Found a New Home...Again

I'd be shocked if anyone was still around here, but on the off chance that someone still pokes around here and is interested, I've started another new blog. I know I've said this before, but this time I'm serious!  Truly, jokes aside, I am serious.  I finally have the time to dedicate, so I'm back in the blogging business.

If you would like to stop by and catch up, my new address is A Hundred Affections - ahundredaffections.wordpress.com.

Hope we'll see you there.

I Am Moving!

Happy New Year! I'd be beyond shocked if my blog still showed up on anyone's reader, but on the chance that it might...

After hanging out below the radar for about a year or so, I am 'resolving' to get back into blogging. It seemed like too much work to try to change the theme but have my URL so clearly connected to 'wedding', so I opened up a new blog altogether.

The new blog is 'This Side of Eden' and the content will be a lot broader than just love and marriage. It would consider it an honor if you joined me over there.

I am also attempting Project 365 again this year - a picture for every day of the year. The blog site for that is 'A Hundred Affections.'

I realize I may be setting some lofty goals...here's to a new year!

Wherever life and/or your blogs take you this year - all the best!! :)

Many thanks...

To those of you who are still following! It's been months, and my temptation is to feel sorrowful and apologetic for it (which I do)...

But my absence has been 'the right thing.'

Yes, my computer did crash, which 'forced' me to take a break...no time for blogging at work, lol. But even when my school most graciously provided me with a new laptop, I just felt this compelling inside to take a break from blogging.

It was hard, because it is something I have really grown to enjoy and really wanted to get better at. There are a vast amount of reasons I could have employed to convince me to get back into it. But something inside was telling me 'Not now.'

I can't really say why...maybe because I just needed to get my life in order to the point where blogging could fit into my life, and not where I could my life into my blogs. I just knew I needed to disengage from 'virtual reality' to spend more time in 'actual reality.'

I actually have a day off where I'm not swamped with grading, James is at work, and I refuse to step into a store on Black Friday. For the first time in about a year and a half, I feel sorta 'caught up' on my life.

So, here I am at the computer, at 1:08 pm, still in my bathrobe and glasses, and I just wanted to check in...on all of your blogs...and to just stop by and at least show I didn't just disappear without a trace.

I am hoping blogging with be in my future, for all the obvious reasons, which you all know, because you all blog...and I believe it will. We'll just have to see how it all unfolds.

Just as a catch- up, James and I are good. All the typical (I think) growing pains of the first year of marriage, which I think we are handling pretty well. Some a little more intense than others, but we are committed - to God, to each other, and to our marriage.

Life has been good for us overall...we realized how blessed we are, in spite of our challenges both marriage-related and otherwise.

I'm hoping to fill in the blanks as time allows...

Lord-willing, I'll be popping in on your lives again, albeit in a random manner, and I hope you will feel free to do the same.

All the best for a wonderful, thankful, and blessing-filled holiday season...

Dead and Gone...

My laptop, that is. It had a long life... got it almost 5 years ago and it will not turn on. Almost sounds like it fires up and then shuts off. Bummer~!

So, this time, I have a legitimate excuse for my blogging absence. But I have to say, it is refreshingly freeing not having a computer at home! I miss it, but I am realizing I can survive without it.

As for blogging...I can't really blog too much at work (unless it is a little free time now before our teacher's meeting) - but I think that there is a plan in this mishap somehow.

We'll see how it unfolds.

Til later, my girls...

But we are all well and busy, getting into the fall groove...

Back

To school, to routine...and hopefully to blogging.

The summer was so much more hectic than my school year, if that is even possible. But the routine, the schedule are back and I am in my glory. Even if it means my alarms goes off at 4:45 a.m.

My latest mission is to organize my life and prioritize. Trying to be very conscious of my time and how I manage it.

That has been a big switch since being married. I didn't think the time-factor would affect me all that much...James and I have never been the glued-at-the-hip type of couple. But living together, we do a lot more together (duh, obviously). But I guess I didn't anticipate not having as much time to just 'do what I do.'

I like it. A lot. But it's a work in progress. Trying not to put too much pressure on myself.

The latest in our world, post-summer:

James is finishing up one last college class, we are still getting (chiropractic) massages on Tuesday nights (the one good thing about his health insurance), the stray kitty we brought to the clinic to get spayed is pregnant, I am back in full swing teaching (and loving the fact that I am not planning a wedding at the same time), I am going to do a Beth Moore Bible study on my own (well, with my sister maybe), I go back to the nutritionist this after (5 lbs lighter) and we are zumba-ing at school on Fridays.

Oh, and baby sister is pregnant! Which has gotten me thinking....

Hope to be 'back' for good.

I Had Such High Hopes...

...for the summer, that is. Not excessively grandiose, but some things I really thought I would be able to accomplish and feel good about it. Some I touched (barely), others...not so much.

Here is my report card (you can take the teacher out of the school but you can't take the school out of the teacher...)

