Emerging From Hermitsville

Another picture that has nothing to do with this post.

But OH!, so beautiful.

I love blogging.  I love writing mine.  I love reading yours.  I love how this world wide web connects people like never before.  I have recently been sucked into Facebook.  It occupies alot of my nursing time*, but nothing keeps me occupied like Google Reader.

This morning as I was reading in Google Reader I came across this, which then led me here.  

Go read them now and then come back.  

Go ahead.  

I'll wait for you.

Did you read them both?  Are your eyes dry enough to read me?  Good.

I want to hear your thoughts.  I know there are like 6 people out there that I know of who read this little blog of mine.  I also know that I lurk around dozens of blogs.  I'm totally wrapped up in the stories of life and kids and career, but yet I never comment about anything.  I'm not really sure why I don't, but I'm done with it.  I've been inspired to step out of myself and my self-imposed hermitism.  I'm going to start commenting.   I want, no, I need a network of friends and support like those 8 ladies talked about.  

I'm throwing down a challenge to each of you phantom readers out there.  Come out of lurkerdom and introduce yourself.  I need you and you need me.  Tell me why you read these silly posts.  Give me a link to your world.  Add me as a friend.  I don't really care which it is so long as I get to hear from you.  

:::

*If you didn't figure it out from all of my recent talk of boys and boobs, nursing time is the 20 hours a day I spend sitting around feeding my 8-week old (!!!!!!Yowzah!!!!!!) boy-wonder.

Fodder

This picture has nothing to do with this post, 

but pictures make my mom and grandma happy.

Ok...so I've been really lazy about posting here.  I don't have a good excuse that won't require the use of the term "boy attached to my boob" and believe me when I say, I'm tired of talking about my boobs.  So, I'll leave it at I've just been lazy.  I have so much to say.  Having two kids gives one plenty of blog fodder, but it also diminishes the amount of sleep one gets, thus limiting one's motivation and productiveness.

I'm creating a new routine for my life.  It has to allow for plenty of boy-attached-to-my-boob time.  (Sorry.)  I also want to include time each day to work out and have just 15 minutes of alone time. (Oh, if only I could get the boy attached to my boob to sleep somewhere other than my arms!)  (Sorry for the boob reference. Again.) I also want to take time each day to write a post either here or here or both.  I'd even like to resurrect this bad boy at some point in time.  I'm taking just a little step each day.  Yesterday I worked out.  Today I blog.  Sometime I'd like to do both in one day.  

I have been reading alot of blogs lately.  That's what's been taking my post time away from you good people.  There are just so many interesting people out there!  I can't help myself.  

AllAccess

The Pioneer Woman

The Lazy Organizer

BooMama

Mrs. Fussypants

Lawyerish

Absolutely Beautiful Things

Blissfully Domestic

Decor8

Nest Decorating

Porter House

Soule Mama

Plum Pudding

Secret Agent Josephine

Those are some of my favorites and they are very motivated people that accomplish a great many things in a day.  They're starting to make me jealous of their consistent posting.  I've been so bad about that  lately.

So, if you ever wonder where I am or what I'm up to these days, I am most likely on the couch with the boy attached to my boob and computer in my lap reading one of the above.  (Or online shopping.  I love to shop online.  Love. IT!  But that's fodder for another post at another time.)

For now, I'm going to take a shower.  Then I just might take my kids to the park.  

Please Don't Be Scared...

...but I'm thinking of moving.

Blogger has been good to me these past 3 years of blogging.  I have really gotten the hang of how this blogging thing works.  I really haven't ever done much beyond posting with my blog and lately I have been thinking very seriously about upgrading and diving in headfirst to the wide world of serious blogging.  

I'm not sure that Blogger is going to get me there.  It's been so good to me.  I hate to end such a wonderful relationship, but I think I need more out of my blog host.  Now mind you that I don't know what "more" I need.  

So I'm just warning you now that changes might be coming in the next few months.  I'll keep you posted and appraised of the whole process.  I have some research to do and a baby to birth so this will most likely be a long, drawn out process.  I'm just saying...

