I did have two non-family main friends in elementary school, but I think my best friend at that stage of my life was my little sister. Since we were homeschooled, she was my most available and obvious playmate (there’s no friend so convenient as one who shares your room!), and we were fairly inseparable. In…
If we’re talking elementary school, I just don’t know. I was a voracious reader pretty much from the time I learned how. Books, magazines, product labels (ha!)…if there were words in front of me, I read them. Since elementary school books are pretty short, I read countless books at that time, and none stand out…
There are a few things that are pretty consistent on weekends: a date night church on Sunday mornings youth group for Zoe on Sunday evening But other than that, we don’t have a lot of things regularly scheduled, so weekends vary a lot. Some of the “varying part” options: Once a month, I have book…
I’m going to modify this one. New title: What qualities do you value in your romantic partner? I’ve only ever had one romantic partner, so the question doesn’t exactly make sense for me any other way! So, a few things I value about my only romantic partner: His faith I would personally not ever want…
I’m going with three small misconceptions since none in particular stood out. And I’m listing the correction to the misconception, not the actual misconception! I’m not actually an extrovert In real life, I’m a pretty friendly, talkative, and bubbly person. Also, I’m good at small talk, so I pass as an extrovert. But I don’t…
This weekend, I learned from an Instagram post that there is a procedure to correct something known as a “gummy smile”. And honestly, I’m pretty annoyed about this. I mean, I thought hip dips were a dumb thing that someone made up for women to worry about. (I’ve got hip dips, and I never, ever…
I’ll pick a story that’s so familiar in my own house that it’s a running joke. When my little sister and I were kids, my mom ordered a set of two blankets for our bunk beds. One was smooth, and the other had kind of a waffle texture. The smooth one was infinitely superior in…
There are lots of things that are nice about being an adult, of course. But as an adult, there have been multiple times where I have looked back longingly at my childhood for this reason: it was great to not have to be ultimately responsible for very much. Of course, I had my own kid…
I don’t feel like I knew my grandpa nearly as well as I knew my grandma. Part of this is because I am a granddaughter (my big brother knew my grandpa better than I did!), and part of this is because my grandpa was a pretty quiet person. I think maybe the thing I noticed…
I’m just going to make a bulleted list of things that come to mind. So, they’re gonna be in random order. And this is not going to be an exhaustive list because I could go on for a long time. I mean, there are a lot of happy things available in the world! being able…
My family was not at all big on nicknames, my mom in particular. In fact, I think she’s said that one of the reasons she likes my name is that it’s a little difficult to turn into a nickname. (Whereas a name like Jennifer is inevitably shortened, even by people you’ve just met.) I can…
I was 17 when I learned to drive. That’s a little bit on the old side, especially for someone from my generation. But for some reason, I just wasn’t in a huge hurry. And after a rather adventurous experience with my older brother learning to drive, my parents weren’t in a hurry either. Heh. At…
I’m going with a solid, “neither!” answer for this one. I always say that I’m not a city mouse or a country mouse; I’m a suburb mouse. Reasons I don’t like cities: too few trees not enough green too few parking lots too many people/crowds too much noise Reasons I don’t love the country: I…
I wasn’t a particularly crush-heavy teenager. I didn’t have posters on my walls, I didn’t join fan clubs, and I definitely did not have any t-shirts with boys on them. But I do remember that when I saw Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken, I thought that the actor who played Al (Michael Schoeffling) was seriously…
This is easy! Far and away my favorite spot to visit was my grandparents’ little town in South Dakota. I don’t think most people would look at this little town and name it on their dream destination lists, but my goodness, I loved it. There are so many reasons this was a highlight of my…
This prompt immediately made me think of The Good Samaritan parable. The story basically points out that every other human being is my neighbor, no matter who they are or where they come from. And Jesus precedes the story by saying, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Which seems to be saying, “Hey, this is how…
who would it be? There are probably dozens of people alive that would be great to have dinner with, so it’s hard to pick just one. And the question kind of assumes that this is someone I don’t normally have dinner with, so I can’t answer it with something like, “My husband!” (I can think…
Oh, geez. My difficulty with this question is not because I think there is nothing lovable about myself. Rather, I feel conflicted about prompts like this because they seem so much like gazing at my own belly button. Or tooting my own horn. So, I’m going to approach it like this. You know how the…
This is a funny question because I have been a teacher in a lot of ways already in my life. I taught piano lessons for 20 years I’ve taught children’s Sunday School classes I’ve been homeschooling since 2004 I’ve been blogging since 2008, which is kind of like teaching So, although I haven’t been a…
I’m a pretty serious rule-follower, so it will not surprise you to hear that my run-ins with the police have not been numerous. In fact, I’ve only ever been pulled over one time. It was in 2004, when Sonia was a baby. I remember that I had had a particularly trying day; I don’t remember…
This is easy: my grandma on my dad’s side. I really, really loved my grandma. She died suddenly from a brain aneurysm in 2001, when I was 23. We got the call from my mom sometime in the middle of the night, and I remember hanging up the phone and then sitting down to nurse…
I’m going to answer this question by telling a funny story about my younger self. At the age of four, I found myself staring at the prospect of half-day kindergarten, and I felt kind of down in the dumps about it. Then I realized that after kindergarten comes first grade, and then meant spending a…
Oh man. It seems like this is a question that would be better answered by someone other than me! I could answer this question about other people far more easily than I can about myself. Unique officially means, “being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else. “ And in some senses, by the…
I don’t think I always cope with it well, of course. I’m not sure anyone does! Hard situations tempt most people to worry. But, on the occasions when I am dealing with it responsibly, here’s what helps me. praying talking to friends and family talking to Mr. FG reminding myself that God is in control…
I have to go with morning. I love the fresh start, the whole day stretching out before me, full of possibilities and time. I also love morning light. I like that there are no mistakes yet in the day, as Anne Shirley would say. Also, I tend to have my best energy in the morning….
Sometimes I see prompts and I am like, “Oof. How will I answer that question?” But I saw today’s and thought, “Ooh! This is easy. I could go lots of different directions with this.” So, here’s one of those directions. As long as I walk this planet, one thing I want to do is to…
Oh boy. This is hard to answer, partially because I know I am not supposed to envy anyone else. But of course, like everyone else on the planet, I am not immune to envy. I don’t know, though, that I envy any one person in particular. I’m more prone to envying certain aspects of other…
Hmm. I’m not a big traveler for traveling’s sake. Which often makes me feel very out of the place in the personal finance community because boy, it seems like everyone there is all, “TRAVEL IS THE ONE VERY IMPORTANT THING TO SPEND YOUR MONEY ON!!!!” When I think about some of my favorite travel memories,…
I don’t watch a lot of TV, because I’m more inclined to waste hours on other sorts of screen time. So this is more like a list of the only TV shows I’ve faithfully watched in the last five years. Downton Abbey I watched most of this with Mr. FG back when it was an…
Honestly, if push comes to shove, most of us can do things we think we could never do. On the good side, that means we can find ourselves digging deep and pulling through something incredibly difficult. On the flip side, sometimes we find ourselves doing something we swore we’d never sink to. And in the…
