Just an Update

I am so, so ridiculously tired, and I should be heading up to bed, which I plan to do in just a minute, but I wanted to take a kid free moment to post really quick.

Life is lovely, super busy always it seems. I want to apologize for being so awful about replying to comments. I truly do love getting each and every one of them, and I very much appreciate it each time one of you takes the time to leave me a word or two. My biggest issue is that I usually get them via email on my phone when I'm on the go and don't have the opportunity to reply right then, and by the time I have a chance to sit down, it's slipped my very scattered mind. But I do love you all!

Since I last posted, I managed (with Nick's help) to get all the class reunion CDs made and mailed out. Our church has a couple of CD burners that burn 10 CDs at once (well, one burns 9, because one drive doesn't work, but anyway), so I brought in my own CDs, and Nick burned them for me. My mom graciously filled out my address on all the CD envelopes while she was waiting at the hospital (baby!), and we took them to the post office Friday. And a happy surprise was that it cost me quite a bit less to mail them than I thought it would.

So about that baby...Faith did indeed go into the hospital Wednesday night. They started her on the Cervidil, which started her contractions pretty hard and fast pretty quickly. She labored hard for several hours, and finally decided to have an epidural. It had been her original intention to go without one, but she just wasn't getting any break at all from the pain, and the nurse told her there were hours and hours left to go. I left the hospital around 2:30 Thursday morning with plans to be back at 7:00 AM. 

I got back around 7:30, and had just enough time to sit down and eat my breakfast when Robert sent for me to come to the room because it was time to push! Faith did so great, and little Liam (on here anyway) popped out at 9:58 AM. He weighed 6lb 6.5oz, and was 20 inches long. He is so incredibly precious, and it was such an amazing honor and such a sweet experience to get to be there to see his arrival. I took almost 1000 pictures over the whole event, and I'm trying to wade through editing them between other responsibilities.

I got home just a little while ago, because I ended up taking Morgan to the ER tonight. She'd been complaining of abdominal pain for about a day and a half, but she was on her period, so I kind of thought it was maybe just cramps. But then it moved into her lower right abdomen, and I got concerned that maybe it was her appendix. Anyway, long story short, 5 hours at the ER and a $50 copay to be billed later, it turns out she was dealing with some internal blockage, although not anything serious. Basically she just needed to poop lol. So they did what they needed to to treat that, and now we're finally home, worn out but grateful it wasn't her appendix. Daisy actually had the exact same issue a couple of months ago and we ended up taking her to the ER as well with the same result, so I'm going to do some serious reevaluating of their fiber intake!

When I got home I had to make deviled eggs for Nick's Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow and work on the Etsy order I have to mail out, also tomorrow (or today, I guess). And now I'm all done, and I'm headed to bed! Good night all!

Busy weekend, busier week

You guys left me such sweet comments on my last post - it really lifted my heart! Thank you!

We did indeed go to the lake on Friday. We weren't sure we would get to as the weather forecast looked pretty rainy. But we had a really lovely few hours, and by the time it started turning cloudy the littles were ready to head home anyway. 

Friday night our church held an all night prayer meeting for the upcoming youth camp. They asked people to sign up to come and pray for 15 minute shifts. Nick and I hadn't signed up, mainly because we weren't sure what to do with the kids that late. But as the day wore on we really felt like we should try to go in and do our part. Nick texted Robert to ask what shifts were still open, and he texted back that they needed people for 4:45, 5:00, 5:15, 5:30, 5:45, 6:00, and 6:15. Sigh. But honestly, we're young and healthy, and there was really no good reason to skip it. Robert and Faith, along with Brandon and Melanie were there all night to fill in where there was no one signed up. So I asked Nick if I could stay up and edit pictures from the lake while he napped on the couch for a while. He agreed, and I woke him at 4:00 in the morning for his shift. 

He went in and did his turn, and he got back about 5:45 and stayed with the kids so could go. I got there about 6:10, and my sweet parents were there at the alter, heads bowed. I went up and began to pray. I heard my dad get up about 6:15, but when I finished at 6:30, my mom was still praying. But she was near the back of the church, stopping at each pew to pray for by name the families who sat in each different pew every week. I'm so very blessed with my parents. We've not always gotten along (namely those years when I knew it all lol), but my heart just fills up with how much they love me and my little family.

