Hi! I’m Stephanie. I was raised in Central California, surrounded by farms and dairies and ag life. I moved to Southern California, a small town just north of San Diego, shortly after graduating high school where I met and married my husband Jake. We are gearing up to celebrate our 10th anniversary (!!!) on April 1st. We moved to Texas three years ago on a whim and couldn’t be happier with how life has turned out. I started my blog, www.sweetpotatopeachtree.com shortly after moving as a way for friends and family to keep in touch and follow our journey, but writing has evolved from journaling to a hobby that I am passionate about.
We have three daughters, Georgia (age 7) and Philippa (age 4) and Judah Jubilee, born in August of 2015. I guess we really don’t have a “traditional” family life; we have chosen to homeschool our girls and say that we will keep it up as long as it works for them. I say “we” because my husband often works from home and is able to participate in a lot of our activities which is a main contributing factor in how it’s been successful for our family so far. The 5 of us are together a lot- a lot a lot- and most days that’s pretty awesome.
I guess I could fill this with a lot of fluff and tell you how my favorite movie is The Sound of Music, and any illness can be cured by watching the A&E version of Pride and Prejudice from start to finish (because Collin Firth), but really I am just glad to be living life with a free mind. My husband and I were raised in a high control religious group (aka: a cult) which, among other arbitrary restrictions, prohibited the celebration of all holidays. It took years for us to be able to cut all ties with the group, and I am glad that’s all behind us. I am happy to say we just had our first real, true Christmas this past December. We didn’t get around to buying a tree, though- dare I say it, maybe 2016 will be The Year of the Tree…?! I also celebrated my birthday this past October for the first time ever (which made turning 30 extra sweet).
Having been raised and growing into young adulthood with severe restrictions put on critical thinking has made me a very free thinker– I will never think I know everything, for better or for worse. I am always up for hearing both sides of the argument (unless it’s from my kids at bedtime). Sometimes that leads me to doubt my decisions, but aren’t we all kind of making this up as we go along? Sometimes we take a wrong turn or a misstep and the best way to continue is correct course and keep on navigating.
I’m not a fan of secret recipes (can’t we all just share delicious food?), guessing games (just tell me!!), poetry (yuck- too mushy), or packing away outgrown kids clothes; I love all things visual (helloooo fellow ESFPs, where you at?!) and learning about other cultures and lifestyles, even when -especially when- they are different from mine. We did a good deal of traveling before kids and with our firstborn, including three weeks touring Australia (pre-kids) and another three weeks backpacking through six countries in Europe (we were the crazy ones with a 15-month-old). Our six-month-old has already been to 14 states. It’s not that we love traveling; it’s tiring and difficult- but we love learning and teaching our kids through hands-on experiences. There’s that saying, “What we learn with joy we never forget”– I really take that to heart in terms of homeschooling- and sometimes “unschooling”- my girls. I hope to share with you some of my non-traditional experiences and opinions and come up with some content that is meaningful to all you out there in internetland.
