I'm kinda back

So I think I'm going to resurrect the ole blog.  For a time anyway.

 I don't know how regular I will be but I know I have some things I need to work through and the people of Facebook probably get tired of me. Ha. 

So stay tuned. 

Should have a post up in the next day or two. 

unexpected gift

I never win contests. Except for one time I won Six Flags tickets over the radio when I was a kid. So there was that. But no other time have I won a contest. : )

Also, I feel like such a bad blogger. Not only do I not update my own blog very often, I've gotten pretty lax in commenting as well. It makes me feel so bad, but it all takes time. And lots of things in life are taking time these days.

So the other day I happened to be visiting Cheryl Barker's blog and commented to enter a contest. Never intending to win.  But I did! What a fun surprise! And thanks to a strange email mix-up, I didn't find out about it until my birthday, which was an extra sweet surprise! : )

So thank you Cheryl, for making my birthday just a little more special! : )

Hugs and love, y'all!

Sparkly Green Earrings

Y’all. I have been waiting. And waiting. And watching the calendar to see when Melanie’s new book was coming out.

And then I read on Boo Mama’s blog that she had seen it on the shelf EARLY at Lifeway where she lives. And I became on woman on a mission.

With a coupon.

I called Lifeway and they said they had two on the shelf. So I was on my way. When I got there I looked all the places I thought it was going to be, but couldn’t find it. So I asked about it. And the guy said he had a box full in the back for the Dot Mom conference so he just went back there and got me one. I was so excited.

I immediately dove into reading. But I struggled because I wanted to inhale it but I also wanted it to last forever because it was that good! But I managed to find a happy medium and stretch it out over a few days.

And y’all…it is so good! It’s not a bunch of recycled blog posts and I was thankful for that. It’s fresh and new, but it reads exactly like the voice we’re used to “hearing” on her blog. It is sweet and touching while being laugh out loud funny at the same time. A joy from beginning to end.

It doesn’t matter whether you are early on in your mothering or have a bunch of few years of parenting under your belt like me, you will love it.

In the immortal words of Larry the Cucumber…”I laughed, I cried. It moved me, Bob.” I know I’m old, but I can still quote Veggie Tales.

And we all know that’s one of the lesser known skills of being a mother.

In other words…buy it. Read it. You’ll be glad you did.

The end.

Please click here to see the trailer for the book. It is just precious and a must see, in my opinion. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to make it show up even though I got the html imbedded. So I had to add the linky. Sorry. : )

still here…

Hi. : )

I can’t believe it’s been two months since I’ve posted. Crazy, huh?!

To answer the question bobbing around just within reach…yes, I’m fine. Life is just busy.

I feel so overwhelmed with life most of the time. I spend a significant amount of time doing things directly related to my health (shopping for healthy food, exercise, juicing, making things I used to buy…from foods like bread to things like lip balm…and it all takes time!). And then there are the things we are all familiar with..cooking and cleaning and folding laundry. Ya know..the usual.

I juiced yesterday and saved half of the juice to drink today. So I just had that with a tall glass of hot green tea to wash it down.  Yum. Juicing takes a lot of time. From gathering my veggies to clean up, it takes about 50 minutes. So it is a commitment. But one I am more than willing to make. We recently got a cheap-o frig for the garage so I can store overflow and more fresh veggies, mainly to juice. Score for me.

But I am doing ok. There are times that this journey feels very lonely. No one I come in face to face contact with shares my newfound enthusiasm for health and proper eating. So to say that I can be a bit or a lot of a wet blanket sometimes is an understatement. And that is what I mean about lonely. Not even my own family really shares my desire to work hard to eat what I should be eaten to stay healthy. They are happy to see me doing good things; don’t get me wrong. But it ends before picking up the fork with the kale begins…

I don’t really even know why I am posting this. I’ve said it all before. But I guess I just needed to reach out because I know you’re there, cheering me on from the bleachers as I continue on this strange journey.

Thanks for cheering me on and caring about me.

I have had post ideas pop into my head lately, but it’s the time to write them out that eludes me. Perhaps I can find time to come here more often. I’ve missed y’all. Hugs! : )

bluebonnets and grace

The other day, the hubs and I went for a walk along the city’s walk and bike trails. And this is what we saw…

..bluebonnets. Lots and lots of bluebonnets! They are the state flower and very much beloved.  It’s very common to see them in state parks and along the highway.

