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	<title>WIRL Project &#187; Home</title>
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	<description>What It&#039;s Really Like.</description>
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		<title>L: Longing &#8211; What It&#8217;s Really Like</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/l-longing-what-its-really-like/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/l-longing-what-its-really-like/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 14 Sep 2015 13:59:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Brody]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Home/Garden]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Love/Relationships]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[ABCs]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Grandparents]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Home]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Homegrown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Long Lived]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Longing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[respect]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rural Living]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Small Town]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[The Beautiful Struggle]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=8757</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This post is part of a series titled, “A-B-Cs – What It’s Really Like”. Each week a new letter and its word will be revealed. Each word’s explanation will illustrate significant personal meaning, application and ultimately demonstrate, What It’s Really Like…  This will only take a second. Usually when you long for something the feeling is often short-lived and temporary. What happens when the longing feeling has been lingering for a long, long time? I’ve been longing for: &#8230;a place where mulch beds outnumber pine straw landscaping &#8230;where the most popular cars are not Mercedes, BMW, and Lexus but instead Ford, Chevy, and Barely Runs &#8230;places where I don’t primarily need GPS to help me find a destination &#8230;a place where 12 mile drives aren’t 45-60 minute commutes &#8230;a family get together not requiring 6-months of planning &#8230;Grandparent visits &#8230;small town diners with placemats that advertise businesses I recognize &#8230;a profession in which you are respected and appreciated &#8230;an occupation with clear, reachable directives not moving targets unattainable of achieving &#8230;outdoor spaces for my sons to play that aren’t the size of postage stamps and restricted by uniform picket fences &#8230;“running to town” &#8230;seasons &#8230;start to finish rainy days &#8230;the smell of fresh cut hay &#8230;summer fires &#8230;autumn leaves &#8230;hoodies and sweatshirts &#8230;homegrown friendships &#8230;the beautiful struggle of rural living &#8230;Home.]]></description>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>There&#8217;s No Place Like Home</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/theres-no-place-like-home/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/theres-no-place-like-home/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 20 Aug 2015 09:00:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Kassidy Everard]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Love/Relationships]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Home]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[love]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New York]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[No Place Like Home]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Carolina]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[travel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=8241</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As my time to leave New York quickly approaches, I prepare for the tears and overwhelming emotions that I know are about to take control of my mind and flow silently into my heart. Each year I am blessed to have a family who supports me in most of my decisions, who encourages me to be successful, and who loves me unconditionally. There are truly some people I could never go without thanking enough for giving me a path to follow that is all mine. Being in New York with my family is an entirely different experience every year. I go different places, I see new things, and most of all I appreciate what I have around me more. I spend time with those I love, who I know love me just the same. I build a new foundation every summer. A new place to call home. But at the end of every summer my &#8220;home&#8221; is broken down, as I am sent back dragging myself along to North Carolina. Although NC is where I have been raised since I was 7 months old, I can&#8217;t help but think that it&#8217;ll never be my home. The constant downpour of love and support comes from a very few bunch of people, but it&#8217;s those people that allow me to grow as a person without worry or struggle. It&#8217;s the time I spend here that shows me what makes a house into a home. Money doesn&#8217;t matter. If someone is struggling, you probably won&#8217;t ever know. Family is family, and they help when and if they can. The beautiful scenery and the fresh air remind