Hey Girl Hey - I’m Back!

Hey girl, hey!!

I totally got inspired to do doodle this from my daughter. She loves going around saying, hey girl hey, after watching Lego Movie 2. Ha! I love it!

It’s been a minute, huh?

Ha! It’s been a whole lotta minutes!! OH MY GOSH!!

Because it’s been a hot minute (ha!) since I’ve been on here, and because my writing skills are very, very RUSTY (because it’s been a hot minute..ha!), I thought I’d get back into the swing things with a post of where the heck I’ve been and what I’ve been doing.

Let’s just say, I’ve been parenting!!

Lots and lots of parenting!!

10 years of parenting, to be exact, and I’m happy, tired, joyful AND exhausted!!

I think after moving two years in a row exhausted me even more. I really wanted to keep working on my blog and my creativity, but I let my exhaustion take over.

And, honestly, now that I have both kiddos in school full-time, my ME TIME, goes by SO fast!!

SO FAST!!!!!!

The kids are in two different schools, which has really been great, because when we first moved here, I was really nervous about that (which you can read about here: New Schools. New Worries. New Gifts Revealed), but because they start and end their days at two different times, I don’t have a lot of time do ALL THE THINGS I wanna do.

And these past two years, all I really wanted to do was NOTHING!!

Absolutely NOTHING!!

The thought of sitting at the computer and being productive just wasn’t calling me.

I’d paint, but then I’d never continue to paint.

I doodle some, but then I’d stop.

I just wanted my mind and body to stop MOVING!!

I was still mediating and doing yoga (actually, in fall of 2018, I quit yoga for Essentrics, which I can’t wait to write about in a future post…best thing ever!!!) but, finally last summer, I got my energy and motivation back to start walking again.

I even started this before the kiddos got up for school in the morning which has been amazing and absolutely shocking!! I was always an afternoon exercise person.

I’m still cooking homemade foods for my family (but only twice a week..that’s all I can handle) but, I haven’t really pulled my camera out much since we moved from Virginia (I don’t know…I’m still kinda burnt out on this one…but I know it’s still in me to take pics!).

Then, last fall, I finally got my motivation back to work on my blog and get creating again…except, I needed to switch everything I was doing on MailChimp over to a new email marketing program because MailChimp changed their services up, services I wasn’t interested in.

This started everything for me with getting things back in order…OH.MY.GOSH!!

It was a good thing, but also a bad thing. It made my head hurt!! Back end blogging stuff isn’t really my thing!! But, once I get going, it’s not so bad…but still, I’d rather be creating and writing blog posts instead. Ha!

I started moving everything over to Aweber, where I have all my eCourses stored.

Once I got everything moved over, new templates figured out and content and images in their right spots, I realized I needed to updated my eCourses.

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So I spent a few months going through them all and updating everything to where I am today.

Even though it was a pain, I was SO glad I did this. It was definitely in need of updates!!

After I finished, I was ready to put my new Aweber sign-up boxes on my Squarespace site, but, I didn’t like how outdated their sign-up boxes looked.

I’m a stickler about this!! I like everything to match to flow on my website!!

And because of that, I started doing lots of research, because it’s been years and I’m SO out of the loop with all the new email marketing companies out there now.

I was thinking of moving everything over to Convertkit, because they say it’s great for bloggers, and blogging is something I’ve always been trying to do and want to do now and in my future, but I just wasn’t sure, because moving everything over is NOT an easy task.

I spent a few weeks trying to decide my direction, until I realized Squarespace now has email marketing!!

OH MY GOSH!! I love, love, LOVE, Squarespace and was thrilled that they now offer this!!

The more I read about it, I finally decided, I’m moving EVERYTHING, even my eCourses, over to Squarespace.

I moved everything over SO quickly, because Squarespace is SO awesome like that, but saved my eCourses for last.

I started putting all the info into the template, but then I hit a roadblock.

My eCourses are filled with lots of information, step-by-step painting and doodling and photography lessons and lots of images in general.

And, because of that, I hit my limit of spaces I could fill in the template. Wah, wah, wah!!!

I was SO bummed, because out of all the email marketing companies I’ve used, Squarespace was the easiest and the cleanest!!

I love how clean and crisp all their templates are!! And, I was able to switch everything over without my head hurting because it was SO easy to figure it and place everything in them templates. That’s why I use their websites, too!! They’re so awesome!!

I was bummed, but it was actually OK, because all my eCourses really are doing just fine in Aweber for now (I’m truly hoping Squarespace will update their email marketing templates for more space soon!! Because when they do, I’m switching everything over ASAP!!), and I had already done the work of updating them on there, so it would be less work for me now to stop moving them over to Squarespace and that would allow me to start creating and blogging AGAIN!! OH YEAH!!!