And in city parks too.

I just had to take pics. I love them so much!

Just so pretty.

Which brings me to my little bloggy makeover. I have to give a big shout out to (Suz who talked to) Dawn at Beyond Grace who made the header (Using one of my pics) and all the little label pics. They are so cute. I love pink but even I was getting tired of the brightness with my old design. This is very fresh, crisp and clean. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Thanks Dawn! : )

taking a break

I am taking a bit of a blogging break.

I am overwhelmed with life right now. And there is just so much I need to learn to be able to keep myself healthy…eating and exercising and many other things. And they really need to be done properly to help me optimally in the long run.

But it takes a while. And a lot of prayer and effort. So I will see you girls later. : )

free style school pictures

Wednesday we did something super fun.

I decided a while back that if this home school girl was going to have “school pictures” then I had better come up with a plan.

Cuz Grandma is waiting. : )

Thankfully I have a sweet friend who is also a super fantabulous, incredibly amazing blogger, Antique Mommy. But she is also an equally amazing photographer and Photoshop artist, which is easy to see on her blog and photography area.

Soooo, I asked real sweet like and she agreed to take us/her out for a fun little photo shoot.

The results are amazing! : )

This is one of my favorite shots…just straight on!

But being that Antique Mommy is not just a photographer but also an artist, she saw many more possibilities behind the lens than I ever could.

Enjoy! (and yes, I’m freaking out a little since I don’t do a lot of pics of my girl on here. Watermarks away!)

Since my hubby is a snarky one, he had to caption this…woe is me, I’m a modern girl trapped in log cabin times..I’ll never play Nintendo again.

But I think I’ll adjust. If Laura Ingalls could do it, so can I! : )

This is one of my favorites. I love the lush green in the background contrasted against her skin and sweater.

And AM couldn’t resist a little fun with Photoshop, since she’s a genius at it. So she gave us a little glimpse into the future with this little trick.

Look mom, no braces!

She took over 200 pictures of my girl. Of course not every picture can be a winner, but we came pretty darn close. The ones I shared here are just a few from the very tippy top of the iceberg. She sent me 80 amazing shots!

There is so much more to tell about this fun day that is a post unto itself. Check back soon for the rest of the story!

a new do

I decided to give the ole

bloggy-poo a new do. I was getting

tired of the busy wallpaper.

I was wanting to make three columns

instead of two. And  I just wanted to

spread out a little bit.

Tell me if I need to change anything.

Is anything too small or too bright or

just too ‘whatever’?

It came!

I won this book from Jennifer at Smelling Coffee and it arrived today! I was so excited, I had to grab my camera and take a picture of it as soon as I brought it in the house.

Of course, the girl was wondering out loud why I was taking a picture of a book and a mailer. Hello, the blog! You’d think she’d have that one figured out by now.

And the publicist even sent along a nice little hand written note.

Isn’t that just so sweet of them?!

Thanks again, Jennifer!

I’m looking forward to a great read! : )

an award!

 

I won! Karen at Gberger let me know that I won an award for being a Versatile Blogger.

I guess I’m nothing if not versatile. Little of this, little of that..sometimes wading in the shallow end and other times diving off the high dive of the topic pool.

I’m supposed to pass this on to 15 people but… I don’t have a lot of time for that right now. So!

I will skip the passing it on part…cuz I’d give it to you and you and you…way in the back. So consider yourself tagged and take it if you’d like.  

She also wants me to list 7 random things about me. Hmm…

1. I have a new hobby. (hopefully a post coming soon on that)
2. I am reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan and it’s making me a wreck, in a good way.
3. I am also still reading Laura Bush’s book. I’m kind of nibbling at it, just picking it up for a minute or two when nothing is going on. It’s really good.
4. I love Hobby Lobby. One of the reasons is because they always play instrumental hymns over the speakers. When I want to just be by myself and think and ‘get out for a minute’, that’s where I usually head.
5. I’m watching much less tv these days  and I’m not really missing it at all. I love that it frees my mind up to think something other than “I wonder which house they’ll pick on House Hunters”.
6. BSF starts up again this week. I’m excited and a little bit intimidated.
7. I wish I could wiggle my nose and send all our pollen to the moon.

I know you won’t believe this, but this silly post has taken me several sittings to finish and I still couldn’t think of anything really interesting for my 7 things. But see #7…I’ve had brain fog for a while now, thanks to grass and ragweed. : p

Thanks again for the award!

