About Me

I'm Marian {aka "Scooper"}. I love words, beauty, and funny people. I've been a wife for 18 years and a mom for 12. 

Once a history professor, I'm now a stay-at-home mom and writer, having traded in a college classroom seven years ago for five years of homeschooling my own kids around the kitchen table. 

In December of 2011, we made the big decision to put our kids in public school. It's been a welcome change for all of us and we vow to simply take things one year at a time. You can read more about that journey here.

On any given day you might find me reading, writing, running a taxi service for my kids, taking pictures, sipping Starbucks, over-thinking everything, running, rearranging furniture, studying the Bible, and not doing laundry. 

I write for many reasons but mostly because it's cheaper than therapy. I used to joke about that but it's actually the truth. Through blogging, I spill thoughts one letter at a time until lemonade is squeezed from the lemons. It's a serendipitous thing, not at all the reason I started but the sweetest reward. 

Through my writing, I often find perspective. I suppose my own words teach me things.

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And now for the part in which I share all of my crazy.

I love fancy food and drinks, but because I am often too lazy to fix my own food, I lunch on PB&J remnants from my kids' plates on an almost daily basis.

I find great fulfillment in writing, but I remain ignorant of countless grammar rules. I also like to make up words.

I was a history professor until 7 years ago but I rarely know the correct answer to the esoteric history questions asked on Jeopardy or in Trivial Pursuit. I am not a history "buff." I have never been to a re-enactment. While I enjoyed 14 years of university life as a student and a professor, I now consider myself a "recovering academic."

I adore books but I'm usually reading about 17 at a time resulting in a shamefully low completion rate.

A fan of all things "girly"--make-up, fashion, hair, etc.--I confess that on most days I am sporting unchanged running clothes, a pony-tail, and a face that's lucky to get Chap-stick & mascara.

I'm an introvert disguised in an outgoing personality. {INFJ anyone?} I love people and parties yet crave solitude. Perhaps this is because I can't take a shower or visit the restroom without being interrupted by tiny humans or a dog who always needs something as soon as I close the bathroom door. Though I'll tolerate polite chit-chat, I'd rather just cut to the real.

Equally inspired by make-up and history, I actually own a book entitled, The Cultural History of Lipstick. You think I'm joking.

I will admit to loving smart people, thoughtful books, and artsy films. But I can also devour three People magazines in one sitting while on vacation. And I get school-girl giddy for televised red carpet events. 

Laughing is a drug for me and I'm crazy for people who are funny. Ironically, I have a tendency to take myself and life in general much too seriously.

Ever the bargain junkie, I actually don't mind living a frugal-ish life. But, I have been known to blow money on crazy thrift store kitsch, impulse-buy at yard sales, and forget to mail in rebate coupons. My husband jokes that I could write a book called How To Go Broke $1 At A Time. And he would be right.

A clean, organized and orderly home makes me happier than it should. Currently, however, a 7-year-old's half-written story, jewelry beads, pre-school workbooks, an iPod, hair clips, fruit puffs, a dismembered Polly Pocket, the newspaper, a dish towel and a bowl of half-eaten pasta graces the kitchen table where I'm writing. Such disarray is an accurate reflection of the general state of affairs here.

As I mentioned earlier, I homeschooled for nearly 5 years and then abruptly did the "unthinkable" in sending my kids to public school. They enjoy school {for the most part.} I enjoy the simplicity of being their mom and not their teacher {for the most part.} Sometimes the "real" collides with the ideal and sometimes this is for the best. I've learned to never say never and to hold all plans loosely. I've also learned that sometimes God re-routes us in ways that feel like failure but are actually grace.

I always wanted a career, a husband, and a family {in that order.} But I fell in love with a charming boy I met my freshman year of college and we started dating two years later. Three months after we graduated, I married him. I'm convinced he's the only man on the planet who can put up with me. Marriage is hard. We are both strong-willed, passionate, independent first-borns. But God has been faithful. The charming boy is still my best friend and he is still irresistibly charming. Marrying him is one of the smartest things I ever did.

Growing up as a pastor's kid, I was in church every time the doors were opened. You might think that skeptical notions about faith and God and truth would have not an ounce of non-conformist air to breathe in a churchy upbringing like that. My heart, however, has a fierce will of its own and has forever been the heart of a skeptic. Faith does not come naturally and my "story" from belief to unbelief and back to belief is simply a testimony to God's irresistible grace. 

On any given day I still look to circumstances for happiness and personal peace. I often trade pleasure for joy and reason for faith. I'm immensely grateful for a God who delights to pursue, longs to forgive, loves without limits, and never gives up, even on a crazy skeptic like me.