You Have Been Tagged

I've been "tagged" by Stephanie at http://www.momto3feistykids.com/.
If you have time, add her blog as one of your faves...you won't be sorry!  I'm absolutely certain we would be good friends in real life.

The Rules:

1. Post these rules.
2. Post a photo of yourself and 11 random facts about you.
3. Answer the questions given to you in the tagger’s post.
4. Create 11 new questions and tag new people to answer them.
5. Go to their blog/twitter and let them know they have been tagged.

Photo of me:

Eleven Random Facts About Me:

1. I just had my hair highlighted and I like it.
2. I can't sing a note...but I love music and SING ANYWAY!
3. April marked Jerry and I's anniversary:  TWENTY YEARS together!  Woo Hoo.  I'll tell you this, I was 29 when I met him.  I was absolutely certain I would never meet a man I could marry.  When I met him, I knew almost immediately.  I am still madly in love with him and he totally shows me his love every day.  (I know, isn't it great?!)
4. We are television free here.  I haven't seen a commercial in years.  This is not to say that I don't have the TV on.  I LOVE movies and I am, especially, in love with Netflix.  Currently I am watching a Korean soap that Dr. Who wants me to watch.  It is called "Secret Garden".  I am also watching "Scrubs."
5. I have always been a huge reader.  I have read many books from many different genres.  I must claim Barbra Kingsolver as an author with whom I feel a certain kinship.  One of her books has a line in it that brings me to tears just by thinking about it.  The book is "Animal Dreams", not my favorite of her books.  In the end, there is a moment when the father holds his daughters close...I get verklempt just thinking about it.
6. I'm not a good housekeeper.  But I'm a great home keeper.
7. I am a birthmother.  In my teens, I gave birth to a gorgeous daughter.  I knew my life was too much of a disaster to raise her.  (parents divorced early, chaotic home life...)  I loved her so much and still love her today.  She is now 29 years old, married, and the mother of a son.  (Thank you, internet.)  She wants nothing to do with me.  I understand that, and it hurts.  But I love her and will always respect her needs.  It is not now, nor has ever been, a secret.
8.  I dislike cooking.  Almost every single day I think to myself, "I have to feed them AGAIN!"  Lucky for me, my family appreciates simply, healthy food.  When my husband cooks, he ROCKS the house!  He loves cooking and I do NOT.
9. I have several good, dear friends with whom I share so much!  The qualities that I look for for friends are:  accepting of and appreciative of other cultures and ways of life, funny, smart, and kind.  Pretty simple, really.  
10. I used to write tons and tons of existential angst poetry.  I haven't written poetry in years, but when I read my old stuff, I wish I could be there for that younger me who tried so hard, meant so well, but made every single mistake.

Stephanie's Questions:

1. What do you enjoy most about blogging and/or social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)  I enjoy the blog because I enjoy the chance to write, to express myself, and to be open with my life choices.  Homeschooling and atheism are both life choices that, I believe, are quite misunderstood.  I enjoy being able to represent one or both of those things to readers.  Also, I love the like-minded and not-to-like-minded, people I have "met" through the blog.

2. What advice would you offer about blogging and/or social media?  Hmmmm.  I don’t know!  I guess I would say to write when you enjoy it and don’t write when you don’t.  Also, write about what you know.  You are an authority on your life and that alone is interesting.  I enjoy reading blogs of people who are slogging through this life doing their best and who share that journey.

3. What are a few of the most important lessons you've learned as a parent?  That each child is a unique person.  Obvious, maybe, but mine are SO different from one another.  ALMOST OPPOSITE.  (grin)  I have learned to comment carefully on qualities that are opposite in them.  That the love I feel for my children is so exquisite, there isn't a word that can contain it.

4. Do you have a favorite book and/or movie -- or what are a few of your favorites -- and what do you think your choice says about you?  I love so many books.  I am going to admit to the most popular ones.  Some favorite books:  The Outlander by Diane Gabaldon, anything by Barbra Kingsolver, Nora Roberts at times, and (blush) my favorite thing to read is National Geographic magazine or Discover magazine.  I also love "Les Miserables", "Count of Monte Cristo", and " SO many classics.  I am reading almost every still moment and I readreadread all of those National Geographic magazine that the library sells for fifty cents.  I just finished Dickens' "Great Expectations" and LOVED IT!  That is a book so totally lost on a freshman in high school... I also love reading home decorating and home DIY magazines.  What does this say about me?  I think it says that I love to learn and I am always learning.

5. Is there a book or movie that changed you in some way? If so, what and how?  Many years ago, the book “Women, Sex, and Addiction: A Search for Love and Power” by Charlotte Sophia Kasl changed everything.  As a young woman I had confused sex with intimacy.  NOT the same at all.  When I read this book, I realized that I had been steadily working on getting out of that destructive pattern for a long time and I felt great about moving into a healthier lifestyle.  It took alot of work and was totally worth it.

6. What is a quality about yourself you know you need to work on?  I still struggle with self confidence.  I have a long list of bookmarked websites that I can click on whenever I need a boost.  Sometimes I will find myself reading one of the websites before I actually realize how down on myself I have gotten.  So, the good news is that I do like myself. 

7. What is the quality about yourself that you like best?  I’m nice. 

8. From your perspective, what are the most important traits in a friend?  Lol...copied from above:  accepting of and appreciative of other cultures and ways of life, funny, smart, and kind.  Pretty simple, really.  Some of my longest term friends are people that I wouldn't change for love nor money.  They know me well, I know them, and our friendships are that kind where we might not see one another for long stretches of time, but we know we always love one another.  And time can't change that.

9. What behavior or personality trait tends to really push your buttons?  Know-it-alls, selfishness, and when someone is unwilling to admit their own part in a conflict.  I guess these three traits can be summed up as adults who never really grew up.  It's not fair!  The rest of us grew up, why do these people think they don't have to?????  There is a real immaturity to each of these traits and it amazes me when adults have gotten so far in their lives and still operate this way.

10. What is one memory you'd like to relive, if you could?  Every single moment of my children’s childhoods. 

11. What is one quality you have that you hope your kids have inherited or will emulate?  I hope they are kind and that they are continual, life long learners.  OK, that is two traits.

My Questions:

1. What kind of music did you grow up listening to?  How does that music reflect in who you are today?
2. Are you a morning person or a night person?
3. If you are in an argument or a fight with someone, how do you try to smooth things over.
4. What things are sure to make you angry?  How do you handle that anger?  How does your anger effect your children?
5. How is your major partner relationship similar to your parents' relationship?  How is it different?  
6. What are some of the things on your current "to do " list?
7. How happy are you about your appearance?  
8. What were you doing ten years ago?  What do you see yourself doing in five years?
9. How does your home decor reflect you?  If your home is not as you wish it to be, describe what you would like and how THAT would reflect you.
10. What are you grateful for?
11. and What is at least one thing that you almost never tell anyone.

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TAGGED:

Now, I am tagging the following blog friends...
HEY, what are friends for?

Jennifer at:   http://home4goodmichigan.blogspot.com/
Melissa at:   http://throughthewardrobe-musings-melissa.blogspot.com/

Jennifer at:  http://diff-path.blogspot.com/
http://diyfamilyof4.blogspot.com/
Rayven at:   http://dysfunctionalhomeschooler.blogspot.com/
and Carol at:  http://dysfunctionalhomeschooler.blogspot.com/

PLEASE tag or comment back to me so I can read your posts!