I wrote an introduction for an email list I'm on ... and then thought it would be fun to post part of that here (with some editing).

Who am I?  I'm the book-loving, home-loving, family-loving, stay at home mom who homeschools her children, uses cloth diapers half the time, nurses until they are 2 (unless they self-wean earlier), sleeps with her babies tucked in bed beside her, was dresses-only for awhile, then dresses-mostly for awhile, and now is just happy if everyone has clean clothes that fit them and don't have holes. 

I'm the mom who loves to read about whole foods and healthy cooking, but rarely bakes her own bread anymore, serves her family corn dogs and frozen pizza almost as often as she cooks a meal from scratch, and loves dark chocolate, Dr. Pepper, Coke, iced tea, and flavored coffee.  I research herbs and other natural methods for healing illnesses, buy them, but often fail to be persistent enough with the natural methods and then break down and go the medical route instead.

I've had 4 hospital births, 2 home births, and then another hospital birth.  I'm starting to think getting an epidural next time won't be such a bad thing ... it wasn't so bad that first time ... other than the fact that my legs were totally numb and useless and I couldn't even feel to push.  Hmm.  Maybe not, then.

I'm the distractible perfectionist organized wife of a distractible perfectionist man who organizes totally differently than I do ... and I have to set a timer to remind myself to go back to the tea kettle whose whistle is broken before it boils itself dry (as I usually end up doing). 

We are the parents of 7 creative, active, distractible, strong-willed children who tend to undo any organization that we achieve.  We watch the 2nd law of thermodynamics act itself out in our home daily.  Disorder prevails, and lots of energy has to be expended to restore order.  Even MORE energy is expended in getting the children to expend THEIR energy in restoring order.

We homeschool using as many living books as we can, since Charlotte Mason's style is what draws us.   I'm relaxed about school, especially with my younger students, and am just starting to add in subjects (like a formal science curriculum and grammar) for my older students.  We always seem to fall on the "relaxed" side of whatever curriculum we use.  We aren't unschoolers, but we use our chosen  curriculum more relaxed than many others do (at least the ones that share about their school on the discussion forums that go along with that curriculum).

I love to scrapbook, and create things ... but I do not give enough time to it.  I can sew, but rarely do.  I used to be a pretty good artist, but haven't created anything since high school.  I enjoy singing, but do not like singing solos.  I nurture my love for reading more often than my love for creating.  Each child has a 1st year scrapbook, and I have a wedding scrapbook, but our "family scrapbook" ends at the engagement.  I'm serious!  I'm missing 15 years of life in that album.

Steve works as a webmaster, and commutes to work.  We live in the country, and love it.  I remember when I felt cramped having neighbors above and below us in our apartment with 2 young babies.  So we bought a house and I felt like I could breathe again.  A yard -- no neighbors just a wall away -- what bliss! 

Then our family grew and I started feeling cramped again ... having neighbors so close to us, feeling like they were always watching us or listening to us, having to keep the kids out of their yards, having to shush the children outside when they were just being too loud for the neighbors, having to keep the kids where I could see them, but knowing they wanted to explore further.

Now we are in the country where we can breathe again.  We can look outside my window and watch the deer, the birds, the rabbits, the squirrels, the wild turkeys, our guinea hen, our barn cats, our dog.  The kids can play as loudly as they want, they have room to run and run and run, and no one is looking at our "personal clothing" if we hang them on the clothes line.  ;-)   Bliss again!  

I love my family, and I love being home with them.  I love writing about them, cooking for them, teaching them.  I love folding their clothes into neat organized stacks all around me on the couch and coffee table while watching a movie. 

I love old movies, musicals, comedies, and action adventure movies.  I dislike tear-jerker chick flicks, horror movies, and steamy love stories.  I occasionally enjoy a good historical war movie, but do not like those created just for the sake of showing violence.  I love movies too much to ever get rid of our television, although we have been living life without television reception ever since we moved here 14 months ago.

I am usually one "bad hair day" away from cutting off my long hair, and saved by the "good hair day" every time.  I am the impetuous woman being stabilized by my careful husband, who keeps me from cutting off my hair and buying new curriculum every time I'm frustrated.  I'm the country living woman who prefers her cozy house rather than feeding animals in the cold, which is one reason we haven't added many animals.

That's just a little bit about me.  I am a perfectionist, but not perfect by any means.  More often than not, I am frustrated because things do not go as I would like, or hoped, or planned.  Often times I am the failure point, not the children.  But every day is a new day to try again, every week is a new week of homeschool.  My husband loves me, "warts and all", and my children are learning that it's okay to make mistakes.  Life goes on, and God is good!

Trusting in Him,

April