Homeschool Discoveries

When I joined the “Blogging through the Alphabet” challenge, I had great intentions of writing a separate post for each letter of the alphabet about something homeschooling-related.  I made a document with ideas for every letter…but “J” really stumped me, and I missed that week all together.

I even considered having a “jammies” day just so I could do “J is for Jammies.”  But unlike (apparently) many homeschoolers, the thought the thought of a day in my jammies and having to see my kids in their jammies all day was enough to drive me batty.  I am so not a jammie day person! Even my babies get dressed for the day! So, with that personal quirk out there, I was at a loss for anything related to homeschooling that started with “J” that I would actually have anything to say about, and my ideas for “K” weren’t much better.

Then it occurred to me that I could take an easy out with this one since my first and middle initials are K and J.  And since I am the homeschooling mom writing this, that’s related to homeschooling, right? (I know, it’s a stretch).   I know I like to “get to know” the writers of the blogs I read, so maybe someone will want to get to know me, Kirsten Joy, a little bit better too. 🙂

Places I’ve lived…: I currently live in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Growing up, I lived in several other towns in Minnesota (Mankato, New Ulm, Willmar and St. Cloud).  I also lived in Ames, Iowa for eleven and a half years (college plus the following 8 years). I tell people I’m “originally from” St. Cloud, MN since that’s where I graduated from high school and where my mom still lives, though I actually only lived there for four years.

When I was growing up I wanted to be…: For a long time I wanted to be a chemist or a computer programmer.  Then my mom told me that chemists make bad things that hurt the earth and that by the time I grew up that computers would program themselves.  😉  Next I decided I wanted to be a civil engineer and build bridges.

In college I studied…: My first major was, in fact, Civil Engineering.  However, after getting a “D” in freshman physics, I took a hard look at myself and my abilities and realized that my true love was all things related to language and communication NOT science and engineering!  I changed my major to English with an emphasis in Rhetoric and Professional Communication.  I was considering pursuing a career in technical writing or technical editing, but God had other plans for my life!

After college I…: While finishing up college at Iowa State University, I felt called by God to pursue full-time Christian ministry after graduation.   I did not grow up going to church, but I placed my trust in Christ and became a Christian my junior year of high school.  As a freshman in college I found a great church where I grew in my faith, made lots of close friends and spent a lot of time involved with various campus ministry endeavors.

I had the opportunity after graduation to continue working with this church and campus ministry as a full time staff member. This was an incredible opportunity to be paid to do things I absolutely loved, like women’s ministry, event planning and administrative work.  I also took on a role as assistant editor for the daily devotional publication of the association to which our church belonged.  I continued in my role as a campus ministry staffer full time until Miss M was born, and then part time until we moved to Minneapolis. I continue editing for the devotional on a quarterly basis.  (Just don’t judge me as an editor by my writing here…I am terrible at editing my own work!).  😉

How “boy meets girl”…:  My husband and I both attended the same church in Ames, Iowa.  We worked together in a few ministry roles, and the sparks flew.  After a short courtship and engagement, we were married in September of 2002…hard to believe it is our tenth anniversary this year! Time flies when you are having fun! Tony was working on his PhD when we first got married, so we knew we would stay in Ames at least until he was done with school.

How I ended up here…:  We moved to Minneapolis, MN so my husband could pursue post-doctoral research.  We stayed after that was over because we didn’t feel like God was telling us to go anywhere else!  Tony left the academic career path for a job in industry.  We love the church that God led us to here and the city neighborhood in which we live.

Why we decided to homeschool…:  The short answer is that we were impressed by the lives of homeschooled kids we knew in our church in Ames (both kids still in school and friends we knew as fellow college students who had been homeschooled themselves).  We wanted to have the same opportunity to influence our kids during their formative years. We hope to use homeschooling as an opportunity to raise kids of outstanding character that we can launch into the world as kids/young adults who will positively impact others for the kingdom of God.

Why I started this blog…:  I had a “general” blog (it started out as our wedding website!) for many years.  It was really just intended for family and friends to read and what I wrote about changed as I changed and as our life changed.  We let the hosting for that blog expire last summer and I realized I missed having a creative outlet for writing.  But I also decided that “this time around” I wanted to focus on a topic I am passionate about (homeschooling, with a focus on books/reading) and reach out to develop broader readership beyond my facebook friends.  I want to share my “finds” and chronicle our homeschool experience along the way.

What I like to do in my “spare” time:  Now that I have this blog, I like to blog in my “spare” time!  Other than that, I really like to cook and bake (I am obsessed with breakfast baked goods!), read books and blogs, and hunt for bargains at thrift stores and garage sales. I also really like playing board games, trying new restaurants and generally experiencing adventures in the city with my family.

What I want to do when I grow up when my kids grow up:  I envision I might have another “career” of some sort later in life.  Maybe!  I day dream about jobs involving books, history, or writing…or maybe I could come up with some combination of the three!  At least I have a while to figure that out.  😉  Just a blog and a very part time editing job is plenty for me right now on top of juggling all the responsibilities of staying at home with my four kids!

Visit the “K” post link-up @ Ben and Me to see what other bloggers came up with for the letter K!