Ingenue Mom

It's been a rough year for some people around me. I've been thinking a lot about it lately and often find that writing helps me sort through it. I'm not even sure yet if I will post this publicly.    A good friend of mine lost her dad this year extremely unexpectedly. Another good friend of my family was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Neither of them were prepared for the fight they've been experiencing the last several months. I don't think we're ever ready to fight like that. But they're fighting. I've been having such a problem with guilt ever since finding out about both of them. How do you do enough for someone you love in those situations? How do you do anything? I feel like I tend to feel so overwhelmed and helpless and I have a tendency to retreat. My friend with pancreatic cancer doesn't live in Lexington, so just finding a way to visit her has been my struggle. I have such guilt for not being there. And then not being there, I...

First of all, let me tell you, there are lots of things my family is working on. There are lots of things my family doesn't do well. There will always be something that I can find to improve on, but lately I've been feeling the need to just sit back and appreciate the things that we have done well. To celebrate and emphasize the positive as I continue to seek to improve. My family does well at serving each other. I think every family tends to emphasize some aspect of life, discipline or behavior. Every family has their language they use with each other, whether spoken or unspoken. For us, it's service. My husband is the pillar of this in our family. I truly am blessed by his serving heart with me and my girls. He is actively serving us in love the whole day. He just tends to find whatever way he can to do things for us to demonstrate his love. No one would question the love he has for his family because if you walk into our home, you'll watch him demonstrate it...

I have mentioned my best friend Diana several times now on this blog. She's a big deal in my life. I don't know what I would do without her. So it was a really big deal when she finally had her THIRD baby girl early Sunday morning! I was so blessed to be a part of that experience for her! She texted me right before 2am to tell me that she thought she was in labor & that I needed to come to their house. We all immediately left for the hospital right after I got there & she had the baby at 4am! She wanted to have a natural birth like I did with Isis and she did it!! I'm telling you, she is a warrior and it was absolutely amazing because it was the first time I've ever been in the room for a birth that wasn't my own. I must say, women are amazing. I don't care how you give birth or by what means the baby ends up here, women are still just flat out amazing and to say any different would be crazy. I am so proud of her and so excited for this new stage in h...

I don't post about other blogger's giveaways very often, but my very first blog friend , Jessica , who I've shared about before, is having a $500 JustMySize giveaway on her blog! She asked me to share this with my readers! Go check out her review & enter to win !!!

The 31DBBB task for today involves connecting with blog buddies. These relationships should be mutually beneficial for both bloggers. It helps build community & give you people you can talk to about blogging. It also helps you make each others blogs better. You can give each other tips & grow together. A lot of people try to connect with blogs that are bigger than them, but Problogger makes the point that it's more beneficial to make buddies with people at a similar level as you. This way you can grow & learn together. I feel really lucky to have several bloggers I would consider buddies! I get emails with tips & ideas on a regular basis! I also really enjoy talking to several of them through my BlogFrog community . Right now I'm most active on my community & my blog buddy Adriel's community ! Forums like these are great places to find blog buddies. Where are you finding blog buddies? How do you think these relationships help you?

Continuing with the Blog Bash over at Not Your Average Teen , Brittany has asked us to write a post with the theme of "rekindle" to bring back some memories of our high school years. I thought for a while about what I would want to share. I have some really wonderful & some really horrible memories from high school. Don't we all? But I decided that the most important thing I could share about high school (aside from meeting my husband senior year) is to share with you about my best friend Diana. (By the way - these pictures are not placed to match the specific events I'm talking about necessarily. I just picked out best pics! They are in chronological order, though.)  Me on the far left & Diana on the far right - Junior Year of HS It was Freshman year of high school & she had been a homeschooler up until this grade. She was new to this type of school environment to begin with. We went to a private Christian school that I had attended already for 3 year...

Breaking Dawn and Breaking Dawn Movie I have scheduled this post to show up as I am starting my fabulous girl date with my best friend Diana!! We are seeing Eclipse!!! Can I first say that I am horribly embarrassed by the picture I found above for the movie & I hope it's a fan-created pic & not an official poster. Either way, I am definitely one of those women who got ridiculously enthralled in the young adult novel phenomenon that is Twilight. I am Team Edward all the way although I still think Robert Pattinson was a horrible choice for the role in the movie. On that note, I think the majority of the people were a horrible choice for their roles in the movie. Argue with me if you must. Bring it on, Twilight moms! But I am still totally sucked in to seeing the movies. Above is a picture of us at dinner before seeing the first movie a couple of years ago! (I'm on the left & Diana is right next to me with the brown necklace.) Tonight, we are going to dinner ...

Last night I got to go out with some of the girls from my Bible Study in high school. We get together a couple of times a year now that we've all moved various places & have gotten busy with families & jobs, etc. It's a wonderful group of women who I feel blessed to call my friends. We started the group when I was a sophomore in high school. Sara, our leader, is the woman in the picture above with the purple scarf. That's just a few of us at my baby shower last year. There were a lot more of us through the years. It's now been more than a decade since we started. These girls saw me through some of the hardest experiences of my life, but have also been there through the best ones. We've now had several marriages, a birth (yay Isis!), a current engagement (congrats to Angie above in the white shirt & scarf), a current pregnancy (congrats to Emily in the black dress) & we have even had to struggle through the death of one of our members a couple of year...

I have been reading the Mama's Losin' It blog & I love her Writer's Workshop ! She has a huge list of writing prompts she's come up with & I keep them in mind for the days I just can't think of anything to say. Today is one of those days. My first bloggy friend is named Jessica. She contacted me when she found another blog I used to write more on. It's sort-of a life blog about a bunch of different stuff. I also posted a lot about celebrities & movies & TV or various media that I thought was interesting. Jessica writes a lot about celebrities. We bonded over our love of Buffy! I even sent her a Buffy Valentine's card one year (because I do that) & she sent me a Christmas card! We still keep in touch because we are friends on Facebook. I actually talked to her about blog designs just the other day! Jessica had been blogging for longer than me & was more familiar with all kinds of blog tips that I didn't know. She's actually ...

“I do not wish to treat friendships daintily, but with the roughest courage. When they are real, they are not glass threads or frost-work, but the solidest thing we know.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson I feel very blessed to have some wonderful friends. I also feel blessed to be meeting some more fabulous moms through blogging! I'll be posting some links on Friday - be sure to come back & check them out!! But I was reading this quote today & it got me thinking - this is the way we should all think of our friendships - if they are real friendships. I wonder sometimes how strong a friendship can be if you don't really trust someone. I feel incredibly blessed to know that I have some friendships that are stronger than my darkest moments and are not limited by my inability to be everything I should be. Friendships should be places we are free to be honest and open. We should never be afraid that what we say or do will break them because they are stronger than all of that. I hav...