Different

I know I haven't posted in a while. Life has gotten fairly busy and when it gets busy, the "extra" stuff gets dropped first. And unfortunately, this blog falls under that category. But just because I haven't updated, it doesn't mean I haven't thought about what new posts I want to write. I have a ton of them swirling around in my brain.

For the next little while, though, I've decided to write about all the things that make us (Brent and me) "different" and why we have chosen these things in our life. Some of the topics are fairly controversial and so I would suggest that if you are one to get riled up easily or feel upset when someone has an opposing view on things, you may want to skip over those posts.


A few months ago, in a conversation with my brother about homeschooling and being vegetarian, he suggested that --from the outside-- it looked as though Brent and I just automatically disregard anything mainstream and choose the alternative paths. (I think the term "hippie" was used more than once.) I appreciated that he felt comfortable enough to tell us this and I have pondered about it often since then. After explaining to him our thought processes, and time spent researching, studying, and often praying, why we'd come to the decisions we have, he was better able to understand us and respect our decisions. He still disagrees with us on a lot of the topics, but he's at least able to understand our point of view.

This is my goal with the next few posts. A lot of people in our lives tend to disregard what we have to say because, well, we're "Brent and Ann." (aka: "weird" or "hippies") We see the eye-rolling and ears-shutting-off whenever one of these topics is brought up. And we're fine with that. We know that we sometimes approach these conversations in the wrong way. When Brent and I feel strongly about something, you definitely know it when we talk about it. We can get "intense." It's one of our weaknesses. (And unfortunately it's a weakness we both share.) So in bringing these things up on a blog, the hope is that it takes the "personal" aspect out of things, and just *maybe* there's someone out there who can learn something from what we've learned. And if not, then at the very least, maybe there will be some who have a better understanding of us, and hopefully a little more respect for our decisions, knowing we haven't just made them willy-nilly.

A few years ago, I was about 1 year shy of getting my bachelor degree when we up and moved to Michigan. I haven't been able to go back to school since. I still plan on finishing at some point, but in the meantime, I've focused my education efforts on all things "mother." I've always loved to learn. And I didn't want to stop learning when I stopped going to school. So about a year after we moved to Michigan, I made the decision to start researching and learning about different topics that fall under my jurisdiction of "decisions to be made as a mother."

It really all came about after my disenchantment with the medical community as a whole after Roo's birth and the subsequent agonizing months dealing with his reflux (and no doctors believing me that there was even a problem). I came to the realization that my children were sent to ME for a reason. *I* am their mother. And *I* know my children better than anyone else, including doctors and other professionals. I began to take my role as a mother a lot more seriously than before. I began to question things that before, were just a given "because the doctor (or insert any other professional here) said it was best." I began to see that what may be best for some is NOT best for all. And I began to question a lot of the decisions I had previously made and was going to make in the future.

So in the posts to follow I will share what I (and subsequently, Brent) have learned from my (our) studies and experiences. And hopefully I can do it in a way so that we won't lose too many friends along the way. :)