Well, I mentioned being vulnerable, so here goes...

I was raised all over the US, being that my dad was in the Navy.  I loved traveling, meeting new people, and always saw the happiness in everything!!  The only hard part was parting ways with the ones I had grown close to.  I went to 22 different schools, public, private, Catholic (even though we weren't Catholic).  My parents wanted the best and kept trying to find a good place of education.  My mom began by homeschooling my sister (who is 22 now) at Kindergarten, and brought me home in the 7th grade.  It was different for me and felt sorry for myself when I'd watch all those kids walking to school every morning.  Now I look back and am so thankful.  What a heritage!  How challenging it must have been to have an emotional, fussy girl to homeschool every day.  She did not give up and I graduated a year early.  I have to say that I made it a challenge for her.  I learned so much, and am now able to pass it on to my children.  I am so grateful to my mom for her perseverance and love for me that saw past my teenage years in to my future.  Did she know it would effect her grandchildren?  It is a blessing to me. 

   I am one of six...and now eight with the adoption of two little girls into the family.  I have been married 10 years and have four children of my own.  I love homeschooling.  I wanted to do Charlotte Mason's methods, along with some unit studies in there from the beginning, but my husband really needed the assurance that we were not just "playing school."  He grew up with the solid Abeka, so we went with that.  It turned out just fine.  He has been able to feel very confident with homeschooling (more than me at times) and is so very supportive of anything that the Lord puts on my heart to use for curriculum.  This next year we are entering into a different phase of curriculum, so that should be fun.  Our family loves to do things together. I would say we love adventure.  We moved out here to KY as an adventure and it turned out to be so much more than we had ever imagined...suburban and trailer wrecked.....living in a one bedroom apartment with seven people and two large dogs.....living with Mennonites (I had no idea about them before we moved here---very wonderful people).....and the story goes on.  Today we are living in a very small two bedroom home.  It was originally a cabinet shop that we cleaned out, gutted, and made into a home.  We are working on it one step at a time.  I love our bathroom....it was the first thing finished, and with a door on it!!  Now we have doors on our bedrooms too.    We have another batch of work coming up ahead of us on the house.  Like I said, we love adventure!!  I am so thankful for being able to work along with my husband.  I lost 65 pounds two years ago, and since then my whole lifestyle has changed.  I am so thankful to God for His redemption from sin, but also from other things in our life that keep us held back.   I guess that is about it, and up to date....and very long!!  Better get on with our day......a beautiful one too!!  Melissa