Meet the family

Hi again! Come meet my family! They're the droopy looking bunch hanging out at the top of my blog page. That's a picture of my crew after a long day at Disney

My husband Den and my 7 kids Jon (14), Josh (10), Rose (8), Andy (5), David (5), Catherine (4), Robin (2) My life, my heart, and my soul. After God nothing else can compare to my devotion to my family.

I have the perfect life. My husband and I have a perfect marriage and are always in exact agreement on everything. He picks up his dirty socks without asking and I've never left hanging hose on the shower rod. My house is spotless, meals are full course, always on time, healthy. The kids do chores and schoolwork with a smile and beg me to put my feet up after dinner........ NOT!!!...

Ok, so life here is hectic. But we still call it perfection!

We live on 5 acres on a hill at the edge of state forest lands. Just far enough away from town to be rural but not so far that we couldn't run in for ice cream if we really wanted to. We have a nice neighbor on one side who we get along great with. (Hi Nette!) She teaches my kids the finer social aspects of life. Such as all the different ways to describe your trips to the restroom and lyrics to some songs that people are sure home-school kids miss out on. Rest assured she's got that covered! We love her! I'd trust her with my kids any day and the kids would surely miss her if she ever decided she no longer wanted to live next to us unruly weirdos.

And that should be it but it's not.... there is a creepy old man (come on, everyone has one somewhere!) who lives a couple miles up the road who I won't go into detail about right now. But rest assured it won't be long before he's front and center.

We started a chicken raising project for homeschooling a few years ago and decided we like it so now we raise our own chickens and this year added a couple turkeys.

We do grow a garden and harvest what we can which is then preserved by whatever method I find convenient at the time. But on our rocky hill some stuff just doesn't grow well, chickens like to eat young garden plants, and sometimes I'm just so busy tending kids I don't have time to do the gardening properly so I also get produce other places as it's available and welcome any GIFTS of garden leftovers that someone decides to drop on our doorstep. God will provide! And he really does through many ways. There's nothing more blessed than returning a jar of fresh salsa to a local neighbor who passed on their extra tomatoes!

We homeschool because I believe God gave us that responsibility. There are many things I could say to 'reasons to homeschool' but that is my primary reason. God said it's my job to teach the children. And so I do.

We don't do vaccinations for many reasons. My main one again is God. But there are other reasons and I choose to not argue them. As long as decisions are made for the best interest of our family I don't need to defend them.

You can see the trend here where my values and thoughts run for the guiding of my family. I believe God will guide if I only listen. So I try to stay as close to God as possible.

Some people like to label things so if you wanted to give me a label I suppose you'd be hard pressed to find one who would accept me!

I'm Godly - but I don't follow a specific religion - I read the Bible, pray, and believe God is my savior and my only path to heaven. My husband is catholic so we go to catholic mass for him but I'm just as happy sitting in a circle in the garden with the kids and reading from the Bible and I might often be caught just gazing into nowhere just to be laughed at for daydreaming..... (I was probably just asking God in my head for some extra flowers to bloom on tuesday morning when my friend comes to visit because she'd really like them) He's my friend and I talk to him often.

MOVEMENTS don't fit either - quiverful, crunchy, tree hugger, modern, anti-school - you could find a bit of everything here I suppose but I don't think anyone would really claim me. My beliefs are long-standing and I believed in God led family planning long before the word quiverful ever lashed out as a 'movement'.

Health nut... not really - just following what God said to do. "Eat what I give. It's the only food you'll ever hunger for." Maybe it's a parable... or maybe it's literal... at my table it means eating the tomatoes God grew in my garden instead of licopene supplements made in some secret lab.

anti-vaccine brings to mind the people who are against all medical intervention... I'm not that either. We get checkups as needed, keep up to date on medical break throughs, and my son gets daily asthma treatments. But I'll exhaust every option to reduce a fever before I give an infant reducer or a pill for colic.

home-school doesn't equal anti-public school - it just means we teach at home. I'd love to be invited to participate in the school's science fair or share some text books and I have some questions I'd love to chat with the teachers about. The school has it's benefits, so does homeschool. It would be great to have a peaceful co-existence.

law - It has it's place and serves it's purpose. Every area should have local ordinance to reflect the needs of the area. It should be a guideline though. Not the nosey neighbor's entertainment to see how many things he can dream up to 'catch' illegal neighbors unlawfully allowing rain to wash out a driveway on a stormy night. Some people should be banned from complaining.

So now you know a little about me and who I'm NOT feel free to ask questions! I love to answer questions! Anything at all... really! Want to know what kind of socks I wear or my thoughts on the lady who called 911 on burger king for getting her order wrong? Go ahead and ask! I'll write a whole blog just for your answer.

Ma