A Little
About Us

Hello.... We are Beth and Chuck, the folks behind the garden gate. We thought you might like to know something about us, our values, and our interests, and that's the reason for this page. Perhaps it will help to put the rest of this website into perspective.

We've known each other for quite a while, having met when we were in the second grade. We have always been friends, but it wasn't until after college that we *really* started spending all of our time together. :-) We have been married for more than 25 wonderful years now. Sometimes it's hard to believe that it's been that long, but then again, it seems that we've just always been together.

Living as we do in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania, autumn is our very favorite time of year. Autumn in Pennsylvania is beautiful, and a welcome relief to us after the heat of the summer. We always go looking for the best fall leaf display, but every year it turns out to be in the hills and valleys immediately surrounding our home. I guess we're just homebodies at heart!

Chuck is an architect with a large local firm, where he works on a variety of projects and specializes in code work. He enjoys pulling flaming contracts out of the fire as well. ;-) He balances his time at the office with joining us for field trips and drinking very strong coffee. He also enjoys photography and spending ridiculously large amounts of time working around this old house of ours. There is always a list of home improvement projects waiting for his attention.

Beth joyfully retired from the workforce twenty years ago and spends her days with our children, singing, writing, drawing, and otherwise exploring the world. She has an avid love for the needle arts, and enjoys knitting, quilting, counted cross-stitch, tatting, and crochet when she can find the time. Her favorite projects at the moment are handknitted socks. She's also developed a serious addiction to mailing lists, much to Chuck's good-natured dismay.... ;-)

We have two lovely daughters who are happily learning in our little homeschool on "Spoon Street". They like to spend all of their time together, and enjoy wild games of active and imaginative play, reading, arts and crafts, videos, family night, dogs (which we don't have) and cats (which we do have). They are best friends, the pride of our hearts, and the joy of our lives. We are blessed and privileged to have been called by God to be their parents.

Our days are simple and full, and the activities and interests that we all share -- gardening, homeschooling, our family values and our Christian faith -- are the focus of these pages. From our parents and grandparents, we are very grateful to have received a rich legacy of the joys of family-centered life, and we want to pass this heritage on to our children.

We hope that you will share in our wish for your children as well, as we pray that all children might know a treasured legacy of faith, love, and a happy family.