me all too well of a place I&#8217;ve made up in my head called home. For a foundation like this I owe thanks to my mother. Had it not been for her moving me away from NY I wouldn&#8217;t have a foundation this solid in this beautiful state. Instead it would&#8217;ve been like everyone else here that see each other day in and day out. Eventually I would get in a routine and that routine would turn into a habit and that habit would eventually grow old. NC is a habit that has grown old. Somewhat of a disease I can&#8217;t get rid of. Had I grown up in NY, I would see a whole different disease right at my finger tips&#8230;. the addiction of a warm heart. Never once have I experienced multiple people excited to see me and welcome me into their home&#8230; not worried and unquestioning about anything in my past. In any family there are ones who try to bring you down, but the ones that lift me up are irreplaceable and rarely found. If this wasn&#8217;t home to me and this wasn&#8217;t my Utopia, then I&#8217;d probably never visit at all. NY may not be London,  Paris,  Mexico, Brazil, or Italy, but it doesn&#8217;t have to be big and fancy to make me feel like this is where I belong. Leaving a select few in this family is one of the hardest, most heart breaking things I face each year. In the few days before I leave I wake up hoping time stood still throughout the night just to make my time last longer. The biggest problem with all of this is that this isn&#8217;t where I will end up. The even bigger problem is that this isn&#8217;t where I&#8217;ll have my children grow up and as cheesey as it may sound, I have followed the yellow brick road each year and it has never failed to lead me home. A piece of my heart is left behind but that piece is meant to stay. This is my home&#8230;.. and sadly I let myself leave each year, telling myself I&#8217;ll be fine without it all&#8230;. but I never am. I wait all year for this&#8230;..  and my heart is split in places my arms just cannot stretch. So as I say goodbye to my life in NY, I remember that good things can&#8217;t all come at once&#8230;.. and that one day, the place I am meant to be will drag me to it. And if the tears don&#8217;t flow when I leave, I know I haven&#8217;t left a piece of my heart, letting me know it isn&#8217;t home&#8230;. &#38; that I need a new place to start. After all, there is no place like home.]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>An Open Letter From A Homeschooling Mother</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/an-open-letter-from-a-homeschooling-mother/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/an-open-letter-from-a-homeschooling-mother/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 08 May 2015 09:00:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Misty Hovis]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Life/Leisure]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Children]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Class]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[education]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Home]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[home school]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Homeschooling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[proud]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[School]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Teach]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=5994</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I don’t have a degree in teaching, but I’m a teacher. If you would have asked me back in high school what I would be doing in 10 years I would have said being the CEO of my own business and enjoying my life to the fullest. I NEVER would have said homeschooling my 5 children, let alone saying I would have 5 children in the first place. Honestly the thought of homeschooling seemed weird and just silly back then. My whole misconception of homeschooling was children that are unsocial, uneducated, mistreated, and sheltered from the world around them… to name a few. I believe a lot of people who are against homeschooling have these SAME misconceptions. It wasn’t until our first child was about 2 years old that the thought of homeschooling came up. I didn’t want to do it, and was completely looking forward to “my free time” when he and any other children we had would be sent off to public school. Little did I know that homeschooling was the plan that God had in mind for us. Everywhere we turned homeschooling was brought up, I couldn’t get away from the idea and for some reason it seemed so interesting to me. My husband and I decided to pray about it and we did for 2 whole years! I did a ton of research and even went over the pros and cons many times. Finally the decision had been made, we were going to homeschool. Telling our family and friends wasn’t as easy as you would think, some were very supportive and others thought we were NUTS! One of my favorite comments from a family member who we were showing our classroom to was, “Oh, this will make a nice playroom at least.” At first I took that very personal and was pretty upset about it. Then I thought about it for awhile and realized… YES, it will make a nice playroom. Learning will be fun, enjoyable, and creative! A lot of people don’t realize that a child at a young age learns the MOST