My Own Front Porch

A long time ago, I was in 2nd grade. My teacher posed the question to the whole class, “What do you want to BE when you grow up?” My hand shot fast into the air. Unable to avoid the spectacle I was about to become, Mrs. Lucia called on me. “I want to be a homemaker!” I proudly exclaimed. Even in the 70′s, that comment brought raised eyebrows.

I was born in the 60′s, lived through the 70′s, was a teenager in the 80′s, got married in the 90′s and it is now the year 2009. Are my goals still the same? You betcha! Did I achieve them? Absolutely! Was it easy? Not a chance!

Today, I savored a cup of coffee while doing my devotions on the back porch, took pictures of woodpeckers, cardinals and bluejays in my backyard, started lesson-planning for our Growing-Home school year, cooked dinner on the grill and picked a few tomatoes from my raised-bed vegetable garden out behind the shed. I thoroughly enjoyed the simplicity that I can now call my life.

My five kids think I’m “elderly”. Four of them have never attended public school. One of them is already experiencing “The Real World”. My husband was once homeless; now he runs a homeless shelter. We were rudely expelled from our home in Missouri by an infestation of brown recluse spiders. We’ve gone from dreading the long, cold winters in Upstate NY to the anticipation of spring storm-chasing in Tornado Alley. It’s been a wild, hairy ride.

I wouldn’t trade any of it for anything! What would I have to talk about if I hadn’t gone through some stuff? So…here we are, on my own front porch. Have a seat on the porch swing and join me for tea, won’t you?

This isn’t a one-way street, you know. I want to hear from you too. I’ll try to post as often as possible. I’ve got a lot to talk about…and I want to compare notes. LOL!

Thanks for stopping by. I look forward to our conversations.