Leave Of Absence

My Dear Readers,

I want to thank you for hanging in there with me for so long.  I have to make this short and sweet; I have to forego posting on this blog for a while.  I just don't have the time, in between everything going on in my life, among other reasons.  I feel like I owe you more explanation than that, but I regret that I cannot give you one just now.

This is, hopefully, very temporary and perhaps the change of seasons will allow me back.  I don't know.  I am so grateful for all of you whom I have gotten the chance to meet in the blogosphere, if only virtually.  I treasure each and every one of you.  Thank you for taking an interest in my posts, in letting me brighten your day with song and humor, and also for letting me into your lives.  I will continue to read my blogroll as often as I can.

If you want to stay in touch, we can write letters.

For now, Farewell.  Have a gloriously happy summer, filled with cool breezes, fireflies, and the people you love.  I'll be thinking of you.

Ever Yours,

Jenny

Post A-Z Challenge...erm...Post.

It's Wednesday, May 1st.  (ALREADY?!?! Wasn't it just the end of January like, last week?!)
I got about halfway through the A-Z Challenge on time and then all sorts of things got in the way.  I love you all, but I have a life outside of the laptop.  I'm only missing N, O, P, Q, S, T, V, W, X, and Y.  Most of these are drafts that are waiting on photos.  It's not as easy to keep within a theme as it first appears!  However, when I start a thing, I like to finish it.  So thanks to Blogger's schedule feature, I'll be retro-posting what I missed as I have time.

Keeping with a Snail Mail theme has been fun, though, and I hope it has made you smile!  Don't forget to check the archives for the missing letters very soon!  I'll be snapping photos this weekend and finishing up the drafts as soon as possible.

I'm off to get some replies written and mailed before I go to work.
Thanks for reading, my lovelies, thanks to all who visited me from the Challenge, and everyone write more letters!

RISE AND SHINE, PEOPLE!

God Save the Queen, I have SO FREAKING MUCH to do this week, and it's going to be AWESOME!  More details after this little gem...

... I think that about the birds outside, too!!!

So, CGtY is officially 5, which means she's promoted herself in her make believe play to CEO and Supreme Ruler of DisneyPrincessBarbieFairyLand.  She's a gracious monarch, though.  She lets me be  in charge of the Mermaids, and CGtE is now the Head of the Department of Entertainment (a promotion from last year's Lead Servant and Scapegoat).  He and I can't help but agree that the pay is lousy (we are rewarded for our loyalty with more and bigger messes to clean up), but the creative license perks are pretty sweet (I can make the Mermaids stage a rebellion and flood DisneyPrincessBarbieFairyLand unless Her Majesty meets their demands.  Like, eating all of her dinner or getting her pajamas on, say.)  Her subjects (who, among the masses, include Cinderella, Rapunzel, Merida, 5 of those Ty animals with the freakishly big eyes, and about a dozen Littlest Pet Shop critters that hurt worse than Legos when I step on them in the dark) adore her and have good cause to place their (inanimate) faith in her ability to rule; there hasn't been a flood yet.  Unless you count the bathtub, which we don't- that's Her Majesty treating them all to a vacation at the beach.

Anyway, yeah, back to my metric ton of stuff to do this week:

Tomorrow is a full day of finishing the Spring Cleaning.  Every blessed thing in the house has been disturbed, dusted, wiped down, disinfected and rearranged.  I wish I had taken a photo of the area under the stairs before I redid it, to show the difference.  It looks amazing now!  I still have the dining room and downstairs bathroom to complete, as well as detail mopping the kitchen.  (Detail mopping- on my knees with a cloth and bucket, a la Cinderella.  Good time for prayer and worship, that!)
Aside from those couple of things, most of the stuff was done last week and just needs "touchups".  Well, except for my room, which always needs to be done- but no one is going to see it, as it's in a permanent state of reinvention so it doesn't really figure in.  And I'll have to repeatedly pick up the trail of toys that the CGs strew behind them as they go.  Cleaning a house with young kids in it is like trying to file and organize papers on a desk while a fan blows on them.  Or brushing your teeth while you are eating Oreos. Ok, no, ew.  The first thing.  The second one may be an effective analogy, but it's still a really gross mental image!