Because, like I said, I only get a short amount of ME TIME…5 hours to be exact…on a day when I’m not called that my kiddo is sick at school or I’m on my kiddo’s field trip or volunteering or running the store something they need for the next day and so on and so on, which by the way, comes first these days for me…another reason why I haven’t been blogging and creating much, because right now, my kiddos come first…so only moving one lesson from one of my eCourses was taking me a few days to a week or so do.

It was a long process, for sure, to get everything updated and going again, but it’s all officially done!!!

Woohoo!!!

It’s now February 4th and I’m finally ready to write my welcome back post so I can get my ‘CREATIVITY CALMS’ message up flowing again!!

Then, the next day, my little guy gets sick with a fever.

The next day, I get his fever.

Two days later, my oldest gets his fever.

My little guy doesn’t go back to school till Wednesday, but calls home that he’s still not well. He had already been out a week.

I’m still feeling awful, but at least my fever didn’t stick around long.

My oldest is out the entire next week.

I still didn’t rest much, so I still don’t feel well once everyone is back at school.

I only have one day to truly rest because my oldest has a field trip and I am running around getting things ready for our Mardi Gras trip to Disney that Friday (because the kids get the entire week off of school for Mardi Gras! Lucky Louisiana ducks!! Ha!).

The Sunday before school starts again, my little guy gets a little stomach bug, he misses Monday and Tuesday and then comes home on Wednesday because he’s still not 100% well.

Then this past Sunday, his ear is hurting him so he needs meds again (luckily I have it because the doctor gave it to us when I brought him in two weeks before when he had his fever!)

OH.MY.GOSH!!

It’s been never ending over here!!

And, of course, right when I’m ready to dive back into my blog!! LOL!!

Oh gosh!

So, here I am, finally, writing my welcome back post!!

FINALLY!!

HIP HIP HOORAY!!!

But, honestly, my life has changed SO much since having my kiddos.

Before, I used to do everything as fast as I could to keep my blog going, even when my kiddos needed me.

I used to be so mad if I was interrupted or I couldn’t work on it, because my kiddos needed me.

Now, I come from a place of, if I have time to work on it, I will, but if I don’t, I don’t.

Because, right now, this is my season of life. My season of parenting and being there for my kiddos.

I’ve been doing this for 10 years now, and I only have 7 years left with my oldest before she moves out and only 10 left with my youngest.

WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!

Because, oh my gosh, even though that is a long time, it truly isn’t, because the first 10 years FLEW BY!!!!

FLEW BY!!!!!

When I look back on the past few years, I needed time to just DO NOTHING!!

I had been home all day long, 24/7 with my kiddos when they were babies and toddlers. So when my youngest went to school full-time, I need to just BE STILL!!

I can tell, now, that I’m getting my motivation back to do more, but like I said, I’m a changed mama from these past two years.

It made me take the pressure off myself to blog and share, because oh gosh, I was doing that SO much and it burnt me out!

Now, I actually LOVE not sharing SO much and not being glued to my phone and social media all the time.

I miss writing and creating and sharing it on my blog, but now instead of being fearful that I’m falling behind, I’m totally OK with doing as my mama-schedule allows it.

Because the most important thing to me is being there for my kiddos!

But, now that I have everything ready to go, I’m excited to start doing my creativity again and sharing it here.

I’m not sure how often I’ll post and share, but I have this feeling that once I get flowing again, I’ll post more and more!

Because, honestly, I love looking back on posts I wrote when I was home with my kiddos all day.

And I get sad that I haven’t been doing it all these years.

I have so much wisdom that comes through me when I paint and create that I want to be able to look back and read that wisdom, and most of all, I want my kiddos to read that wisdom, too!!

I don’t want it to come to me and then only stay with me and no one else.

Because, oh my gosh, the wisdom and messages that come through when I create!!

They’re absolutely amazing and must be shared!

I’m ALWAYS blown away by what comes through!! ALWAYS!!

It’s powerful stuff!

So now that my kiddos and I are all settled in their schools and that our little family is settled again in our community (because, honestly, it really does take 2 years to feel settled after a military move!) I’m ready to BEGIN again!!

If you’re still here after all these years, thank you for being patient with me and for sticking around!

And, if you’re new, I’m SO happy you’re here!!

Thanks for reading!

Until next time…

Let the ‘CREATIVITY CALMS’ message begin!! YAY!!!

Why do I hand letter uplifting words? Because it easily calms my mind, ignites my joy and slows me down so I can BE a more calm, happy + present mom (something that's hard to do when my mind is running five miles ahead or behind the present moment...especially during summer break!) and truly focus on what matters in my life and all the GOOD that fills it!