through play. Here are some interesting facts to keep in mind as well: When a child reads information they will only retain about 10% of it, 90% of it is lost. If they are presented the information orally they will retain 20% of it, 80% of it is lost. If a child sees what they are learning about they will retain 30% of it, 70% of it is lost. When a child sees and hears he/she will remember 50% of the material. When a child is asked to talk about a subject or read out loud they will retain 70% of the lesson. If a child is on the other hand actively involved in a project and doing hands on activities, they will retain 90% of it. Just my personal opinion, but it seems to me that it is much easier for a mother of 5 children to do more hands on activities and educate her children in a more effective way than a teacher in a classroom of 20-30+ children. Don’t get me wrong I appreciate public school teachers very much and think they have a super hard and important job. However, the way the system is set up does not allow a teacher to educate public schooled children very effectively. The system is more worried about crossing their T&#8217;s and dotting their I&#8217;s than allowing a teacher to use her God given talents to teach the children in her class. Test scores have proven this time and time again. Once we had made our decision, we had to deal with many questions including those worried about our children’s social skills and sheltering them from the outside world. We in no way intended to shelter our children and anyone that has ever spoken to one of our children can attest to the fact that they are far from being unsocial! (LOL) We are involved in many activities outside the home, take part in different groups, have participated in Co-Ops and sporting teams. Another question that has been brought up is “Why not leave it up to the professionals, you don’t even have a teaching degree?” Who is to say I’m NOT a professional… just because I didn’t spend thousands of dollars in college fees, years of my life in a classroom to get a piece of paper that says I have a certain degree shouldn’t deem me unworthy of teaching my children. I am a strong believer that actions speak louder than words. My children and their academic scores have proven that I must be doing something right. For example, when I first thought of homeschooling, I was beyond worried about teaching my children to read. It has never been a strong area for me. However, I learned right alongside my oldest, poured knowledge into him and I was so excited last year when he got his standardized test scores back for 2nd grade. He tested higher in reading than 98% of his peers and was reading at an 8th grade reading level! There are so many benefits to homeschooling. I get the chance to see my children learning new things first hand, I don’t have to just hear about it. We can learn together… take field trips and do hands on activities that are fun and exciting. I have the opportunity to see what areas my children are struggling in and what areas they are excelling in as well. This gives us a chance to help them one-on-one to improve on certain skills and give them room to grow and advance in areas of interest. For example, my oldest son, Logan, LOVES birds! He honestly could tell you the name and important facts about pretty much any bird you show him. He amazes me with the knowledge and interest he has in this area. I am able to provide resources and encourage his love for birds and this gets him excited about reading and learning even more. There also are so many wonderful materials, curriculums and resources offered to homeschooling families. Trust me I have done plenty of research to find what works well for us. I remember our first year homeschooling, I had someone ask me “Did you ever take calculus in school, if you didn’t how are you going to teach your child something you never learned?” My response was this… First off my son is in Pre-K and just learning his numbers, I think we will be ok. When he is older and will be taking more advanced classes, if I can’t help him we have some amazing friends that would be willing to help in this journey with us. Plus there are so many programs out there that we would be able to learn together. As far as teaching different grades at the same time, there is this awesome thing called unit studies! A great example I always like to share is this: let’s say we are learning about the eye. We would learn together all of the material about the eye up to a 3rd grade level (my oldest), maybe even higher if he is interested in knowing more now. Then our work would be as followed, 3rd grader might write a report about the eye, 1st grader might write a paragraph about the eye, Kindergartener might label the parts of an eye with a word bank and a Pre-K might color a picture of an eye. There also are many curriculums that allow for some independent learning for older grades which allows more time to focus on the basic skills needed in the younger grades, such as Phonics. I will be the first to say homeschooling is NOT for everyone though. There is a lot of work, planning, time, and energy involved in it. As well as, a true commitment you have to make to be a homeschooling family. It’s not always easy, but for us, it is worth it. There is no right or wrong… each person / family is entitled to their own thoughts, feelings, and opinions about public school