So I've been tagged for this numerous times. I give in. Fair warning, I always feel the need to explain things very thoroughly, so it will probably be quite long. More like 25 Random Stories about Shyla. Anyway, I am assuming everyone knows the rules by now. If you've already done it and I tagged you, sorry! For everyone, feel free to participate...or not :o) But if you do, make sure you send it back to me, I've really enjoyed reading everyone's. I'll probably tag way more than 25 people because it's lots of fun learning about people, especially those I never get to talk to. But again, no pressure :o)
1. My parents were serious hippies. My Dad pulled it together once I was born, but it took my Mom several years. Since my Dad was a truck driver, when I was two and three years old I was frequently in charge of my younger sister. As in changing diapers and making sure she was fed. I think I still have issues from this.
2. I was a very sneaky child. One Christmas, I went into the living room after everyone was in bed and our Santa presents were set out and traded all the stuff my sisters were getting that I wanted for the stuff in my pile that I didn't really want.
3. I have had issues with my ears since I was born. I had surgery twice as a child for it. If I hear two sounds simultaneously I have a very had time distinguishing one from the other. I have to have the captions on the tv if there is any kind of music or background noise or I cannot understand what anyone is saying. I can't follow movies in the theatre very well because of this. This also means that I can't have music playing in the background at home or it literally drives me crazy. As a result of this, I always look at people's mouths while they are talking. I never look at people's eyes. I never even noticed my husband's very obvious lazy eye until about three years ago.
4.When growing up, whenever my friends and I would have those discussions all girls have, I would say four things which have all come true. I thought I had already met my husband and knew him, just not well. (True. We were in youth group together but since he was four years older than me we didn't know each other well.) I wanted to get married young (we were married soon after I turned 17,) have a large family (we are currently expecting number seven,) and the general consensus among all my friends and myself would be that I would probably be the first to get married.
5. I hate talking on the phone. My friends from high school will probably have a hard time believing that :o) If you call me and say it is an emergency, I might call you back. If you're lucky. Email, on the otherhand, well, I'm addicted to it. If you need to talk to me, email is the way to go. I think this is actually kind of related to my ear thing and the fact that I have lot of small children running around.
6. I think Christians have largely lost sight of children being God's greatest blessing. In the Bible, when the Lord wanted to bless someone, he blessed them most frequently with children. And often a lot of them. Children are only spoken of as blessings, rewards, and inheritances. I have a heart to see God's people impact culture through a return to the Biblical family model. I love the quote "The Bible calls debt a curse and children a blessing. So why in our culture do we apply for a curse and reject a blessing?" Food for thought. I think so many people have been deceived into thinking the pursuit and attainment of things, career, status, and their personal ambitions are more valuable or of a higher priority than raising children to love and serve the Lord.
7. I love melted ice water. I like to fill a large pitcher full of ice with jut a little bit of water in the bottom. Once it has set for awhile and the ice gets a "cakey" consistency, I fill up a glass with the ice, top it off with water, and drink/eat it. I can easily drink two or three gallons of water a day doing this. It probably explains why I am freezing cold all the time, even in the summer.
8. I loved school. I skipped the eigth graade and if I had planned my high school with more forethought (and not chosen to go to public school one year instead of remaining homeschooled) I would have graduated another year early. I only had one credit left to earn my senior year. This actually worked out well as I was able to work full time and plan my wedding. I received full scholarships to MTSU and David Lipscomb, but decided to get married instead. We wanted to start a family pretty soon, so I didn't even consider going to school after getting married. I think my family still wishes I had gone to college before starting a family, but I think I made the right decision.
9. I could have easily been a hermit. I really, really love being alone. My dream would be to move my family to the middle of nowhere and never have to leave home. Ever. This is one of many ironies I've encountered about myself in having a lot of children.
10. I have serious OCD tendencies. Like flipping the light switch off and on until it "feels" right and having to chew food on both sides of my mouth so it feels even. I have this need to have large stockpiles of necessities on hand at all times, all lined up and facing the same direction of course. Until I had four children, all the dishes in the play kitchen had to be lined up just so, all the books had to be stacked largest to smallest, all the blocks had to be stacked and arranged by size and color. Our first five children's names are all in alphabetical order, all our girls have the middle name Rose, and all our boys have the middle name Rivers because I really like having things the same and in order. Our children are even in a pattern. Girl, boy, boy, girl, boy, boy, girl. My brain feels confused if things are not symmetrical. I know the Lord has used having seven children in ten years to free me from some of this, thankfully. I had to let go of some of it or I would either make my children or myself crazy. I still have a hard time with it on occassion, but I am much, much better than I used to be. I think growing up in a house that seriously could have been on one of those "Help! I'm a Hoarder!" shows caused me to be this way. And of course, like any good perfectionist, I am also a procrastinator. If I can't do it perfectly, I might as well not do it at all.
11. I don't like to "play" and never have. I don't remember playing at all as a child other than outside when my Mom would kick us out. I just wanted to read all the time. I much prefer spending time with my kids while cooking, cleaning, reading to them, etc. I am terribly uncreative and unimaginative, so playing cars, legos, dinosaurs, dolls, etc. is more of a chore and I have yet to come up with an interesting bedtime story on my own. :o) Lately I feel like one big paradox.
