I dream of a cozy space with light walls, a large window for letting in light, surrounded by items that are all “me” and tons of pictures of my family.  All that things that help it to be both a sense of home but yet as I mentioned prior a sense of a place to “get the job done”.

Right now, my office desk still remains in the living room, which works for now, but I long for the day its in an actual office.  Where one day when I have loud teenagers instead of toddlers and babies I can go there to “get away”.  I probably won’t have other office furniture, though I would like an office table, something small so if anyone ever comes in to chat we can sit there and carry on a conversation.

The good news is, just before Brady was born, my husband and I made the decision to do some work on our home.  We have a 2 car garage for which we only use for one car, and we only have 3 bedrooms and 3 kids so we want Brady to have his own room, so we’ve decided to close in the garage to make our Master bedroom, adding a bathroom and walk in closet to create a “suite”.  Then, we will also add on a small  office, as well as an open air one-car carport on the back.  All in all the additional space besides the garage will only amount to 200 square feet, but it should help and I am excited.

My dad who is a home designer is doing the plans now and we should get started on it sometime this fall.  I will keep you updated as I pick out office furniture, wall colors, etc. I will also be redoing the bedroom since it will move I though why not get new bedding and decor.  If you have ideas, send them my way.

How about you do you have a home office?

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This is the first time I’ve ever journaled or written anything down just before giving birth. With my oldest, I was young and scared only 23 and had no clue what awaited me. It proved to be 2 long days in a hospital bed before giving birth to my firstborn, a rambunctious little one.

With my baby girl, I was so excited and anxious to see her I had planned out everything in detail for her, clothes, nursery theme, none of which I thought much about with my son.

With Brady, whose mere existence caught me by surprise I feel so different. Anxious yet in a new way, I’m more prepared more aware and therefore more reflective and introspective. This is after all in my plans the last time I’ll ever experience this. I do not plan to birth anymore children. After all this one took me by surprise. I believe that God has something planned, bigger than my plans for this child, because it was HIS plan. And, his plan are always greater than ours.

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Readers of my blog, let me tell you what I am attributing this to.  The power of prayer.  It’s funny, the other morning, in fact the first morning I woke up in  my own bed after spending days at the hospital God put a quote in my mind.  Where else would it have come from? I’ve never read this anywhere that I recall, though for the purpose of not plagarizing I won’t say it is 100% original.  But the quote was

“I do not believe in the power of despair, but I do believe in the power of prayer.”

I didnt’ know at the time what that meant or why I had just all of a sudden had it put into  my mind, but now I do.  God put it there and I prayed that I’d be able to handle all this.  Now, sitting here I feel as though I can. I know I can because PRAYER WORKS and even if I’m the only one praying for me, which I know isnt’ the case, I will NOT despair.

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First of all, I am a Christian, a follower of Christ.  Yes, I am a part of a denomination, Southern Baptist to be exact, however my beliefs convict me and show me that it is not about religion or denomination, I am convinced it is about a “relationship” with Jesus Christ.  From there, most of the other parts of my life, both online and off center around these two things, “relationships” and “Jesus”. I think that’s pretty awesome.

So, the next thing I would have to say I am offline is a wife and mom.  These days this seems more important, sometimes we all tend to take these roles for granted, but given God’s blessings over and over we shouldn’t.  As you know I have a new blessing so this is in the forfront of my mind at the moment.  This is a role I take seriously and strive to be the greatest at. I truly do long to be the “Proverbs 31 Woman”.

Next, I would say that I am a friend.  Friendship is a huge part of my life.  I am equally blessed with friends.  You may have read about my group of girls, the Tomgirls, from my church here on my blog.  They mean so much to me.

I am other things too, sometimes these just don’t seem as prominent. I am also a daughter, a daughter -in-law,etc.

Then there are those roles that overlap, such as servant of Jesus Christ. I serve God both online and off. My ministry, speaking and writing cross-over in my online and offline life. I am again glad this is the case.

So, there you have it, the WHOLE me, online and offline.  Who are you online? Who are you offline?  Are these on in the same? Which do you claim as “life”.

