Homeschool support

So basically, all summer I pouted that my wonderful LDS homeschool support group in Dallas didn't exist here in the San Francisco Bay area. I joined the email list for the LDS group here but they are all moms at the end of their childrearing years, with all their youngests being teens and pre-teens, and they're spread all over the Bay area with none of them in my stake. I hunted and complained and pouted all summer; I did check out one other group that was local to me, but it just didn't click for me (they meet at a park and socialize on the grass while their kids all play on the playground, but Lily is just too small to play on the playground without my close supervision, so I didn't really get to make friends much). I knew there were other homeschooling groups, but I really wanted to be able to talk religion with my homeschool mom friends, so I continued hoping.

We moved to a new ward in a new stake and I sent out an email to that LDS group, hoping that some of them were in my new stake, and was so excited to learn that some of them were! But it is still only about 1 family per ward in the stake. Met the "homeschooling" family in my ward and was just crushed to find out that she considers herself a homeschooler b/c she does academics with her son after he gets home from school. While yes, that is homeschooling b/c she's doing school at home, it was not what I was hoping for in the way of like-minded support.

So, I'm done pouting. I went online, scoured every homeschooling network site I could find, and joined every group I could imagine myself driving to. I know I won't possibly go to every event that every group does, but I will find some friends who homeschool. I can handle having homeschool mom friends of another faith, just as much as I can handle having friends at church who send their kids to school. (At least in this ward there is a lot more discontent with the schools, so they say "Oh good!" when I tell them I homeschool, instead of "Why in the world would you do that?")

Tomorrow I go to a holiday craft-making meetup with a group based in San Francisco. It's a half-hour drive, but I think that's worth it.

Why does this matter so much to me? Because when I feel like I'm doing right by my kids, my world is happy. When I doubt myself and wonder if I'm really doing the right thing, the whole family suffers.