March 11, 2016 Edited to add: Hello to everyone dropping by today from Kelly's Korner. This is an "about me" I wrote this past summer. It is still pretty relevant :) I love SUYL and in the summer of 2012 I met my closest blog friends through the home tours. We started commenting on each others' blogs, got to know one another, and last spring I actually got to visit some of them (see my posts about our trip here), and I am hoping to meet more of them in the coming years. So thanks for stopping by today. I look forward to meeting some new friends. My blog friend, Amanda, is doing a 30 Week writing challenge, inspired by her friend, Emily. Since I am a little worried about how blogging will be affected by working full time and with Sam and Rachel being in school all day, I figured this challenge would at least give me one thing to write about each week :) Of course, I'm already about two weeks behind but I will catch up next week. Well okay, I'll pre-write some posts this weekend because next week I'm volunteering at VBS in the mornings and working a couple of afternoons, plus doing some childcare one afternoon, so life will be just a wee bit busy. image from here Some basic things about myself: My name is Natasha. I grew up in Saskatchewan, a prairie province in the middle of Canada. We lived out in the country and I loved school and reading books. I didn't like being outside so much, and often preferred to do laundry rather than work in the garden on chore days. I grew up with grandparents and lots of cousins around. I loved being part of a big extended family. I spent three months in Germany at the end of Grade 11 which just whetted my appetite for international travel. I also lived at a Mennonite (my Christian denomination) boarding school for Grade 12 which whetted my appetite for living with other people and doing life together. I moved 3,000 kilometres (about 2,000 miles) away from home to attend university in Waterloo, Ontario. I lived at another Mennonite residence and that decision continues to directly influence my life today. Through that residence I met my husband, Dave, found my current church home, and met many people in my current circle of friends. I was single through my 20s and into my early 30s and I spent much of that time traveling, working (as a nanny, at a library, as a human rights observer, as a salesperson and cashier at Chapters, and as the administrative assistant for my national church's magazine), and volunteering at my church. I lived overseas for a few year in The Netherlands and in Israel-Palestine. I also really enjoyed hanging out with my friends, playing ultimate frisbee, and reading. After knowing each other for a couple of years, Dave and I rented a house from friends for one year, and through that experience, got to know each other a lot better. We overcame some (perceived) obstacles such as different faiths (he's Jewish, I'm Christan), and a ten year age gap (I'm older), and started dating. Currently, we attend both synagogue and church and are raising our kids in both faiths, which is sometimes crazy (hello overlapping holidays!) and intense. In order to pursue further education, Dave and I moved halfway across the country (to Alberta) in 2007. We got married in 2008, had Sam in 2009, had Rachel in 2011, moved back to Ontario in 2012, and bought our first house in 2013. It was a crazy few years :) Somewhere around early 2011, I decided to blog more regularly, and have been doing so ever since. I love the connections I've made with people through blogging, people I otherwise wouldn't have had a chance to meet. I've been a stay at home mom since Rachel was born four years ago and am heading back to work next week. That decision feels HUGE right now, even though it's only for a year. I love to read, drink tea, travel to as many different countries as possible (thus far I've been to about forty), work in my yard, wear necklaces, connect with friends (both near and far), blog, and hang laundry on the line. This might be a little more than the "basic things about myself" but this is (pieces of) me in a nutshell. Oh, and here's a picture of me. I'm wearing two necklaces because we were celebrating Mother's Day and the kids made these for me!