Longing to be crafty

(Note: I long to be crafty like Martha but avoid the whole going to jail thing)

I always envisioned being crafty when I grew up. I remember taking a stab at making cards and scrapbooking in my early 20's and then giving up due to lack of space, patience and finances. I thought that someday, when I had a house, THEN I would have room to be crafty.

I have owned a home now for 4 + years.

Still not crafty.

I don't bake. Not that great of a cook.

Not fishing for compliments here, just keepin' it real. :)

I long to be more domestic. Geez, I even have a label for my blogs called "Becoming Domestic". Right now I just don't feel like I have the TIME. Anyone with me?

I have plenty of crafty friends. Julia. Brianne. I'm talking about you. While I admire your crafty-ness, there is a hint of jealousy mixed in with that admiration. Okay, maybe not so much a hint but something larger, like a "tad bit"?? Anywhoo....

Last night I went to Joann's with my friend Julia. Emersyn is having a Valentine's Play Date on Monday for some friends and I am hoping to get crafty for the party. I walked into Joann's and nearly had a panic attack. Sweet, sweet Julia gave me SO many ideas but I could feel my eyes glazing over as I struggled to take it all in and thought to myself, "Hmmm....those pre-made Disney Princess Valentines at Target are sounding pretty appealing right now".

I have a busy life. I work 4 days a week. I am involved in several ministries at church. I am a Realtor. I am married. I have a toddler. I am trying to get healthy which is a time commitment for food prep (which I am STILL working on) and also time to work out.

At the end of the day, I just don't have time or patience to get out the craft supplies and get to it.

*sigh*

Maybe someday?

I am getting antsy to be a stay at home mom. I feel that this is partially because Brett has had some exciting opportunities at work which lead me to believe that a promotion is coming sooner versus later. But I know that even when I DO get the privilege of staying home (while still doing Real Estate on the "side"), I still won't have all the time in the world.

It makes me want to find things that I AM good at. I need to not put so much pressure on myself I think. When I planned Emersyn's Valentine Playdate, I envisioned my home being a sea of pink and red, decorated up the whazoo with hand crafted goods. Emersyn would pass out her handmade Valentine's and all the moms at the party would think, "how DOES she do it??".

Such will not be the case. :)

I am hoping to find some cute decorations before Monday. (Hello procrastination, you are my friend). But I need to realize that her party ISN'T about decorations. It is about her and 18 of her closest friends (Lord help me, my house is SO not big!!!) having fun together and making Valentine memories. I plan on doing this every year, it is fun to have a playdate with a theme I think. I need to realize that the moms there won't judge me for not being crafty but will instead appreciate an opportunity to all get together.

But still, maybe NEXT Valentine's Day I will have achieved SOME level of craftyness.

We'll see.

Sunday Scriptures/Ramblings

So after some pondering, I have decided to memorize two verses a month. I think that one a week might be a little daunting so I want to give myself a goal that is acheivable. So for this week, I will continue to meditate and memorize Isaiah 30:18, "For the Lord longs to be gracious to you, He rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice, blessed are all who wait for Him". What a great verse, huh? Thank you Lord for your Word!

So what have I been up to lately you ask?

Well.....our healthy living campaign is going well! We are having so much fun learning about healthier foods and recipes. It is fun to buy produce at Costco and actually go through it all, not let it rot in the crisper of the fridge while we consume processed foods. I feel like our meals have become simpler and we view food as fuel for the most part, not an emotional event. :)

On Friday we had to take our MacBook Pro in to be fixed. I was pretty disappointed to need a repair on a 4 month old computer, however, it was fixed in house and in 4 hours! I know with most PC's, in order to get a repair you have to send your computer away for 4-6 weeks. Anyways, I am still pro-Mac.

Friday we took Emersyn to the Dr. to make sure that all she had was a cold. Sure enough, she is fit as a fiddle minus her icky cold of course. Our pediatrician said that her lungs sounded good, no fever and that she has a little fluid behind one of her ears which is common with a head cold. She said that it is NOT an ear infection but has the potential to turn into one so we should keep an eye on her. We left with no medicines or anything. Emersyn weighs 23 1/2 pounds which really surprised me. I thought she weighed more then that, or at least that is what my aching arms and back thought. :) She has become quite the clingy little monkey so mama's arms are getting strong! :) I LOVE our pediatrician and we always have such nice time chatting with her. She is expecting her first baby this Spring and I am so excited for her.

Friday night we decided to drop E off at her Nana and Papa's and go see "Avatar" with my brother and his girlfriend, a double date! It was a really great movie!! Pretty weird story but VERY entertaining. We saw it in 3D which made it pretty incredible to see.

Yesterday I was feeling pretty run down, I think I am battling a cold. My friend Julia came over to sit and chat with me while I cleaned my kitchen. That is a good friend, who will just keep you company when you have to do a dreaded task like tons of dishes!!! We also started a blog for her. I can't wait for you all to see it. She is such a neat person and has some great insights. Once she is up and running I will give you the link so you can say hello and welcome to the blog world! :) Then last night we had some friends over for dinner and it was nice to just relax and chat. We need to have people over more often, I love having my home full of people.

