I live in a small, rural town in Arkansas surrounded by pastures and woods instead of McDonald’s and Pizza Huts. Some days I would trade you my country life for your fast food, but most of the time I’m happy in this isolated place.

When I graduated from highschool and people all around me were racing to get out of this town, I knew I wouldn’t be going anywhere. My heart is in those old dirt roads, the whippoorwills on a hot summer night, the smell of fresh cut hay from a nearby pasture, Sunday dinners with family.

We have four sheltered, antisocial children that we homeschool. Years ago, I taught junior high school English, until I traded all that money and fame for this slow life on easy street. It was a good, but messy decision. My house will never be the same.

I began blogging in 2005 and it was love at first comment. I write about motherhood, parenting, photography, homeschooling, Jesus and my big extended family that eats with me every Sunday.

Most days I can barely hear my own thoughts above the sound of kids arguing, the baby crying at my ankles while I cook supper and the dogs barking at the cat, but at night, I sit down here to write and all I can remember are the sweet, simple moments of the day.

If my life seems perfect, please remember that it’s not all as rosy as it appears, that’s just the way I tend to focus when my fingers touch the keyboard.

What I want to remember are these everyday, ordinary moments that when strung together over days and seasons make up this all too familiar path. So I put them down here. I write to preserve those moments.

I’m honored to have you here.