and we might move in September or October. And I would hate to start them at a school and then move them at the beginning of the school year.

[00:38:47] Emily: And again, we just, there would be so much up in the air that I just wouldn't feel comfortable. Yeah, yeah, we do have things about it. So we actually have a lot of people at our church here that do homeschool and so I figured if I do my first year here, then I could easily I have the support around me and the community around me of homeschool families that I could easily ask them for help or questions if I had them.

[00:39:11] Emily: So I wanted that community my first year homeschooling. Yeah. And then another reason is DeSantis signed into law this past July that homeschool families can get a scholarship of 8, 000 per child and They prioritized military families and so I applied and I have a first grader and a kindergartner this year and I got approved for both of them.

[00:39:37] Emily: And so I can buy stuff like the curriculum that I buy and I, it gets reimbursed by the government. So I get to choose. I actually got Christian curriculum for my children. It got reimbursed by the government. If I, I signed them up for soccer. It got reimbursed. That was their PE. And so one of our children has expressed interest in horse riding lessons.

[00:39:58] Emily: Yeah. I'll get that reimbursed as well. And so I have 8, 000 per child to kind of do that with. I just bought us some super chips for the year. So I just thought it was like a perfect opportunity where, wow. I like, I'm going to, going to get reimbursed. We kind of get paid. They're reimbursing our internet bill every month since we need internet to like homeschool.

[00:40:20] Emily: Yeah. It's like simple things like that. So if, if you are living, I was going to say, that's 

[00:40:26] Alison: so good advice. Yeah. Is it the same? If you're 

[00:40:28] Emily: living in a pop. Scholarship and apply because they again, they're giving priority to military families. They're slowly, since it's the first year, they only gave it to 20, 000 families across the whole state of Florida, but every year they're going to increase that number.

[00:40:43] Emily: So it's a great opportunity to take advantage advantage of, they have different like categories of things you'll get reimbursed for, but yeah. 

[00:40:51] Alison: That's awesome. I love that. Yeah. So I was curious. My next question was going to be how did you pick your curriculum? Or did you like, Hey, I'm a teacher. I've done this.

[00:41:00] Alison: I mean, you taught when you were in special education and then you were in middle school math. So that's kind of not like the kindergarten realm, but like, I feel like kindergarten, like, that's a little bit of an easier. Right? Like we're, we're learning how to be people. Like we're learning how to interact.

[00:41:15] Alison: We're learning how to communicate. We're learning like the basic stuff, right? It's not like, you know, it's not anything too 

[00:41:22] Emily: strenuous for them. So my degree is actually in elementary education and then I have a minor in special education. Okay. I am familiar with a lot of curriculums, but I also interview or like questioned a lot of my the homeschool moms that I know and just ask them like, Hey, what curriculum are you using?

[00:41:41] Emily: What curriculum are you using? And then from what they were given and based on my background information, I just did a lot of research and just decided on the ones that I thought would fit best for our family. And it's funny how like, Okay. Your perspective can change. I thought I was going to be a homeschool mom that oriented our whole days around homeschooling it and pulled in all this other stuff, but I've realized I'm the homeschool mom that like we do what we need to do with, you know, math, reading, science, all the things, but then like we get outside.

[00:42:09] Emily: I take my girls for hikes. We go to the library. I take them to coffee shops and we read books like I get them outside. And I love that. And that's the type of homeschool family that we would be. I thought, you know, we'd be surrounding our day with homeschool curriculum and stuff, but that's not what we are.

[00:42:27] Emily: And that's okay. And that's the beauty of homeschool is you just kind of adapt to your day. And that's what I can adapt to our military life. That was another reason with my husband potentially at our next duties. Not being around as much on because they'll be back on a flight schedule. I wanted my girls to be able to see him when he was home.

[00:42:46] Emily: Because when I was teaching and he was deployed in the past, there were times where he would get called up for just training to go to the boat for like three to four weeks at a time, where he wouldn't, wouldn't initially be supposed to go. And then all of a sudden I'd be in the... And I would get a text from him saying, so and so is sick.

[00:43:06] Emily: They just told me I've got 60 minutes to be packed and on the boat because I'm going out. And I'm like, okay so I'd quick like grab another teacher and I'd be like, can you watch my class for five minutes? And I'd go and call him and be like, Okay. Well, goodbye. Like, are you going to have email set up?

