Where Life and Learning Meet

he first time I met Durenda was at a conference for homeschool bloggers in 2013. My mom and I had been invited to speak together, and a couple months before the event, she passed away unexpectedly. I decided the best way to honor her memory was to keep the commitment and speak for both of us. I was so nervous and still very much grieving.

After my speaking session, Durenda encouraged me greatly. I really needed to hear her kind, reassuring words at the time. She was so honest and real that I knew right away I wanted to get to know her better. We stayed connected from that point on. She wrote a feature article for us, and eventually I asked her to become a columnist for the magazine. She began her column in 2018. It was titled after one of her books: Unhurried Homeschooling. A close friend of mine (who is also a homeschooling mom) told me how inspired she was by Durenda’s words. She said that as she read the first installment of the column, she realized it was her goal for their home. A few years later, we needed a new writer for the opening column in the magazine, Mom to Mom. To me, this is one of the most vital articles in the magazine. It sets the tone for the pages ahead, and I have always been very careful about who writes it, mainly because this is the place where we need encouragement the most. We don’t need a set of rules to check off or a list of tips to follow. We need the wisdom of someone who has already walked this road and will share from her heart. Durenda was a perfect fit. Her words, which always drip with authenticity and hope, have made an enormous impact on me personally, and I know they have on our readers, too.

In some ways, Durenda is a lot like the table her family gathered around all those years. It served her family faithfully. It created a place for them to come together, pulling everyone in from their various activities throughout the day and bringing a sense of closeness. The table was there on ordinary days with consistency and care, and on the significant ones, making space for celebration. Adorned with items that bring a warm familiarity, it gave the family a place to feel special on certain days, like birthdays, while simultaneously providing a stable surface to come to at any time of day or night. You could come for deep conversations and coffee, or for games and laughter. Lessons were learned there, school was accomplished, experiments completed, cards written, and art projects done, and more than one mess was cleaned up. The table was no doubt well worn in the best kind of way. In a homeschooling family’s house, it is so much more than a place to eat. It truly represents the heart of the home. Like we all desire to be. Like Durenda was.

She was a woman of great worth. One who completed her race with excellence and trained up her children and grandchildren in the way they should go. She loved well and left a legacy that will be felt for generations. I’m thankful we will always have her words of wisdom to draw from. May we all honor her memory by living by her principles. To be fully present, unhurried, and intentional. She wasn’t perfect, but she was always there, willing and ready to try again.

In her daughter Jenna’s words, Durenda was:

“The pillar of her home, the hands that weaved the culture of our family, day by day, month by month, year by year. She’s the voice that’s soothed and comforted us, the arms that have rocked eight children and 12 grandchildren, and the first person my kids want to call when they have news.

With Christ at the center of everything she does, for the past 10 years, she’s been called to reach and encourage other moms in their motherhood and homeschooling journeys and has done so beautifully. It’s a blessing to us as her children to see her motherhood extended in a way and shared with so many wonderful families.”

I want to leave you with her own words, shared only a couple of months before her home going. To me, this is the mission we’re all on as homeschoolers, to keep moving and to trust:

“So often we wait for clarity before we move. We want certainty, a sign, a plan laid out step by step. But the truth is—God rarely works that way.

Walking with the Lord means learning to move even when we can’t see the whole path. It means trusting that His Word is a lamp to our feet, not a floodlight for the whole journey. (Psalm 119:105)

Lately, He’s been showing me that courage isn’t about confidence in myself—it’s about confidence in Him. That I don’t have to have it all figured out to be obedient. I just need to take the next faithful step.

There is beauty in not knowing, because it draws us closer to the One who does know. The unknown becomes less scary when we remember Who goes before us, walks beside us, and hems us in from behind (Psalm 139:5).”

shley Wiggers grew up in the early days of the homeschooling movement. She was taught by her late mother, Debbie Strayer, who was an educator, speaker, and the author of numerous homeschooling materials. It was through Debbie’s encouragement and love that Ashley learned the value of being homeschooled. Currently, Ashley and her husband Alex are the publishers of Homeschooling Today magazine. Ashley is the Co-Executive Editor and a contributing columnist as well as one of the hosts of their podcast, Homeschool Boldly. Husband and wife team, Alex and Ashley are busy raising and homeschooling their three children while running the family business together.