Meet: Joy My Blogger Friend From Minnesota

    I (DM)  just recently crossed paths with Joy over at Sanityfound’s blog  Several things struck me about her…she has a great sense of humor, she calls it like she sees it, she and I are the same age, (21 with 29 years experience)  and she lives just one North of us in  Minnesota.  I appreciate her taking the time to put together this introduction:

 

Hi everyone. My name is Joy Erickson (it kind of makes me feel like I’m in a 12 step program saying that!!) and I’m so honored that I was asked to guest write. Kind of like an award or something. I live on an 80 acre farm in a little town in Minnesota although we don‘t farm it. We just fell in love with the land when we saw it. I’ve lived here for 13 years this fall. I now wouldn’t live anywhere else. I love this privacy to much.

I am 50 although I never think to much about my age. I have been married for almost 30 years. I really struggled when my youngest son left for college and had a “loss to my senses” and ran away from home for 5 years. Bet none of you guys knew that did you?? I did return though to live again with my husband, children and my three grandchildren.

Without my children in my life, I’m not sure what I’d be or what I’d do. I’m very maternal and love to take care of people. I also am raising my little Maddie. Okay, so she’s just a kitten. But she’s so much more than that to me. Late last fall my daughter in law called to tell me this kitten was laying in her backyard and could I help? Yes, she knew I’d raise it and take care of it so that’s what I did. She was only around 3 weeks old and only weighed 8 ounces. She is so dear to me. I have had animals all my life but I am IN love with this kitten. She will run to me like a dog when I call her. I don’t think anyone has told her that cats are supposed to be stuck up or finicky. Lets not tell her okay?? When spring came this year I talked myself into letting her go outside. Of course I followed her around like a detective on CSI but she wouldn’t stay away from the driveway which leads to the road so now she’s on a leash when she wants to go out. She’s happy with it and doesn’t know any different. Yes, people have said to me, she just a cat, but to me, she’s so much more than that. She needed me in a way at the time, nobody else did and it felt good. I had to feed her and without me, she wouldn’t be alive and I love her dearly. I really need to be needed.

 

I am very spiritual but not in the “organized” church way. I had been a Lutheran all my life and taught Sunday School and Bible school and volunteered in any way I could. One of the pastors of the church did “something” to a teenage girl in the congregation but nobody would say what it was. So, I lost faith in church but not in God or they way I felt. So now I talk to him whenever I want to but not in a church. I just kind of felt that I knew this man very well and how dare he do this? If someone I know could do this, I’ll love God and follow him on my own and it’s working well for me. I like to live my life in the ways of “do unto others” and to just be kind and compassionate to all other living things.

One of my biggest passions in life is children. I worked for a school district for 15 years in a suburb of Minneapolis but had to give that up when we moved out to the country. I wouldn’t have given that up for anything. I loved doing what I did and being with those kids everyday. It was also a very good job for a Mother. I got to be with my kids every day and be involved in their lives and when they didn‘t have school, I didn‘t have work. Some of the things I saw broke my heart and there are so many things you just don’t know about if you don’t “see it.” I can get very riled up about certain issues involving kids. I can’t stand when people say things like “I don’t want the school to tell me what to do as a parent.” I feel we have to help those kids who don’t have parents like that. The kids who go to school everyday with no lunch or have no warm boots or parents to come watch them sing in their concerts. It’s so easy for some to say they don’t need help with their kids but some kids need us to stand up for them because nobody else will. I can get very worked up over this and have had “blog fights” over issues like this.

I am very slow to anger. I hardly ever get mad at anyone. I feel instead of getting mad and all worked up over something, it’s better to cool off and then discuss things like normal people. BUT…if I get pushed far enough, I don’t forgive very easily. I’m really bad at this and have tried very hard to change. I hate to hurt feelings and hate to make anyone feel bad but once I’ve had enough, I’m not someone you want to see mad. The quieter I am, the more mad I am. Some people say they can tell when I’m mad but those are only those who are very close to me.

I like to spend time alone. I’m alone everyday and am in my glory. I feel a LOT of birds. I have over 20 feeders and have every variety of bird you can imagine. I also have pheasants, deer and turkey’s that I feed. I have a lot of other critters around here too who help themselves to the food who think I love them too. Where do you draw the line?? I still haven’t figured that out. Every living thing that comes here leaves with a full tummy. I just love to spend time on my back deck with binoculars just watching. I shoot them with my camera and get great satisfaction doing that.

Both my boys are married to very fine women. Jason, my oldest is 32 and has a wonderful little boy named Bailey. He’s 8. My youngest son Christopher (nickname Toby, long story) has two kids, Trinity 8 and Christopher (no nickname!) who’s 4. I love and adore these kids and would do anything for them. It’s my main goal in life right now that when I’m long gone, each one will think they were my favorite. I had the most wonderful grandmother ever born and I want to follow in her footsteps. She was the best and in this case, I’ll take second.

This has been very hard for me to write. When I first started my blog I had no idea how it would turn out. It was just to be me writing. I had no idea what I was going to write about but knew I just wanted to talk about everyday things and talk to other people and have conversation. Now both my daughter in laws, oldest son and best girlfriend write together so for me to tell personal stuff is so different.

Thank you so much for putting me in this fine company and giving me this opportunity DM.

Here’s a link to Joy’s blog: http://joyerickson.wordpress.com/

Tags: family