I’m very excited to be participating in Ask Away Friday for the first time! Ask Away Friday is like a question and answer session between bloggers. We each ask the other 10 questions, and then answer them on our own blog. My partner today is Bobbie from Living In Retrospect, where she shares her wealth of info on blogging, saving money, and life. I love reading all the cute stories about her and her husband! You can click here to be taken to her blog, where she answers my questions.
Alright, down to business. Here are her questions to me and my answers:
1) If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go? This is a tough one for me! I’ve always wanted to travel, but so far have only made it to 4 states! Having to narrow it down to just one place is going to be hard….but I will have to say Spain. In one of the Spanish classes I took in college, I learned a lot about the history of Spain, and I would really like to see all the architecture in person. Plus I really love Spanish culture and food in general. Still, even as I type this so many other places are popping into my head that I’ve always wanted to visit. Can I say that I want to go on a world tour? No? Then I’ll stick with Spain.
2) Tell us your blogging story. What inspired you to get started? I enjoy writing. When I was a child, I had a whole filing cabinet filled up with stories I had written, illustrated, and stapled into books. Even in college, I loved writing papers (I know, total nerd!) So a couple years ago, I started reading blogs and the desire to write got rekindled. It still took me almost 2 years to talk myself into actually doing it though! I had to get over my fear of rejection first. I figured I would rather try and fail than live my whole life thinking “what if?”
3) What is your favorite blog to follow, and what do you love about it? Does following by e-mail count? I would have to say it is The Better Mom. I don’t visit her page as often as I should, but I get her e-mails in my inbox and usually always read them. She has such wisdom when it comes to parenting, and it seems like every struggle she talks about is one that I’ve gone through or am going through at the moment. I can see her heart in helping mothers to be a better mom to their children, and I have been blessed by so many of her articles.
4) If money and time were no object, what would you do? Travel the world! I would start with buying a large RV so my family and I could travel all across the United States. It would be so fun to road-school and be able to learn about the geography and history of our country first hand. And then after a couple years of that, we’d be off to conquer the world!
5) I love how complex people are. What are two things about you that seem like they can’t be about the same person? I know this will sound weird, but I have to have my music loud. I am happiest when music is blaring from my kitchen radio or in my car. But I can’t stand noise. If too many people are talking at once, or if the tv is too loud, I get seriously aggravated. I don’t know what it is. If everyone just sang to me instead of talking to me we would get along better, lol.
6) Tell us about a specific decision you made that has led you to the life you are living right now. I’m not sure I can pinpoint a specific decision. I feel like every decision I’ve ever made has brought me exactly to where I am, and if I had made even one differently, I would be living a totally different life. I can tell you that the most important decision I’ve ever made was when I asked Jesus into my heart to be my Saviour. If not for that decision, nothing else would matter.
7) What is one thing you always have with you? A child. Haha. With 5 of them, it’s hard to be alone. For real though, probably a hair-tie. I usually wear my hair in a pony tail, and even when it’s down I make sure to have a hair-tie handy so I can pull it up when I need to. Although with a teenage daughter, it is getting harder for me to ever find any of my hair-ties! I’m going to have to buy stock in them.
8) How did you feel about school growing up? How do you feel about education now?
Always loved it, still do. I was a total teacher’s pet/smarty pants in elementary school. I think my love for education is one of the reasons I was drawn to homeschooling my children. I love to read and learn, and I enjoy passing that on to my children and watching their faces light up when they finally understand something we’ve been working on. I think everyone should be lifelong students. A person limits themselves when they stop expanding their knowledge.
9) What is your favorite season and why? Autumn is by far my favorite season. I enjoy watching the leaves change, the cool nights, the harvest. Even the smell in the air is different, I can’t describe it. Autumn just makes me happy.
10) What is your personal mantra? I actually don’t have one, and in fact I had to look it up just now to know exactly what a mantra was (I had an idea but wanted to be sure.) A favorite quote of mine is “Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you’ll land among the stars.” I don’t know who to give credit for that quote to, though. It was on a picture frame I bought at a thrift store years ago and it has stuck with me since then. And a Bible verse that I repeat to myself often is Philippians 4:13, which is: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Even though I love both of those, sometimes in my craziest days I find myself repeating “Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming,” like Dory from Finding Nemo!
Well, I had a lot of fun participating this week, I hope you all had fun reading my answers!
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