Tuesday evening, some friends of ours will be visiting from Leeds, UK.  I can't wait to see them!  It's going to be fantastic!  Later in the week I'm going to be meeting another friend I haven't seen in a long while for a late dinner, so I'm looking forward to that as well.  Nothing is better than good food and good friends gathering to visit! :)

Also this week, I've got to solidify my posts for the Annual A-Z!  I'm doing a "Snail Mail" theme (well, of course I am!  What else would it have been!) and I still have to come up with a few of the trickier ones.  You know.  Q, V, X, Y.  Surprisingly, U, W and Z were all easy ones.

Lucy Jane has been hibernating for too long and has to get busy on some stock pieces for the upcoming Hydrangea Fest!  Only 8 ish weeks to go!  Yikes!  More giraffes and hippos and sea turtles and stuff to make.  The CGs think it's done by magic.  Oh, they've seen the machine going, and they have seen the process from start to finish.  But usually the main work is done while they are at school or asleep, so one minute it's a pile of fabric and then >POOF!< there is a shelf full of cuddly plush animals (that, ironically and maddeningly, they are not allowed to touch and/or play with! LOL!)  I'm making them some of their own.  CGtE hasn't decided what he wants yet, but CGtY is painstakingly choosing the fabric for her custom unicorn.  Someone made a comment somewhere- the cobbler's children being barefoot... or something along those lines. Well, fine.  Now my CGs will own Lucy Jane made Funky Friends.  I can't wait to show Pauline (the pattern maker) when I get them done. :)
(Just so we are clear, it's not as if the CGs don't have a bunch of loved plushies already.  They do.  But somehow my love of sewing Funky Friends and my compulsory need to be a sometimes indulgent parent seem to have collided.)

And I'm working on my backlog of letters to answer.  I have it down to around 30 now.  This past week was awesome and brought letters in from as far away as Hungary, plus a stack from all around the US.  I am loving the new friendships I have made through LetterMo, and the continued correspondence from long-established pen friends.  It's a wonderful and important part of my daily life to send and receive letters!

Then Friday I'm hosting a 31 Gifts party!  I LOVE 31 stuff.  I have a demi purse in "peacock paisley" (now retired, sadly) that I use ALL the time, but I have my eye on that Cindy design, and that drool-inducing Organista bag... !

Ok... I've rambled on long enough!  Time to crash in the bed and tackle that list of awesomeness in the morning at 6 a.m.!  Goodnight, my dears!

Tea Themed Giveaway Winner!!!

As always, I'll cut straight to the good stuff!!!

I squealed out loud with glee when I drew your name, Laura!!!!!
THE WINNER IS THE LOVELY AND ONE OF A KIND LAURA B. OF "THE DAILY DODO" BLOG!!!

I wish so much that I could send an identical set of goodies to each and every one of you who entered.  You are all so sweet!  As my hand was in the drawing tin, swishing the pieces of paper around, I was hoping for each name in turn, because I love you all!

But I can't, as much as I want to.  If you didn't win, don't forget that there are giveaways on this blog pretty often, so keep trying!  I think the next one, I will come up with something that is 5 or 10 of a small gift.  That way, more people get to feel special and it creates variety in the drawings.  We'll see!

Congratulations, Laura!  Your package will be on it's way to you next week!

Tea Themed Giveaway!

I am so blessed.  Seriously.

I have a dear friend (who wishes to remain anonymous), who does not have her own space in the blogosphere, but who regularly delights in the comments and goings on of you who read The Modest Peacock that I share with her.  She says you are some of the highlights of her day! (I'm looking right at you, Muskoka River, Square Tooth Girl, Feathered Nest, Daily Dodo and all of my Snail Mail related blog rollers!!!)

A fellow tea drinker like me, she has asked to partner with me and contribute items for a Tea themed giveaway to celebrate the signs of spring that are popping up here in the South!!!  Isn't that the sweetest thing!  Of course I said yes!!

Together, we are offering a goody package that will have the following items in:

• One Old Country Roses by Royal Dalton Demitasse teacup and saucer set
• One box of Twinings Tea - Variety set (Eng. Breakfast, Irish Breakfast, Lady Grey, Earl Grey)
• One package of Biscoff tea biscuits
• One box of Pims raspberry tea cookies
• One jar of Sweetwater Creek Farms local wildflower honey
• One tin of sugar cubes
• One box of International Delights French Vanilla creamers
• The current issue of Tea Time magazine
• One custom, one-of-a-kind beaded stretch bracelet, made by yours truly
• One set of notecards by Pooch and Sweetheart and a cool pen

All tied up with a fancy ribbon and signed with x's and o's!!!

