The crafty person that lives inside me was thrilled to read about the John C. Campbell Folk School while we were on the airplane traveling to Seattle. I’m by no means a craft blog but am so inspired by all of the wonderful knitters, sewers, gardeners, and people of various talents that inhabit the blog world. I could easily see gathering for a lovely time and learning a detailed skill in a weeklong vacation.

I never thought I’d ever click on a link titled HillBillyHousewife but when several members of a forum I’m on recommended the free healthy mealplans I decided to go take a peek. Turns out its a great resource, if you want to shop and find shortcuts on a budget this is the place to be. They also have free homeschool curriculum available for you homeschoolers out there.

Being the mother of an almost 4 year old has been very rewarding and draining all at the same time. I’m seeing some of the tiny seeds that I’ve planted during his life sprouting and growing right before my eyes. Daily now he runs up to hug me and tell me that I’m his bestest Mommy ever and how he’s glad I’m his best friend and his boyfriend (I’m not sure what the boyfriend thing means, but apparently he’s also a great boyfriend and is boyfriend to everyone? His words not mine).

While the love is intense (they can’t help but love hard since they’ve had to deal with a mother that can’t help herself from kissing and hugging them all day) the attitude has become much more than I expected at this age. We hosted a playdate with a neighbor and after the kids were fed I was attempting to put together salads for my neighbor and myself. My immensely verbose EBoy who will talk from sun up until sun down if at all possible was chattering so much I couldn’t help but to ask if he could just be quiet for a moment so I could think and finish making lunch. He walked off in a huff and told me that he quits! Not only was he quitting but he made a decision, he was going to move to Texas by HIMSELF, no Mommy, no Daddy, no EBaby, just him. His dramatic speech melted my heart, not because of the tantrum nature of it but because I’d heard those same words before- from my own little brain. As a child the biggest thing I could think of to hurt my parents someday after they hurt me was to move far away so they would never see me again. Surely this would be the best revenge and they’d live to regret how deeply I hurt. I sat down with EBoy and held him in my arms, apologizing for hurting his feelings. He then asked me to pray for him so that he wouldn’t feel like quitting anymore.

I’m learning that I’m going to have to pay special attention to how I treat him because it turns out not only is he a little clone of me in the looks department, he has a lot of my personality (can’t blame it on dh anymore!) I’ll definitely be taking out my hsp books to start brainstorming on some new approaches with him. I worry all of the time about damaging him the way I feel I was damaged as a child so now is the time for me to step up to the plate and figure out ways to nurture my sensitive little one.

Have you ever stumbled upon a new blog and was so excited to read someone that connected with much of the same background, viewpoints, even sense of humor as yourself? I adore all of my blog friends but finding some of you was pretty much an instant blog crush because the overwhelming similarities, euphorically superb writing, deeply shared life experience, beautiful spirit, and total hilarity I couldn’t help but completely and intensely connect with. I had the wonderful fortune of stumbling upon such a blog tonite when reviewing links that recently added me to their blogs. If you get a chance stop by and read DahGurl - exceptional writer with wisdom on levels I can only someday hope to attain. I’m not even going to start on how gorgeous her children are (with beautiful names to boot) go ahead on over and read for yourself.

Sorry for the big delay in my blogging- we returned from our trip and our internet completely died on us. It took them a week to get out to fix it so I was internet free in my own home for the first time I can remember. EDad was very adament about their mess up and got our cable internet bill discounted for the next 6 months. I still don’t understand what happened but its all fixed now. Here’s the post I was working on before losing the net:

I found a very special treasure today- my home! I finally received a home staging by an out of this world interior decorator. We’ve been trying for months to get the whole ball rolling to get our house sold (especially since we’re already building a new one) and everything is happening all at once. Because our budget turned out a bit differently than we anticipated we had a half day consultation where she basically staged the main living areas of my house. She told me ahead of time that most people have everything they need its just all about placement. She went from room to room moving things, rearranging, and put everything together so it actually looks pulled together.

I’ve been fascinated with design shows for years but never have been able to figure out how to do what they do. I’ve bought so many different pieces that I loved and she took them and incorporated them so I’m very happy. If you have never managed to get that “finished” look in your home you might want to treat yourself to a consultation- even if just for 1 or 2 rooms, the difference is so immense. While we are trying to sell this house I’m really enjoying it immensely (even cleaning! who knew I could find joy in that?) now that it feels complete.

Here’s more pics in flickr.

I’ve just returned from the latest portion of my summer tour- a trip to visit with family in Seattle. My brother in law graduated from high school and it was wonderful to get to share in such an important event in his life. I’ve really been blessed with some of the best inlaws ever, while it wasn’t neccessarily difficult returning home from Seattle it was very hard to leave them behind once again.

My sister in law has been working her first job at Starbucks which means we wound up having way more lattes and frappuccinos than anyone should ever partake in but I’ll be back on my healthy eating regimine immediately. I never realized just how integral food was to our lives while living in Seattle, but pretty much every memory I have is tied to some sort of eating event. EDad and I were discussing this and had to acknowledge that while we lived in Seattle food was our entertainment. Pretty easy to focus on food since I never did really connect with anyone friendwise while we lived there, one of my dearest friends is now there but she didn’t move to Seattle until our last year there.

I always tell people that my extra weight has nothing to do with my children, it was all what I like to call “love weight.” When EDad and I made our move to Seattle we were newly in love after being best friends for years and what better way to celebrate than by eating! Eating a lot, of any and every type of rich food, dessert, and of course cooking (frying) at home the rare times we weren’t living it up in restaurants. We visited some of our old favorite haunts and nothing tasted quite as great as we remembered. We still enjoyed some date time and seeing how much Seattle really hasn’t changed- they have the most amazing summer weather, well when it decides not to be grey.

I should have a post up this week about our house, we’ve finally got it listed on the market! No offers yet but apparently there is a great deal of strong interest so wish us luck.