About Us

On this blog, you will see lots and lots of pictures… nature pictures, pictures of things my family has been doing, pictures of our friends, pictures of us being silly, pictures of our food… and so on and so forth.

Come back and visit soon! Don’t hesitate to comment: I like comments!

About the Mann Family:

There are five girls and three boys in our family. We live all together in a small house (considering the number of people we have living in it.). Our ages are: Hannah, 20; Josiah, 18; Emily, 15; Cheryl, 12; William, 9;  Matthew, 6;  and Esther, zero (as my little brothers say). We call our parents “Papa” and “Mama”. We occasionally see a (small) alligator in the “canal” behind our house. We have lived in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Missouri, and now here. We have homeschooled our entire lives.

Our family is passionate about learning more and more about being a godly family, and attempting to set an example for other families to follow. We still have a long ways to go, but we are very thankful for the grace that God has shown us and the way He has guided our family.

We love children– when I asked my siblings how many children they wanted to have, the answer ranged from twenty to seven. We were all THRILLED to learn that our mama was finally having another baby: we had to wait SIX whole years between Matthew and Esther, which was way too long in our opinion!

We love playing together as a family– some of our favorite games include Apples to Apples, Settlers of Catan, Scattergories, Chicken’s Foot (dominoes)  and more.

We love reading together aloud as a family: we have read enormous numbers of books at night over the past 12 or so years: a whole series of biographies, many G.A. Hentys, Narnia series, quite a few Lamplighters, random children’s chapter books, and many many others. We have a rather unusual tradition: we read in the dark. Um, not complete darkness… we still can’t read with no light, unfortunately. After having countless book lights die on us and cause numerous other problems, we finally found a new solution: we use a head lamp.

We love sitting around after meals and talking… about anything from theology to dreams to random funny occurrences to world news to puzzling questions about human nature to books to lessons in movies to bugs to imaginings to time travel to… just about anything. Sometimes the conversations are extremely strange… and sometimes we laugh so hard that it becomes necessary to go away from the table– because watching your siblings laugh just makes you laugh more and more, which, with so many siblings to look at, could mean laughing for a few hours.

We are odd, unusual– weird, even. I’ll admit, I probably relish that a little too much… But I am honestly really glad for that fact, because… well, as a general rule, “normal” nowadays is, well, very far from godly. Sadly. So, our family is on a mission to change normal: not to make everyone exactly like us, of course. But instead of just blending in and being like everyone else, we are doing what we know to be a light in this dark world. And we hope to encourage others to do the same. (Not, by ANY MEANS, that we have this down: ask any of us– we have a looooong ways to go. )

Many people wonder about our dresses and long hair, asking if it’s a religious thing or if our parents make us dress that way…  well, the truth is that not all of us wear dresses, and some of us have short hair– the boys. Okay, okay, I’ll answer the question. The simple answer is that we girls just… like dresses and long hair. Really, I’m serious. That is why. Fine, if you want a more complicated reason… we like wearing skirts because it’s fun to twirl in them and watch them flutter as you walk down stairs. Oh, you wanted a real reason? We like that those two things (long hair and dresses) make us instantly recognizable as female. We also like the fact that it is easier to be modest in skirts. (Not that pants can’t be modest, or that skirts can’t be immodest. We just find it easier to be modest in skirts… hey, maybe we’re just lazy. ) And no, our parents do not make us dress like this or keep our hair long. Again: we like it. And no, my parents aren’t making me say that.

That is the short, wordy version of The Mann Family. You will learn more just reading this blog, and, if you live near us, you will learn even more by being around us. (And you will be able to confirm that we are most definitely not perfect, haha. )

About the Author:

My real name is Carissa, (though I am also quite well known around the internet as Duchess Daisy) and I am a follower of Jesus Christ. At twenty one, I am the oldest the eight Mann children. I really enjoy reading, (as does my entire family) teaching, editing, herbal healing, writing (And reading) long letters, washing dishes, knitting, basketball, soccer (sometimes), writing, learning Japanese, talking to little boys (and little girls), holding babies, photography, praying, gardening, talking to papa and more.

I am passionate about prayer, the family, pro-life movement, helping girls make wise decisions, (hence, Bright Lights), femininity, creation and more.

My 2011 Verses of the Year:

Isaiah 26:3-4

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.  Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength: