Shaking out the cobwebs...

I am back (again)! It's been an interesting month since I've been here. Both for the good and for the bad. My father in law was hospitalized for a couple of weeks. They found a tumor in his stomach that turned out to be an aggressive and rare form of stomach cancer. Praise God, the surgery to remove it was successful. However, following his surgery, he had a stroke. This was really the more devastating of the two events. His prognosis for both is good. He is regaining his strength each day and thankfully it seems he will be able to fully recover soon!



Because of this family emergency, my husband was gone to the hospital pretty much all day, every day for two weeks (after just getting home from a trip for work). This left me to take care of our little one and hold down the home front. We also made several trips to the hospital all while trying to prepare for and celebrate the holidays. But we are so blessed! It turned out that my father in law was able to come home before Christmas and we were able to celebrate all together. I hope your holiday was as blessed as ours! Here we are on Christmas Eve:


I have also had a couple of exciting things happen in the last few days. First off, I won! I actually won! Whisperwood Cottage was kind enough to host a wonderful giveaway last month for what should prove to be a fantastic book, The Find by Stan Williams (aka The Elegant Thrifter). I haven't received the book yet, but I am eagerly awaiting its arrival. Also, if you haven't spent time on the Whisperwood Cottage blog, don't even hesitate... go there now! She has great ideas (such as her recent wreath make over) and inspiring makeovers that WILL make you drool (such as her master bedroom makeover, my personal favorite). So, thank you again to the Whisperwood Cottage, not only for the wonderful giveaway, but for hosting a wonderful blog that I enjoy so much!


The other excitement is the new year. Notice I didn't capitalize that. New Year's Eve is not my favorite holiday since we usually end up being very low key. In fact this year we stayed home with our little one who is dealing with her first cold... pretty minor in the scheme of things, but still has thrown her off her regular game. So back to my new year... It's a wonderful time to re-evaluate, re-configure, and re-organize both the tangible and intangible. I've never been big on setting resolutions of the new year, but this year is different. I want to really focus on being better... as a mom, as a wife, daughter, sister, friend, homemaker, etc. I am planning to share some of my resolutions here as a way to keep me accountable. So I guess I am giving everyone permission to call me out on those resolutions!! (one of which does involve being a better blogger!:))


I've rambled and I apologize for that. I look forward to sharing more of my thoughts, projects, and ideas here in the coming days and weeks. So if you feel so inclined, come on back and see what 2010 brings for me while she sleeps!! (And while you wait for those posts, be sure to check out a FANTASTIC giveaway at Beneath My Heart. Traci is hosting a $75 giveaway for Lisa Leonard jewelry... one of my favs! You can check out the giveaway here. Don't miss it!)


~Alisa