Saturday we naturally slept late, and it was nice to snuggle up with my husband for longer than usual. After a while we got up and headed up to the cabin for the June birthday party. It's always a sweet time up there, although to be honest Jack was ALL OVER the place, which stressed Nick's grandmother out, which stressed Nick out, which stressed ME out. Plus Daisy was down on the dock fishing with Grant, and she fell in. Thank God Grant dove in after her and got her out in a flash! It was very scary though, and I was just about at the end of my rope.

Eventually I stuck Jack in the car and just took off for a little while. The cabin is close to a very quaint, very old town, so I drove around a bit until Jack fell asleep, then went back to the cabin. Once back, I took him to a spare bedroom to try to prolong the nap, and ended up falling asleep with him. By the time I woke up it was nearly time to leave, and I was ready to be home myself by them. 

Sunday morning I was exhausted, so I sent Nick to church without me. I skipped the evening service as well because I was still packing everything for camp. I don't like to miss church, but I'm about to head into a week of twice a day services, and I really did have to get everything put together. 

Camp starts in about 12 hours, and there's no internet service out there, even on my phone, so I'll be out of contact until Saturday evening. We covet your prayers this week as we work to minister to young hearts.

Love you guys!

The Craft Show

Hey, guys. I'm sorry I've not gotten to respond to comments on the last post until now - it's been a crazy week. The items in the pictures were as follows: 

1. and 2. Satin flowers that were made into either hair clips or brooches, as well as a few headbands.

3. 4. and 7. Leather embellished headbands.

5. Leather rose brooches.

6. Hair bows.

The hair bows (including the skull one) were $4.00 each, and they were my best seller, although I do still have the skull bow. I ended up making a ton more of those, some other hair bows, some little felted wool zipper pouches, some wood name blocks, and these little tin boxes lined with felt and containing a miniature baby, baby bottle, and teddy bear. I also had a few of my pillow covers, although I didn't really have room to display them very well. Here is a heavily cropped picture of my table. FYI, the person in the picture isn't me - it's actually the girl who told me I couldn't bring my rings. I kind of think she put me beside her so she could make sure I wasn't trying to sell them lol.

I worked literally all night - I didn't make it to bed at all. So it was a pretty rough day, but it was a moderate success. I sold some of nearly everything, but taking into account the booth fee and all the materials (not to mention time and effort!), I think I pretty much broke even. The organization hosting is still very new (this was only their second event), so I think it will get bigger and better as they hold more events. I'm not terribly upset - I can list the items I didn't sell in my Etsy shop as soon as I have time, and if it doesn't sell there I'll have a jump on stocking the next show in July (if I participate). 

I've decided for now though to just box up almost all of my crafting stuff until I (hopefully one day) have a craft room. I love doing it all, but I just don't have the room for it right now. My living room is clean (along with my kitchen counters) thanks to Nick, who not only watched the kids and cleaned house while I was gone, but had dinner waiting when I got home. But my kitchen table is quite literally buried under a mountain of ribbon, fabric, various sewing and crafting tools and machines, etc. 

I've been trying hard to bring in a little bit of income, but I've realized that the effort and time I'm putting into that can be much better spent just working to make the house run smoothly and taking care of my husband and kids. That's the job God has given me at this season of my life, and if I concentrate on doing what He wants me to do, He will take care of our income needs.

Anyway, I've got to get to bed. Our brand new TV keeps randomly turning itself off and then back on, so we've got a repairman coming in the morning. 

She's crafty...

The house is a mess, the kitchen table looks like a bomb went off on it, the children have eaten way too many Uncrustables in the last few days, and I've been threatened with a spanking more than once (which frankly would probably do me and Nick both good). It's officially craft show week around here. I've got tons of stuff left to make, and to top it off the head of the organization running the event decided just a few days ago that she won't allow me to sell my wire wrapped rings there because "there are already enough jewelry vendors". Nevermind that none of them are selling anything like these, or that I've got a pretty decent investment in time, materials, and displays for the several dozen I already had made before she made this sudden decision, or that they are a part of my shop, which is what I paid to have a booth for.

Anyway, at this point I'm working hard to fill out my inventory with other items, but I wanted to take a moment to post and share a few pictures of some of the things I am taking.

In other news, Jack is doing just fabulously well in his own bed! The first night he cried for about 15-20 minutes before he went to sleep, the next night it was about 10, then the next night 5. The next couple of nights he cried when I laid him down, but he was quiet by the time I got back to the living room. Now when I put him in his bed he turns right over on his side and snuggles down without a peep!