Just leave a comment below to be entered in the drawing!  I'll select the lucky winner at random on Friday, March 22!  Don't forget to send your friends over as well!  "Tea for two" is twice as nice! ;)

I Have The Most Awesome Best Friend EVER

So apparently we had mail last Saturday that included packages, because when a guest came to the front door (that we don't ever really use ourselves) yesterday, there was a little stack of post sitting on the bench.  Really need to communicate with the delivery person about that.  ANYWAY.  My best friend of 20+ years sent me THIS:

I about fell over, I was laughing so hard!
In case you haven't discovered the wonderfulness that is the Hyperbole and a Half Blog, here is the post from whence this tea bling comes.  (Read it, I'll wait.)
I hope Allie is doing well and recovering from her battle with clinical depression.   The internet misses her dreadfully (as do I).  In the meantime, we at least have the archives of past H&AH to keep us laughing.  She is hilarious!
I'm going to fix a cup of caffeinated, sugared up tea in my new mug to give me a blast of energy and then take the Cute Gremlins to the parp park to play while it's blue skies and sunshine out!  Happy random Monday in the middle of February, everyone! :D

Giveaway Winner! :)

I was kinda wrapped up in Lucy Jane stuff earlier today and almost forgot to do the drawing for this blog!  There were almost 40 entries.  I will cut straight to the chase!

The winner is Cathy Olliffe-Webster of the blog Life on the Muskoka River!

If you haven't read her blog, you are in for a treat!  She is absolutely hilarious!!! :)
And if you didn't win this time, be sure to visit again, because there will be more giveaways (yes, plural!) coming up very soon to celebrate some recent achievements!

Grow Your Blog Party Time!!!

Hi!!!
This is a very special post, sending greetings to anyone who may be stopping by from the Grow Your Blog event, hosted by the fabulous and amazing Vicki of 2 Bags Full!

I started blogging 4 years ago- well, closer to 5, actually; my blogaversary is in April!  Cute Gremlin the Younger had just been born.  I only made 15 posts that year.  In 2009 our lives were turned upside down, but I managed to hide it really well for a long time.  I only posted 6 times the whole year, and 12 the next.  Finally in 2011 I decided to jump into blogging like I had never really done before.  It has been AWESOME.  I have met so, so, so many dear and wonderful new friends.  I have used my blog as a way to document and facilitate my newly revived love of hand-written letters/pen pals.  I have been welcomed with open arms into the lives and adventures of other bloggers who inspire me to be a better person, encourage me to live my dreams, and sometimes just make me laugh from my toes!

It's cold outside (at least in the Northern Hemisphere!)!!! So I've decided to host a GIVE AWAY with this Grow Your Blog event, with this peacock colored scarf, lapel pin, and journal as the prize!

Just leave a comment as your entry and I will pick a random winner on Feb. 1st and contact you for your mailing address.

As you read my blog, I hope that you find something beautiful, edifying, cheerful or downright hilarious here that makes you smile!  I've learned so much about blogging, and like to think I have improved over time. (Fewer giant walls of text, for example!) :)

 I'm going to visit and follow as many in the party as I possibly can.  If you decide to follow The Modest Peacock, a big HUG and THANK YOU to you!  I can't wait to get to know you all better.  Here's to growing and traveling and learning and laughing with our blogs!

SPG WAS IN MY POST BOX!!!!!

Ok, so with all of the mess that was being wrapped up in the late fall/last month, I have fallen a bit behind on the current 52 weeks of mail project, at least in terms of logging and documenting the incoming and outgoing.  There have been more things incoming than outgoing, as I am woefully behind in replies, but you know... kids, work, healing, priorities.  Y'all understand.

Anyway, I have to show you what came in the mail yesterday and Wednesday that just made me jump up and down, dance around the post box with flailing muppet arms, and squeal like a kid getting a pony for Christmas!!!!  (This is WAY BETTER than a pony!!!)

STEAM POWERED GIRAFFE SENT ME POSTCARDS!

