Life, Updated

Hi, everyone! Wow, what a past week or so it's been! My goodness. A quick, quick update (because I have TONS of other stuff I should be doing....)

We had a lovely visit from my aunt and uncle last weekend, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Now, if you've ever seen my aunt's house, you know that she has superior decorating skills. I love her house and want mine to be exactly like hers! (We both adore the British blue & white look.) However, though I've recently tried to start self-educating myself on decorating (having no innate skills whatsoever), my house is completely undecorated (a combo of 3 pregnancies, three moves, and a whole lotta fatigue over the past four years having something to do with that). So... my aunt suffered valiantly in silence for 24 hours, and then lost it completely and went on a midnight rearrangement spree in my kitchen. At first I was surprised, but by the end of their visit I was wiping the drool from my chin while following her around and saying "So, what do you think I could do here? And here? And here?" We are now madly corresponding via email with ideas, almost all of which are longterm projects.

But seriously, after I spent all of Monday morning working (in between kidlet time) to decorate the tiny shelves over my kitchen sink and found how pleasurable it felt afterwards, I realized how much stress I've been under living in a visually unpleasing space. I'm starting to realize how much effect our surroundings have on us! It's surprising! Each time I enter a room, my eye is drawn to all the points that either please or pain me, and it really affects how I feel. So.... I'm trying to do my best to declutter, spruce up, rearrange, whatever. The basics will probably take me the next ten years (as I said, I'm slow), but I'm doing my best - the best I can do with little to no artistic talent!

I went garage-sale-ing for the first time in about 20 years on Saturday; only made it to one very depleted garage sale, but I snagged a wood shelf for $3 (and then spent about $30 on supplies to fix it up, LOL!). My first project! I'm so proud!

Moving on....

My world was rocked a few weeks ago when I learned to my infinite surprise and grief that two good friends of ours, a married couple, are in the beginning stages of a divorce. Now granted, divorce is (unfortunately) no uncommon thing. We have one going on in DH's family right now, as a matter of fact. But this was no ordinary couple. This was THE couple. One of several couples I know and tremendously admire and have always looked up to as an impossible-to-attain role model. I didn't just want to be LIKE them - I wanted to BE them. I wanted their marriage... their amazing kids.... their talents.... their hobbies...... their house.... their herb garden..... their decorating scheme - everything! So I walked around in a daze for about 72 hours after the news made it to our airwaves.... and I am so grieved for them. Not only must something have been wrong for a long, long time, but they must have been suffering unmentionable pain while trying to present a smiling face to the world. Now I'm just trying to figure out how to show love and support while not being invasive or insensitive. Quite a quandary.

Again, moving on....

I had quite a week this week! While my parents were in town I toured three schools that we were considering as possibilities for our children. One was a definite "no," one was a "maybe but probably not," and one was a "Yes! Yes! YES!!!!!" I'll write more on that later, but it is SO wonderful to have a direction and a hope in this area. I'm continuing to dig myself out of the non-homeschooling-mother guilt-pit, and finding this wonderful school was a big help.

We returned to our (now former) church yesterday for the beautiful wedding of a dear, dear friend, and it was beyond wonderful. At first I had been dreading it, since we left so recently, but by the time it rolled around I was eager to be back and see people, and it was beautiful. Actually it started out dreadfully.... This was a "children are welcome" wedding, so I had baby sitting on my lap. Our pastor walked up to the podium and said "Good afternoon!"... and baby immediately started screaming his head off. So I had to beat a rapid retreat to the cry room, and subsequently missed the entire wedding. So I spent the first bit of the afternoon in tears over this (and I am NEVER bringing a baby to a wedding AGAIN), but I was able to get into the sanctuary for the first kiss and postlude, and the rest of the afternoon made up (mostly!) for the beginning. It was so lovely to see everyone again! Now if they would only have events like this more often, I could get my "ex-church-fix" on a regular basis. I think I need to start matchmaking church members so that I can have a steady supply of weddings!

More to write, but even more to do! Love to all!!!