Hugs! : )

my three buddies

These have been my constant buddies lately.

 

‘Cuz I ain’t been feelin’ so hot.

Actually I have bronchitis.  Have had it for a week and I’m slooooowly on the mend.

And if you’ll look there under the remote, there is a crease in the carpet.  Because I’ve been sleeping on the sofa bed.

‘Cuz I don’t want all the coughing and blowing to wake anybody up.

I was putting the sheets on the sofa bed for Miss Boo, though. Right when I was starting to ‘go down’ with my bronchitis, she was going to have FOUR teeth pulled.  Um..yeah. So I made the sofa bed for her, and then took it over after after that.

Leave it to the kitty to feel the need to get in on the action. Now you see her….

…now you don’t.

And yes, she crawled into the couch cavity.. right where her little nose is pointing in the first pic. 

I really have spent most of my time either laying on the couch or in the couch bed.  I’ve read some blogs off and on and commented a little here or there.  But nothing consistent. Sometimes I’ll think I want to comment but then my brain freezes over and I can’t think of a single thing to say.  DUH.

I’m thinking I may do ‘the random’ tomorrow, and then maybe by the end of the week I’ll feel more like myself.  So don’t be offended if I haven’t made the bloggy rounds.  The only rounds I’m making these days are between the couch, the kleenexes and the inhaler.

new header... again

I loved my old header, but it was ready made.

I saw it in a few other places and that bothered me a little bit.

I went looking for something else today and found this old header I made forever ago that never saw the light of day.

It looks really cute with the background I have.

And it's custom...'cuz I made it myself... with my very limited digital scrapbooking skilz.

Ta-da!

Happy weekend everybody. And stay warm, if you're like most of us right now and in a seriously cold 'cold spell' like we are. BRRRRRR.

a little bit more to the story

The other day I was at a department store.  Shopping. Which is something I don’t do very much of… especially for myself. Anyway, I was looking at some winter tops. There was a lady there holding up a Christmas sweater vest kind of thing and trying to decide which green top looked the best under it. 

Now, I don’t usually just start talking to people. Not very often anyway. But on this day for whatever reason, I did.  She kept holding the sweater up to a kelly green top and then up to a green apple/lime green top. I told her I liked the lime-ish green top the best. And I also told her that we painted our daughter’s bedroom that color.

She acted surprised.  “Really?!” she said.  Yep.  Took three coats to complete it but we think it turned out really cute.

She told me that her daughter wanted her room painted that color and she told her no. And then she told me I was a good mom for painting my daughter’s room that color.  Isn’t that funny?!

I didn’t tell you the story to tell you that somebody thought I was a good mom, but I just got a kick out of that lady. She was so sweet… even before we got to the part about my mothering. lol  I told her thanks and we chit chatted some more.

I think I might have told her about this, because I was just sooo excited about it.  And I guess I still am because I keep bring it up, huh?!

But there’s a part of the story I haven’t told.  I was having lunch with a friend and she said she wouldn’t mind playing around with this project for me. So she made it for me.  She’s quite a whiz with Photoshop and all that fancy stuff.  I just told her what I thought looked good and what I thought we could tweak.  And after a few tries, we came up with this.

Thanks AM! As I’ve said before… so stinkin’ cute!

blogging in the new year

So it’s New Year’s Eve, and here I sit. Blogging.  I’m sure I’m not the only one, though.

Many of you have done a year in review, and honestly I really don’t want to review this year.  For the most part, it was just hard.

So I think I’ll stick to a Christmas break in review kinda deal.  We’ve really enjoyed having time off during the holiday.  We’ve had some family time and just relaxed without work and school stresses pressing in on us. And that’s been so nice.  We’ve watched movies together.  We’ve eaten together. We’ve gone shopping together.  I could go on and on. 

We’ve even watched it snow together.  I can’t say that we played in it… because we didn’t.  I kind of hate that, but I also hate the cold. I was a little surprised that hubs and Boo didn’t want to get out in it, but we HAD been “out in it” technically returning home from the resort place, and I guess after all that drama, we just weren’t up to it anymore.

But I took pictures!  Out the front door.

And out the back door. OK.. I actually didn’t open a door to take that one.. I parted the blinds with two fingers and took the pic with the other hand. It’s good to have a talent, I guess.

