10 on the 10th – March 2025 edition

Marcia over at Marcia in the Middle hosts a fun monthly link-up where we answer 10 questions she shares about a week in advance. This month is a little different – instead of 10 questions, we are sharing 10 irrational things we do (or would do), in honor of Pi, an irrational number. Let’s jump right in.

#1 – I REALLY enjoy math

Irrational numbers are a subject we’ve talked about at home this year, as Cade is completing Algebra 2. I have enjoyed homeschooling both my sons with their high school math, and I especially enjoy teaching math to Cade because he seems to have inherited my love of math. Aiden does NOT enjoy math, but I still love seeing the light come on in his eyes when he gets a concept. And despite not liking math, he is actually really quite good at it. I do admit I was worried I wouldn’t remember calculus well enough to teach it, but found it all came back to me pretty quickly.

When I say I enjoy math – I should give some examples and you can judge if this is an irrational trait. I have a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and am a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society. I use statistics and mathematics for my career as an actuary. As a high school student, I was on the math team, traveling around the state and nearby states to participate in math competitions (which I often won). On Friday nights, I enjoyed completing old practice math tests from past competitions to prepare. As a freshman in high school, our Algebra 1 teacher would randomly assign either the odd or even problems from our math book as the daily assignment – but I wanted to work ahead, so I just did all the problems in all the chapters and basically had the book done before Christmas break. I took two math classes my sophomore year so that I could avoid taking sophomore Biology and take five years of math in high school.

I’m really hoping there is someone else out there somewhere who really enjoys math as much as I do? I kinda feel like I’m baring my soul and all my inner weirdness here, so please be kind if you hate math…

#2 I hate pumping gas

It smells. I’m sure there are germs on the pump. Yuck. Enough said.

#3 I track every penny we spend

Maybe this goes with the “I love math” oddity… I enjoy keeping track of everything we spend, and analyzing whether we are spending our hard-earned money on things we truly value or not. Kevin humors me with this, but is definitely not excited about it.

#4 I NEED the house to be tidy

I like everything to have a home, and at least occasionally I like things to be all in their homes at the same time. I’ve gotten a little calmer about this over the years. Maybe the kids have worn me down? I have learned to let this go to a point, but my inner neat freak really wants the house tidy.

#5 I enjoy driving on long trips

Long car trips, at least those on rural interstate, are relaxing. I enjoy the scenery and listening to a podcast. We live about 7 hours from my parents, so we have plenty of opportunity for long car trips.

#6 l don’t like unrealistic love stories

Love at first sight or super-perfect relationships in books or movies annoy me because I just don’t think this is how the world works. But I do love stories about families who overcome challenges and stay committed to one another.

#7 I am energized by saving money

I went through a couponing phase, and found it to be a really fun game (but way too time consuming). If we need a major purchase, I get a lot of satisfaction from researching all the options for obtaining the item we need at the best price.

#8 I can’t stand TV shows with “bad choices”

Shows like “I Love Lucy”, where the main character is always making some choice that any logical person could foresee will lead to a negative outcome, are so painful for me that I can’t stand to watch them. I know it is just supposed to be a funny story, but I really don’t enjoy them. I think I get this trait from my dad…

#9 The less I live like “everyone else”, the less I want to

This is is a little hard to explain. I’ve made a few really major choices in my life that have been different from what the people around me have made. One example is our decision to move to Kentucky to be near my husbands family. That choice came with accepting that I would not have the same opportunities for promotion within my employer. I chose my family over those career opportunities. I know other women in my workplace who would never have made that same decision.

We later made the decision to homeschool. Although homeschooling is more popular now, it is still not common and was even less so when we started.

Even right now Kevin and I are heavily considering making a very significant decision that I know many friends and family will consider irrational. We would be going down a path very few people have – in fact no one I personally know has done what we are considering. And that’s ok.

#10 I really love learning

I would rather learn new skills and how to do something myself than to hire someone. And sometimes after I learn how to do something, I decide that I would rather just hire someone else from then on even though I now have the skills…

I’m also linking up with these awesome blogs this week.