Who is Momma?

My name is Dawn, AKA “MommaKnows”, and I live in Eastern Washington. I am a wife and mother, and curious researcher. I love my Lord, my husband, my kids, and my life. I have 6 children total: 21yo stepdaughter, 17 1/2 yo stepson, 17yo daughter, 15yo daughter, 8yo son, and 7yo son. And in March our first grandson turned 1! We only have five at home now, and the bigger ones keep me running all the time.

We have homeschooled our children for the majority of 11 years. The big kids (now 18, 17-1/2, and 15) were homeschooled K-8. The 18 yo just graduated public high school, 17yo will be a senior (part time ps, part time HS), and 15yo is actually away at a private school because one year in public high school was the worst thing possible for her. The Lord is helping her rebuild her life, and she will be home again with us when she is ready. I have homeschooled our younger two off & on, and began again Jan. 2009 with renewed purpose. Our youngest two sons are adopted through foster care, and we have fostered a total of 22 kids, mostly newborns and 1 year olds. I write to offer encouragement to other parents. I also ramble a bit, touching on many different subjects, but bear with me or use the search box to find what you want to read about! My most frequent topics are Home & Family, Homeschooling, and Special Needs Kids.

Three years ago (2006) I started really getting into digital scrapbooking. I gave up my paper-scrap supplies to my two daughters, in favor of a digital pen tablet and PhotoShop CS2! I recently downloaded the GIMP- Gnu Image Manipulation Program- which promises to function much life Photoshop but with a twist. I am looking forward to exploring it, as my CS2 program is acting up on my 64-bit system and I may have to uninstall it completely and move on. Oh, and the GIMP is free, btw.

I have a MySpace that I don’t use, and a Facebook that I do (I have three teenagers), but unless I know you or have gotten to know you via blogging, I don’t make that stuff public, sorry. I post blog updates on Twitter for everyone. You can
I’ve been tagged with a few “About Me” type Memes, so you can check them out:
8 Things About Me, What’s in my MySpace Player, and an A to Z Meme, How We Started Homeschooling.

Need free homeschooling curriculum? I have many, many books in my online library! Feel free to browse over and download whatever you’d like! I love comments, so if you do take anything, please at least let me know you were there! Thanks!! Click on MOMMA’S LIBRARY. Eventually I will have these arranged by grade, but for now they are mostly 1st- 4th grade or so, except for a few of the books.

I also belong to many Yahoo Groups, although I mostly post & lurk here:
3RHomeschooling

Other sites I frequent:
Spunky Homeschool
The Homeschool Lounge
Donna Young’s site
Scrapbook-Bytes
ShabbyPrincess
DigiFree: The Digital Scrapbooking Freebie Search Engine

Please leave me comments! Agree, disagree, ask questions, suggestions, or whatever!! I love comments!! Blogs are for interaction, so let’s chat!