1. Fitness - I didn't really exercise a ton more, but I got the gyms a few times, did some mountain biking and kayaking. And I did go to zumba class 3x! (We are starting a class with the teachers after school, too Whoo- hoo!) I went to a nutritionist 2 weeks ago and I have been making some good life-styles changes (and lost 5 lbs of the post-wedding gain!), so I feel like I made some progress.

2. Nesting - none at all. Zero. I did not paint one wall or hang one picture. Just didn't have it in me. Just didn't feel like making any more decisions or anything that required thought! Planning the wedding wiped me out! lol I did plant some hostas that a friend gave me...but only because they would die if they didn't get planted immediately - and I couldn't waste a friend's generous gift.

3. Spiritual - my saddest disappointment. I didn't get on track like I wanted to. Not sure how to resolve that yet. I struggled with what to do for a Bible study or what to read in my quiet time. I do better with structure, but my mornings were erratic this summer with my three jobs, James' schedule, getting up at a different time every day. I just couldn't find my rhythm...but I still felt Him close to me in spite of my short-comings. We did have some moments...

4. Marriage - I didn't spend a lot of time reading like I wanted to. I started Sacred Marriage and flipped through a few others, but didn't get through any of them. James did order us a marriage series on DVD, so I am excited for that. But I didn't 'book-learn' like I wanted to.

5. Blogging - Well, that's obvious. :(

As you can sadly see, my last post was almost a month ago. :(

But I had so many stories to tell (and good ones!) I have a handful of half-written drafts saved that never made it to the page. It wasn't even the 'perfectionist-in-me' that kept them from being posted.

Honestly? Time and energy.

The three jobs this summer wiped.me.out. The continual adjustment to marriage took more time than I had anticipated (in a good way). Some of it was just being lazy...summer does that to me after a school year of teaching, especially this past year.

Hopefully, a few of those posts will make it out here, at some point. I am still struggling to see where and how blogging fits in my life. I love it ...but the hours in a day just don't seem to cooperate. I'm not giving up yet, though...

6. Friends - I did get to catch up with a few friends I haven't seen in a while, so I feel pretty good about that. Not all, but a few. And that counts.

7. Professional - Nope, not so much. I did a little work while I was working in the school office this summer, so that was super-helpful and got me caught up, if not ahead. So, at least I'm starting the year on level ground.

8. Fun and Relaxation -Now that I think about it...yeah, we did that :) We went away a few weekends, spent lots of nights BBQing in the backyard or watching moving, going out to eat, taking drives, playing yahtze, speculating our future plans...

And actually, now that I reflect on it...that probably was the most important thing I could have done this summer: spend time with my husband, building a strong foundation for our relationship. We had a lot of stress and anxiety going into the wedding - and the end of the school year was stressful for me as well. It was so nice to just enjoy each other. I remember feeling relaxed with James and laughing a lot. I definitely feel like we got closer and became more of a team.

I had such high hopes for the summer. Like I do every summer. And I think that this summer, I am going to do it, no matter what! Well...

You win some, you lose some. And that is just how it goes.

The Marriage of Mr. Random and Ms. Routine

I've thought for about a week or so what I was going to blog about next - and I've got a bunch of thoughts and ideas (which inevitably come when I'm driving)

....and I think I hit a slump. :(

I felt a little better when a few of my favorite blog writers have been a little lax in posting as well. Maybe not for the same reason, but I was a little relieved that at least my irregularity in posting lately has good company.

I hate to blame everything on the adjustments of being married (and blame isn't really the right feel I'm going for), but I sort of feel like blogging is just one more thing I can't seem to a get a rhythm in. I just can't seem to find my groove in anything lately.

I'm a teacher and a routine-addict by nature, so being 'off' for the summer is, ironically, a little hard for me (if you could call having 3 jobs 'off'). I guess what I mean is the irregularity is hard for me. I feel like I even need to plan my free time.

I like my world to function in routines, in systems, in structures...I guess that is easier when you are single, when you are in control (or at least have the illusion of control) of your own world.

I don't mean James is in control of my world now (although sometimes he likes to think he is :) ) but just the awareness of someone else to consider in just about everything...well, it takes getting used to.

And James is the total opposite of a routine-guy. He is Mr. Random. He likes to 'feel' what we should do next...and see how things 'evolve.'

I am learning to find the joy in that and actually, when I let myself, it is sort of refreshing to let go of control of all my micro-managing (at least, the micro-managing I do in my mind). I'm finding fun in the spontaneity and just letting a day 'evolve' or seeing where we end up. And it has resulted in some cool excursions and experiences.

I'm struggling a bit with wanting to prioritize my marriage and our relationship - and finding time to do some of the things I enjoy - and need to do also. Now, James doesn't keep me from this...it is probably just some of the internal conflict inside of me. Add perfectionism to my routine-addiction- and....well... I guess I like routines because I like to do everything right.

Which leads me to my slump in blogging. The perfect post, the perfect topic, the perfect voice...which equal a blog that never gets posted.

I know, I need to break that mind set.

So, in the spirit of breaking out of my rut and perfectionism and releasing my claw grip on my-so-called-structured-life...

...in learning just to 'be' and sometimes just let things 'evolve', even if it is not planned and perfect....

I am posting this blog 'as-is'.