The Spine's included an intriguing line: "A mysterious Canadian friend wanted us to send you some love..."  O_o
Now, I have several friends in Canada... they all read my blog and know how much I adore SPG.  My mind is just racing as to who could have been so kind!  Was it Snail Mail Fan, whom I met through her fantastic blog 100 Days of Snail Mail (she is no longer posting, in favor of doing other cool stuff, but the blog is still up for perusing and has some fantastic posts!)?  Or Cathy, who writes the hilarious Life on the Muskoka River?

Both of them are bright beams of sunshine to me, Snail Mail Fan with her amazing packets of a long letter together with interesting clippings and ephemera (she sent me the most beautiful map from the Nature Conservancy of Canada that I keep meaning to photo and show you!), and Cathy with her blog posts that make be burst out laughing (so loud that I alarm anyone around me at the time!) and her wonderful comments here on TMP.

Maybe it wasn't either of those, though.  Maybe another one of my Canadian readers.  I honestly have no idea!  But whomever was so, so, so, sweet- THANK YOU!  My treasured SPG postcards have a place of honor on a high up display shelf, next to the Brittney Lee print my BFF sent me from Comic-Con. (The link opens to her post showing the print I got, but take a look at the rest of her work!  Just breathtaking!)  They are up where I can see them every day while I create stuff for Lucy Jane, and barring a for-real tornado jumping in my window and carrying the shelf away, nothing can happen to them. :) :) :)

THANK YOU again, Mysterious Canadian Friend.  I love you bunches!  I hope you'll tell me who you are so I can send you thank you hugs and all!
Thank you, thank you, SPG for connecting with your fans and sending me the best and most unexpected love and encouragement to cheer me up!  You are truly THE BEST.  EVER.
I meant it, you know, that bit about dancing at the post box.  I really was!  And I absolutely couldn't care less who saw, (actually probably only the horses in the pasture across the road- I don't remember if any cars passed; I wasn't paying attention!) because it was pure and unbridled happiness like I hadn't felt in a long time!   I can't wait to pay it forward and encourage others/find ways to make someone's day brighter.

*blinks away happy tears*  Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.  I am so, so, fortunate to be so loved.
:)  

After

After a sleepless night (general insomnia), I heard the children wake up for Christmas morning.
After they had come downstairs and gasped with delight over their presents, there was paper everywhere and smiles and laughter and it was wonderful.
After the presents were all open, there was a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast.  Simple, but so good.
After spending time playing games and setting up toys, it was time for them to go to their dad's for his visitation time.  They will be back on Jan. 1st.
After they were gone, the house was too quiet.
After I had lunch and cleaned up the downstairs, I decided to go see Les Miserables.
After I sat down in the theater, someone I hadn't seen in a long time found me and invited me to sit with them.
After the opening overture, I didn't stop crying until the credits rolled.
After the movie, we went to get a bite to eat and catch up on each other's lives for a couple of hours.
After I got home the weather turned downright nasty.  Glad to be snug and safe.
After a good night's sleep, I spent the majority of today job searching and submitting online applications.
After some general blogging, I discovered that my ex married his mistress yesterday.  I thought I would feel something one way or another, or have some sort of response since our divorce was only final Nov 28th, but I didn't.  I don't really care.  Huh.
After I helped my Gran with some stuff she needed, I went back to my job search and was interrupted by 3 different instant messages from good friends wanting to chat.  Gal pal Nikki lives in Savannah and is always ready to tell me how the city looks and what's happening there. I felt loved and cared about. :)
After writing this, I'm ready to go to bed and have a busy, productive, and happy day tomorrow, spending time in prayer, getting caught up on housework, sewing work, more job searching, and writing some long overdue letters.

I'm going to leave you with a great song lyric about "after".  It's by Mumford and Sons.  (Here's the full song if you want to hear it.  I'll likely feature it on a MM sometime later.)

And after the storm
I run and run as the rains come
and I look up, I look up
On my knees and out of luck
I look up...

There will come a time, you'll see, with no more tears
when love will not break your heart, but dismiss your fears
Get over your hill and see what you find there
with grace in your heart and flowers in your hair.

Breaking the Silence

Hello, my loves.

