5 minutes on JOY

I'm trying something new today. It's been a long time since I've posted anything on my blog, and I've felt the urge to just write. No pictures, no plan, just write what I'm thinking and feeling and see what happens. Yesterday I found a blog called The Gypsy Mama and she has a thing that her and several other bloggers do called 5 minute Fridays. I decided to give it a shot. It was pretty much exactly what I was feeling like doing on my blog, and it gave me a direction to write in. Today I'm going to write about JOY.
Joy is a word I've used throughout my life, but I always use it flippantly. I know I've felt true JOY in my life, but I think I take it for granted. I remember the pure JOY I felt when my daughter was born. It was such a difficult, stressful, worrisome pregnancy. I remember the moment I looked down at her, literally seconds after she was born, and she was on the birthing bed and she was ALIVE. She was tiny, reddish, and so perfect. I remember thinking that she was BREATHING on her OWN, and she had a look on her face that said, "How DARE you interrupt my nap!" The JOY I felt at that moment is unexplainable.
There have been other moments of Joy in my life, but I honestly think none can compare to that one. I want nothing but happiness for my children in their lives, and when I can do something for them to bring them Joy, well... I think that is one of my biggest goals as a Mom.
So that's it. My 5 minutes is up. It feels good to have put some words out there, even if they don't make much sense and even if one of them isn't really a word (unexplainable).
I think I'll continue on with my day, and try to find little pieces of JOY. Actually, I just heard some Joy in the other room... My Angel baby is playing with her friend, Maddox, and they are laughing like only 3 year olds can... I love it.
I hope some of you out there read this and want to join in on the 5 Minute Fridays as well. Check out The Gypsy Mama's blog and see what it's all about. I'd love to read about your JOY.

A Thousand Sheets Giveaway

The Amazingly Talented Crafter, Amy Young is giving away a SWEET Candy!

Check out all the details on her blog A Thousand Sheets Of Paper! WOW!

Scenic LONDON

The kids, Nana and I recently went on a trip to London! It was our first tour day in the great city so I started taking some amazing pictures...

These totally cute telephone booths:

 Nana, Ashton and Angel on the Big Bus tour:

 Paddington Station (duh) where the ACTUAL, soon to be internationally famous, teddy bear was found:

 This awesome Arch whose name I have now forgotten:

 Really neat sculpture of a colorful family:

 A Horse's HEAD:

And then!!!! My camera died. YUP. And who forgot to bring the battery charger??? Me of course! So Nana took the rest of the pics, and some are on Facebook, but most are NOT. Maybe next Sunday I'll have them to share with you... Until then, Be blessed and don't forget to charge your cameras!!!

Deployment Chain

I'm back again! Here's an update on our Deployment Countdown Paper Chain. This is the chain in April:

 The Chain in May:

 The Chain on David's Birthday, Today, July 21st:

We love you and miss you David. See you SOON!

I MADE SOMETHING!!!

Hey there Friends! Are any of you still around???  So I haven't been in the mood to craft with my paper products lately AT ALL. But, I have been learning how to sew! I'll have to share some of my creations on another post, but this post is all about The Burtonesque Dolls Challenge! I love The Burtonesque Dolls Blog and even though I haven't been paper crafting, I've still been checking out the blog. They have a challenge going on right now that you can check out HERE. And this is my entry for the challenge:

This is an digi stamp from Bugaboo Stamps. Can you recognize the character? Bugaboo calls him "Spoiled One"! LOL. Well, poor spoiled Draco used the Floo Network and instead of staying in the world of Wizards, landed in the Wonderful World of Wonka! Yup, Draco is in Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! I hope you like my card, because I'm quite satisfied with it. After all, I was able to achieve a ruffled ribbon on a card after not creating something for MONTHS. Alrighty then, I'm off for the night. Maybe I'll be posting up something soon... oh yeah, I do have an updated picture of our paper chain...

Until next post, Be blessed!

Deployment

I know I said I was gonna take a break, but I just wanted to share these pics with you all really quick since it is Scenic Sunday. This is our deployment countdown chain in April: 

 And this is our chain today:

Shorter, but still a long way to go....

Break Time

Hey there friends. So, I've been absent from the blog for awhile. Honestly I'm debating on whether or not I want to keep this up. It's not that I don't have time, it's that I'm not making the time and I really don't have the motivation to make it. I am still crafting and creating, but in different forms. I'm learning to sew, organizing my home, purging and packing... And just trying to keep my head above water with all my responsibilities. Add the blog to my list, and it just adds to my feelings of being overwhelmed. I didn't come on here to complain, but I just want to let you all know that I am still around. I'm just going to be MIA until further notice. I hope to get back to a place where I feel like life is in order before I can commit to blogging consistently again. I hope you all understand. Until that time comes, I'm still on Facebook! LOL!