Welcome Home

I started this blog a couple years ago with the intention to do wonderful and great things with it.  That's pretty much my intention with everything I take on, and I'm a frequent offender of biting off way more than I can chew.  Last year I went through the gut wrenching experience of my husband deploying, which brought everything to a screeching halt.

After Mr. Hopeful left for Afghanistan I began to feel much more compelled to stay away from blogging. Part of the reason being I had no idea what I was doing and every week I'd think of things to change, ways to improve, etc. While a blog is a constantly shifting and morphing form, I felt like it wasn't shifting and morphing into something specific, but becoming something completely different every week. Then I decided I had too many interests for just one blog, and needed to make two more so that each blog could have a better focus. Again, that age old habit of biting off more than I could chew rearing its familiar head.

Through a lot of prayer and consideration I just completely backed away.  Part of it was because I felt like every Christian woman on the block who wanted to discuss homemaking was making a blog, and I didn't want to fall into that cliche.  Part of it was I felt too many young, Christian girls were asserting their opinions as an authority, and I didn't want to come across that way either.  I'm too young and human to be an authority on anything, and I like to be myself whenever possible.  I truly felt like God was directing me to take a step back and just live my life instead of doing an expose of myself every few days like I was really someone important.  This isn't an insult towards anyone, but more a chastening of my own self and pride and a snide remark at the many ways in which I fall short.

This past year and a half of rest has caused me to go through some indescribable growth.  It's the kind that only comes through trials and difficulty, but completely worth it.  To be perfectly honest, I'm still in the midst of those trials, but due to the current circumstances I've begun to feel called and ready to take up the blog again.  This time, only one, and it will be to discuss as many of my interests as I want to.  I had debated making an entirely new blog, but when I finally broke down and visited Hopeful Morning again (I hadn't been to my own blog in over a year!) I realized how much I like this name and spot.  It really fits, and I've gotten comfortable here.

I feel like I've truly gotten the direction and focus I've so dearly needed to really get this thing going with the standard I wanted it to meet originally.  A lot has become clear about my goals instead of just delving into things all willy nilly.  I really came to understand the integrity and importance of a central purpose in any creative endeavor.  I had tried to do it before with this blog, but it just never happened.  Now, after some time and distance to ruminate, I have made a much more mindful decision concerning the future of this blog, which will be a platform into the next stages of my creative goals.

For those of you who are still following you will notice that all of my posts have been deleted. Don't worry, they're not completely gone. They're all saved in a Word document to be either reposted or to help me to reshape what I want this blog to become.  I've printed all of my old blog posts out to read and analyze.  I then want to forge ahead with the things I really liked, and shift the things that were taking away from a solid purpose.  As I went through all of my old articles I realized I really did have some good ideas I want to continue to pursue. 

Anyway, I'm very excited to see where this leads, and I'm really looking forward to joining back in to the blogosphere.  I feel much more ready to take this project on.

*Photography my own.  Please do not use without permission.*