To say good bye or not ?....THAT is the decision

There is no doubt in my mind that I truly enjoy blogging. It is something I dabbled with in the early 2000's when my children where babies and then picked it up semi-full time when I wanted to share my adventures in homeschooling.That blog led to THIS blog, My creative outlet. My spot to share whatever I wanted to whenever I wanted to regarding the circus that goes on in my head and without fail in my life.

Until recently though, it has been much more harder than in times past for me to post here. These past 4 months have been a challenge to say the least. I can put my finger directly on a few of the thunder-stealing culprits. I'll briefly share them with you :

1. School : the last few months have been stressful. The closer I got to being done, the more anxiety I felt and the more interruptions threatening my end I had. But fortunately, I did finish *insert HUGE smile here* 9/20/11 (one month later than scheduled )
2. Family Crisis : Over the summer I was hit with some pretty hot news (and it wasn't the weather report ) that left the members of my household as well as extended family burned. It has been a joy stealer at times, but we keep on going with as much grace, happiness and prayer that we can bring. Life has cycles and we know that this too shall pass.
3. Loss of a loved one : Every one hates to get that call at 3am, at work, or on the way home. The one that sends chills up and down your spine and makes you want to rip off your own skin because what your heart feels when someone you love has died, is a far worse pain. I lost my 23 year old brother in a murder. I decided that since I am the oldest child, losing a sibling was the closest thing I could imagine losing a child to be.....'nuff said, right?

So with this glimpse into my 3 ring circus I currently call life, I'm sure you can forgive me for not giving you regular posts, right ? Of course, because you are sooo understanding. So anyway, I have been wanting to put stuff up but I'm finding myself evolving in some kind of way, funny how that happens every time I think I got ME all figured out. This beloved site with all it's randomness is not really fueling me at the moment, and if I have to "push" myself to find content then it takes away from the whole point of this blog for me. And the kind of person I am, I need to have a point for what I'm doing (most of the time). So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I wont be posting on here anymore. *tear*After I finish printing all the posts that I want to remember, I will be shutting it down. I know, this is gonna be hard for you too :) but it's gonna be okay! I plan to resume my blogging on my wellness site (still under construction). Perhaps I will guest blog on other sites as I have before. I'm not totally leaving my bloggy roots, just shifting my direction some. Putting my focus more on my passions. I'll be saving most of my randomness for my facebook, twitter, and google+ pages. Perhaps one day I will reinvent myself and comeback with another blog name & site. Thanks to those of you that read my posts regularly here and commented, I appreciated it greatly.

But no matter what, I am STILL "The Mommy, and I'll Blog If I Want To ! "

Peace

Working in the yard teaches lessons about relatinships

I don't know how many of my readers know this about me, but I really enjoy working in my yard. If you did not know this, then I was amiss somewhere in my blogging here on this site. Well, I guess it just makes for some new material huh?

Anyway, The other day I was working in my backyard and as I was digging a hole big enough to fit my new butterfly bush, *insert BIG smile* I was having a hard time. The ground was hard and I had to soften it with water, the sun was beaming hot and I had to really work to get the rocks out so that the soil was more suitable. As I was doing this work I thought about how my hard work will pay off. How proud I will be when I see my bush blooming and attracting beautiful butterfly's.

As I scooped in the hand fulls of dirt, I started thinking. Because that's what I do when I work in my yard. There's something about running my fingers through the soil that makes me reflective and peaceful. My thoughts about my hard work led me to thinking about my relationships. They too are hard work sometimes. They require cultivating. Digging, softening, and proper nurturing even during tough conditions. Sometimes they are not easy and just like with working in the yard, it can sometimes be trial and error. Requiring some education either through previous experience, books or assistance from a friend. Whether it is a new or old plant, new or old reationship, you don't have a guarantee of the success of it's growth. However, because you want to see the fruits of your labor you work hard at it. It requires patience along the way because some plants (relationships) take longer than others to produce a bud. It is a fact though, that if you do nothing then you get nothing, only a dried up, lifeless stub of what could have been, not a pretty sight. As a gardener or as a person in any relationship, when you do your best according to YOUR best and with good intent there is satisfaction to be found.