vs. homeschooling. However these feelings should never judge the choice of another family if they feel called to do something different than yours. Again, 10 years ago I would have said I would be a CEO of my own business and living my life to the fullest. I am thankful to say, I am a CEO of my own business, by being an Independent Director with Thirty-One Gifts, and completely love every aspect of my life… funny enough, I even love being a homeschooling mother of 5! Sincerely, Proud Homeschooling Mother, Misty Hovis &#160; &#160;]]></description>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>This Whole Homeschooling Thing&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/this-whole-homeschooling-thing/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/this-whole-homeschooling-thing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 07 May 2015 09:00:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Sara Brennan]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Life/Leisure]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Home]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Home Schooling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Homeschooling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Learn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[parents]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Public]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Public School]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Schooling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sports]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Teach]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Teachers]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=5929</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When I am passionate about something, you know it. Most of the time my friends and family will say, Calm down! as I&#8217;m talking because I get so worked up. I guess that&#8217;s the Type-A coming out in me. Anyway, I feel pretty passionately about what I&#8217;m about to say. I was a teacher for 6+ years before becoming a stay-at-home mom and I have some thoughts on this issue. And, if you start reading this and strongly disagree, I urge you to keep reading, you will be really surprised at my closing thoughts.  So, here we go. I&#8217;ve found through reading SEVERAL blogs lately that homeschooling is on the rise. Apparently, according to the National Home Education Research Institute, there are about 2.2 million home educated children in the US. This baffles me! To me, homeschooling seems so unnatural, but that&#8217;s probably because I&#8217;ve been in a classroom for years. I also don&#8217;t know who would actually want to do this? Why wouldn&#8217;t you just leave it to the professionals? I like the idea of my kids going off to school and interacting with other students and teachers! Plus, I need a break! To help you understand how I feel about this, in true teacher fashion, I&#8217;ll give you an example: I guess I can explain my way of thinking on this subject as this: Something went wrong with my electricity in my house. Sure, I could look it up on YouTube and read books to educate myself on how to fix it, but why not just hire a professional who knows what they&#8217;re doing to fix it? Why on Earth would you try to take on something like this yourself? Is the end result the same? Maybe, or maybe not? So, yeah, that may have pissed you off because you think I&#8217;m comparing your kid to an electrical problem and you to a DIY Electrician, but that&#8217;s not really what I meant. Let me explain&#8230; So, I have a Master&#8217;s Degree in Secondary Education and know the content I am qualified to teach VERY well, just ask any of my previous students (this is where my old students should scroll to the bottom and leave a comment about how I was such an AMAZING teacher). Very few people actually completely major in the subject they&#8217;re teaching; it&#8217;s rare to find someone like me. For example, most people go to school knowing they want to become a teacher and major in Education. They take classes to hone in on the area they want to teach and major in some kind of Education program. Then, as long as they can pass the Praxis text, they are good to go and they can become a qualified teacher. Not me. I majored in Biology, actually I was Pre-Pharmacy for a while, and I ended up with a BA in Biology and a Concentration in Neuroscience. Whoa, right? I MUST be smart! Well, yes, but that major wasn&#8217;t really getting me anywhere, especially since it wasn&#8217;t ideal timing for me to jump into Pharmacy School (my dad just passed away) and so my &#8220;smartness&#8221; wasn&#8217;t getting me anywhere. So, the next best thing was to go to Graduate school and get my Masters in Education, so I could teach. Still with me? I promise, this article really is about homeschooling! So anyway, I moved south and started teaching at a not-so-great school and then eventually got a job at a SUPER-great school! I was living the dream, right? No. The amount of work that was put on me as a science teacher (not to mention NEW teacher in general) was incredible. Not only did we have lesson plans due every day, but I taught 220 students! Yes, 220! And that meant that for every assignment I gave, I had to grade 220 of them! WTF! How is this even possible? On top of that, teachers