He's also pushing through his first molar (upper left), and he's started trying to walk. We've seen him toddle between the couch and the love seat at home (about 3 1/2 feet). My mom watched him in the nursery at church tonight, and when I went to get him after the service, she said "Why didn't you tell me he could walk?!"

"Well, he hasn't really been, just a couple of steps," I told her. "Well he walked all the way across the room a few minutes ago!" she said.

Last week Kate and Will randomly sent us a card in the mail. It said that they were at the mall and wondered if we needed anything for the kids, so they just got us a gift card so we could get whatever we needed. Inside was a $150 gift card to The Children's Place! Morgan and Daisy spent the night with my parents that night, so Nick and I took Jack and had dinner then hit the mall!

This is what I got:

It got us Easter outfits for both Jack and Daisy (and Daisy's goes perfect with lace Easter dress my mom already got for Morgan), as well as some much needed church clothes, shoes, and pajamas for Jack. Plus, because we spent $150, we got two free stuffed bunnies, which will go in their Easter baskets. Jack wore the straw fedora to church Sunday and some of the older ladies actually screamed when they saw him lol. 

Oh yeah, and it's my 8 year blogaversary today (er, yesterday technically)! It's also still Ask Me Anything March, so keep those questions coming!

Word verification again (Sorry!)

Sorry guys, but I've had to put the word verification back on. I hate it too, but the spam has gotten out of hand. Just to give you an example, I've gotten 38 spam comments in the last 3 days, and an alarming number of those got through Blogger's filter and posted to the blog (I've since removed them). Every one of them had a link included, and while I'm sure you guys are smart enough not to click on them, I refuse to let them sit here on my blog. I hope it doesn't discourage anyone too much from commenting, because I love to hear from you, but I do understand if it does.

Spam and spankings

Okay, first of all, about the word verification. I've gone back and forth with it over the years. It's no question that it's a huge pain in the butt. I honestly hate it as much as you do. But when it's not on there there are floods of spam comments. FLOODS. Now they don't generally show up on here because Blogger's spam filter is pretty good, but they do overrun my email inbox. 

All that said, I don't want to discourage comments, so for now at least I'm going to try comment moderation on some posts instead. Hopefully it will discourage all but the first comment per spammer per day.

Anyway, enough about that. I finally got that spanking Thursday night. The stars aligned, and the kids were all three asleep at a decent hour. Nick took me upstairs, taking his belt off as we went. I really had to pee, so he let me go to the bathroom. When I came out he was lying on the bed, so I crawled up beside him. He held me a little while, and talked to me about why he feels that it's important that I be in bed at a decent hour. He told me that he understands that I need some time alone after all the kids are in bed, and that he wants me to have that. But as a family we need to be able to function on somewhat of a cohesive schedule, and if we can get everybody on the right schedule, then that free time is going to be there for me. And he's right, of course, and I do appreciate him being the voice of reason when I just want to stay up all night and play on Pinterest.

He really did cut me a break on the spanking, mostly because it had taken a few days for us to get to it and I had really been trying to get to bed on time for the least few days. He spanked hard, but I only got about 25 licks, and he let me keep my jeans on. After it was over he held me again for a while, and we talked about some of the things we'd like to see happen this year as far as schedule and organization. 

I'm glad to have it behind me, but I do want to say how much I appreciate him following through with me. He's really been there for me lately with DD, and it just makes me feel so very loved.

First of all, let me issue a warm if slightly late welcome to all the wonderful people who commented on LOL Day. I do apologize for not having a chance to respond sooner, but I appreciate each and every comment, from old friends and new. And I'm sorry about the CAPTCHA. I went without it for a long time, but the flood of spam comments in my email box was getting to be ridiculous.

It's been a busy and blessed weekend. Nick was off on Friday. He went to the doctor that morning, which went well. After he got home he took our trash off and picked up a free Papa John's pizza I won in their recent sweepstakes. He also picked Morgan up from school because she had a stomachache. Of course it got better suspiciously fast once she got home lol. While he was gone my parents stopped by to bring us some food from church. Every Friday our senior ministry has a service and a big meal, and a lot of times there's food left to share with those who couldn't make it. They take a lot of meals to shut ins, and sometimes they bring us some too. That evening my dad and James came over to drop off James' car so that Nick could do some work on it.

