Tagged!

Take Up and Read tagged me in a meme. I haven't done one of these in years! It was fun! Thank you, Willa and Chari. Go visit them and see who else they tagged!

The Rules:

1. Post these rules.
2. Post a photo of yourself and 11 random facts about you.
3. Answer the questions given to you in the tagger’s post.
4. Create 11 new questions and tag new people to answer them.
5. Go to their blog/twitter and let them know they have been tagged.

This is from 3 years ago!

Willa and Chari's Eleven Questions:


1. How would you describe the biome in which you live?

I think the biome I live in is considered temperate deciduous forest. I live in area known as piedmont, or rolling foot hills, not far from the Potomac river. If I drive for 10 minutes west, I can begin to see the outline of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which in truth are about an hour's drive away. It is a lovely area, but very heavily populated. Virginia is lushly green, the way Ireland is because we get so much rain (more than Seattle!). It gets hot and sticky here in the summer and can get pretty cold in the winter, but the weather is very changeable; the joke is - if you don't like the weather just wait 15 minutes.

2. If you could move to a different country, what would be your choice and why?

I am always torn between wanting to go somewhere wild and barren like an island off the coast of Scotland or Ireland (I'd live in a cozy, thatched cottage warmed with a peat fire) or to settle down in Tuscany, Italy where I'll have my own ancient villa with olive groves and a vineyard. Tough decision.

3. What would you consider your most favored book in your childhood?

The Little House books. I can't narrow it to just one.

4. What book would you say has had the most influence in your life?

Very hard question! I think maybe Better than School by Nancy Wallace. That started me off on homeschooling 18 years ago. So a major change in life's course happened because of that book.

5. If you could meet one fictional character, who would it be and why?

Lately, I've been reading people's reviews of Catcher in the Rye. I remember that book so vividly because I really loved it and related so strongly to Holden's despair and alienation. Now I am older and a mother to boys that age, and now that I've encountered depression in one of my sons, I have this motherly urge to take Holden into my home and mother him up good so he can feel some genuine human connection.

6. Can you name one area of your life that has been influenced by Charlotte Mason; how?

Much of my homeschooling is flavored by her attitudes, though I don't think her practices got put into action much here. I wrote a post recently about this.

7. Do you grow any of your own food, and if yes, what do you grow?

Occasionally, I attempt to garden and have grown my own tomatoes and zucchini, mostly. But gardening is physically uncomfortable to me. I can't understand old people who love to do it. My wrists hurt, my back and knees hurt. I seem to attract mosquitoes and other biting bugs whenever I go out to weed. And I fear always at some point during the summer, I simply forget about the garden. It then becomes an eyesore in the yard and something that hangs over me and causes a good deal of guilty feelings. This is a regret I have in life, that I am not a very good gardener.

8. Cradle-Catholic or Convert?

Cradle Catholic, who left the Church for about a decade, though the lines are blurry as to exactly when. I did a slow reversion and now am fully and joyfully back in the fold.

9. What saint would you most like to meet?

St. Teresa of Avila, for sure! But I also really love St. John Bosco.

10. What would you list as your top three favorite spiritual reads?

These change. Right now, I think I would say that The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur is at the top; St. Francis de Sales' An Introduction to the Devout Life and Chesterton's Orthodoxy would be my top three.

11. What is your favorite "go-to" prayer?

A Hail Mary or a quick decade of the rosary. Sometimes the St. Michael the Archangel prayer. Often just a heartfelt: Oh Lord, help me!

My 11 questions for anyone who wants to be tagged after reading these:

1. Name and tell about your most beloved pet.
2. Name the last book or movie that made you cry.
3. Who, currently, is your favorite author?
4. Word the theme of a dominant day dream in your life along the lines of: boy meets girl, boys loses girl, boy wins girl back. It doesn't have to have that plot, just be reduced to the barest characterization.
5. Tell of a time when you absolutely knew God was near.
6. What was your best Christmas ever?
7. What was your worst Christmas ever?
8. Which season is your favorite? Why?
9. Describe your favorite article of clothing.
10. What book would you like to be able to read in its original language? Or if you already can read in a different language, what is your favorite book you've read in a language other than English?
11. What new hobby would you like to start?