I May as Well Go for It

. . . since I have nothing ELSE to do. Blogging, that is. After a few friends suggested that I might want to start a blog, I hemmed and hawed over it for a long time. After all, isn't it such a responsibility? Won't I feel tied down? I don't need anything else to make me feel guilty, thanks. But then I had a few ideas on what I could write about (this is not one of them, by the way), and decided to give it a try. I still feel like a fish out of water.

(If you could find it in your heart to extend a little grace to me while I stumble around, I'd appreciate it.)

A bit of background by way of introduction: I am a southern belle married to a Yankee. Our family divides our time between New England and the Deep South, which we can do because we homeschool our two girls. Tiny Girl is eight and Miss Priss is nine. (They probably wouldn't like these nicknames, so let's just keep them to ourselves, shall we?) I love homeschooling because of the freedom it offers to live life the way that best suits us as a family. We tried public school for one year (Miss Priss's first-grade year), and that was enough. My life changed dramatically -- and not for the better -- just because she went to school! I thought "There has to be a better way." And there is!

Since I am a bluestocking and proud of it, I prefer a literature-based curriculum. Fortunately, so do the girls. I tend to blend Charlotte Mason and classical (as we define it today) elements in my planning. We use Ambleside Online for the bulk of our curriculum choices, although I, as a natural rebel, make alterations as we go along. I also like the book suggestions from the Tanglewood School's website. More on all this as I progress.

I am an avid reader and prefer reading to almost anything else. It's my chief hobby. I tend to pick up new hobbies and discard them after a while (like scrapbooking and crocheting -- I only ever made scarves!), but reading is my lifelong passion. I also enjoy writing and have written a few short stories for children (as well as numeous scholarly papers, but that's another story). I'm sort of "working on" a YA historical novel, but I mostly don't work on it. I'm blogging instead!