I mentioned a few days ago that I got our bedroom mostly clean. Unfortunately I got distracted before I got it finished, and Nick had a thing or two to say about that. We were getting ready for bed, and he was pretty worn out, so he told me he was going to spank me, but he would wake me up early the next day to deal with it. I did, however, manage to keep him awake long enough to have some um, face time with a certain part of his anatomy. He returned the favor, and we both slept very well. 

So well in fact that we didn't get up till the kids were awake, so that kind of put the kibosh on any morning discipline. We both had a busy day ahead. He had not only James' car to work on, but also my aunt's as well as another lady's. This was SUCH a blessing from God, because this week has been especially tight. I had TWO photo shoots scheduled, which was awesome, because I've not done a whole lot of work since Jack was born, and one shoot that I've had scheduled for months was canceled because the event I was supposed to shoot was canceled. My mom called early in the day and offered to watch the kids if we needed her to, which turned out to be a good thing. Nick had to leave to do some of the work he needed to do on the equipment at his job, so I took the kids out to my parents' house. 

Both shoots went well, although my first client was very late, which could have caused a real problem. Fortunately my second client was very cool about giving them a few extra minutes. I did, however, still have to cut it a little short with the first client, but they were willing to hang around and let me shoot a bit more after I finished with client number two. After I finished, I called Nick and let him know I was on my way home. He was at the parts store when I got there, but he got home after a few minutes and directed me upstairs. In the bedroom he pulled out the Leather Thorn AngelBrat paddle and had me bend over the bed.

Conventional wisdom would say that leather is a lot more forgiving, and I suppose it is in a way. It certainly doesn't bruise as easily as wood, and any redness it leaves fades a lot faster. But Nick tends to spank a lot harder with leather, I guess for those very reasons. Leather Thorn pieces are very nice, and this one is quite heavy. It's about 16 inches long, and on impact it wraps across my bottom and kind of sears everything it hits. I've actually not had all that many punishments with this particular paddle, but every one has been memorable. I have no idea how many swats I got, but if I had to guess I would say it was probably somewhere around 40-50.

By the way, those are not affiliate links - I just really like their products. Er, most of the time...

After he finished spanking me he hugged me a bit, then went back down to work on my brother's car some more. I got myself together and went to pick up the kids. By the time I got home he was done with his work and starving. He sent me to Taco Bell with some of his earnings. When I got to the drive through I found that I was $3 short. It wasn't a big deal - I had ordered a few extra things, and I was just going to tell the girl to take them off, but instead she gave me a senior discount, which put the total down below what I had. :) I spent most of the evening filling an order for my Etsy shop, another blessing.

Today we went to church. There was appropriate recognition of the veterans in the congregation, and I want to say thank you to all of you out there who have served, in whatever country you may be! 

After church we met a girl I went to school with who gave me TWELVE cans of baby formula, plus a bunch of jars of baby food! She has a baby boy a month younger than Jack. He was also born at the same point in the pregnancy as Jack (38 days early), but unfortunately, unlike Jack, he has had a number of health problems as a result. His mom also has a huge number of food allergies that she has passed on to him. Because of this their insurance provides them with about 3 cans a week of a formula that is made to  give the needed nutrients without triggering his many allergies. However, he strongly prefers breastfeeding, so she had a huge stockpile of extra formula that needed to be used up, so she passed part of it on to me. I'm going to double check with his doctor tomorrow to make sure that it will be okay for him, but from everything I've researched on this particular brand, it looks like it will be fine.

Kelly also brought me a couple of cans she got in the hospital since she's solely breastfeeding. After we picked up the formula we had a quick lunch at a pizza buffet with Kelly, Grant, Logan, Robert, Faith, Brandon, and Melanie. The plan was to then take advantage of free day at the zoo. We went last year and it was crowded, but not crazy so. This year traffic was crazy, and when we turned onto the road into the zoo, a girl on her way out rolled down her window and told us not to bother, that it was so crowded you couldn't even get close enough to the animals to see. We decided to take her advice since by this time it was only about an hour and a half before closing time anyway. 

The girls were disappointed, but I remembered something that happened when I was a kid. A trip to the circus unexpectedly fell through, so my parents gave James and me (this was before Robert was born) each $5 and took us to a department store to spend it on whatever we wanted. I still remember picking out a soft purple stuffed rabbit in a white basket. So we took the girls to Target and gave them $10 each ($5 doesn't buy what it did almost 30 years ago). Morgan picked out a pair of One Direction headphones, and Daisy chose a toy hairdresser set, which I thought was adorable since her Nana (my MIL) is a hairdresser. They recently opened a craft store right next to our Target, so after we left, Nick stayed in the car with the kids and let me just explore the new store a bit.

