(upon pulling in to the church parking lot Sunday morning and seeing a SWIMMING POOL)

Miss A: Mommy WE NEED OUR SWIMMING SUITS!!!!!!

Mommy: The pool isn’t for swimming…it’s for a baptism

(insert brief explanation of baptism here)

Miss A: Mommy I will baptize!

(she’ll do anything to get in the water) 

*     *     *     *    *     *     *     *     *     *

 (speaking to Miss I, who doesn’t want her milk)

Miss E: We don’t waste our milk boo boo.

             Jesus wants us to drink our milk.

            If we waste our milk, then the cows will come and take it!

(I never told her that!)

 I discovered a new blog the other day…not like I really need anymore to read. 
Anyway I read this AMAZING post called The Ugly-Beautiful.  You just have to read it. It’s so great.  And then also, this corresponding post about finding the beautiful in everything.  It was just really sweet and kind of convicting in a way.  I think sometimes in my negative views of things, whether I verbalize it or not, my heart and mind are complaining.  And we all know what the Bible says about complaining…

So, this has been on my mind, and then today I heard the song “Small Town” on the radio, (apparently I’ve been a huge John Mellencamp fan all my life without even knowing it!)  and it got me thinking.

Almost every day of my pre-teen years was spent watching an episode of “The Andy Griffith Show”.  It wasn’t quite as exciting as Lucy, but I still really loved it.  The characters were dorky and their problems were always ridiculous, but I just loved that small town feeling.  I wanted to live in Mayberry, where you could just walk down the street to get ice cream.  Small town life didn’t seem boring to me.  It seemed comfortable…predictable…and just homey.

This is the thing: I live in a small town.  REALLY small.  And REALLY old.  And REALLY run down.  A more “modern” town is only 15 miles down the highway, so it’s no big deal.  The most happening place to go in my town is the Chevron, where this crazy hippy guy sits pounding his little drum until all hours of the night.  Or the little senior center when they have their bingo nights.

My small town is predictiable.  There will always be giant potholes in the road, and the post office will always be closed for lunch about the time you get there.  And the SCARY old lady with the creepy wig and too short skirt will always be walking down mainstreet with her bag of groceries.  It’s definitely predictable. My thought is always that it is predictably unglamorous and always will be.

Then today, when I heard that song, ridiculous as it is, I started thinking.  Why am I so ungrateful for my “small town”.  It’s not anything to brag about, but it’s not the most hideous place on earth either.  So, inspired by the ugly-beautiful, Hombre took me out to take some pictures and look for the beauty in my small town.

First there is the neighbor’s house.  This house was the horror of my life when we first moved here.  It was completely trashed and the owners had terrifying, wild dogs and HORRENDOUS children who threw rocks at my house in the middle of the night when I was home alone and nearly gave me a heart attack!

But then, hideous neighbors moved away (and took their dogs), an investor came in and completely stripped and remodeled the house, then a sweet (although a little wacky) older lady moved in.  Now it’s my favorite house in the neighborhood.  I love looking over my fence and seeing the cute little rock chimney.

Another great thing in my small town is that there is actually a lot of pretty scenery, and a lot of quiet spots to just slow down for awhile.

There’s all kinds of fun and interesting things to see around here.

No matter where you are in town it’s actually a really pretty view.

And I love that there is so much history here.

Even if things are run down, and a lot of them desserted, it’s still fun to see. 

And I love picturing in my mind how sweet the town would like if it was all restored like the little rock house next door.  Maybe someday…then it would really be like Mayberry!

No matter where you go there’s little pieces of history.  This feels like a great perk from a homeschooling perspective.

And if you get tired of the real historical stuff, they’ve actually built a little tribute to it that you can enjoy as well. Some people think it’s silly, but I kind of like it.

The small town I live in may not be the top place to live, but it does have it’s own kind of beauty.  You can always find a quiet place to go for a walk.  I know it’s not Mayberry, but I’m pretty sure towns like Mayberry can only be found in Hollywood.;)

Most of our lives are spent in little towns,
little towns all throughout the country. That’s where
we live.  And that’s where the juices come from
and that’s where we made it, not made it in terms of success,
but made who we are.
~Toni Morrison

Imitation is definitely the sincerest form of flattery!

Today was one of those days that was supposed to be really productive, but kind of just ended up feeling like a disaster. 

There were lots of errands to run at random places, and I thought I was being nice by taking the two big girls along, but apparently I was actually torturing them and myself all at the same time.  Perfect!

The main point of the trip was to go to JoAnn’s where they were having a sale and lots of great coupons. 

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve kind of developed an interest in crafty things over the last few months, after looking around here and here and here.

I’ve been inspired to try more handmade gifts, and get more creative.  This coupled with my newfound fear of plastic has been very motivating. (Although I haven’t created any actual toys yet)

My first venture was Miss I’s 1st birthday. A very big deal.

We decided to do all homemade decor, and the big sisters got to help out. It was a lot of fun.

It’s hard to tell in the pictures, but it turned out so sweet and perfect.

And it was so special that we all got to make it for her.  It felt so much more personal than anything we’ve ever done before.  And the girls were so proud.

Crafty adventure #2 was a pillow for lost teeth, necessitated by Miss A.  It also turned out just as sweet as I had envisioned.

Other crafty endeavors have included…. a dress for my neice,

which ended up really cute, but was quite the nightmare while in process. (FYI…patterns are written assuming that you KNOW sewing lingo)

I made hip dish towels for my sister-in-law  and grandma’s birthdays.

And for my mom’s birthday, Miss A and I created this, inspired by Soulemama of course.

So, as you can see I’ve become quite crafty (everytime I use that word I keep hearing that Beastie Boys song….. I don’t mean crafty like that).

So today I was really excited to go to JoAnn’s and pick out some fun stuff for new projects with the help of my mom.

Two hours later…I was ready to kill someone.  I was ready to start carrying a plastic grocery bag because I was SO tired of trying to find the perfect fabric for a bag my mom is going to make me.  I was ready to rip all of those 99 cent patterns to shreds, and tell JoAnn’s to take me off the mailing list because I am not meant to be crafty.

Crafty people are like my mom.  The only way I can describe it is, they are “la-di-da” people. 

That’s NOT me. I am nowhere near “la-di-da”.  I am more along the lines of  “move it! move it! movie it!”.  Being crafty takes way more patience and flexiblity than I could ever dream of posessing. 

I knew this when I was sewing that little dress for my niece until one o’clock in the morning, because it HAD to be done (in a single night).  There was no way I could leave it half finished, especially when the whole thing had been SO.COMPLETELY.INFURIATING.  Do you know what a “staystitch” is? Or an “easestitch”?  Have you ever tried to use BIAS TAPE (in my mind now synonomous with TORTURE).  If you are really good at all of these things, that’s fabulous, but I don’t really want to hear about it.  Because I’m not.

 I am not meant to be crafty.  That’s just the way it is.

And yet, I really want to be.