The SpecialMoms Parenting Magazine Issue 5 | Page 26

Tabitha Philen

By day, Tabitha Philen is the wife to
an amazing musician and a homeschooling mother to four great children, three with special needs. By
night (and in the wee small hours
of the morning), Tabitha is founder
of the Inspired Bloggers Network,
where she mentors and encourages
thousands of bloggers with her visionary ideas and entrepreneurial
spirit.
Tabitha blogs about her frugal family lifestyle at Meet Penny, but you
can also find her creating recipes and
sharing kitchen hacks at Frugal Family Favorites. When you subscribe to
her blogs, you receive a FREE gift.

Please tell us more about your family.
My husband, Shane, and I have been married for 12
years and have four children: girl with Autism diagnosis,
11; boy with ADHD, 8; boy with ADD, 6; girl, age 4.
We are passionate about our faith and belief in God.
Since I write most of my blogs under the pseudo-name
of Penny, we also refer to our children by pseudo-names
on the blogs and on social media. Since my blogging
began with a focus on saving money, they are all named
after foreign currency: (in order of age from oldest to
youngest) Lira, Franc, Ruble, and Ariary.
We have been homeschooling since our oldest (Lira)
was 6 years old and are passionate about teaching our
children to love our neighbors and show grace to the
community by participating in and creating our own
service projects.

Thinking about your journey raising
a child with special needs, can you
elaborate on this comment: “I wished I
knew then, what I know now”?
When we first received our Autism diagnosis, I remember mourning, not because I did not love my child
but because I felt a great sense of loss over MY plans for
her future. All of my dreams that were wrapped up in
this wonderful child were shattered and I had to start
planning all over again, but this time, instead of planning tea parties and hairstyles, I was researching occupational therapy and speech activities.
Mourning is okay. Don’t feel guilty. It is a natural pro-

facebook

SpecialMompreneurs.com twitter