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A Farewell to 2016

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I always have these grand plans to write a real End Of Year post with all sorts of newsy bits, observations and deep thoughts for the next year. But then I sit down at my computer and suddenly all the words go away.

So instead of observations and lots of words, I’m leaving 2016 with pictures instead.

January

I started the year with trying something new. Donuts were basically a success. Thanks, #altonbrown. #brankshireseat

A photo posted by Chantel Brankshire (@cbrankshire) on

We've been friends for a long time. Love it when we manage to catch them as they go by!❤️

A photo posted by Chantel Brankshire (@cbrankshire) on

February
https://www.instagram.com/p/BA44YXskjz-/

Then there was this face…

A photo posted by Chantel Brankshire (@cbrankshire) on

March

I see spring. #springindixie

A photo posted by Chantel Brankshire (@cbrankshire) on


https://www.instagram.com/p/BCyRjikkj3q/

April

What can I say? We're country bumpkins. ❤️

A photo posted by Chantel Brankshire (@cbrankshire) on

What can I say? We're country bumpkins. ❤️

A photo posted by Chantel Brankshire (@cbrankshire) on

May

This is true beauty. #springindixie #littlethings

A photo posted by Chantel Brankshire (@cbrankshire) on

Nothing like a pillow house with papa.

A photo posted by Chantel Brankshire (@cbrankshire) on

June

That big guy should make a cocoon any day. #lunamoth

A photo posted by Chantel Brankshire (@cbrankshire) on

My little nature girl. Photo credit: @elyssa.z #jacksriverfalls

A photo posted by Chantel Brankshire (@cbrankshire) on

July
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHcLm2bB7Ji/

When you get to help drive the car on the bumpy road back from the Jack river swimming hole.

A photo posted by Chantel Brankshire (@cbrankshire) on

August

Just a girl and her (stick) horse.

A photo posted by Chantel Brankshire (@cbrankshire) on

September

October

These October days swirl away autumn with the wind. #fallindixie

A video posted by Chantel Brankshire (@cbrankshire) on

November

Auntie @samanthajaynefrost brought presents. Minnie was my favorite when I was Charlotte's age.

A photo posted by Chantel Brankshire (@cbrankshire) on

Lots and lots of pies. #brankshireseat #thanksgiving #foodie

A photo posted by Chantel Brankshire (@cbrankshire) on

December

A white Christmas. Charlotte's first sled rides. It's a pretty nice day. #brankshirechristmas

A photo posted by Chantel Brankshire (@cbrankshire) on

Happy New Year, friends! May your days ahead be blessed.

Happy is the new perfect

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As an outsider, we tend to judge moments of messy faces, meltdowns and mid store bribes on a scale of how perfect each mother is. 

We say things like “I’ll always” and “I’d never” and we mean it too. We mean to give our future children the very best. And from over there it is so easy to see all the things we don’t want to include into our perfect brand of motherhood.


But there is something about motherhood that books and babysitting and even hearing people talk about it cannot prepare you for. 

Motherhood rarely looks like we expect. It’s noisy, messy, confusing and oh does it find your weak points and your fears and glare them into your face. 


Oh, the endless piles of laundry and the dishes that pile up everywhere and the toys that trip you in the night. The sleeplessness and the crazy way that you suddenly can forget the day and have no idea if it’s May or June or still March sometimes. 

One day you find that you are the mom with the child having a meltdown in the middle of Walmart and you forgot your purse…somewhere.

And the always and the nevers don’t matter that much anymore. 


So I’m not a perfect mom. I scramble and wonder if everyone knows that I have no clue what I’m doing over here. 

I don’t have the latest hair and I’m lucky if my clothes look decent. 

But I live for hearing her laugh, and for seeing the wonder in her eyes as she discovers a new bug or sees a bird. 

The life we offer is a simple one. And my greatest dream has always been to make it a happy one.

Perfect isn’t what we do or how we look, afterall. Perfect is what we live. 

And for me, I can’t think of a better perfect than Happy. Really happy. 

Hallmark has some adorable collections right now, with items perfect for the mamas or women who mother even without children who are a part of your life. I’m thankful for a mom who taught me about the importance of laughter and hard work. Hallmark has beautiful cards that help express how much our moms mean to us. 

Some make me laugh, like this mug.

Hallmark generously is offering one of you a few things from the Pretty Witty collection-the mug and bag shown as well as a framed art with the saying “Happy is the New Perfect” on it. 

To Enter, tell me what makes you perfectly happy these days. 

For a second entry, Please visit hallmark and tell me about your favorite collection in a separate comment. 

Why I love March {plus a reading challenge update}

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I absolutely love March.

Winter is finally over, and spring in Dixie land is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

Redbud, tulip trees,  dogwood, daffodils, violets and fruit trees all burst out one after the other.  It’s like a grand celebration of warmer days, sunshine and new things.

 I get to dig in the garden again, and marvel over the miracles of seeds and sun and soil. And I relish every moment.

Plus, Scott and I tied the knot in March. We just celebrated 7 years. That right there is enough to make March one of my favorites.

But there is another thing that I always look forward to in March. It’s the celebration of one of my favorite things in the form of KindredGrace.com’s March of Books. 

 Any place that dedicated an entire month to bookish delights makes me excited. This year has been a little more quiet than some, but the posts have been so good.

