Good morning! I know I took a little while to get to the first set of your questions, but it's because I was waiting to answer this set until after we'd made our big reveal!
First and foremost though,
my Fall Fashion Week contribution of the day!
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| Starting at the top and moving down: Savoini's Western Wear in Prescott, AZ; Target; Christmas gift; JCPenney; Savoini's Western Wear in Prescott; Kohl's. |
I am all about the comfy shoes (particularly boots) in the fall. I am especially fond of those I can wear my fuzzy socks with!
Moving on, your questions!
1. you have mentioned wanting a family someday, have you and hubby talked about picking one spot and getting a home instead of traveling?- if so, do you know where would that be?
Okay. Here it is. We're moving in December... but I'm so paranoid about Baby Bell's safety now that I won't be telling you exactly where. I also feel like this is a good time to tell you that I'll never share Baby Bell's face or real name on here. I just don't like the idea of it.
So that being said, we'll be moving to a small town near Salt Lake City, Utah in December. Ryan will be finishing up his degree there so that'll be our "home base" for the next two years. From there, wherever job oportunities take us is where we'll go.
We do plan to basically settle down now, as in keep our home base and live there the majority of the time... but we'll always travel, at least a little. Certainly not as much as we have this summer, but probably once every other month we'll go somewhere nearby and once or twice a year go on a big trip.
2. I was curious if you have found churches at any of the locations you've lived.
Yes and no. We have only really lived in three places: Flagstaff and Prescott, AZ and Casper, WY. We went to my mom's church in Flagstaff and absolutely hated it. She ended up leaving that church after we left too. We tried a few so-so churches in Prescott (and one terrible one!) but we absolutely loved Prescott Life Church. I'm a little more limited in Casper since we only have one vehicle and Ryan works on Sundays. I just go to the church closest to me but I honestly don't really care for it.
I know church isn't for everyone, and that's okay, but I do like having a church community and going to church events so I'm really hoping to find a good church close to us in Utah. We'd love to be able to go together again but it all depends on Ryan's work schedule. Because he's in school Monday through Thursday we aren't usually in a position to be picky about his weekend hours.
3. Do you want to homeschool kids or public school or the likes?
Definitely homeschool. I taught a summer program for children in or around the second-grade range this summer and was so schocked by the things I saw and heard. In the afternoons they'd bring the pre-schoolers in and I was appauled. Four, five and six-year-olds would tell me things about sex or drugs or violence that made my skin crawl. Children should not be subjected to such things. Some kids are, I know that, and I'm sorry for that, but that doesn' t mean my kids need to be.
We also like the idea of being able to control the amount of learning they do in one day. I remember, particularly in middle school, having days where I learned basically nothing. There were a lot of review days... and while maybe I already knew everything we talked about that day, what about the kids who didn't know any of those things and fell completely behind? Or how about all the kids in the middle who just fell through the cracks?
We also think it would be pretty awesome to take a trip to New England while we're teaching them about the 13 original colonies, or to Germany while we're learning about WWII or the Berlin Wall, or to Oregon while we're studying the Oregon Trail. There are definitely perks to being a traveling homeschool family, right?
4. Are you naturally a morning person or did you 'teach' yourself to be like that? If so, any advice?!
I don't know that I've always been a morning person, but I've always felt less stressed out when I got things done before work and came home to be able to relax more.
One thing that's helped me is paying attention to my body's routines. I know that no matter what time I go to sleep, I will wake up three and a half hours later to go to the bathroom. I'll go back to sleep and wake up three and a half hours later again. So if I have to get up early, I go to bed early. I just adjust accordingly.
I think that's the only advice I can really give... just listen to your body and then adjust accordingly.
I'll finish up the rest of these questions next week.
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Thank you again hoses haring with those curious (and admiring) of your traveling lifestyle. I completely see your desire to homeschool and it sounds like your family has a solid plan in motion. Good for you!!!! I'll be working on finding a new church again soon, I'd like to find one with more members that are our age and has a more contemporary worship group. ~ 7 Days Sara
ReplyDeleteWell thank YOU for caring, makes me feel very special! Good luck with your church search! I'll be in the same boat in December and I am hoping we just absolutely love whichever is closest to our house but we'll see what happens!
DeleteAggghhhh I also want to apologize for my horrible aparent use of the English language... Everything is typed on my phone right now (really not a fan of iPhone) it is not so 'smart' afterall and changes/adds/capitalizes things that I had no intention of being such... I get to use my laptop again in a week. ~Chi Sara
DeleteHa ha, no problem. You should have seen all the interesting text messages I got when my poor dad first got his iPhone. He about had an aneurysm from it all!
DeleteThat's awesome that you're going to homeschool your kids! I thought that's what I wanted to do, but after hearing about my 7 year old brothers experience with Montessori schools, that's the route we'll go. I'm sure if I wasn't going to be in school so much I'd do homeschool, but it would be way too stressful on everyone!
ReplyDeleteNow you'll be closer to me! We should totally do a meet-up in between and camp or something when we both have babies with the guys! We want to go to Zion and other national parks so it'll be close to you guys.