So appropriate and in line with my thoughts, is the topic for conversation on Love On The Radio. A Blogtalk radio show hosted by my friend Swarthy Daisy and my business partner with Be.Beautifully.Well , LadyLovelyPeace. Each week during the month of August they will be discussing Love and Relationships with the author of the book: Loves Gumbo, by Brooke Brimm.
If you are like me and you welcome open dialogue, awareness and tips to keep your relationships in bloom, Join in and listen. They discuss critical points in relationships with :

• Self
• Mate
• Friends
• Family

There will be an e-book give away for Love's Gumbo each week to one of the participants of the Twitter party as well. That is aaawwwwesome ! This week the twitter party was all kinds of juiciness as well as the show. Honey, don't miss it next week, Follow us on twitter and be ready for next week's party. Find any of us : @hicksgirls93 @LadyLovelyPeace @SwarthyDaisy @1LoveOnTheRadio @BeautifullyWell #LuvChat

...BTW How you like my gardeners outfit? Cute, Right? ;)

It's about that time to do it again

Like most parents I am about to start prepping for the first day of school. It's that time of year when there is excitement, anxiety and annoyance all rolled in one. OMG! I hate having to deal with the long lines at the local Walmart and the department stores looking for the best bargains on pencils, paper and the coolest must have tween clothing accessories. Don't get me wrong I love the bargains, I just hate feeling like I'm in competition with a million other parents to get them.

Then there is the anxiety of wondering who the new teacher is going to be. What type of kids will be in class with my kids every day? It's back to packing lunches and handing out lunch money. Or in my case, having to apologize to my kids because I forgot to give them the a'fore mentioned items which results in an embarrassing situation with the cafeteria lady giving my kid a PB &J wrapped in wax paper and a cup for water until they come back with cash. Those lunch ladies are merciless I tell ya!And of course filling out all those doggone papers the first two weeks. I just about feel like I'm buying my house all over again with all the paper signing that I have to do.

Then, there is the happy side that I enjoy so much. That look of excitement that is on their faces when they are looking on the list to see where they have been assigned, hoping that their classroom buddies from last year will be with them this year. It's that sense of pride I get when I hear each child tell me how much harder they will work this school term than they did the year before. Without a doubt, they always looks so cute rockin' the new outfits on the first day. It's such a confidence booster.

And of course they always make my heart melt when they wave goodbye and blow me kisses as they ride away on the school bus. I quickly get over it however, as I sit at my kitchen table sipping my coffee flavored with caramel macchiato creamer and a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg. Enjoying the sweet sound of quiet.....hmmmmm, oh yeah it's back school time bayyyybeeee! Can't you hear the bells ringing?

See, what had happened was...

Yeah, the title of this blog post is kinda how I feel I need to start talking to you guys. I mean looking back I realize I have been away from this blog for about 2 months (gasp!). How could this happen? Me? The one that likes to just talk about almost anything on this site because it is MY creative outlet, was actually not having anything to blog about.

As I was driving into school this morning ( yeah, I'm still there) I was trying to come up with a logical conclusion that made sense to me, and of course you too as to why I did not post. I decided that it started off as writers block...
Then it was because I just did not have anything to write about and then I realized... I could of easily posted a Wordless Wednesday photo and showed you our Chi-Chi-Chi-ChiaPet my husband bought for the kids because it was his one childhood fantasy that never came true (true story).I could have taken a little time to tell you how we even had an opportunity to take a mini vacation with some friends, camping and boating up at Red Top Mountain and Lake Alatoona. You probably would have laughed and shook your head when I told you how we got rained on the very first night and that we would have made any boyscout troop proud by the way we got our tarps up over our tents and campground even in the rain and lightening. Then in spite of it all, still had a perfect campfire just long enough after the storm to satisfy the kids craving for s'more's.Oh and yeah, there was that time my daughter had her emotional melt down all due to the American Girl doll I promised her 4 years ago, THAT I NEVER GOT HER...
...#sheesh That was a nightmare.

And just to give you something sentimental and mushy to cling to, I should have wrote how just so very recently I came to the realization that my babies are not really babies anymore. How this summer seems like the summer they have grown up more than I want to acknowledge and I wish I could turn back 10 yrs. *sigh*

Yeah, looking back I don't think I have much of an excuse for not blogging. But hey, at least I just caught you up to speed !
*wink*