[00:43:22] Emily: And he's like, probably not because they're not going to get email set up that quickly on the carrier. So I probably won't be able to talk to you for the next three or four weeks. And I'm like, okay, do you know when you're coming home when I can expect you? And he's like, no, because I wasn't supposed to go on this debt.

[00:43:35] Emily: So I'll be home. I'll, I'll see you when I see you. And I'm like, Okay. Bye. And then I like had to like walk back in and teach, continue to teach my class of writing. I'm like, I don't want that for my, for my kids. I don't want him to like be called up while they're at school. I want when he's home, I want them to be able to spend time with them.

[00:43:55] Emily: So that was like reason that kind of. 

[00:44:01] Alison: Yeah. I feel, yeah. I feel, yeah. I tell you that after I had that conversation, the conversations especially with Natalie, I was like, you know, I just, the flexibility of that, , and just being able to nurture your kid's specific interests. Like, Hey, my kid really wants to do horseback riding.

[00:44:18] Alison: Let's go give it a shot. My kid really likes writing. Go nurture that. And like whatever, you know, they want to learn about it. Doesn't have to be this little, cause a lot of the stuff that That I don't know, like they just, and again, the teachers are just, they're doing the best that they can, but everybody, everybody's been put in this lane.

[00:44:35] Alison: Like, right. This is what everybody's doing. And it's like, I don't know, maybe, maybe we should throw some life skills in there. Right. Cause like, it's so funny, like, cause every, every year it's like, I'm so glad that I learned about parallelograms. Right. Because when parallelogram season comes up, like we don't learn, we don't get taught about taxes, you know?

[00:44:51] Alison: And then like, I just finished reading rich dad, poor dad. And one of the biggest themes of the book is that we are not educated about finances, like you're just not, it's not part of like financial literacy is not part of our educational curriculum at all. And it really should be, it really should be.

[00:45:09] Alison: So I think that , just having the freedom to be able to do that stuff. And you're right. Yeah. Getting outside and just being people, you know, I think is, is a really, yeah. And I feel, yeah. If you, you know, you've got. Especially if you're in an op tempo like that, where it's like, Hey, I've got this tiny window of time.

[00:45:24] Alison: I do not want to be at a job. You know what I mean? Like you want to be able to be, you want every minute that you can get. Right. And especially for your kids too. So I definitely, I feel that I feel that for sure. Okay. Well, Emily, I really appreciate your time. It was so nice talking with you and my girls.

[00:45:42] Alison: Yeah. And like my girl, so I placed an order. I was telling you before the show, my youngest daughter gave herself a haircut. Not that long ago, gave herself some bangs. They were glorious. And so she's growing those out now. And she. Is like, but they're in our, like, you know, like you get that weird face.

[00:46:02] Alison: So we just ordered a bunch of headbands and literally got them yesterday, which I was like, how fortuitous we just got them. And they're both so excited. They both have them on my oldest. And I, I don't, I really bought them for my younger daughter, but my oldest was all about it too. So they both wore their headbands to school today.

[00:46:16] Alison: They're so excited. So Yeah, so that will I think I do foresee some more purchasing in our future because they're like suspect My youngest is like I want a holiday one and she already wants a Halloween one. I'm like, whoa, whoa. Whoa like that just 

[00:46:31] Emily: Ones are on sale in the shop 

[00:46:35] Alison: Maybe we should go ahead and pick those up now, right?

[00:46:37] Alison: For next year. I love that. Okay. Well, Emily, thank you so much for, for coming on the show. And I will make sure to link both your Instagram and your website so that people can find what you have. And then again, if you're in. The greater Pensacola area. Check out the, you said you post on Instagram, what craft fairs you're going to be at and stuff like that.

[00:46:59] Alison: So then you can meet in person. How exciting. And then also follow along. Cause like I get invested in people. So I'm like, are you going to get the job that you want? Are you going to like, are you going to go where you're supposed to go in August? Like I, I want to know how it works out for you. Right. Yeah.

[00:47:18] Alison: Yeah. Okay. All right, Emily, thank you for your time. I appreciate you. Yes, 

[00:47:22] Emily: thank you.