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My #1 passion is ministry and telling others about Jesus. I do this through my ministry to girls and their moms, Beauty by Design Ministries. It’s my first priority after my husband and family.

Next, I am a writer and I have a writing business though I am moving into just “managing this” with a team of talented writers. This is exciting to me. I am looking for an intern currently. Find out more info on my website.

One of my many online hobbies and loves is Wordpress, a blogging platform that I use for ALL of my websites. I do Wordpress installs, tweaking and help for those who want to begin a website, blog or swap to a more user friendly option with tons of cool features.

Finally, I am also a mom blogger, I LOVE blogging and you can read about my everyday life as a WAHM at Life from my Laptop.com and read reviews I do of cool products and services at my review blog. You may even have something you want reviewed. Don’t hesitate to submit it.

I think that pretty much covers “the online me”, which by the way is the same me that is “offline” but most people in my everyday life have no idea how much I juggle.

Of course the above listed things ONLY include what I do online. They don’t take into account what I do offline, parenting, housekeeping, being a friend, being a wife, being a daughter, so much more but hey it’d take all night to cover all that.

By the way, I may not be around for a few days, baby #3 was due today but hasn’t made his arrival and I’m hoping to be induced tomorrow! Doctor’s Appt. at 10 am.

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Anyway, this week honestly has been quite the “blur”.  I started out the week in hopes of having baby #3 quickly. However, as I sit here with him still “baking” as some say, you can tell that didn’t happen.  Hopefully tomorrow is the ever fateful day.  I am going to the doctor at 10 am on Monday, pray he puts me in for induction.

So, recapping this week. Monday was the doctor’s appointment. I had dilated but since then nothing.  Tuesday and Wednesday my mom and grandmother came over to help out with the kids and house. Praise God that was a blessing.  Thursday I had to go it alone, and Friday Greg ended up off because his state car went capoot.  We went out to lunch and out for supper, yay no cooking and had a good time spending time together.

I made mammoth to do lists this week in an effort to “stay busy”, which I pretty much did working online on my websites and installing two Wordpress blogs and doing customizations for two clients.  This is sort of one of those “hobbies” I get paid to do.  I know it’s not something I really have “time” for, but it’s relaxing and fun to me, I know I’m wierd, a nerd, go read yesterday’s post you’ll understand why I say that.  But seriously, I learned Wordpress over time and I have come to love tweaking and playing with it.  Fortunately for me there are people out there who hate doing this sort of thing but want a website or blog set up so they pay me.  Win-win!

So, between all that and doing ministry related stuff, I booked a speaking engagement this week and worked out the details on that, I’ll be in Senatobia, MS speaking to Moms and daughters at First United Methodist Church on Saturday, August 23.  Excited! I have stayed busy this week, ever so impatiently waiting for baby Brady to make his arrival.  I am beyond ready and hope upon hope tomorrow is the BIG day!

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But, yesterday I was all nerd.  I had a new client request a Wordpress blog install, customization, and a bunch of techy stuff. She also wanted to learn how to do several of the bloggy things we take for granted, so I offered to help.  She asked to be led through on the phone or for me to take screenshots.  I knew you could do the screenshots just wasn’t sure if I needed a nifty new program or it was something my computer could automatically do.  I soon learned with a few tweets that I was good to go.

I explained to her I’d rather do the screen shots, after all talking on the phone around my house consists of a lot of interuptions with a 16 month old and 4 year old in the background.  It is never a pleasant thing.  So, screenshots  were the way to go.

Next I begin running into issues, apparently my computer has a virus, well let’s say it HAD a virus, because in true nerd style I fixed that darn thing.  But, it still ran completely slow, I mean tortoise slow. I get so frustrated with it at one point yesterday I just want to chunk it out the window.

But, I persist and finally though I am working half the night the client’s install is complete and screenshots are made.  I had a blast though.  So, I figure, I’m a nerd because I love this stuff.  I even stayed up a couple more hours tweaking one of my own websites, just for the heck of it.

By the way, if you haven’t heard…..here’s some news about me, one of the many reasons I love the internet.

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