And this month, a friend has worked feverishly and her first book is juuust about ready to be released. I’m so very excited about that!

March has been good this year.

However, I haven’t managed to finish any books this month. Has anyone else found spring fever hitting and the sun begging them outside lately? That’s been me. I’m hand turning the garden and it is also time consuming.

I have been reading though. I’ve been working on Book Two in Rachelle’s trilogy. (The final book comes out in April!!)

I’m also trying to check a few books off my “need to finish” list. (Including the last couple chapters of The Life-changing Magic of Tidying  Up—I started that a year ago.) But I’m not sure I will actually complete any of them before April rolls around. My goal is to finish at least one and read an entire new one in April. But we will see!

How is your reading coming? Best book you want to read in April?

 

to a new year

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Twelve years ago, I wrote my first blog post.  Blogspot was brand new, and I’d never heard of wordpress. Or blogging.

I opened a new draft and wrote “Let’s see what this does.” For these 12 years, that’s pretty much been what’s happened here.

I’ve written, and learned. I’ve shared a lot of crazy words, a few good ones, and a lot of living with the web. And it scared me sometimes. Writing is an art. It’s one I’m very much still attempting to master. But I’ve learned a lot in 12 years. Enough to know that what “blogging” meant 12 years ago is not what “blogging” means today.  And enough to know that in 12 years, it’ll have changed all over again.

A part of my heart resists the changes. I miss the old days of long newsy posts. Of comments instead of likes. I miss the days when blogging wasn’t about all the rules, or about trying to make a living, but about making connections.

And as time went on, I found that I didn’t think I could do it. I couldn’t follow all the rules. I couldn’t keep up with all the latest trends.  I just wanted to write, but words started to trickle instead of flow. It was all fog and fragments.

Life got hard and personal. I lost people I cared about. The things I wanted to say couldn’t be said in public places. And I was so tired of always trying to find the balance between sharing too little or too much. Tired of the fog and the fragments. Tired of trying to figure it all out when it came to directions and this bloggy space.

The thought of walking away from writing was a crazy one. But I considered it. I stopped opening up pages only to spend hours late at night staring at the empty spaces with everything to say but nothing to write.

I stopped because I realized that my blogging journey had been good, but that in order to continue, I had to reinvent my blog. I had to take a step back and stop trying to force myself and my blog into the mold without accounting for the fact that along with blogging, I’ve grown and changed too. And that is how it should be.

I needed to figure out where I wanted to go from here, and what I wanted now from my blog. I needed to figure out how to make writing a part of my new life and to align with my current seasons and focuses instead of it just being one more thing that I thought I needed to do.

Words–they have and always will be a part of my life.  But how blogging works, and how it looks for me can’t always stay the same.

So in January, I did something a little crazy. I took the last 12 years of me “seeing what this did” away.

Not because I’m ashamed of my journey. I’m proud of how I’ve grown, and unspeakably grateful for the people who have been a part of my life for so long, and the opportunities God has given me along the way.

I took it away because for me, after 12 years very little is the same in my life. And because now I know more about blogging, there are some things that I would do differently–that needs to be different than it was back when I started. And I needed a fresh start.

I was a bit scared and sad to remove so many pages of the history of my blogging journey, but I felt instantly relief.  I could finally start figuring out what I needed to do and not be held back by what my blog use to be like. I knew I’d done the right thing.

That was January 1.

Since then, I’ve let the dust settle. It’s done a lot of good. As I continue to work hard on growing as a Virtual Assistant, and to reach the place that our little family needs so much right now, I needed blogging to work with me and not be just one more thing going in a completely different direction. I needed a place for an outlet, but I needed to be able to focus my energy a little more, too.

And finally, I think I’ve started to get some of the clarity I’ve been waiting for. I think I know what I need to do and what my blog will be like for this season.  I’m excited about it. It’s been far too long since I’ve had a direction for this blog.

So what’s changing? Well, maybe not a lot of obvious stuff.

But I’m excited to write more about books (because I’m not going to stop reading, anytime soon!), and sharing more about some of the things I’m excited about and about some of the journeys we’re taking right now towards our dream of living more self sustainable lives, and of my work at home dreams. Because really, all I ever wanted to be was a farming family. And I’m willing to do what it takes to get closer to that dream. Because we really need it.

So…12 years after my first post, I’m hitting publish again and thinking, “Let’s see what this does… Again.”

 

Until Morning

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She fell asleep today. As the clock struck out the first hour of the new day, her last breath breathed out.

No more pain.
No more struggle.

Just rest. Quiet, peaceful rest.

The next thing she hears will be the sound of trumpets. The next face she sees will be Jesus’ face. The next thing she knows will be a brand new body with no cancer, no scars, no pain.

I’m happy for her. I’m happy that she can rest now.

But for those of us who are still awake, it is a sad day. We miss her. So very much.

So now we are waiting on the trumpets.

Until Morning, Auntie Lauren.

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Lauren Harding Douglas

P.s this is not the post I planned to open out the year with weeks ago. My aunt’s sudden decline was something no amount of knowing prepares you for. She passed away Wednesday morning. Please keep her daughter and the family in prayer. It was a third blow to our family this year and the hardest. Thankful for the blessed hope.

I will be back soon. I have so many ideas brewing, and things to say!

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