are faced with parent criticisms meetings, committees, report cards, state testing, district testing, phone calls, discipline issues, differentiated lessons and children with special needs. We are asked to be innovative and we are evaluated using a very impossible difficult evaluation tool that is supposed to be objective, but is SO subjective! There were many days I left my classroom in tears or so angry that I could have exploded, but rarely was it because of the kids. It was the incredible workload on my plate and that I kept being asked to do more, more, more and to be better, better, better! Aside from actually being in front of the kids and interacting with them, there was never a time when it was really that &#8220;fun&#8221;. I had very little autonomy to allow my &#8220;craft&#8221; or &#8220;art&#8221; as an individual to shine through. A robot could easily do the job of a public school teacher, on some accounts, because there are so many checklists and systems we are forced to follow&#8230;it has very little to do with how &#8220;good&#8221; a teacher is anymore, it&#8217;s more about how well can they &#8220;play the game&#8221;. So, my biggest question, concern, rant, whatever this is about the homeschooling thing is not that it&#8217;s not a good choice or that I don&#8217;t agree with it, but rather, how the hell can a mom of 6 homeschool her kids with 6 different curriculums and do it just as well as someone who knows the ins-and-outs of education and is a master at the content they teach? At first, my personal thought was that homeschooling can&#8217;t be done as effectively as in a classroom. Learning in a classroom setting not only teaches the kids the content, but it also teaches them empathy, social skills, and discipline. There are definitely some children who I have taught that would have done SO much better in a different setting, the classroom just wasn&#8217;t right for them, but for the most part, school is a great experience for kids. They get to play sports, learn classroom etiquette, develop a rapport with adults OTHER than their parents, and they get to make lifelong friendships. Aside from my personal thoughts about homeschooling vs. public schooling, I&#8217;d also like to point the finger at the public education system. Earlier I asked, &#8220;How the hell can a mom of 6 homeschool her kids with 6 different curriculums and do it just as well as someone who knows the ins-and-outs of education and is a master at the content they teach?&#8221; It wasn&#8217;t a jab at those moms and dad&#8217;s homeschooling their kids, but rather a serious &#8220;How the hell do you do this?&#8221; and &#8220;Why does it have to be so difficult to just teach one curriculum in a public setting?&#8221; Ask a public school teacher, especially a middle or high school teacher, to teach more than two subjects and they&#8217;ll flip! Why, because it&#8217;s SO hard to manage just ONE! And then you&#8217;re going to ask us to completely learn a whole other subject area? NO F&#8217;ING WAY! It&#8217;s seemingly impossible to be knowledgeable enough or capable to teach and manage this many lessons, assignments, and students and it causes teachers to spread themselves too thin and get burnt out. Plus, needless to say, it&#8217;s not in their pay grade. But people do it, and they do it well, but rarely do you EVER seeing a public school secondary education teacher instructing more than two curriculums. And then we go back to the homeschooling parent, who is apparently managing and facilitating several different lessons per day, across several different curriculums, and you&#8217;re telling me this is as effective? I don&#8217;t know, that&#8217;s a hard pill for me to swallow. So when you look at the data from homeschooled children from the National Home Education Research Institute you&#8217;ll (be shocked to) find the following: The home-educated typically score 15 to 30 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests. (The public school average is the 50th percentile; scores range from 1 to 99.) Homeschool students score above average on achievement tests regardless of their parents’ level of formal education or their family’s household income. Whether homeschool parents were ever certified teachers is not related to their children’s academic achievement.  Degree of state control and regulation of homeschooling is not related to academic achievement.  Home-educated students typically score above average on the SAT and ACT tests that colleges consider for admissions. Homeschool students are increasingly being actively recruited by colleges &#160; WHAAAT? It actually works? Assuming that the data is unbiased, this is insane to me! It ACTUALLY works. So, maybe this is the time I&#8217;m supposed to say, Yay, go homeschooling kids and parents!, but I&#8217;m not going to say that just yet. I will tip my hat and congratulate you homeschooling folks; I know it&#8217;s not easy, in fact, it&#8217;s incredibly hard! However, I think we need to use this information to reconsider how we go about public education&#8230;if something else is working, I don&#8217;t think we should argue it and put it down, we should take a look and see what they&#8217;re (homeschooling parents) doing and why what we&#8217;re (public schools) doing isn&#8217;t as effective.  