I feel like I have neglected this blog a little bit lately. It is hard because we haven't done a whole lot with Emersyn being sick for the last two weeks. I have also been challenged to really weigh the content of what I post. I don't want my blog to turn into a constant "Blog Hop". I think those can be really fun and I know you can attract more followers by participating but I feel compelled to let my words be few sometimes. That doesn't mean that I won't ever participate in Blog Hops, like I said, they are fun. I just realized that the blogs I admire the most don't necessarily post the most frequently but when they do, I sure stop to read what they have to say.

How's that for some random ramblings on a Sunday? :)

I know I am a couple days late but I wanted to wish my sweet blogger friend, LeAnna, a very special congrats on surviving the first year of motherhood!! And to Mr. Quade, happy belated birthday cute boy!!

Google Search

SO I have one of those counter thingy's at the bottom of my blog. It's fun to see days when my blog gets lots of visits. There isn't any real point to the counter, kind of just for fun.

The website that hosts the counter is able to provide you will all kinds of info, like how many people looked at my blog each day, what time of day was the busiest, the source of my blog traffic (like from Facebook, other blogs, etc.) and many other fun facts. One of the sources that comes up is "Google searches". So someone has done a Google search using a certain phrase and something in my blog came up for the search. It even tells you the phrases that someone looked up and how they then linked to your blog.

Some of these phrases were interesting though.......here is the list of the last 20 keywords (that were searched on Google) that led people to my blog:

1) "baby name emersyn"- well duh, I can see why they were linked to my blog. :)
2) "emersyn grace patti and brett"- hmm...obviously someone was looking specifically for us.
3) "how can i thank my best friend for what she does to make me feel special on my birthday"- ???? what??? I googled this phrase and sure enough, my blog popped up third on the list, it was my post from saying "happy birthday to my best friend" on Brett's birthday.
4) "sunshine chicken catalina dressing"- linked to my recent Cranberry Chicken Recipe
5) "candy corn blessings"- my post on candy corn cupcakes
6) "emersyn"- obviously. :)
7) "THINGS IN MOMMY'S PURSE"- ??? linked to my post on Emersyn walking around with my purse.
8) "why is it good to have a baby brother" ??
9) "birthday scraps for aunty" ??
10) "baby, dryer, brother"- HAHAHAHA, linked to my post about putting my baby brother in the dryer when he was around 6. It was partially his idea too, don't judge me!!
11) "how to win a man"- referred to this post featuring Emersyn's advice. Ha ha, some poor single gal googled this topic and found my one year olds advice...I wonder if any of it worked out??
12) "show me some honey moon photos"- oh my.
13) "life's little blessings plate"
14) "emersyn grace"
15) "biggest 1st birthday"
16) "Emersyn Grace"
17) "have party give blessing for baby birthday "
18) "oregon garden resort stayed room"
19) "blessings to a one year old"
20) "naughty honeymoon photos"- ???!?!?! There are NONE of those on my blog, I assure you of that!! I think my blog popped up because I did put honeymoon pictures up (very G rated ones mind you) and then I always say Emerysn is naughty so it linked the two up. Hahaha!

This was amusing to me. I hope it was to you as well! :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Thursday Tid Bits

Jogging with Daddy.

Emersyn thinks it's pretty funny when Daddy runs next to her instead of behind her. :)

Don't worry, it's organic mac and cheese. I usually put peas in it too but Daddy made lunch and forgot them. Not shocking if you know Brett. :) He is not a veggie fan.

Bibs can be over rated apparently according to Daddy.

Emersyn's favorite place to drink her bottle, other then Mama's arms.

"Helping" Mommy empty the dishwasher.

Accident Update:

*Apparently our car is not totaled. Brett was less then thrilled to hear this news, he said that wrecked cars can be harder to sell for resale. The good news, we got a sweet new Toyota Sienna mini-van for a rental, thank you Progressive.

* I have been off work since the accident and am off for another two weeks at this point. Taking it one day at a time.

*Progressive gave us a check to replace our car seat. Right now she is using her infant seat, which she still can technically use but we are ordering her new Britax this evening. I can tell she doesn't like the infant seat anymore. She is a big girl now.

Random Thoughts:

*I watched an episode of "Toddlers and Tiara's" that made my blood BOIL. There was this awful mother that clearly favored one of her twins over the other and was emotionally badgering to the other twin. I cannot believe how angry this woman made me. I even made Brett just watch the parts that she was in and he couldn't believe it either? Anyone else watch this show? I normally don't but it was on and I was icing my neck.

*Emersyn has a little bit of a bug, poor thing. I took her to the dr. today, thinking she might have an ear infection but nope! We have taken her in three times for ear infections. Guess how many she has actually had? ZERO. I guess this is a good thing. The NP that saw her said she is a beautiful and happy child. My heart just bursts with happiness when I hear things like that.

*We are going through a ridiculous heat wave here in Portland. 3+ days at 100 degree temps. Yesterday I think it was 106?? That is an ungodly temp. We don't have central air but have some window units that actually work really well. However, I have been using the heat to avoid cooking completely. Chevy's, Olive Garden and Pastini's...

it was so nice getting to visit you this week.

*I had a real estate closing last week, praise the Lord! We are officially paying off Brett's car, our first paid off car! Whoo hoo!!!!!

Hope everyone had a great Thursday!!