Overview of My Time Away

So much has happened since I wrote here regularly. Part of my New Year resolutions is to begin writing more often. But I feel like a brief catch-up is necessary.  I'll try to keep it succinct.

November 2014

We welcomed this amazing little boy into our family. And we all fell in love with him. Deeply in love.

The first six month flew by, in a fog of postpartum depression to be honest.  I struggled. Hard.  That is another post of its own. But we had this little guy, and he is amazing. 

June 2015

This kid. Ash became an adult. He graduated from high school.  He got accepted to three of his four first choice colleges with scholarships at all three. He chose the perfect school for himself.  I could not be more proud to be his mama.

As a graduation gift for Ash, we took the most amazing family vacation to Disneyworld! 

We met with a mortgage broker in June and found ourselves a real estate agent. Big steps in the Berry clan! It feels as though we saw a hundred homes. We put in an offer on one house, and ended up losing it to another bidder.  During the house hunting, we also took a little break to rescue this little guy and his siblings from a sewer drain.

July 2015

We saw a house, put in an offer, and it was accepted!  With it came a move to the suburbs, but we truly found our "home".  We love our new community and location.

Ozzy got to experience his first baseball game in July, as well! 

August 2015

One of the hardest things I have done in my life was moving Ash into his dorm room.  It was surreal. How in the world has 18 years passed already? 

We celebrated our two year wedding anniversary on August 24. 

October 2015

Ozzy celebrated his first Halloween! He was not thrilled with the wet leaves, the cloudy weather, or his dragon costume.  But we had fun anyway. 

November 2015

His first birthday. And we made it one cycle around the sun. There was much cake eaten, multiple parties, and a visit from his Papa and Nana Berry.  

I'm never good at year in review posts. I also couldn't just leave a giant blank space for all of the time that I was away from blogging.  So, you got a brief peek. I'm sure I will expand upon it as I get into writing more, but for now, this is what you get.  

Giving Up "Blogging"

Trying to hard to be a "blogger" and not to just write. I have no desire to be a blogger. I just want to clear my head, get my thoughts out, and maybe occasionally connect with someone else. For awhile, I was enjoying the idea of it, but it's just not what I'm in this for. Sure, the free stuff is fun. But it's just too much work to consistently need to try to "build a reader base" and  remember to reply back to every comment. I enjoy reading your comments, I really do. I just hate responding to them out of obligation! I want to respond because I enjoy the relationships! So, from now on, no more "blogger". Just Amelia. I hope you stick around.

30 Days of Lists-December Week One Update!

I finished the first week of lists!  I'm pretty impressed. And instead of just blogging them as I originally planned, I made little art-journal pages. I am *not* an artist. But it has been so fun coming up with ideas for each page and putting them together at night.  Some of the lists have been really hard for me to write, because I just get stumped or because I could list for hours and hours on the topic and narrowing it down is near to impossible.

On to the update:

Day 1: Before the End of the year...

~Finish 12 days of Christmas swap

~31 Days of Lists

~Trip to Missouri

~New Years Eve with my WIFE! 

~Wrap *all* the gifts!

~Find a new yoga class! 

Day 2: Around my home...~Tons of art that I LOVE
~Family and friends pictures
~Scrawn, uneven Christmas tree
~holiday decorations on every surface
~2 dogs, 1 cat, and 1 foster kitten
~Warm colors
~True support
~A little bit of crazy and a whole ton of safety
~LOVE!

Day 3: This is the only time of year I...~dread the weather forecast
~hate living in MN
~receive daily UPS deliveries
~love checking the mail
~actually enjoy spending money

Day 4: I am happy to report~My credit is up 100+ points in 2013
~I am writing more and taking time to read
~Tons of snow dropped today!
 ~I've been working hard to clear toxic relationships and nurture healthy ones! 

Day 5: Traditions!~singing "TRADITION" loudly whenever I hear the word!
~failing at creating traditions
~McDonald's Fries and Wendy's Frosties when I am sick
~Open one holiday gift on the winter solstice
~LEFSE! 

