Honest Scrap Award

Teresa sent me this award, thank you Teresa for thinking of me...even though the last meme you sent me remains a half-done draft! It had the unfortunate coincidence of arriving just before my blog hiatus.

I'm supposed to....
1) Say thanks and give a link to the presenter of the award. 2) Share "ten honest things" about myself. 3) Present this award to 7 others whose blogs I find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged me. 4) Tell those 7 people that they've been awarded HONEST SCRAP and inform them of these guidelines in receiving it.

Ok, let's see, 10 scathingly honest things about me...good thing I'm sober.

1. I absolutely detest getting my hair cut. Hate it. I put it off forever until my ends are splitting and my hair is so long and unmanageable that it lives in a scrunchie on the back of my head every day. I hate being the focus of some random stranger's intense attention. Plus, the last few times I've gone, the stylist has been rather unfriendly and I have found myself cornered on all of those uncomfortable stranger questions like, "You have HOW many kids? You're done now, right?" and "You homeschool? I had a neighbor who homeschooled and her kids were oversheltered freaks."

2. I used to think all homeschoolers were oversheltered freaks. My mom homeschooled my brothers for a brief period of time...I had already left home...and I thought she was nuts. Ironic, yes?

3. And speaking of my hair, I'm going bald. I don't know why. Several years ago I noticed my hair was thinning badly. I went to the doctor and they did some blood work to test my hormone levels and thyroid and that sort of thing and said everything looked normal. I was working my way through nursing school at the time, single mom, I hoped it was just stress related. That, or the fact that I was living on caffeine, and 4 hours of sleep a night. But it never got any better. Too bad. I used to have great hair. And I'm not really going bald. It seems to have stabilized at just too thin.

4. I am a compulsive organizer. I am not a compulsive cleaner. As a result, the house may be a mess but our drawers and closets are perfectly ordered. Weird, huh?

5. I am almost completely illiterate in the arts and music. Thank you, Florida public schools. The last time I had any required art/music was in 6th grade. I remember drawing a shoe. It came out badly, so I decided I was lousy at art. I took lots of extra science and math through the rest of my school years because I was good at that. I did take choir in junior high for a couple of years, which mostly consisted of learning the lyrics to the songs in Footloose. I wasn't required to take any music or art appreciation until college, when I needed a one credit art appreciation class. It consisted mostly of watching films at 8:30 in the morning, and after that four hours of sleep, well...I dozed through it mostly. I never did take any music appreciation classes. Classical music, for me, has always meant breaking out the White Album or my Queen box set. So I find myself learning these things with my kids. Most homeschooling parents break out into a sweat at the thought of teaching Algebra or Chemistry...not me. It's music. But I am learning.

6. I love history. I didn't figure this out until I got to college. I never took much history in school either. I remember I got to skip 8th grade civics because our school had a rule that if you took a music class and a foreign language, you could skip civics. I'm not sure where the logic was there. So, hence my uncanny knowledge of the lyrics from Footloose. I do remember taking history classes in 9th and 10th grade, but they were intensely boring and very disjointed for me, partly because we moved around a lot but mostly because they were taught from textbooks...the worst possible way in the world to teach history. I took an honors US history course in college...small class, lots of writing and discussion involved, and I really, really enjoyed it. History is my favorite course to teach my kids, and one of the reasons we use Mother of Divine Grace is because I love the way it teaches history.

7. When I was a kid, I briefly wanted to be a jockey. I loved horses, and I took English riding lessons for a period of time. Unfortunately, I was taller than every jockey alive by the time I was 12.

8. I don't like to shop. I grocery shop every two weeks just so I can avoid going to the store as much as possible. Oh, there are stores I enjoy. I like the craft store, the hardware store, my favorite thrift store...and of course the book store. But I'm not a window shopper. I honestly can't remember the last time I went to a mall.

9. I am almost the mother of a teenager. Maria will be 13 in September. I went to wake her up this morning and found a woman in her bed. All of a sudden she's just looks so much older. I'm not sad about it, yet, but it's making me realize that I don't have a whole lot of time left with her at home. Ok, now I'm sad about it.

10. The other night I went to a homeschool group planning meeting. We were supposed to bring a snack to share, so I stopped on the way there and bought a bag of chips and a jar of queso. At the meeting, the hostess remarked how cool it was that no one had brought anything homemade, lol. Not too long ago, I would have cringed at the thought of showing up with such offerings. At the very least I would have made some homemade dip, even if it meant adding too much at the end of a very busy day, even if it meant that I would feel stressed and grouchy trying to find the time to make something, because I would have wanted to impress everyone there with my domestic genius. I love that I can bring jarred queso at this stage in my life. If I show up to a meeting with something homemade (and I still often do), it's because I *wanted* to make something and found the time to do so, not because my self-esteem was too wrapped up in a jar of queso. And I love that the other moms there felt the same way.


Ok, Let's see if I can come up seven people to nominate here...

1. Kori at Taught By a Toddler
2. Erin at Growing With My Girls
3. Erin at Light of My Life
4. Entropy, when VBS is done
5. Lisa at Home to 4 Kiddos
6. Angela
7. Charlotte...are you out there? :)