Blame it on April :: I've been BUSY

Along with my SURPRISE blog redesign,
SURPRISE! SURPRISE! SURPRISE!
I wanna catch up with you on what's going on around here:

I'm not quite sure when this happened, but I am pretty sure it occurred 

mid-April, when I became missing in action here on my blog.

{I know you are so surprised!}

It's not that I have forgotten about YOU or about writing, in fact I have missed it very much!

You see, April came, and life's divine interruptions with it.

Here are some of my excuses for not postin' reg'lar-like:

April 9th, we were in Jacksonville, Florida celebrating my paternal grandmother's 90th birthday.

What a blessed time of celebrating the life of a woman, my Gram, who has affected my life so much, without her prayers, I wouldn't be me. (Post coming about that...)

Miss S (my college girl) and I stayed in Florida a little longer to help my mom clean out my sister's old bedroom. My mom came back home with us and we got to enjoy her baking!

Then, mid-April, Miss S announced that she no longer wanted to attend Furman University.
This is a longgggggggggg story, but Mark and I agreed.

And so, she started visiting (this involved me as chauffeur) other colleges and universities to attend in the Fall. Final exams were last week, and I fetched her from campus (along with that came the cleaning out of the dorm room that hasn't been wiped down or vacuumed in 9 months proper-like)--FUN! (if you have never tried it, I highly recommend it if you have nothing on earth better to do). With her came all her stuff and I love every inch of it!

Late April, we planted our new organic vegetable garden in the raised beds

outside the basement cafe', like we did last year.

A phone call came out of the blue at the beginning of May from a lady

representing the Pacific Intercultural Exchange. She'd heard that we may be interested in

a foreign exchange student. We were, but it had been a while since we'd mentioned it to a friend

who'd had 7 or so of her own exchange students through the years.

"A girl, from South Korea is what we want," I told her (it felt like I was picking out a puppy).

We were given a name of a girl, our high-school daughter Miss A's age: Hyo-Jin.

The phone conversation led to an email and a visit from a PIE rep, on Mother's Day,

which involved paperwork, a background check, references from friends, neighbors and employers,

 and pictures of our home's exterior and interior (living areas, her bedroom and bath) 

which prompted me to finish up Miss S' room that I started staging months ago.

Hyo-Jin will arrive in late summer, if she accepts us as a host family, and she will live with us 10 months.

We won't be selling our home till she goes back to her home in the city of Ansan.

And we are quite content and excited about this divine interruption!

Another change I desired was the design of this blog.

After an initial unsuccessful attempt with a first designer, on the 6th of May, I found a wonderfully talented and reliable designer, Marina, with Penny Lane Designs, who so totally rocks!

She only takes select clients throughout the year, so, if you need her,

stop and say hello (and "help me"!)

She is a home maker, too, that works from her home, during her son Owen's nap, I guess!

This is Marina and her 21 month old son.

Precious.

Thank you, Marina, for taking time for me and my little space here in blogland!

Our college girl is home for another week, then I take her up to North Carolina to work

for 9 weeks at a church day camp....must stop at Ikea on the way through.

Speaking of Ikea, coming next week, I'll be posting a review, by my very own sister, of some of Ikea's cookware.

I don't mind a few pauses and timeouts from the routine,

interruptions and sidetracks are pretty cool, too,

since the TO DO list can get tedious, can I get an AMEN?

But, sometimes, when even our daily intentions can't be accomplished,

we get tired and overwhelmed and employ a too oft used word:

BUSY.

And so I have been. Busy.

And I'm grateful for it.

I blame it on April.

Oh, alright, I'll go ahead and blame it on May, too!

Wouldn't you, Mr. Bean?

In other news... on Monday, I am joining this like I did last year:

I have some beautiful Vintage-Inspired Parisian Cottage goodies to give away!
In addition, an etsy friend of mine is offering her art to the winner, here is a sampling of her designs:

Please come back and enter!!

Well, that's all for now (not really), but maybe you're about ready to fall asleep?

Let's remember:
It's not how busy you are, but why you are busy -- 
the bee is praised, the mosquito is swatted.

.