Who Am I?

Trunk Blanket and Camping Chair

Good morning folks, I am having one of those coffee, quiet house, rainy day inspired philosophical moments. Who am I? That is my question. I am Shannon. My interests include basket weaving, backyard chickens, gardening, preserving my harvest by canning and freezing. Cooking for my family is something that I enjoy. My husband is not always thrilled when I make him try new vegetables but I do it anyway. I'm a fixer. If there is something wrong or a task that needs done, I am your go to gal. I enjoy working through problems, it gives me a sense of triumph. I am a busy sports mom. You know, the one who wears the team colors and shouts "Go Team!!" at every opportunity...Yup that's me. I attend all the practices and games. I sit in the rain, snow and extreme heat. I carry "trunk blankets" in the trunk of my car. You never know when you may need one, either at baseball or football season. Those fold us chairs in a bag? I am a connoisseur of the camping/sport chair. 

I am a sucker for animals. Really, I love them. It probably comes down to the fact that I believe they all need me. lol My kids even get on board with that..."See that stray dog mom, it needs you" ... And it does. They all need me. lol I should come to grips with the fact that I like to be needed. I live in a household of all boys...except my animals are all girls...well except for Buster Brown the cat and he doesn't really like me as much as tolerates me. I call all of my animals "My Girls." When going for a walk, I say "Come on My Girls" and my dogs follow me about. My chickens are "My Ladies". They are some busy hens and in my mind they all have English accents. It's my mind, so they can have those. lol

What else screams Shannon? Reading! Reading and writing but I love reading. I know, I posted a while back about my son and his struggles with reading and how much I love to read. A secret confession of mine is that while everyone knows I love to read, I also am really getting into writing. I always thought that I was a reader, I love books, but not the writing of books. . .  Secret confession..I like the writing. I would love to write a novel. Who wouldn't right? I don't even know if I could start one. I always wonder how authors can tell if a thought is their original or if it is something they read many many years ago and their brain just recycled it. Crazy? I don't know. I can not count the number of books I have read. I put away at least 3 to 4 books a week. I do not watch tv or movies really for that matter. Im a book girl. I like them all.

Go Blue!

In college I majored in US History. My favorite class was an English Lit class...go figure right? Well actually it was technically an English class but it was on Early American Lit. The class was all about the early documents, letters, poems, pamphlets, that were coming out of the Colonies. I got to read Ben Franklin and Thomas Paine as well as Ann Bradstreet and Phillis Wheatley. This class taught me so much more than what was going on in America at the time. The professor was very into close reading. A technique, that at first, I thought was really just baloney. But, as the class went on and we discussed these works in depth, I began to see the real beauty of language. Why authors choose certain words, colors, settings, all of it and how they tell a story even deeper than the face value of the writing. A story is a story, but a good story can be made a great story by the language that is used. I'm a nerd aren't I? lol

So this morning, before I wake up my kids to start a busy day of baseball tryouts, I have come to the conclusion that Shannon=human. I am human. I have interest and concerns. I have strengths and weaknesses. I am a self proclaimed country girl and nerd all at the same time, its just who I am. I preserve food and talk to my chickens. I wear a lot of sports hoodies and I know when a pitcher bocks. I will yell "False start" at football games before a ref can blow his whistle, well I yell from the stand, cant distract the players you know... I read, a lot,  and I am not hip to the game when it comes to tv shows and movies.
 Well this is me in a nut shell and I am ok with that.

: )