:::

Did you notice the countdown over there?  28 days!?  Are you kidding me?!?!

I Was Just Thinking...

...and I know how dangerous that can be, but some of my greatest ideas come to me out of the blue like that.  

But I was thinking about this blog and all my friends that read my ramblings on a regular basis.  I wonder, though, how many of you know that I also write regularly on a fun site for moms.  My girlfriend and I started it last summer after a hilarious conversation about what it means to be a lazy mom.  

So I decided I'd write about it here to let you know about it.  It's called I'm A Lazy Mom.  (Creative, right?)  My girlfriends has three kids, her youngest is my oldest's age.  She gives tons of genius tips for lazymoms as well as hilarious anecdotes of a mom's life.  I have been writing mainly about my pregnancy lately and about amazing products I've recently discovered.  This site is for all moms.  It's our desire to encourage and build them up on a daily basis, while offering practical ways to make life easier for them.  

Take a few minutes, and join us for a cup of tea.  Bookmark our blog and be sure to check back often.  Coming soon: GIVEAWAYS!!!

New & Improved

So here it is... my newly redesigned site. I hope you like the changes I have made. My amazing husband and I designed the new banner (above). If you look closely you will notice that the words written in the background are the same words that were displayed below the title of the old banner. The flower has been my wallpaper forever it seems so it seemed appropriate to have a place of honor in my banner. I have also been really getting into the teal-y blue color lately so that's why you see it here.
The banner was remarkably easy to create in Photoshop (as long as my tech-y hubby was close at hand). A few clicks here and there and I had a brand spankin' new banner that was just ME! You can be sure that I will be learning and playing with it alot more.
So take some time to check it all out. I will be adding more treasures as I can. Don't forget to check back each week just for the photo of the week. It will be worth it, I promise. I have a whole arsenal of fun pictures of my family and friends. You'll never know who you'll find there.

This is Me.

I'm Melis, and this is me in a nutshell:

I grew up in Wisconsin. Lived there for 18 years (except for a 2-year stint in Indiana) before heading off to Bible College in Minnesota. I thought I would meet my husband there, but that was not the case. I actually met him when I went home for the summer after my first senior year.

This is my man 3 weeks before we met. Hot, right?, except for that blasted 'stache! I met my man in 2000 when he came on staff at my home church as the Worship Pastor.  We got married the next summer and we stayed in WI for the next 5 years. 

Along the way I had a girl-child and finally moved from my hometown to the East Coast. I quickly discovered that I was meant to live on the coast. I love, love, love living here and hope to never leave. Over the past two years I've been pregnant 3 times with only one of those ending with a baby in my arms. The man-child was born this past spring.  I have been blessed to be at home with my children since before my oldest was born.  God has been very good to us along the way. 

Every once and a while I'll get an hour here or there when I get to step away from my role as Mommy, Wife, or Pastor's Wife and I get to just be Me.  During those precious moments I like to read, write (blog), hang with my girls doing whatever--coffee, shopping, movies, spa days, anything.  I'm a blog junky!  I love to read them, write them, wish I could design them (anyone want to help me???).  I contribute to the coolest Mommy blog out there.  It's called I'm a Lazy Mom and is based on the idea that being a lazy mom is preferable to being a crazy mom.  I would love to write for more blogs.  Maybe someday someone will even pay be a bit for posting.  Oh and don't even get me started on my full-blown addiction to Facebook.  I had a fleeting fling with Twitter, but now it's all Facebook.

One of my greatest passions in life is seeing women find wholeness and healing through an honest relationship with God and with one another.  I serve my local company of women through the Exectutive Board of Destination: excellence, an exciting cutting edge ministry to women.  

I have a great many dreams of future ministry and life.  I would love someday to write a book or books.  I'd also love to travel and speak into the lives of women.  In the meantime I am just enjoying everyday life with the most amazing family and friends!  I absolutely love my life.  I love my rockin' little family more than anything in this world.  We are simply the coolest group of people you will ever meet and my highest priority in life, second only to my relationship with Jesus.

So that's me.  In a nutshell.  I hope you'll come back often.  I love you.  You are a most precious creation of a loving God.