A new meme: looking back

Egad … I’ve been tagged again. Thanks, Ronie. 🙂

This time, it’s looking back. It’s called 10-20-30 … where was I 10 years ago, and what was I doing? 20 years? 30?

10: November 1997. Age 31. My fifth child and second daughter was a mere four weeks old. She was sweet and plump and … and oh, yeah, her birth week was filled with lots of drama. That was the week of the Stomach Virus Story to top all stories in our family so far. (Another blog, p’raps? Or, p’raps not. LOL) I was not writing fiction at the time, but my writing surfaced in its own way. This was the year we discovered the internet and I spent some time on debate boards, sharpening my ability to defend issues I cared about, through the written word. Interesting, to say the least. I learned a lot. Also, the year I found the Practical Homeschooling message board on AOL and fell in with the Homeschooling A Houseful (hereafter known as HAH) crowd … I still remember posts by Marye of TX and Tammy of WI and Michele (then of PA) …

20: November 1987. (I almost typed 1897. Ha!!) Age 21. Troy and I had been married for four months. We lived in Lynchburg, VA, where he attended Liberty University and got to know Dr. Arlton Murray, retired Smithsonian paleontologist and creation scientist extraordinaire, and I worked at the LU library. We drove to Scranton, PA, to spend Thanksgiving with his uncle Jack and aunt Mary. I’ll never forget driving through the PA mountains … gorgeous! I was sort-of writing, diddling away at my first novel–lost mostly in the wonder of using a computer and word processor for the first time, and NOT having to retype everything for a revision!!!

30: November 1977. Age 11. :::Sound of internal groaning::: Great … this was one of my hardest years ever, courtesy of the hormonal surges that precede a girl’s entrance into … the teen years. 🙂 I’d rather not think about it … except … that since this was a full year after I’d made my first personal horseflesh purchase, I was busy between mood swings with my tall pony mare Comet and her yearling colt Little Red (the great! LOL) and 6-month-old colt Stormy. Ah, yes. Horses were my very great solace.

And now I have to tag … somebody. I’m not sure I even know anyone who does plain old chatty blog anymore, but … fine. Mir, Becky, and Beth. Whenever, chicas. 😉

Oh, and on the subject of looking back … exactly 17 years ago tonight I was savoring the feel of having my own baby in my arms for the first time. Now he’s tall (over six feet), with thick dark golden hair and greenish eyes. And buff. And quietly intense.

Wow, can it have been that long?

Thank you, Lord, for the endless grace and mercy that have led me here …