Day Six: On my reading list...~The Irresistible Revolution: living as an ordinary radical by Shane Claiborne
 ~You're Already Amazing: Embracing who you are, becoming all God created you to be by Holley Gerth
~Perfectly Unique: praising God from head to foot by Annie F. Downs
~Carry On, Warrior: thoughts on life unarmed by Glennon Doyle Melton

Day Seven: What I'm going to remember about today...
~random acts of kindness feel wonderful
~I'm great at gift wrapping, but only enjoy it for about a half-hour.
~I am never too old to make a homemade gift for my mama.

Meet Joni!

Meet Joni from Blue Cats and Roses!

I got the honor of meeting her through the Chaotic Goddess Swaps Guest Post Swap. Her blog is lovely and refreshing and inspirational. When we first connected to plan our guest posts, I was a little scared because we are so very different. And we talked a bit about those differences and I realized that the blogworld is such an amazing place. God gives us so much grace and so many opportunities to show that grace to others. In the end, we decided to go with a recipe post. Those are pretty simple, don’t require a ton of planning or fanciness. And everyone has to eat right?  Right!  So, I’ll hand it over to Joni.

 

In our house we are very busy all of the time and eating healthy is not always the easiest thing for us to do. During the week when Joseph is not home, it is usually just me here at the house. If you have ever tried to cook for one person, you understand how challenging this can be.
Besides working full-time, I also go to school full-time which means cooking is the last thing on my mind so I try to come up with recipes that are quick, simply, easy and at least some version of healthy. I also don’t like wasting food so I try to incorporate any leftovers we have into whatever I am eating.
 

Joni’s Tuna Salad on Garlic Toast

•  1 pouch of Tuna  (can would work also if that’s what you like)
• ¼ Green bell pepper, cut into small bites
• ¼ Red bell pepper, cut into small bites
• ¼ onion (whatever kind you like – I used yellow and also 1 scallion – love onion)
• 2 T. Mayo or Miracle Whip (again personal choice here)
• Salt & pepper (to your liking)
• Leftover Garlic Toast with some melted cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350. Place leftover garlic bread on baking sheet.

Put desired amount of shredded cheese onto bread and pop into the oven until cheese is melted.

While your cheese is melting, cut up onions and bell peppers and place into a bowl.

Add Miracle Whip or Mayo, salt and pepper and your packet of tuna fish. Mix well.

Let bread cool, top with Tuna Salad and enjoy!

Deep Sleep with Andrew Johnson

 
I've told you all about my problems with sleep. It has always been a huge difficulty in my life and I’ve tried method after method. In the past, I have used a combination of melatonin and guided meditation. I have generally stuck with one meditation series, and I’ve relied on them heavily. But I have found that I’ve started to get to attuned to the phrasings and voices, and I’m not able to stay as present while listening to the recordings. So, I’ve been searching for a few new mp3’s to throw into the rotation.




I gave the Deep Sleep guided meditation by Andrew Johnson a try the other night and was pleasantly surprised. Mr. Johnson has a smooth voice with a Scottish accent. The background music is non-distracting and soft. The meditation is easy to listen to and very soothing. The phrasing works well to help you become grounded, then relaxed, and then drift into sleep. I found that I was able to relax completely and fall pretty easily into a solid night of sleep. I woke up the next morning feeling alert and relaxed. I’m going to continue using the meditation for a few weeks and I’ll update you at that point as to whether or not it seems to have a cumulative effect, but with just the experience I had on one night it was worth my time.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

2014 Blogger Challenge!!

 

 

 

The lovely Ms. Gaby over at Another Girly Blog is putting together the 2014 Blogger Challenge and we all know that I can never turn down a challenge! There will be two posts a month on a given topic shared by over 140 blogs (and growing!) It’s a nicheless challenge, so anyone can join regardless of what kind of blog you write.