But I think this pic sums up the weather we’ve had of late... with or without the snow.

Just wake me when it’s over.  This pic totally cracks me up.. she’s hugging her back foot!  Yes, that’s my unmade bed.  And yes, that’s about a billion blankets. 

Winter, I am not a fan.

Happy New Year everybody. Stay safe. Stay warm! : )

a new one

I’ve started a new blog… as a tag-along to this one.   

I’m just doing this to save you from the daily ramble about that stuff, if you aren’t interested. I don’t know if it will work out for me or just end up being a pain.  I might enjoy the new blog or I might kill it. We’ll see.

But anyway…Hop on over and check it out.  

not much to tell

Hi. I feel like I don’t have much to share. Life is just plugging along. And I’m not getting out much these days. It hit me last night that I haven’t put up a post in a week… probably close to some sort of record or something. Not that it matters to a hill of beans. But whatever.

I woke up yesterday morning at 4am and immediately started thinking about and praying for Stellan. I have been worried sick about him. And I waited… along with a zillion other people, for the news that came at the end of the day yesterday. His ablation went perfectly! I was so relieved.

I’m glad they got their miracle. (he is still a bit in the woods with another issue, but his heart is doing wonderfully)

That was my bright spot yesterday. So much so that I was bubbling over to talk about it when hubs got home. And even though he’s a compassionate person, he’s not drawn as deeply into ‘my internet stories’. But he humored me anyway.

And today…laundry. And more laundry. And a little Sam’s Club thrown in, just for funzies. How about you?

some Windows Love

I’m ‘hearting’ me a little bit of blog community tonight.  I love how when one is hurting, another comes along side for a hug and kind words.  Or when another had a crazy day or did something silly, someone is there to laugh along with us.  This journey has so greatly enriched my life.

But I didn’t think anything could enrich the actual technical aspect of the blogging itself until today.  I read this post and many of my blogging dreams came true.  I’m learning how to do things I never thought possible with my pics and I’m looking forward to the freedom this platform gives me.  And I can do a strike out without even going into html. {cue celestial singing}  And I’m figuring out a bunch of other stuff too! : )

I heart blogging.. and all of you.. and my new ‘love’…Windows Live Writer… which by the way, every time I type Live, it accidentally comes out Love.

Coincidence?  I think not! : )

it's my birthday

I got a little bloggy makeover today for my birthday!

So happy birthday to me!

I was getting a little bit tired of the other one and found something cute... and free. The best price ever!

So I hope you like it. If you see anything I need to change, let me know.

Happy weekend, all! Hugs! : )

Julie & Julia

So I went to see Julie & Julia. I actually went by myself. I know that sounds strange. I couldn't work it out and I didn't want to wait another week to go with a friend. And it was the first day of school and I was just itching to see it, so that's what I did.

For the record, I've never done that before. And I don't know that I'll do it again. Going by myself was sort of a lonely experience. I didn't realize how much I missed having somebody to giggle with during all the appropriate times.

But then again, I'm glad I went by myself, since none of my IRL friends know about my blog. And there are some references to blogging that are pretty cute and they might wonder why I thought that was so funny. So it's probably a good idea that I went by myself anyway, huh?!

So to answer the obvious question.. yes the movie is good. Very good. Even delightful, actually. I loved it. I wondered if this movie would feel like it was dragging along since it's 2 hours and ten minutes long. But it doesn't. As a matter of fact, I was sad when the movie ended. Yes, it was that good! ( my biggest negative was the language, which is sad, but expected in a PG-13 movie)

So there ya go... my 'review' without actually giving away anything about the movie. My advice: Go see it. Right away! You'll be glad you did. : )

And in honor of seeing the movie, here are some of my pics from the Smithsonian... Julia Child's kitchen. Imagine all the butter that got melted in THAT kitchen! Mercy me!





Bon Appétit, indeed!

used to

I told my husband this morning that I really want to go see Julie & Julia, since I'm a blogger and all that.

His response: "You used to blog."

I guess he's right. I haven't blogged much lately. But it seems to be goin' around right now.

I've got something simmering on the blogging "stove" (did you catch my oh so un-clever movie pun??? Well... did ya?!), but I haven't been able to bring it all together yet. Maybe it will come together soon, so I can post it. Or maybe not. Perhaps the moment has passed. I don't know yet.

But hopefully I'll be out of the blog slump soon, so my hubby can't say I used to blog anymore.