I totally understand about loveing a church community. That's one hard thing for me to not have. Since I grew up in the Mormon church, I always had various activities and community projects and really enjoyed them and loved having a support group (it's amazing to mention that you're moving and the next day have a bunch of men ready to pack your house and move for you, which happened to my mom many times) but since I don't believe in God, it's kind of hard to have that. =P Fortunately I'm creating my own little safety net of friends like that, but I still sometimes miss it!
I actually really like Montessori schools too, but I found a blog who does a Montessori-inspired style of homeschooling and that's what I'm considering. I definitely like the Montessori style.
DeleteI would love that! And that reminds me, I got Ryan this Daddy book that is really useful as far as diapering, reflexes, feeding, etc., but it also has "man tips," like how to camp with a new baby and what to do if you encounter a bear while with your baby, etc. I'll have to send you the link when y'all are ready because I bet Vince would get a kick out of it too. And yes, we've said before we want to see Zion so I'm sure that's already a definite yes. =]
That is hard. I've actually wondered before but felt rude asking, but I don't feel quite as rude now that we're friends... but I've always wondered what caused you to change your beliefs after growing up Mormon? I don't really know THAT MUCH about Mormonism, but all of my Mormon friends are in such tight-knit mini communities and I would imagine it would be really hard to have to tell all of those people you aren't "in" anymore. And I was also wondering if the rest of your family is still Mormon? I was thinking you said your grandparents were on a mission trip, right? If you're not comfortable answering don't, I was just curious. But see, I think you can still get that sense of community through friends and neighbors and family so at least you do still have a portion of it!
That book sounds like something Vince would like, fore sure!
DeleteAnd I'm not exactly sure what caused me to change my beliefs, other than my own questioning and curiosity. I dated a guy who was atheist (and incredibly smart and well informed, despite only being 13. To this day, I still claim that he is the smartest and most well-informed person that I know! Anyways, he would always ask me questions, not intentionally trying to get me away from religion, but just to get my mind thinking. I started to realize that I legitimately didn't believe in a lot of the things the church was saying, so I started going to a 'regular' Christian church with a friend to see what that was like. Once again, I didn't agree with what was being taught so I tried other churches, then other religions like Buddhism. Eventually I realized I didn't even believe in God. When I was in the situation where everyone around me believed the same thing, it was easy to not question things and agree with them, which made my faith stronger, but now that I'm away from that I realize it was just group behavior and we were all feeding off each other. And now that I'm getting more into science and reading about a lot of things, I rally don't believe in God. I believe in things like energy and 'souls', if you will, but not the idea that there is some guy in heaven that created all this.
The rest of my family, aside from my immediate family, is Mormon. My mom is, but not my dad/stepmom, brothers, or sisters. All but one of my aunts/uncles/cousins are and all of my extended family on my dad's side are Mormon, but not my mom's. The ancestors on my dad's side of the family actually came over from Wales and were pioneers that were part of the group of people that got kicked out of New England and settled in Utah with Joseph Smith! (I don't even know if you know who he is haha) And yes, my grandparents are on a mission in Peru for 2 years, and well as a cousin who is in Mexico City for 2 years.
And don't worry about asking me any personal question, I honestly don't care!
Sheesh, I just wrote a nice long response and it somehow published in all symbols. =[ Basically I was just saying that I think that's all very interesting, and I'm glad you're so open-minded and kind to people who don't believe the way you do! I always get so frustrated when I'm judged by someone for believing in a different way. Really, I don't think it matters what religion a person is. If they're kind and try to be a good person, I like them. If they aren't, I don't. Pretty simple to me!
DeleteI have studied a lot of the fundamentalist Mormon history so I do know a bit about the early settlement history, before they split into the two separate groups, but not much after that. My father-in-law has studied so many religions, even some I'd never heard of, and is so wise and informative but kind when I ask questions. I was really inspired by that so I plan to read a lot more books after I finish the Bible and the Book of Mormon is next on my list. I might need a little break in between first though. Reading through so much dry history is a lot of work!!
The comment before showed up in my email just fine! But yes, m family is all very understanding. it helped that I was a teenager when is topped going because at that point, I didn't care that they were mad at me!
DeleteI agree, I don't care what religion someone is, as long as they aren't extremely judgmental about my beliefs!
I would say the BoM isn't as dry as the Bible (I've read both) yet still isn't very fun! hehe
Oh okay well good, it was in Webdings or something on my end. That's probably true, being a teenager might have made it harder for me though. I'm glad it wasn't for you!!
Deletethose moccasins look so comfy!
ReplyDeletemy mom is a second grade teacher and I often toyed with the idea of homeschooling gage. you are definitely right that kids know way too much at such a young age. I think gage needs to be in a school environment because that's how he thrives. but I do worry that he will grow up much too fast.
Oh jeez they are, way too comfy. I've worn them almost exclusively for the past two weeks ha ha.
DeleteSee, that is something we've talked about, that not all kids are "made" for homeschool. I guess we'll have to cross that bridge if/when we get to it but I hope we can always do it. But see, even your story about Gage coming home having seen little kids kissing in the classroom, or his scary bus ride, those things make me so nervous too! I don't know if I will handle them as well as you have!!