The Thankful Project: 28-30 + WILD GINGER IS HERE!

Day 28: The Anti-Decorator a.k.a. Nathan

On this day, the Friday after Thanksgiving, all those who side with me and choose to give Thanksgiving it's rightful glory, put their Christmas decorations up today (I will not pretend and hide my bitterness for the commercial world that tries to overlook the greatness that is Thanksgiving...boo hisss!)  I am so thankful for my dear sweet, wonderful husband, a.k.a. the Anti-Decorator.  This means that anything remotely seasonal is HUGE.  The downfall, is that any small tree besides the actual Christmas tree decoratively placed around the house is TOOOO much.  I bet if I asked now, he would whip out some bag/box/large container and be ready to take any other decor resembling the shape of a Christmas tree straight to the nearest Salvation Army (He knows I would be so angry if he burned it b/c someone else wouldn't be able to enjoy the Christmas Cheer!)  I love him for this quality though, because I will never disappoint him with my decoration skills...and I love to see how irritated he gets when there's another mini Christmas tree each year.  He's so cute when he's irritated.

Day 29: Austin & Madison

These two wonderful, dear sweet children deleted all the data on my phone Friday night before bed. This taught be a few great lessons.

1. Don't leave my phone in their reach.
2. Back up pictures and music on your phone to your computer...especially when you have a newborn and you primarily take most of your pictures with your phone.
3. DON'T PUT SO MUCH HEART AND SOUL INTO THAT THING THAT IS YOUR PHONE.  It can disappear at any point. Humbling really...

Day 30: WILD GINGER

It's happening!  I'm doing it!  I'm going Blog-stal....Postal + Blogger! (or should it be Pogger...) Yeah, I just made that up, but still!  Check it out!  I am combining my blog and my business, and I'm making it bigger.  I've decided that if I really want to take steps toward being a stay-at-home mom, I have to take this HUGE step!

So, this will be my last post here.
Now, click here and enter into the new world that is WILD GINGER.

No worries.  I will keep this blog here until the end of the year so you can click through, but make
www.wildgingerblog.com one of you favorites!  Make the switch!  It will be so much easier!  Well, and way more entertaining since I wont be posting here anymore... duh.

2-Part Blog: Insta-Funday Sunday & The Blog Snob

Part 1: Insta- Funday Sunday

I haven't done this in SOOO long and I had some really good pictures backed up.  Let's see how consistent I can be with this again.  .

And go.

We say, "Ruthie...YODA!"  and this is what she does.  We sent this one morning while Daddy was plowing to cheer him up.

Wild Ginger Project:  I did these for my dear friend, Megan, and I loved how they turned out...stay tuned for the wedding invite...love them more.  But I'll let her debut them.  

I lost this battle a week or so ago.  I told her she was too big.  She disagreed and this is how I found her eating breakfast.

I posted this a week-ish ago kind of proud yet slightly ashamed at how tall my clean dishes stack was.  

And this loveliness was yesterday at Panera.  Nathan had to clean up the shopping center that Panera was in so we took advantage if the trip to Peoria and had some morning giggles with apple juice, fruit & Dr. Seuss.  

Part 2: The Blog Snob

It’s been a dream of mine to become a pro blogger, but Nathan and I were talking yesterday about an acquaintance of ours that is a local blogger and he/she has begun to act differently because of some success she/he has had.  Now, I have not experienced this first hand, and I find this person very pleasant and I semi relate to and kind of envy him/her in many ways.  Although, I could see how it is TOTALLY possible.  Even on here, all I do is talk about myself, my kid (almost plural), my job/side graphic stuff (almost as shameless advertising), and well…everything about me and what I do/have done. 

So this is me blogging about how I need to revaluate why I blog. HA  (Click "Read More" to keep going.  If you don't want to see my rant, scroll up and look at Ruthie again.  It's ok...I do it all the time)  

When I Grow Up, I Wanna Be...

A PROFESSIONAL BLOGGER!

I love everything about the community of blogging.  I follow a handful of people who blog lots, and make a living off of it.  How awesome!  To get paid for something you love to do! Here are a few of my blogs that I DEARLY love.

**I have discovered through this post, that I am apparently drawn to redheads, those out west, and people named lindsay.  Maybe because i can relate to them, or i want to be them.  Either/Or really.**

This is Emily.  She is from Southern Idaho with 3 (almost 4) kids.  She blogs about LOTS!  Love her beauty posts, plus DIYs, mix tapes, photography, etc.  She has an Etsy shop where she sells stuff she sews.  She's gorgeous and redheaded...Might i add...thin red hair.  Hmm.  All-together, love following.

This...you should already know.  I am this woman when she was 27.  Her name is Ree.  She was bound to be a city girl but married an cattle rancher.  Now, she lives in the hills of Oklahoma with her 4 kids which she home schools (what?!), she writes books (about her awesome dogs), and cooks.  She has cook books and tv shows and cows, and GREATNESS! I wanna be REE!  She is a woman of faith and family and values who raises her kids with everything she has!  Just awesome.  Oh, and have you ever heard of Tasty Kitchen??  Yeah.  Thanks her too.  

This is Lindsey.  She plus her 3 kids and husband live in SoCal.  I dont remember how I found her, but I follow her solely for her creativity and AWESOME ideas!  I love her house.  I did a painting that she did that I get tons of compliments on.  She is also the blogger where I snatched the idea of Insta-Funday Sunday, athough her's is instaFriday.  I just work during the week, so I moved it to Sunday.  

Meet Joy.  She's a baker.  :)  As you can guess, I generally go to her for food.  But I like reading her blog also, because she goes into the science of stuff.  Like this post helped me last week...Baking Soda vs Baking Powder.  She's from LA by the beach.  She also types like me.  Slightly sarcastic and pretty frank.  Awesome.