You can email Gaby at anothergirlyblg@gmail.com. Include your name, email address, and blog URL to join in on the fun!

5 Things I Have Learned In My Incredibly Short Career As A Blogger

1. I love swaps!

I discovered Swap-Bot, which is beyond fun.  I've been doing some small "digital swaps" this past week, including this super fun Photo Scavenger Hunt and a music playlist that was akin to making a mixed CD. Now I'm in the process of putting together a cute little package of things to ship off to a swap partner in Finland. FUN! I'm also going to try to get in on the next swap hosted over at Chaotic Goddess Swaps. 

2. My voice has faded. 

Back about ten years ago, I did a lot of writing. I wrote thousands of words every day on my Livejournal. I had  paper journals that I filled so quickly I bought them three at a time. I wrote stories and poetry. And I had a voice. A big beautiful flowing writer's voice.

 Look How Young, Punk, and Writerly I was in 2003!

Now as I edit my posts and read over the things that I have written, I cannot hear myself. My posts read in a very flat affect.It's something that I want to work on, and I have a feeling that just writing more often will bring that lyrical voice back. 

3. I really want to be stylish. 

My gosh, some of you amazing bloggers have style! For the longest time I blamed my  lack of style on being fat. "Fat clothes just aren't as cute!" But, man, am I eating those words now! You are all so gorgeous! As I sit here in a thermal and yoga pants, I'm feeling a little bit dowdy. I think this calls for an outfit of the day blogging series from me (and a shopping trip!) 

4. I don't own a full-length mirror.

And to follow up on that one, the few days that I have felt particularly cute and fancy, I realized that I have no way of documenting it! I guess I could use my self-timer on the camera, but it would be so so much easier if I just had a full length mirror somewhere in this house. 

5. The world is full of some amazingly kind and loving folks.

I posted recently on a blogging group that I belong to over on the ol' Facebook about feeling like the possible niches that I could fit my blog into are pretty clashing. I'm gay. I'm Christian. I'm liberal-as-F. I'm a mama, but he's 16 and not exactly toddler cute. I cook and DIY and craft, but it's all pretty mediocre. And I was a bit frustrated with that. It seems if I could find readers in one circle, they would be turned away by another aspect of my personality.

But the women on the blogging group circled the wagons and filled me up with so much love and support and enthusiasm.  So here I am, blog-world. Me,with all of my flaws and scars, me with all of my ideas and big heart. You get what you read here, and I really hope you'll find a reason to stick around.

Coming Out of "Blog Retirement"

Years ago, I was an avid blogger. Well, I guess officially, I was an avid LiveJournaler. My LiveJournal contains over 1200 posts from a 10 year time period. I wrote daily, sometimes multiple times a day. I disclosed everything to my small, but tight knit "friends list". I wrote about what was happening in my life, about my relationships, about bad dates, about the life lessons I was learning, and the things in my life I was excited about. It was a diary, of sorts. Mostly, it was a community that I held near and dear to my heart. I stopped using LiveJournal when Facebook became all the rage, because most of my friends transferred over. There are still a few diehards that I log into LiveJournal to check up on, but for the most part, it's a ghost town. And I miss it!

 So, I head back to the idea of blogging. And I start up a blogger account, or a new Wordpress blog. And then I start jumping around the blogosphere and I'm disappointed.

Don't get me wrong, there are some wonderful bloggers out there. Blogs that let me look into lives and truly get to know their writers. But for the most part... Well, let's just say that if I ever have a spare armoire sitting around I'll know fifty ways to reuse it and I could build an entire home of furniture if I ever stumble upon a treasure trove of pallets. They all seem to be linking to each other, and most of the "link parties" are the same 100 posts on the same 100 blogs.

 *sigh* I am so incredibly impressed by the amount of creative, crafty folks out there, but where are all of the LIFE blogs? Is there still a community left in blogging? Is the only way to connect with people to throw another "that's awesome" into the comments on yet another DIY project?