Welcome to Roscommon Acres!  My name is Dana and I am a home educating mother of five children.  When we began homeschooling, I thought we’d be doing school at home.  I’d teach, my children would learn and the big difference would be the location.  Sure, there’d be that nice stuff about catering to my children’s needs, family togetherness, keeping our focus on God and all that, but I essentially thought homeschooling would be the same in function just different in form. What I didn’t expect was how much this adventure would change me and my views on family, parenting, education and society.  I didn’t expect life to become so . . . intentional.

Out of that intentionality and the desire to help our family live life more abundantly as promised in John 10:10 grew a desire to move to the country, buy some land and raise our children with plenty of hard work, fresh air and free time.  In November of 2009, we purchased a foreclosure on five acres close enough to town for my husband to continue working for the railroad but far enough to force us to begin weaning ourselves from our dependence on the city for convenience and entertainment.

The house needs some work, the barns yet more and the land itself has returned to a semi-wild state after two years of being left vacant.  To me, it is like an open canvas upon which to begin sketching out our lives.  You can follow our progress here at Roscommon Acres or by subscribing to our feed.  Feel free to leave a comment.  We always love to see who stops by our little house in the country.

Why Roscommon Acres?

I’m so glad you asked!  Perhaps it is from too much Anne Shirley (of Anne of Green Gables) as a kid, but I have always had a fascination with naming houses.  I’ve just never lived in a place that seemed to warrant naming.  This house is different, however.  We will be putting a lot of work into this little home, and it represents so much more than simply shelter as we restructure our lives for this journey.  So with thoughts of the future and respect for tradition, we finally settled on Roscommon Acres.  You see, our family name actually originated in County Roscommon, Ireland.  “Ros” means a gentle, wooded height, which fits nicely with our plans for an orchard on our little hill.  “Coman” is the name of the County’s saint.  Wikipedia says he’s famous, but I can’t attest to that.

Oh, and as much as I like the idea of a nice picture of myself to make this blog more personal, I’m a mom and I do most of the photography.  Unless the four year old gets hold of the camera, but that is another story.  In an effort to introduce myself as a real life person, however, I will share this photo taken a couple years ago on top of Pike’s Peak by a biker dude.

Watch this space for semi-annual photo updates when I hand my camera to a total stranger for the obligatory family photo.