A Little Bit More About ME!; January's Not Just a Mom Link Up
We thought this first link up of the month would be a great time for another introduction. I know I get "new" readers all the time but I do try pretty hard to keep content new and fresh and try not to overlap information too much. However, every now and then it's nice to re-introduce myself, explain a bit about my family, our lifestyle, and why I bog.
Hi, my name is Joanne and I met my husband in high school; we began dating at just 16. Fast forward nearly 30 years later and we've weathered a lot together. I graduated college with a bachelor's in psychology & a master's in early childhood education, we got married, we built our first home together, had 3 boys in just under 4 years, and after having them all in school less than 1 year we pulled them out so I could begin homeschooling.
Slices of Life is actually the third blog I've started... I began blogging the week before I pulled my kids out of private and public school and began homeschooling (June 2012-- my first ever post). I blogged under Our Unschooling Journey for nearly 8 years before switching all my content over to this blog.
I had started my second blog called Creative Corner (February 2013- my first 2 cards) where I showcased my handmade cards, scrapbook pages and gift albums, and any sort of handmade items that were my creative outlet while taking care of 3 very active boys. I merged the two blogs into the blog you're reading today where I show little slices of our life. While I started out as a homeschooling blogger I just loved the community of bloggers and friends I've met along the way and my blog naturally evolved to be more of a lifestyle blog where I share about all aspects of our life.
Throwback posts about my husband and I, family vacations, recipes, book summaries, crafting projects, and more.. I blog about pretty much anything and everything that strikes my fancy. (And I'm ALWAYS open to suggestions--- Lindsay, I am working on my post about scrapbooking and how I got started-- I promise you'll see that this year!).
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| My husband and I in high school |
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| Our 3 boys at Sesame Place |
While some of those homeschooling days felt so long the years flew by in the blink of an eye!
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| 2016-- Block Island |
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| 2022 (our side yard) |
My oldest son, Ian, graduated high school last December and started working full time while also taking classes on business management at our local community college. He's turning 19 this spring and has been out shopping for his own/new truck and insurance and it's just so neat helping him negotiate all these beginning stages of adulthood. Typically if you see Ian, he's either on or working on some sort of equipment or machinery-- loader, excavator, jet ski, Ranger, RZR, etc.
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| 2017; though he does work in an open pit mine driving loader, excavator and rock truck so not much has changed (he just takes up more room in the cab as he's we'll over 6 feet tall now) |
My middle son decided he wanted to go to high school and found a local technical school that offered a program in culinary arts; since Alec began baking cupcakes from scratch in 2017 (3 years before starting high school) and had branched out to spending the bulk of his 8th grade year experimenting with baking anything and everything he could think of (bread, muffins, tarts, scones... if we could find a recipe for it we made it) and reading as many books as he could find about kitchen chemistry/science, a culinary program seemed like the perfect fit for him. He's now finishing up his junior of school and we're planning to tour a few culinary colleges this spring.
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| From this... |
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| to this! |
Evan is my youngest (though he's turning 16 this fall!) and is the only one I'm still homeschooling. His high school years do include the normal subjects of writing, algebra, and the like but since we get to pick our own interests we're spending lots of time on psychology-- the field he's pretty sure he's going to go into for college. We've been talking about having him taking a college course or two starting his junior year at our local community college and I'm already getting a bit sad about knowing my homeschooling journey with these boys is just about over.
All this means that I have lots of free time on my hands so I'm spending more time reading, creating cards and scrapbooking, traveling with my husband, and hiking. I LOVE to hike!!
Linking up with:
Love this! I knew most, but learned some more about you.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteThanks for the link up! It was fun reading this about your boys...we have so much in common with the all boys thing, and homeschooling for so long. I was so sad when my homeschool journey ended. It took me a while to recover, but now I'm loving life and seeing them all thrive as adults. ❤ Your boys are doing the same and will be just like that! You're such a great mom. Have a great day, friend!
ReplyDeleteAw, thank you!
DeleteI really enjoyed learning more about you and your lovely family. It's interesting that although we live so far away we still have quite a few things in common!
ReplyDeleteRuth@playworkeatrepeat
I thought that too!
DeleteI love following along with your blog! It is especially helpful to me as a Mom of littles to see and hear about life from Moms of slightly older children (teens or college aged kids). I also love to see all your scrapbooking, although the creative gene did not hit me!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I found learning about older kids (especially those that had homeschooled!) was so helpful to me as a young homeschooling mom.
DeleteI like visiting your blog each week and reading about your family, your recipes, fashion, and weekly link-up. Thanks for hosting this link-up and the topic this month Joanne.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm so happy you joined in with us, Julie.
DeleteIt's lovely to get to know you better. You've done well with your boys, especially with the homeschooling. I've been there myself and it's not always easy.
ReplyDeleteThank you! It definitely isn't always easy but it sure did have it's rewards.
DeleteFun post to read, Joanne! I knew some of the things you mentioned but not all. It was great to learn more about what your boys are up to. I can imagine how much more time you have now that your homeschooling days are almost done. My busyness came to a screeching halt when my youngest got her license so while I have not homeschooled, I used to spend hours and hours taking the kids places. Now all that is done. It's bittersweet but that is just life I guess!!
