A Chick's List and a Bit of a Rant

Favorite Scent: Luxe Linen candle. I bought mine at Nancy's in Pensacola, I've gone through two and need to order more. It's fantastic, you won't regret it. Apparently if you order it on Amazon in Canada it cost $57, I will not be doing that, geeze.

Favorite Book: I read What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty while we were at the beach last week. A bump on her head causes her to forgot the last ten years of her life…and it's completely different then she remembers. I felt like it was a good reminder how all the little things/comments we make now add up over the years to create big changes. I recently started another of this author's books "The Hypnotist's Love Story" and I'm not nearly as impressed.

Favorite Blog: I love to read blogs, they're great for inspiration in parenting, relationships, creativity, fashion, fitness, home decorating, meal planning….I actually don't currently have a favorite. I feel like all my favorites have either stopped blogging recently (hmmm, sound familiar? So annoying.) or maybe they've somehow fallen off of my feed? I need some recommendations. A few that enjoy right now are: 71toes, Design Mom, and Jones Design Company. What are your current favorites? I need to add to my blog roll.

Favorite spot in my house right now:
My office. I missed having a main level office in the last house. I LOVED my space in the last house but having an office on the main level means that I use it a LOT more. Maybe that's why I'm blogging again.

There is not yet a single room where everything is exactly how I want it but I love having this space carved out. I'm debating cork board behind my desktop, I already think that it's too cluttered as is so I'm leaning towards no. I have plans to streamline the built ins with all matching storage baskets or boxes instead of the mismatch that I have now. I picked up a couple of things: an Ikea cart that I've wanted since it was released (4 years ago?) and some fresh flowers to sit in Granny's old blue Ball jar. I plan to do a new home tour, maybe a post of each room and talk about what I've done and what I have left to do in each space. I fear that the "have left to do" list is long, bah.

A break from the favorites list for some honesty. We're struggling to love this house. It's a perfectly good house with some nice features, it's a rental and it's just not US. This move happened really really quickly. Job offer kind of out of nowhere, house sold in nine days, a very short trip up to house hunt, a tricky rental market and not a whole lot of help in the search. We ended up feeling like we didn't really have any other option. Honestly, I feel a bit like a jerk to mention it. I've been reminded in more ways than one that this is a fine house and so many would feel blessed to have it (and I do). It is a blessing, it's a nice house, it's a good house. It's just that the last two houses we lived in both tugged on my heart strings in numerous ways and I'm trying to fall in love with something else when it doesn't come naturally. I think I need to pick up The Nesters Book which I hear is about loving the house you're with.

We have really great plans that involve traveling and exploring and lots of fun (yay, lots of blog material) but, home is kind of my thing. You know how many men are defined by their career? Defined might not be the best word but I think you all know what I mean. Anyway, I feel so much of me is our home. Like I said, our house and home life is what I've always been passionate about…I wouldn't say I'm struggling over it but it is just important to me. Right now I would say that I'm excited about the possibilities and I'm researching ways to make it more us. I'll be spending a lot of chilly days snuggled in this house and I want to feel comfortable, to feel at home.

Well that Chick's List took a tangent. Another favorite right now is this blog. You remember that book about the difference between women and men…Mars/Venus? I never read it actually but I remember it said that men use 7,000 words a day and women use 20,000 a day. (Although in our case I would say it's closer to 3,000 and 60,000, ha). Well, I'm not using my words since I haven't actually left the house enough to meet anyone and I don't think me telling my kids to "stop bossing your sibling around" and "Waffle, drop it" 7,500 times actually adds up for me so I'm glad to get my words out here.