Many of my regular readers have noticed that I have been "quiet" in the last 6 months, not posting much of anything personal, and mainly only loosely sticking to my blogging schedule by providing stuff I find on the interwebs that I know you'll love.  I stopped doing a daily "Attitude of Gratitude" list back in July, NOT because I wasn't counting my blessings, but because if I posted even a tiny percentage of what I was thankful for each day, in the face of all that's happened here recently, I'd have been a continual, blubbering, emotional wreck.  (That sentence seems to have entirely more commas than it ought, but I can't articulate it any better at the moment.  Bear with me.)

My blog is not a rant.  It is not a public journal where I vent whatever emotion is running high at the moment and then wait til later to think about how it came across.  I have striven to keep it a cheerful, beautiful place where there is always something to make my readers smile.  Some of my posts from last year are of a more serious and personal nature, but the majority since have been reigned in to be of a positive and happy persuasion.  I want to thank you all for the continued love you have shown.  My followers count is growing, which is thrilling!  I will be joining in with a "Grow Your Blog" fest in January (separate post about that, with all kind of links, to follow shortly).  I am humbled to have had nearly 70,000 pageviews on my sidebar counter.  Wow!  Your comments and letters (though I am WAY behind in replies again!) and virtual hugs have encouraged me and kept me pushing through the tough times- and there have been many tough times of late, to be sure.

So by now you are wondering what has kept me so distant.  Well, the biggest thing is that my divorce is now finally final.  He left us ("officially") this summer.  I fought so hard to save the marriage, spending more time than I can even recall literally on my face at the Lord's feet, begging for a miracle.  But both people have to want it, and according to him the entire marriage was a lie on his side.  Yes, there are sordid details.  Yes, he cheated.  There were lies on top of lies, on top of more lies, until things finally caught up with him.  But that's all I'm going to tell you about it.  The details are really no one else's business, and I'd just as soon bury the past as much as I can, as quickly as I can.  The end result and bottom line is that I am now a single mom of 2, starting my life completely over.

Where I had been raising his two children from his first marriage, as well as our two, and had referred to them all in my posts as "Cute Gremlins 1-4", with 1 being the oldest, etc., now he has taken 1 and 2 to Alabama with him (I never had ANY legal rights to them whatsoever.  Motherhood is, in itself, a thankless job.  This has turned out even more so.) and I am the primary physical custodial parent of our two.  Therefore, from here on out, anything related to the children is simply "Cute Gremlin the Elder" and "Cute Gremlin the Younger".  As above, that's the only explanation and insight you're going to get.

I will say this for the Year of Infomercials From Hell that 2012 has been: when stuff like this happens, you find out who your friends are.  And aren't.  When things are stripped down to the bone, you see who is true blue and who only pretended to give a crap about you.  You discover just how fragile and precious every moment of happiness, security (though admittedly, mine was a false sense of), and normality really is.  You either run to God, or from Him.  I am utterly dependent on Him, and though my faith was tested with the hottest fire I have yet encountered in this life, it held and I seek His face moment by moment.
How great is my comfort, to be hidden in the shadow of His wings! (Ps. 17:8 and 57:1)

I have many major choices ahead of me, including finishing school (Where?  What degree major? How to pay for it?  I don't fancy getting into massive debt...), getting a job (have been trying for 8 months- nothing yet.  Having been a SAHM for 8 years, and no degree, I have no marketable skills that will translate to a full time job that will support myself and 2 children.  But I'm trying.), what to do with Lucy Jane... the Etsy shop is growing, and I'm grateful for that.  But how to take it to the next level (so it becomes a viable source of income) and be worth the time investment? A lot of questions.  Some of them that raise more questions instead of answers.  However.  I know Who has ALL the answers, even when I feel like I can't even breathe.

So that's it.  That's the long and the short.  It hasn't been 100% heartache- there are several things that I have found happiness and worth in that I can't wait to share with you!  The personal growth has been a painful process, but it has happened, and continues to happen, and I have discovered more about my identity as a human being in the past 3 years than perhaps in the whole of my life prior to that!  I will share those joyful things with you, very soon!  But for right now, I feel like this post is long enough and complete in itself.

