Hello Again!

I used to blog a long time ago, in fact if you're interested or curious, you can check that blog out here: My thoughts, My Collections, My Creations. It has been just over 9 years since I last blogged there! To say A LOT has transpired over those last 9 years, would be quite an understatement! My husband and I raised our two boys, homeschooled them from 3rd/4th grade until they graduated high school. We moved after residing where we lived after 12 years (with another move coming in about 5 1/2 more years).  And so many other life evolving things, one of my brothers passed away at age 42, both of my in laws passed away, my maternal grandmother and my father, along with a few other family members.  But on a happier note, we have chickens!  Currently we have 12.  We have had many come and go over the last 6 years - it's called 'chicken math'. LOL.

As I looked back at my previous blog, it still really rings true to who I am and what I love to do, however I was not really able to change anything and found it a little difficult to navigate and therefore I just decided to create this new blog as I have recreated myself and my direction to where I want to go and what I want to do. I guess you can say a little older now and wiser? Well, I would like to think so but that does not necessarily make it true! In fact, the whole reason why I originally blogged was just to have a record of my life for my kids, I always saw myself as a somewhat of a writer but fell short often to do so (as you will note with the writings lessening as the days drew on). 

In 2004 I was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer and although that was quite a hit since my boys were incredibly young, what that did was bring me to a saving grace through Jesus Christ. I was and am still thankful that I was drawn to live a life of Christ through my circumstances. Fast forward to 2019 and I found myself after nearly 15 years of being a survivor, that I was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer, again. This time, it impacted me a lot more, it was a different cancer and not a recurrence. It was a little more aggressive than the first and I went through the same course of treatment as the first time, except adding radiation (it was not needed the first time). Currently I am a few weeks shy of being 6 months post chemo and I am still having some of the affects that plagued me from doing chemo, however I cannot complain, God has spared my life yet again! I had A LOT of people praying for me daily and I could go into all the details about how each treatment affected me, but that's not what this blog post blog is for (plus you really don't want to know all about those details)!! 

Back to now! I did take a creative hiatus for a few years and when I found out I had cancer again, that helped to pull me out and draw me back to crafting and creating. That's a pretty long story in and of itself but the finer details that came from that is that I had a goal to reorganize my craft room (and with the help of my now adult boys, whom tower over me at 6'2" and 6'5" respectively) we managed a more cohesive crafting room. It still needs some tweaking, but it works for now. I have also been a long time Cricut user from when they first had that small cutting machine and subsequently, I would upgrade them as the new ones came out. That being said, in 2017 I had purchased the Cricut Maker, however it sat in the box that it shipped in (yes it's true) until late last year when I FINALLY got the desire to open it up (I even created an unboxing video on that, need to find that still). :D Which brings me to my next goal, to start my own You Tube channel. I watched so many crafters during my 'down time' through chemo and I had such a desire to start my channel, with my goal being June 1st of this year. Then Covid. Need I say more? 

I have been so inspired by so many wonderful crafters and have found that this new crafting community (to me) has been so encouraging and embracing. I had ZERO intentions of starting my blog back up, yet here we are!! I really hope that I can add content that is worthy, as there are SO MANY AMAZING bloggers and you tubers out there I feel at times, what can I even bring to this crafting table that hasn't already been brought before me? Time will tell I imagine. I have prayed for God's leading in my life and sometimes he closes doors and opens others and we must have faith to allow us to listen and take heed to them. I pray each of you will find your own path and journey should you be out searching for one. I also thank God for each and every one of you that has come here to read my blog or check out my Instagram or even my you tube channel when that gets going. Peace to you all.