When we got back to church Melanie, who is amazing with crochet hooks, had brought Jack the most adorable gift. It was a hat/beard combo, a lot like this:

Source Obviously this one isn't his. His is green, and of course didn't come from this shop. Anyway, she made Logan one too, so I'm hoping we can take their pictures in them together.

Anyway, that's been our weekend - how was yours?

Love Our Lurkers Day!

I think it's fair to say that many, many, many of us were lurkers to start with. I know I was! I was just sure that if I left a comment on a *gasp* spanking blog it would immediately send out a notification to my mom, my boss, my pastor, and those mean kids in high school. But one day I took the plunge. I left a comment, and not only did the world keep turning, but I found that I'd taken a first step - one that led me to eventually start my own blog. And I met a lot of great people, some of whom are now my friends outside of the blogosphere too! So if you're out there being shy, stop it! No, don't go away - pop in and say hi! This is the 7th annual Love Our Lurkers Day, and I'd love to meet you!

Birthdays, blessings, and pink hair

Hello, everyone. First of all, I've had to turn the CAPTCHA back on for the comments. Blogger's spam filter is great, so the spammy comments don't come through on here, but I get around 10 a day in my email, and it's driving me nuts.

So things have been going great around here. Nick had a wonderful time as a worker at church camp, and there was one saved. It's just made my heart full to see how much my wonderful husband has grown in the Lord over the past few months. He even led devotions for his cabin one night, something that was way out of his comfort zone, and I'm so proud of him!

Morgan didn't have as great of a time, but I think it was mostly because she went from Washington into camp without even a stop at home in between, and she was exhausted. I'm hoping she enjoys it more next year.

Okay, I know I'm always talking about how much God provides for us and blesses us. And this is true. But I want to talk for a minute about what happens when I stop trusting and get out of His will. A couple of pay periods ago, we were short. Really short. So I asked Nick if he thought we should pay our tithe (something we make a real effort at doing every pay period), and he told me no. Now to be perfectly honest, I felt like this was a mistake, but I knew all I needed to worry about was being obedient to my husband. So I prayed that God would honor my obedience and protect our bank account. And for a number of days that's just what He did. There were transactions that should have cleared days earlier, but they held out there for no natural reason, and our balance stayed in the positive.

Then one day I went out of my way to call one of my friends and gossip about a mutual acquaintance. It was unkind and uncalled for, and I knew as I was making the call that I was doing something I shouldn't. But I did it anyway. And just like that I stepped out of God's will and out from under His umbrella of protection. That night all those transactions that were hanging out there cleared the account and overdrew it. And even worse, it turned out that our account, which for 10 years has offered 5 waived overdraft fees per year, had been changed without our knowledge to only waive one overdraft fee. So not only did the account overdraft, but we got hit with some stiff fees as well.

Our bank agreed to waive a couple of them, but we still had to pay $70, and we had to go get a cash advance to cover the overdraft, something we've not had to do in a very long time.

Now you would think we would learn our lesson. Unfortunately, the next paycheck was just as short, and we made the same foolish decision to hold back our tithe. Once again, we went overdrawn, this time the very day before the next payday, which was this past Friday

Finally, we came to our senses, and when we went to church a couple of days ago we had our tithe check ready. And I'm not going to lie, it was still hard. Nick's check was better than usual, but we were still short on bills (in no small part because of the overdraft and check advance fees we'd had to pay). But I couldn't wait till that collection plate came around this time. I didn't know where the money for the rest of the bills was coming from, but I knew that we were doing what we were supposed to finally, and we could count on God's provision.

I told Nick that I was going to need more money no later than Tuesday (today) to pay the phone, internet, and electric, and asked him to pray about it. Last night a guy came by and bought Nick's Fairlane (he put it up for sale a while ago), cash in hand. I had to smile as I paid those bills today. God is always right on time!

Now, a couple of things I want to be clear on: God doesn't need my money. He wants my obedience and my trust. And I don't believe that God is punishing us when we don't pay our tithe, but I do believe that when we choose to disobey we remove ourselves from His hand of protection. I'm not telling anyone here what to believe on the matter of tithing - I'm only sharing my experiences. And these are experiences that we've had a number of times over the years.