So, I said my closing remarks may surprise you, didn&#8217;t I? Here they are: I&#8217;m not going to take one side or the other, but I am going to point this out: I don&#8217;t think all the extra shit public school teachers are asked to do is helping. I think we need to get back to the basics and just let our teachers teach. Moms and Dads, who may not know shit about the content their teaching (no offense), are doing it successfully! They take the time to learn the content and help their kids in the best way they can and they are SUCCESSFUL, regardless of their economic status, demographics, or background&#8230;and we all know this is NOT the case for public schools.  I guess I just think teaching at a public school does not have to be as hard as we (the system) make it. I&#8217;ve said this during my whole career as an educator, Just let them teach! The data, the methodology, the evaluations, the paperwork, the meetings, and the initiatives aren&#8217;t helping &#8211; they&#8217;re taking away from planning time and hindering us from being able to create really impactful, effective lessons. If a mom of 6 can teach each of her children the same things I would (while in her pajamas) and do it just as effectively or better, then there is something REALLY wrong with our system. Don&#8217;t you agree? And let me just finish by saying Thank you to every teacher out there, who is doing the best they can, because it&#8217;s SO hard. Aside from being a parent, it&#8217;s the hardest job I&#8217;ve ever had. Keep working hard public, private and homeschool teachers. Keep putting in the time because it&#8217;s working and no matter what anyone tells you, you ARE making a difference. I guess it doesn&#8217;t matter who is teaching what or where, what really matters is that the child is getting the best education possible. Right? That&#8217;s my two cents and I guess that&#8217;s also why I&#8217;m no longer a public school teacher (lol). &#160;]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>How I Turned $50K into $1 Million!</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/how-i-turned-50k-into-1-million/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/how-i-turned-50k-into-1-million/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 28 Apr 2015 18:00:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edward Mei]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Buy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[California]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Home]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Investment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Money]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Real Estate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sell]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=5602</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hi, My name is Edward and I want to tell you a story from my life about how good things happen when you have perseverance  and patience. How I turned $50K into $1 million. In about 1987 when I was 21, I decide to buy real estate. I am a native San Francisco, born in Chinatown from a very modest family income (basically poor). Even though my parents never stressed getting a good education, they did mention to me once in a while that having your own home was important. Starting working part time when I was 15 ½, mainly after school and on the weekends at Safeway, which my uncle was the manager and hired me. Unfortunately he did not stay long after hiring me. He went to another Safeway and I found out from my mom he suffered from great headaches due being hit in the head with a gun during a robbery. During the summer of 1987, I purchased a 4 bedroom 2 bath ranch house in Pittsburg, CA.  The house was 1477 square ft but the lot was 10,200 square ft. At the time, I just bought what I could afford and the most space for the money. The purchase price was $109K. 2 years later, I bought a 2 story house which had 4 bedroom 2 bath. The purchase price was $180K. Then one year later in 1990, I purchased a 1 bedroom 1 bath (Concord, California) condo for $45k. Now to explain the math on how $40K turned into 1 million. The 4 bedroom 2 bath house in Pittsburg down payment  was $10K, so let’s round up the number to $15K with closing cost. Next the 4 bedroom 2 bath house in Concord down payment was $25K which is rounded up to include closing cost. For the Concord house, I did not even have the 10 percent down to buy the house which would have been $18K. Only had about $10K, but the seller was willing to carry a second loan for $10K at 10 percent for a 5 year balloon payment. The last one, which was the 1 bedroom 1 bath Concord condo, I will say the total down payment was $5K. Since I round up the cost of the two homes, I am using use $5K as the total cost for the $45K Concord condo sale. Let’s add it up $15K, $25K and $5K = $45K (round up to $50K). Then in 2005, the tenant at the Pittsburg house informed me that they were moving, so I decide to sell the house since real estate prices were climbing. The house sold for $430K on 6/23/2005. The sale went so fast and smoothly, I decided to sell the 2 other properties. On 3/10/2006, the Concord house sold for $457,500. Then later on 11/16/2006, the Concord condo sold for $199K. Let’s add it up again $430K, $458K, and $199k = $1.08M. Now you’re thinking, Wow! One million dollars! But, (there’s always a but in there somewhere) it took 