Five Year Glimpses

Some blogs I read have been posting five year glimpses into their lives and I thought I would do the same - it was interesting to me at least.

1974 - I was born, my husband was not yet :) I have no recollection but rumor has it my grandfather would kick my cradle so he could wake me up and hold me. I also apparently learned to walk by holding onto pretzel rods which along with cheese were my favorite foods. Some things never change - at least I can walk without them now. That is positive progress for 32 years :)

1979 - 5 years old - I started kindergarten and knew how to read. I lived in a very Italian neighborhood with a very Irish name and recall being made fun of for that name. I think it was around this time when after watching The Little Rascals I decided to make it snow in my bedroom by dumping detergent all over the room. Apparently I recruited my younger brother to help. Parents were obviously not pleased.

1984 - I was in 4th grade and moved to a new town and new school, same state. We moved into our first house and out of small apartments. I remember dressing up as Henry Hudson for a history project for class. I learned how to swim and ride a bike that year as well. It was a big year doing all that at once.

1989 - Freshman in high school. I went to an all girls Catholic high school. I was very into sports, academics, a tom boy and not very into girls as friends. Since we all wore uniforms they needed some way to compete so it was all about purses - perhaps that is part of my resistance to a purse even to this day.

1994 - Moved to the cornfields of Illinois after spending two years at a college in upstate New York. One of my first memories of this farming community was stepping out of the car and smelling manure for the first time and wondering if I had made a mistake. I spent nearly all my time debating and somehow managed to fit some classes in. I visited Ronald Reagan's birthplace, I was dragged there. At the time I was an avid liberal, an aetheist, a feminist and not interested in Reagan at all.

1999 - Eight months pregnant and I walked the aisle to pick up my Masters degree - a few weeks later Rhiannon arrived. Eight weeks after she was born we moved to Georgia and I went through some serious culture shock. New mom, new state, no support,lots of bugs, heat and very different approaches to life and people - it was an interesting time. Still it was here we really settled into our attachment parenting style (not because it was common or popular there mind you) and God really worked on my heart about what it meant to be a wife and mother.

2004 - By now we have three kids. One year into our homeschooling journey and this blog. We moved into our current home in Minnesota and we formed our family hedgehog concept, and really tried to focus on living intentionally. We are in the middle of BUSY days with a 5, 3 and 1 year old, yet we campaigned heavily in this years election - feeling very passionate about it. I am now a Christian republican.

2007 - Okay so not a full five years from the last but to bring this post up to date. We still live in the same home (a miracle for us) and still have three kids - our only family addition was another dog. Still homeschooling and very active in the homeschool community, two are schooling now and one wants to be. Still blogging and reading all the time. We are finally out of diapers though still nursing, it has been over eight years of being pregnant and/or nursing consecutively now and it was 7 straight years in diapers! We survived and even enjoyed much of it, believe it or not!

So there you have it some peeks into my life, of course I left out all the bad stuff and the many years in between. Still you probably know way more about me than you may have ever cared to know. It was fun to do though and I encourage others to try the same and post it on your own blog. Peace