I'm back from hovering on the "edges".  This is my blog, my personal space, and I am ready to live in it fully again.  I will be posting personal triumphs and trials in the future, inviting you to come along for the journey.  I will keep this blog a beautiful and cheerful place and I hope anything it contains blesses someone's heart.  So many of you fellow bloggers have blessed mine.  Thank you so much for that.
Until later, my dears.  Thank you again for sticking with me.  It promises to be an amazing life from this point forward! :)

Love,
Jenny

PS- I will be starting the Gratitudes list on the sidebar again in the New Year!! :)

The Pink Scarf Project

My beautiful friend Vicki, of the blog "2 Bags Full", has created an AMAZING year-long event/project to raise awareness and support for breast cancer patients.  She is asking for donations of pink scarves from anyone and everyone in the blogosphere who will be kind enough to oblige.  She is generously giving away a GORGEOUS, one-of-a-kind wrap that she knitted especially for this project.  If you have ever seen her knitted nests, you know that she can't make anything that isn't just perfection itself.  (If you haven't been so fortunate as to have seen the nests, go here to see my personal favorite.)

I've always said I know only enough about knitting to be able to make a scarf.  Well, perfect!  I'll be sending her at least one of those.  I also know (marginally better, if I'm honest) how to crochet a bit, and I will be creating a scarf (or 10) by that method.  I'm not going to sugar coat it- I want to win that wrap! (Credit for construction will actually go to Lucy Jane, though.)

But much more than that, I want to help Vicki in this worthy cause.  Many of you don't know that someone in my family has had a brush with this awful disease- fortunately it was caught and removed quickly and without much fuss and bother.  But sadly, many, many women are not that fortunate.

So here's an extra incentive to Vicki's wonderful project:  Anytime you send her a scarf and post a comment on her Pink Scarf Project Page that you have done so, come here (there will be a button on my sidebar shortly) and post a comment telling me that you have done so, and you will have an entry to win this Lucy Jane Pennybright "Hope" elephant, complete with her very own pink scarf!  (The mailing address to send the scarves and all of the wonderful details are on her blog at the above link.)

The drawing will be held NEXT October 1st when Vicki's project ends, AND I will also accept comments on this Lucy Jane post about the project.  (But only one entry for the ellie per scarf made and sent!!  I'm just allowing you to choose which blog you leave your entry on!)

So what are you waiting for??  Go to Vicki's blog, find out all the details, and start knitting (or crocheting, sewing, or whatever it is you do) a pink scarf to send her way!!  Best of luck winning the wrap and/or "Hope"!

PS- Here is Lucy's first scarf to send.  What do you think? :)

Over At Lucy Jane's...

Lucy Jane has a recent post you may all be interested in.  It hints at a GIVEAWAY COMING UP HERE SOON!!!  (So subtlety was never my strong suit!)

Read all about it HERE and please pass Lucy Jane's blog along to anyone you know who may like it. Please, please, please!  And thank you! :)

Off to fix supper (Flounder fillets with herbs, parmesan pasta salad, green beans, garlic italian toast), and then back to work in the studio for a bit before bed. :)

See you soon, my lovelies!

We Interrupt This Program...

to tell you how AWESOME you are, because I've hit the 100 blog followers mark!!!
WOW! :D

I'm going to celebrate with a GIVEAWAY, but in a few days- after the A-Z Challenge winds down! (I also have my 4 year Blogoversary on April 30, so I'll combine the 2.)

Stay tuned!  For 100 followers, I'll have to think of something really good! :)

THANKS AGAIN!

Quis Leget Haec?

Translated:  Who will read this?

I get curious about my readers.  Lately, the manual labor portion of my work (fun though it is) has taken over and kept me from being able to craft any blog posts with any truly valuable and/or entertaining content.  The writer is willing, but the hours are few.

Yet, I see that I am only 3 followers away from the coveted blogger status of 100 regular readers.  Awesomeness!  Am I really that entertaining?  I want to be.  I crave approval.  I can't help it.

So I'd love to take this letter Q post of the A-Z and ask all of my readers:
Quod facit redire?
What makes you return?
Is there a certain feature you enjoy?  Music Mondays, perhaps?
Or maybe it's my fractured way of looking at things and telling a story.  I think I'm hilarious.  I would hope that other people do, too, but either way, I love to laugh and I never cease to run out of material due to my own life experiences and warped sense of humor.  (Thinking about it, this blog could probably use a few more puns from day to day...)

