8 Facts Meme

The rules of this meme, which Alkelda the Gleeful of Saints and Spinners tagged me for, are supposed to be that you list the rules, then eight facts/habits about yourself. Then, at the end, you tag eight people to do it, then go to their comments section and tell them they are tagged. I am nothing if not subversive, though. I don't honestly know 8 bloggers who would like to be tagged, so I am tagging two, who I think will like it. If they want to tag others, great. If not, I'm cool with that, too(:


8 Facts About Me:

1.) I have five siblings by blood, the children of my mother and stepfather. I also have had hundreds of foster siblings over the years, both official ones that the state placed with our family for a time and unofficial ones, that my parents just sort of randomly took in, because they are like that. I had a very fun and interesting childhood in many ways. I'm a little crushed by my financial inability to have a large brood myself. Maybe a lot crushed.

2.) I nursed my older daughter until she was four and a half years old and am still nursing my almost-three-year-old.

3.) I was raised Roman Catholic - even went to Catholic schools from Kindergarten through the eighth grade. I left the Church in high school and began seeking about for something that was a better fit for me. I have always held the Church in great affection and respect and familial feeling, even when we disagree, but I found myself incapable of the typical American Cafeteria Catholic mindset - I could not take what I wanted from the Church and ignore the rules I didn't like - it just seemed dishonest to me. I understand trying to follow rules and falling short because we are all imperfect, but the Catholic Church has lots of rules and beliefs I will never even attempt to follow/embrace - such as the contraception one, for an example. I do love contraception. I felt it would be betraying the Church to be that sort of Catholic (although all of my family is that sort of Catholic and they are fine with it - different strokes) so I left. I attended a Unitarian Universalist Church for awhile in college and liked it very much but felt that a certain mysticism I needed was missing. Then I found a Quaker Meeting for Worship in my college town and that was it for me, so now I am a Quaker and am raising my kids Quaker. We are very much on the universalist end of the spectrum and I am pretty equally comfortable with Christian and Pagan modes of discourse for the Divine...it just doesn't make that much difference to me.

4.) I have been a vegetarian since I was 16, mostly for reasons of sustainable living - I don't want other people to go hungry because I eat too high on the food chain. We eat eggs and dairy, but we try to be responsible about them. My husband still eats meat.

5.) I would say that taking care of my children while having to work has been the central crisis of my adulthood, which takes varying forms, but haunts me consistently.

6.) I get nasty eczema on my hands that makes them crack and bleed.

7.) I am wildly jealous (in a nice way) of bloggers with lots of comments.

8.) To say that I am a voracious reader would be a rather extreme understatement. I read like crack addicts smoke crack. It seems a fairly harmless vice as they go but it is not entirely harmless...just harmless compared to vices of equal extremity.

Okay, I tag:

Gojirama
Veloute!