First, let me say that I love each one of you in my own special way. 

Now, let me say this. 

It is not up to our government to prevent tragedy. That is not the job of our government. You can, however, prevent tragedy, as a community who is active in one another's lives, a community who shares a value system that states, treat one another with love and respect. Implement a zero tolerance policy when it comes to violence and hate. Hold people accountable for their actions. But for the love of all that is holy and sacred in this world, do not let the government do this for you. I am begging you to please stop thinking that our federal government is responsible for all things. They are not. You don't have to like me, you don't have to agree with me, you can even say hurtful mean things to me. Disagreement does not fall under the same category as hate. You are entitled to your opinion. But why does your opinion have to become a law? Life is not fair, and life is full of horrible things, humans are capable of terrible actions, but if you continue to allow our government to make laws that take away our personal freedoms, how long before you are required to like me, required to agree with me and jailed for saying hurtful mean things to me? How long before we all have to share the same opinion or die for voicing a different one?

You know what I can't ever seem to figure out? How do craft/DIY bloggers hang crap up? Am I a total moron that I can't figure this out?  Every time I hang something up, you can always see the picture hanger, or the nail, or the over the door wreath hanger. Are these people just hot gluing things to their doors, walls, mirrors? Are they using Liquid Nails? Are they photo-shopping the hangers out? I would like to see a good solid tutorial on how to hang stuff up.  

Everywhere I turn I am reading stories and posts from mother’s whose children are starting kindergarten middle school and high school,  and the overwhelming theme is how sad and scared  they are that their children are moving on to this stage in life.  These parents are so emotional at the prospect of their children having to face something new and unknown some of them are literally in pain.  The emotional process of it all is so foreign to me I think to myself, how do these people even function in life?  

This recurrent theme I see in blogs and on Facebook for life events; Boo hoo, my child is growing up, boo hoo, my child is can’t make friends, boo hoo homework is too hard, boo hoo my child has to go to middle school and high school and college and has to get a job and get married and have kids of their own so that they too can boo hoo at the mere act of life progressing and moving forward.

Life is an ever forward moving progression of learning and achieving those things you were not capable of learning and achieving prior.  It’s emotional and messy, filled with the unknown.  It is the purpose for which we are born and live.  I am ecstatic when I can look at the human that I shared my body with for 9 months and see her going forward, moving on to the next stages in life and being ridiculously awesome at it. 

I love that I can help guide her and teach her, right along with all the other people that come and go in her life.  The people that will nurture her and teach her, right along with the people who will show her that life is not fair and break her heart. 

Trepidation is natural but I don’t want her to fear the unknown.  My hope is that she will be strong and capable, attacking each new stage in a way that I can look at and think to myself, I helped create that amazing, capable human being who lives life for every moment that comes along and embraces each unknown thing with courage.

I will always be the safe place she can seek comfort and guidance, but I will never be the person who is sad that she is moving on in any stage of life be it kindergarten or otherwise. 

I think people spend too much time trying to be everything to everyone. My advice? Do what you love, what makes you happy, and stop trying to make everyone else happy. I understand that you are a person of many interests, as am I, but maybe try to focus on the things that you truly love and that give you joy instead of the whole damn sh-bang.

We can't all be Martha Effing Stewart. It's a good thing.

How I feel today.

This is my new favorite song of all time. I hate to admit this, however, I am a word crimes offender, especially that of the "quotation marks for emphasis" type. Sorry.

Do you ever look around at the world of blogging and what it has become? Stylized life, all the fluff none of the filth? It's like the Photo-shopped version of life.

I have been part of this blogosphere long before the word blogosphere was even a word. Way back before people started making money at it, and way way back before people started posting their stylized, how-to, look at me, look at me, I'm Martha Stewart version. Blogging was a way to relate to people, in a genuine way. Now, it's a way to make you feel like a complete and utter failure at life because your house doesn't look like that, and you don't dress like that, and crap, whose cookies look like that for the school bake sale anyway?

I have one husband (Lt. Dan), one daughter, (Only Child), three dogs (The Musketeers), and one cat (Cat). This blog is my real life, and trust me, there is nothing stylized about it.

I will post what I think, how I feel, what works for me, what I do in my spare time, how I raise my kid, my relationship with my husband, my job, how I am too lazy to workout but really need to because I am super fat and would like to be able to wear clothes without it being WORK. That's a biggie. My weight gets in the way of everything.  Moving on.

I do like to do the things that you see on all these other blogs.  I like to craft, I like to take pictures, I like to garden, I like to make my home pretty, I like to make myself pretty, but I am no expert at any of it, AND, I don't have the 15 hours of time it takes to style it up pretty and take pictures of it. My life is kind of messy, I'm sure, just like yours. I am not here to give you advice, and I am not here to tell you that my version of life should be your version of life. This is just me, and how I do it.

So, dear readers of this blog, I am just a person, living her life, sharing it with you if you care to share it with me, and if ever you see that this space have become more like an issue of Better Homes and Gardens and less like, holy shit, my house looks like that too, then you need to bring me back to reality. Mmm kay.