I just wonder about the people on the other side of the wires.  Wherever and whoever you are, it's nice to have you come visit.  I've met so many interesting people through blogging and I have a feeling the awesomeness on that front is just getting started. :)

Insomnia

How cute is this guy?  I'd count lots of
these if I thought it would help!

I'm retro-posting this because even though it would seem like not being able to sleep would give me plenty of time to blog, it hasn't.  I have had trouble sleeping for a long time now.  I'm taking steps to find a solution, but the causes of my sleeplessness are many and varied, so it's not as simple to cure as it might first appear.  "They make sleep aids, Jenny," I hear some of you saying (especially you, best-friend-who- has-spent-the-last-20-years-I've-known-you-in-school- [of some kind, be it regular 5th-12th or all that was beyond] studying-to-become-a-pharmacist.)  "just take one and go to bed."

Well, I would love to.  Problem is, I have never had a tolerance for any kind of pharmaceuticals, and even mild over-the-counter stuff messes with my delicate system and renders me catatonic and unable to function.  (I am already not functioning due to sleep deprivation, but the meds make me have a headache and feel icky on top of it and even MORE unable to function.  I'll take the lesser unpleasantness, thanks.)  In addition, I have dependents who need me to do things for them at certain times each day, and I can't fulfill those responsibilities if I'm knocked out by (safe, legal and even prescribed) drugs.  It's a paradox.  I can't not sleep, but I can't take drastic measures to make myself sleep.  Sigh.  Why is it always complicated??

Things I can't do while only getting a maximum of 3 hours of sleep per night for more than 4 consecutive nights:
1. Drive for any length of time.  Thankfully, the places I generally HAVE to go are within a 10 mile radius (and I would never get behind the wheel if I knew I wasn't safe to do so.  I'm mostly talking hour long trips across Atlanta here.)
2. Blog.  I stare at the blank screen and... I got nothin'.  Which always sucks, but even more so when it's in the middle of the A-Z Challenge!!! :P
3.Work.  Big things are happening for Lucy Jane and I have to come up with a solution fast, because even cutting out pattern pieces is taking WAY WAY longer than it should.
4. Deal with 4 Gremlins (cute as they may be) alone while Husband is still away for work in a non-irritable way.  ... I don't think I need to expound on this one at all.  Self explanatory.  I want to be all cuddly and happy with them and I can't when their normal being children-ness gets on my nerves.
5. Write letters.  At least, coherent and non-weird ones.  My 52 Weeks of Mail project has been all but abandoned and I feel terrible for that, but still can't seem to drag myself back into the mix and get caught up on all of the replies I need to write.  My brain is just all... fuzzy.


Things that make sleepless nights more bearable:

1. After reaching the point where keeping all the electronics off just isn't making any difference in being able to fall asleep, I have burned through seasons 1-3 of The Big Bang Theory.  It's good company.

2. Steam Powered Giraffe.  Every day I discover footage of them on YouTube I haven't seen yet and my fangirl crush on the trio of 116 year old automatons is growing steadily deeper.  (In a cute, non creepy kind of way.  Promise.  Although I did look up the cost of airfare out to San Diego to calculate how much meeting them in person and getting some autographs would cost.  They are super talented!  Don't judge me!  Watch enough of their stuff on the interwebs at 3 AM, and you would probably find yourself comparing a non-stop on Delta with a one-stop in Denver on US Airways too!!  Don't believe me?  Go watch yesterday's video a few hundred times.  Yeah, I thought so. :})


3. Tea.  No, it's decaf.  Even sleep deprived, I'm not an idiot, not by any stretch of the imagination.
4. Dreaming up new ideas for work, even if I can't immediately make them happen in my less than optimum current state.  I put them down in a notebook and some of them are quite good and worth following up on.  Once I've... gotten some sleep.  Sigh.


We'll try again tonight.  Meanwhile, I'm going to go try to get some basic things accomplished (making lunch, catching up/scheduling both blogs, going to the bank and constructing some fairies) in the hopes that it will wear me out sufficiently and I will crash into bed at a decent hour tonight (Friday.  Retro-posting, remember?) and get this sleep ship righted before next week.  Because I have a life I desperately want to get back to. o_O

Illustrator Tuesdays: A New Weekly Feature

I'm addicted to children's books.  Sure, I leave the library with a stack of novels from the grown-up sections, but it's the children's section that really draws me in and invites me to get lost in a good book (or 8).  As I happen to have 4 Cute Gremlins, this is encouraged by the librarians, my friends, and by society in general.  I have taken great delight at browsing the shelves with them and exclaiming things like:

"George and Martha!  I loved to read those when I was a kid!"