12. I really like doing the laundry. Even though I make jokes about how much laundry we have, I really do love it. I could stay in the laundry room all day smelling the detergent and folding clothes. Too bad there are lots of other things that need to be done too.
13. I cannot imagine living any closer in to town than I do now. Kind of goes back to the hermit thing. We live out in the country and it takes us at least 40 minutes to get pretty much anywhere. The thought of getting all my kids ready to leave and getting everyone into the car only to have to get out five or ten minutes later is terribly unappealing. Driving is very much my down time, and the drive into town for us is very beautiful and peaceful. I am so thanful for where we live.
14. I have the most intense conviction about homeshooling of anyone that I know. I very seriously believe it is what most Christian parents should do. I have a problem with parents who won't even consider it because they just don't "want" to. I know that is mean and terribly judgemental, but like I said, I have a very intense conviction about it. Sorry if that hurts your feelings. I still love you, though, if that's you :o)
15. Along those lines, I don't actually enjoy homescooling that much. I really love the planning part, but I have a hard time remembering that kids don't learn something after you tell them once :o) I mean, I can remember something after being told once, why can't they? I wish I could just download all the information into their little heads and be done with it already. I do love that through homeschooling we are building stronger family relationships than we would be able to otherwise and are able to disciple our children in the ways of the Lord as part of their every day "school." I absolutely love it that my kids are truly each other's very best friends and are not becoming peer dependent and overly influenced by modern culture. It is hard, and quite time intensive, but totally worth it. My desire it to be an encouragement to other Moms that homeschooling is do-able, and completely worth it.
16. Our first three children we had in the hospital, but our last three children have been born at home. Having babies at home is so much nicer than having babies in the hospital.
17. I am really, really picky about my kids' clothes. I would rather pay $25 for a shirt I love than buy a whole handful of cheap shirts that I don't really like. This actually makes for less laundry, too. I've had to let go of some of my control issues in this area in order to remain friends with my oldest daughter, but thankfully, none of my other kids really care. Boys are especially good like that.
18. I've always had this secret thought that if I'd really wanted to be in the CIA, I totally could have done it. I also imagine that if could just think hard enough about something, I could figure anything out. My current obsession is LOST. If I only had enough time to read all the online theories, carefully scrutinize every episode, and could really think about it long and hard enough I could totally figure out every thing that was going on.
19. My youngest son, Haven, seems to have some weird throwing up disorder. It started out only happening in the car, but recently has started happening at home as well. He'll be playing quite happily, and then all of a sudden, up it comes. It is quite gross and keeps me on edge all. the. time. Thankfully, all the floors in our main area are wood. He's not sick, and I haven't been able to relate it to any particular food. I'm wondering if it's a texture/consistency kind of thing, but so far, I'm still in the dark.
20. I had major back surgery for scoliosis when I was ten. I have two metal rods and nine screws in my back. This makes for great posture, but the complete inability to do anything that involves really bending. I had surgery within two weeks of my parents first asking the doctor about my back. The doctors said if they had not found it, within a year or so I would have been completely twisted sideways. This still freaks me out. I'm really glad they found it.
21. Since learning that Glen and two of my children have Celiac Disease (wheat makes them very sick,) I am almost constantly craving Papa Johns pizza. So now, whenever Moriah and I do errands together, we almost always get pizza. Shhh....don't tell.
22. I hate to stand out in a group of people. I have serious issues with dressing up. I am in a fabulous book club with several of my good friends, and they are all super creative and always have so much fun dressing up in costume. I love seeing their costumes, but might possibly pass out if I had to dress up. Even my regular clothes are all plain. I have a few shirts with patterns, but other than that, I almost always wear solid color shirts or tank tops.
23. I can't imagine ever saying that I'm done having kids, that I don't want to have anymore. I think I take it a lot more personally than most people. For me, to say I'm done, that I don't want anymore, makes me feel like I am literally saying to those children, "Sorry, you're too much work. It's too inconvenient. I'd rather my life be easier than have you. You are not worth the work it would take to have you." I wonder if I will always feel this way and what the implications of it will be. I think my feeling this way makes Glen nervous :o)
24. I wonder if I will always feel like I'm 17. Almost every day I think about how I can't believe I'm really married, really a Mom, and really responsible for so many little people. I can't imagine having myself for a mother. If they only knew :o)
25. I am completely, madly, head over heels in love with Glen even after 12 years of being together. Women often say their husband is a great father and/or husband, but I seriously believe Glen is the best father and most amazing husband out of any of the men I know. He lives his life every day with the conscious intention of being the best dad and husband he can be. My Dad says he's never met anyone as well suited for one another as we are, and I completely agree. During our pre-marriage counseling at church we had to take this test that was supposed to point out strengths, weaknesses, and pinpoint areas that needed to be discussed/dealt with before marriage. Our counselor, who had been doing it for years, said he had never seen a couple so well matched and we didn't seem to have any issues to really work through. So he released us from further counseling. We've been happily married for almost 12 years and it really does just get better and better. I am so thankful for him. Really, seriously, deeply thankful.
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