I have to figure out where I want to go here.  Can I have a successful blog without selfies, make-up tutorials, stylish (expensive) outfits, so much baking???  You know, generally if I could just paid for doing what I love that would be great.  Can you work on that?  

Well, happy Friday, kids!  I'm off to go celebrate my nieces!  Thing 1 turned two in September and Thing 2 turns 1 here shortly.  (It's Dr. Seuss:)

I'm here!! I'm here!!!

Man...I'm sorry.  I feel slightly like I failed...like I've let followers down.  I seriously find good blog posts every week and LONG to post something, but thennnn... I dont.  But this weekend, Joel made me feel better in his sermon. 

A pretty famous Christian author/blogger,  don't ask me the name...I'm barely suprised I remember the entirety of this point...commented on why he didn't have a Twitter. His response:  To have any kind of social networking is a plea for a witness in our lives...movie quote- Shall We Dance (imdb, 2004)

'Beverly Clark: We need a witness to our lives. There's a billion people on the planet... I mean, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you're promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things... all of it, all of the time, every day. You're saying 'Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness'."' 

I have a witness to my life, in my marriage in my family.  The validation through others through Twitter is unnessisary.

Ok, back to Linz talking...I love that movie quote first off.  But it's true.  I find validation through my interactions on FB, blogger, Instagram, etc. (don't really want to keep going for fear of severe insecurity).  But by not posting (forgetting to post) I was investing in my surroundings...now hopefully it was for the positive aka Rue.

But on the flip side of this I've missed those moments of just spilling my guts out in a post or coming back and just grinning at my display of prime witty-ness.  I love telling people about Rue and how awkwardly redneck adorable anti-technological my husband is... i know you hear Moose's voice when i talk about him or shed a tear or two when i look back in awe of God's timing of Rue and the house and the greatness that was August of 2012.  I don't want to say that I'm not acting real outside of my blog, but quite opposite; the people that I'm the most real with (the people that care enough the check me out on FB or blogger) get to see me even more raw (rawer??-not sure:)  

So I'm gonna be the come back kid!  I'm gonna post again! And more often! And more deep...well, and less deep too... A person of my nature can only be so serious.  

Remember me... The Winey wife.. Yea, I'm back. 

Ps and just because I have the cutest baby ever... Squinch! A fan fav...

Be Like Ree...

I have grown to understand that I have a slightly unhealthy obsession with Ree Drummond... aka the Pioneer Woman... blogger, writer, photographer, accidental country girl... i didn't come up with that.  That is what she clams on her cooking show every Saturday morning on the food network (9:30a EST 8:30a my time...i DVR it).  It's nothing we need to inform the police about, but I'm pretty sure we could be kin.  I almost said we could be the same person, but I can't photograph as well as her.  I tried and failed.

Here is a bulleted list of why I think we could be bestest friends ever...

• She likes making bulleted lists.
• She has cows... LOTS of cows.  I per say have cows...kinda.
• She has red hair. I have kinda red hair.
• She cooks ALOT and loves it!  I would cook more if I didnt have a job, but I cook more then most and LOVE it.  
• She has the garden I can only dream of.
• She lives on a ranch in Oklahoma with wild horses and cowboys.  I can't really compare...corn does not run and our boys wear john deere or DeKalb hats.
• We kind of look alike (see picture) except for the eyes, and her hairs a little darker, and, well maybe her nose a little... but for the most part.
• Her style is fabulous.  Clothing and house...It's country but contemporary.  Look at her daughters' room.  This was also featured in Country Living which i also subscribe to.  And the staircase! That was pretty awesome too.
•  From her blog and her show, I have concluded we have the SAME sense of humor.  And I secretly think that if she didnt have someone managing her websites, she would misspell just as much as me.
• She names her animals (even the cows) that get killed.  See it's not that odd.  
• We have amazing canine companions...Her basset hounds, Charlie & Walter, and my Thing 1, Moose, and Thing 2 Hummer.
• Her husband doesn't venture too far away from red meat, bread, and potatoes.  My husband consumes no green besides ice burg lettuce.  I believe Ladd aka Marlboro Man aka her hubby is way more adventurous..
• There are many, MANY more... scary really.

I will be like her when I have more grown children.  I'm sure of it.  When Tricia and I were driving to Dallas in July, I got so excited when we were driving through OK b/c I thought that we might be seeing Dummond cattle...just maybe.  And after looking at a map, i think that possibility is more like 60% because of their distance from I-44, but I got chills thinking she drove on the interstate we were on... do you see where I get unhealthy in this obsession...

I have her first cookbook and i have made all but one or two recipes out of it.  AND her website, Tasty Kitchen is one of my go-tos to see how other women sub stuff or cook stuff or find fast recipes   I aspire to blog like her, but I don't have nearly enough entertaining moments in my life or pictures to post...well...and i have a day job...that kinda hinders stuff.  Her day job IS her blog/writing/TV show/awesomeness.

So, Santa (aka anyone), here is what I want for Christmas... Lunch with Ree, Alex, and Paige (those are her daughters who are similarly awesome). And if you're elves can't do that, her second cook book would suffice.

On a slightly serious note though, it's pretty stinkin' awesome to see a woman who loves and is dedicated to her family who can still be quarky and do what she absolutely LOVES.  Did i mention she home-schools her kids, too?  I mean she's a rock star... a COUNTRY rock star!  Minus the vocals...man shoot..she's prob so good she can sing too.  Oh, and the men in her family BULL RIDE!  What?!?

Ree, if you ever read this... which truly may never happen, you dang well inspire me. Keep on keepin' on. I think you show other women that each one of us can each live our dreams on our own "homesteads."