ReplyDeleteYeah, that made a huge difference too; while my youngest doesn't have his license yet he's also the one that doesn't ever require me to drive him anywhere! LOL. It was a huge change when my middle son got his and I no longer had to drive him to school every day (he attends a regional school 30 minutes away so it was a huge time suck).
DeleteThis was fun to read and nice to have a quick summary of each boy in one spot here!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteIt's great to know more about you. I love reading about you and your family. Good luck to Ian with his new truck and Alec with his cooking and baking, he really is talented. Your youngest is around the same age as my youngest. She will be leaving school this year and then is going to college to study engineering. x
ReplyDeleteI can't believe they are done school so early in England; my youngest still has 3 more years of high school!!
DeleteThis was fun to read again!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteThis was so fun to read. I love hearing about your boys and the different avenues they have taken. If we lived closer, we would have a ton of fun creating. I used to make cards all the time, but I gave away all of my stuff when we moved. I had the coolest map drawer that used to be my dad's where I stored all of my stamps and stuff.
ReplyDeleteXOOX
Jodie
Thank you! That does sound so neat; I remember those giant map drawers from when I used to hang out at our local library.
DeleteIt seems we've known each other (at least in the blogosphere) for a long time, but I sure appreciated the re-introduction! And I think I'll join in this link-up since I'm at the point in life where "mom" is much more in the background and at the point in blogging where I want to do a few different things.
ReplyDeleteIt sure does! I love that you've decided to join us.. I've been following your blog closely knowing I'll be in that same situation before I know it.
DeleteSo great to get to know you better and learn about your family. Such brilliant boys you are raising.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteI didn't even know that you were already blogging for that long. You did a amazing job with your boys! I can only imagine that it is a tough job to do.
ReplyDeleteYep, though my early blog posts are rather long winded and included zero photos (though I have gone back and formatted them slightly and added in stock photos). Thank you; it was definitely a tough job but it was also so rewarding and a lot of fun at times.
DeleteI loved hearing about each of your sons and their interests!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteI don't think I realized your "youngest" was already 16!
ReplyDeleteNearly... but not quite. They sure did grow up fast.
DeleteI'm so pleased we have been able to connect through blogging, you have a great family. I love that your son has found his passion and is able to pursue that in school. A blessing!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteThank you!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing! I never knew how you got into homeschooling. I am not surprised that you were a teacher prior to homeschooling though. Your set up and systems make so much sense to my teacher brain. Time certainly does fly! I love that picture of you two in high school. Thanks for hosting! ~ Sarah @ Sunshine & Books
ReplyDeleteIt really does fly right by!
DeleteThis was such a fun read! I love reading anything and everything about you homeschooling. There is a part of me that thinks I would love being a homeschool mom and I get to live vicariously through you via this blog!
ReplyDeleteLauren from Don't Mind Your Mess
I could see you as a homeschooling mom; you'd have ALL the fun hands on projects going I'm sure. I tapped into that preschool teaching experience for so much of my boys' elementary years.
DeleteI love this post! I have been your blog for a bit now but it's so nice to learn more a bit more about you and your journey. Thanks so much for sharing!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome!
DeleteWoo hoooo! You know I'm excited about that scrapbooking post!! I can't wait!
ReplyDeleteI have it roughly planned out for Monday the 30th; so it should be done real soon! :) I may even break it down into a few posts/series because I found I actually have a lot I could share about it.
DeleteHe really is growing so fast; I'm kind of curious to see who will end up being the tallest (they're all far taller than I am at this point!).
ReplyDeleteIt was a LOT of work trying to keep more than one blog going... and I neglected that papercrafts one so much since I really needed to write up what we had covered each day just to give myself that peace of mind later when I felt like we never learned anything! I could glance back and see everything we had done and I'd remind myself that I wasn't failing at this whole homeschooling thing.
ReplyDeleteLoved your introductions. I am super slowing putting the names to faces - especially with everyone's children - while reading blogs. This was great. Of course, I'll forget again in two days but, for now, it is super helpful! LOL I have really enjoyed reading through the link-up. I am definitely older than..well, just about everyone in this group but I still enjoy reading their blogs. And reading yours!! Hope you are having a great day (maybe I will do a short introduction tomorrow....)
ReplyDeleteI am too! It takes me many, many interactions of seeing the bloggers faces with their blogs before I start to remember names. (I'm like that in real life too!).
DeleteSuch a fun introduction. I love all the photos and hearing a bit about each of your boys.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteI loved reading about you. Your story about growing up children is simply inspiring. I am glad to see that they have grown up and finding their way to success. Thanks for sharing all these with us too through a blog post. Have a great day!
ReplyDelete#MMBC
Thank you!
DeleteJoanne, so nice to learn more about you. Such a lovely family. I am happy to feature your more about you at Love Your Creativity .
ReplyDeleteAw, thank you!
DeleteIt was so nice to "meet" you and learn about your life. I am visiting you from Linda's place. God bless you and your family in this new year!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
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