20 years to make that and then 1/3 of the profits went to taxes (federal and state) and both the profits from the Pittsburg and Concord house was split 50/50 between my brother and I, since they both were considered family properties. The Concord condo I bought myself but still had to pay taxes on the profits. A few statistics to remind us about the world we live in. Global median salary is $18K. At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day. Think about the $10 when you eat lunch on any given day. &#160; p.s. I met Sara, Founder of WIRL Project, at an event in San Francisco. I am a very private person, but she asked for help and I like to pay it forward. I am looking for help with my new startup also = www.blendedd.com Any content that can be posted/listed would be highly appreciated. Thank you, Edward]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Stylish and Creative Storage Solution</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/stylish-and-creative-storage-solution/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/stylish-and-creative-storage-solution/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 31 Mar 2015 22:00:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Alessandra Macaluso]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Home/Garden]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Products/Shopping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Style/Beauty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[decor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Home]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[toy storage]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=4700</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&#160; We used to have a wooden coffee table in the middle of our living room. But once we brought our tiny human home I went from seeing &#8220;beautiful, aged dark wood coffee table with wrought iron legs&#8221; to &#8220;ARE YOU KIDDING ME YOUR CHILD CAN AND WILL FALL AND BUST HER BUTT ON THESE METAL SPIKES OF HAZARD YOU HORRIBLE PARENT!!&#8221; (Not to mention, &#8220;wasted space&#8221;.) We moved the table to another room, but I didn&#8217;t want a gaping hole in the middle of our rug &#8211; I wanted something that still looked nice, was functional, and allowed us to live like normal people once Penelope went to bed at night. Plus, I&#8217;ve learned that no matter how hard you try, with kids, their stuff does start to slowly creep in and take over your space. I also never realized how important it would be for my sanity to be able to tuck everything away easily, and to kick back at night without getting an &#8220;Elmo Goes for a Walk&#8221; book wedged in my butt when I sat on the couch. But I found (somewhat of) a solution! It was inexpensive, looks great, and is functional, so of course I had to share with you. Stylish and Creative Storage Solution The photo on the left you might remember from last week, when I told you how I was coping with my migraines and the things that were only adding to the pain. But the image on the RIGHT is my storage solution &#8211; the 3 bins that all of that stuff goes into at night after P goes to bed: It&#8217;s really nice at the end of the day to toss everything back into those bins and not feel like our house is overrun with toys or clutter. (We also use those cabinets next to the fireplace for some other items, but most of the stuff goes in the bins.) This is the room we use most in our home, so I love the way these bins hide everything! And they are really easy to move around when we have people over. The tops even flip over and you can use them as a tray, or you can keep them as shown and sit on them if you need more seating! I got mine at a place called Garden Ridge, which was since bought and changed over to At Home, so if you have an At Home near you definitely head over to check out what they have. But in case you don&#8217;t, I did a quick search and found some other really cute options on Overstock.com, here: Overstock.com ottoman search. (The above link is NOT an affiliate link.) Did you like this idea? Did you do something similar?]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Looking for Affordable Artwork</title>
		<link>http://www.wirlproject.com/looking-for-affordable-artwork-near-erie-pa/</link>
		<comments>http://www.wirlproject.com/looking-for-affordable-artwork-near-erie-pa/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 23 Feb 2015 01:26:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Diane Andriacchi]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Home/Garden]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Affordable Decor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Art]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Home]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wirlproject.com/?p=3303</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Does anyone have any recommendations as to where I can find affordable artwork and possibly a mirror and sconces for my family room?  I would like to stay with earth tones. I live near Erie, PA, but don&#8217;t mind ordering from somewhere online. I checked Kirklands, but they didn&#8217;t have a lot to offer and the closest one is about 80 miles away :/ !!]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
		</item>
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