About Me

The last time I faithfully kept a blog was around the time I graduated high school.  A lot has changed since then, and I feel the need to reintroduce myself to the world wide web.  (Or as I like to call it, the webbernet.)

I grew up in a strange, but beautiful family.  I was homeschooled my entire childhood.

There is a certain stigma that the homeschool community carries, and it looks something like this. 

But my family was different!  Well, maybe not so much.  My brother might have looked kind of like that...

I do feel the need to clarify that I am not a brainiac.  I did not attend the national spelling bee, neither did I get into college when I was 12.  Some homeschooled kids are smart like that, but I think those kids have a lot more self-discipline than I did.  And possibly crazy parents.  I spent most of my time wishing I was in public school, because I craved social interaction.  My family considered me a social butterfly, which may have been true by their standards, but only because I was so starved for friends.  

My mom owned a small business in the community, and working the shop was counted as part of our education.  In high school I did my mom's books for about a year and a half.  We carried on more conversations with adults than with kids our age.  So adults loved us, but kids tended to think we were kinda weirdos.

To a certain extent, this is still the case with me.  While I consider myself to be pretty well socially developed, and yes, I am capable of participating in conversations with people my own age.  Most people who meet me are actually surprised to hear I was homeschooled, but then give me this look like, "Oh.  That makes so much sense."  People almost always think I'm mature for my age.  Mature and... well... different.  (Which is still just another word for weird.)

Some of my friends refer to me as "an old soul."  I don't believe in reincarnation, but I see their point.  I tend to be more connected with an older way of life than most of my friends.  I value silence in the house, (my husband and I used to fight about the TV frequently.)  I know how to knit, crochet and spin, and was learning these things since I could count my age on one hand.  (I mentioned that my mother owned a business.  I failed to mention that I can technically say that I grew up in a yarn shop, because it was based out of our house for years.)  I know how to can, and have stories of peeling apples until my hands were brown.  I love a good county fair!  These are just a few of my old lady attributes.  They are an intrinsic part of me.  Most people either love them or hate them, but most will notice them within a couple of conversations with me.  I cannot separate myself from them, no matter how my husband sometimes wishes I could.  (And when he dies, I will undoubtedly be the infamous cat lady of the neighborhood, sitting on my front porch in a rocking chair with my basket of cat hair-covered knitting.)

My husband and I are an interesting couple.  They say that opposites attract, and this is true of us.  While I am very pointed and sarcastic on my blog, I tend to be much more soft spoken and non-confrontational in person.  My husband says what's on his mind, regardless of whether or not people take offense at it.  He is a product of the public school system, and proud to be so.  Our getting together is somewhat of a miracle, because previous to dating we both had decided that a strictly platonic relationship with the other was all that the future would hold, and that was just fine.  The following are actual thoughts, and in my case, spoken feelings.  "I am so glad that God did not call me to marry that guy."  My husband's thought-  "I would never date her."

Our relationship was, in a sense, the beginning of my understanding how most teenagers and young adults think.  My vocabulary was modified, not so much adding words as changing the way that I said things.  While I was aware that certain things could be twisted to resemble sexual innuendo, I had absolutely no idea that 85% of the things that I said were a that's-what-she-said joke to the rest of society.  I read some of my blog entries and cringe at how my verbiage must have been perceived.

My husband is a technology lover.  Me?  Not so much.  I appreciate some things.  Cell phones are awesome.  The DVR is pretty cool.  Netflix is the best!  But there are a lot of ways that I just feel like technology makes things unnecessarily complicated, and I just have a hard time with them.  This blog, for instance, has been (and will continue to be) completely changed to keep up with the times.  All my husband's doing, of course, because I have a hard time working the thing. 

While there are many, many quirky things about me, the last thing that I will say here is that I love to talk.  I have a certain Anne of Green Gables quality.  I have had many a conversation after which I think, Would it have killed me to shut up?  I tend to ramble and come to a verbal conclusion the long way.  For this, I apologize. 

You will get to know me better in my (hopefully) upcoming posts.  But until then...