"Pinkerton!  He was always my favorite!"

"Here are the Bill Peet books!  Look, here's Prewitt Peacock!"

"What do you think Little Bear will do next?"

My second post ever, on this blog, was on Donald Hall's "Ox Cart Man".  (Worth the click!)

The illustrations in all of these wonderful books just don't get enough attention.  Seriously.
So I've taken up the hobby of featuring a children's book illustrator each Tuesday as part of my regular posting schedule.  I realize, sometimes I get behind due to work and kids and life and have to retro-post on occasion.  I'm hoping I won't have to do that too much and can schedule posts when I have writing time eked out of each week.

I hope you enjoy this new feature!  Give me some feedback- what are some of your favorite children's books/illustrators?

Come and Visit the Other Me!

As some of you know, I have an Alter Ego that is picking up steam as a business venture.  A lot of good developments are falling into place, so I want to shamelessly beg you to show some blog love and check out

from time to time.  Especially in the next 6 months, there are going to be all kinds of posts relating to costumes being constructed, Douglasville's Hydrangea Festival in June, and other various and sundry lovely things.  I'll be scheduling a photo shoot or two when the weather decides to cooperate, so you can see me in my natural habitat. (In clothing that went out of style at least 100 years ago!) :)

Humbled

This morning as I checked my blogger dashboard, I saw the most amazing thing.
My page views counter has topped 30,000! 30,000!!!


Some other fun numbers:
My 4 year blogiversary is coming up in April, but I didn't do much with the blog at all for the first 3 of those.  The stats show a total of 234 posts (not including this one), with 189 of those belonging to 2011.  '08, '09 and '10 combined only total 34 posts.

February of 2011 saw me reach the 1,000 mark, with a handful of followers and only 10 posts so far for the year.  (I celebrated by publishing this post.)  The turning point in my writing came when I found the A-Z Challenge.  If you own a blog and have never done this challenge, PLEASE do it this year!!!  It is so much fun!!  I visited (and began following) a ton of other blogs that I would never have come across otherwise.  My own followers count tripled in only a couple of weeks and I finally began to feel like I had found my voice.  What I was writing and offering out to the world to read was in fact being read!  In less than half a year, I suddenly found myself surrounded by new friends and writing this post to thank you, my sweet, sweet readers, for coming back for return visits another 9,000 times!

Now it's been 6 months again, and I am awed beyond words (well, obviously not, as I'm 4 paragraphs into a thank you post!), grateful and so, so blessed to be thanking you for achieving 10,000 page views not once, but 3 times!  Wow.  Wow, wow, wow!  The blessings aren't limited to you popping by and saying "Hi!", either!  Some of you write to me using for real pen and paper too, and I love getting your letters in the mailbox! I also love reading your blogs about all the awesome mail you get, and sometimes seeing the mail I have sent to you in your posts and getting to know it reached you safely and brought you joy!  Blessings, blessings, blessings! :)

Thank you, thank you for 30,000 page views!  You are amazing! :)

PS- Don't forget to vote in my poll on the right sidebar over there. ------->
I am interested to know what posts you are enjoying and want to see more of.  Please take a look and cast your vote!  Thanks! :)

A Blogger In Need

I'm sharing this from Laura at The Daily Dodo.  It's important.

Please read this post from Candace at The Misadventures in Candyland and help if you can!  If there is one thing I have learned about blogging and bloggers, it's that we are more than people who post stuff on the internet for other people to read; we are a community of people who care about each other!  So follow the links, hear her story and show her some love.

Hug your family.  Tell them you love them.  Help people who need help, whether you know them or not.  Remember when you are going through a hard time- or even when things are going well for you- that there are others going through valleys of their own and we can be encouraged in our challenges by encouraging someone else through theirs.

"I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor, and upholds the cause of the needy."
~ Psalm 140:11-13

"And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus."
~Philippians 4:19