On another subject, our Father's Day was wonderful! There are a number of June birthdays in my husband's family, including his dad's and his grandmother's, and for years we've had a June birthday party up at his grandparent's cabin on the lake, the one where we spent our honeymoon. It turned out that the only day most of the family was able to get together for it was on Sunday, so after church we all went up for a cookout/birthday/Father's Day celebration.

This was the first time Nick's grandmother has gotten to hold Jack as she's been sick every time we've seen her since he was born. She was in great grandmother heaven cuddling his sweet little body, and he rarely left her arms. For gifts Nick made cornhole board sets for his grandparents and his dad, and I made the corn bags to go along with them. Nick's dad had made sets for the church to take to camp, and Nick had done the artwork on them. They were a huge hit at camp (they even had a Final Four style tournament), and they were just as big a hit as birthday/Father's Day gifts.

I took Jack and Daisy to the doctor last week. Daisy just hadn't been feeling well for a couple of weeks, nothing we could pinpoint, but noticeable enough to set my mommy senses tingling. It turns out she has mono. This shocked me to say the least (she's not exactly running around kissing boys at two), but her doctor said that about half of all kids in the States catch it before they reach school age; it just goes undiagnosed a lot of the time. Fortunately she seems to be on the tail end of it and has already perked up a lot.

Jack was just due for a checkup and a couple of shots. He's a bouncing 11lb 12oz now, and he's 23 1/2 inches long. That's 8lb 1oz and 6 1/4 inches since birth! For the record, Daisy is now 3' 1" and weighs 32 lb. :-)

There's been a new girl move in next door, and she and Morgan are already fast friends. She even came to church with us Sunday. It made me happy that she moved in, because the family that just moved out had 3 kids, and Morgan and Daisy both played with them.

Morgan and I got pink streaks put in our hair, and I'm kind of in love with them.

Let's see, what else? In a little over a month we leave for the beach with Nick's family! It will be great to see his sister and her kids and husband. They are the ones who live in Texas. We usually go there for our vacation, but they sold their lake house right after our visit last year, so this year they booked everyone accommodations on Sea Island. We've never been, but it looks like it's going to be gorgeous, and Nick is dying to get out on the golf courses.

Just before we leave for the beach will be VBS at church. My friend Elizabeth and I are helping out a lot with the crafts, and I can't wait! A couple of weeks after we get back from the beach Kate and I are throwing a baby shower for Kelly.

Oh, and I'm supposed to be getting spanked, although there's not really been an opportunity to take care of it. I'm afraid I kind of let the house get to "red alert level", and although I've gotten it a bit back more under control, Nick says that there are still going to be consequences.

Anyway, I think that's all that's been happening around here. Hope you guys are well!

Welcome, Everyone!

It was so good to hear from everyone for Love Our Lurkers Day! Old friends and new, I welcome you all! I apologize for not being able to answer individual comments - this has been a crazy weekend! Yesterday I had to take Morgan to school (Nick usually does, but he got up late), take Daisy for her 1 year check-up (she had to have SEVEN immunizations, poor baby!), pick Morgan back up at 12:40 (it was a half day of school for some unexplained reason), go pay some bills, head to the grocery store, pick up some lunch for me and the kids, then head to church for a wedding I was shooting! Today I had another shoot, and the baby has felt bad all day because of the shots yesterday, so I'm just now getting a chance to breathe. But anyway, I did want to say thank you all for popping in - I'm so glad to know you!

Love Our Lurkers Day!

Hello! Hello! I'm just popping in between editing photos, so I can't stay, but I will be back to read comments, and I want to meet YOU! Yes, you - the one over there reading but never commenting. That was me once upon a time (heck, if I'm honest, I rarely comment now, but that's due to a serious lack of time rather than shyness). But I did finally take the step one day of stepping (anonymously) into the bloglight, and I made SO many awesome friends, some of whom I now know in real life (at least facebook real life). It makes my day when I get a comment or an email from one of you letting me know you're reading, and it really, really makes it when I find out that something I posted helped someone! So if you want to share your story or just say hi, comment away!

My Kink is Okay, but Your Kink is Not Okay

That's the impression I got from a comment to my last post. While I certainly don't hold it against Goddess with a Whip that she's not comfortable with DD, I don't feel like I should let her comment pass without pointing out that what constitutes a "healthy way of life" will vary greatly from couple to couple. For many, many of us, spanking is far more than just play. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that for me personally, play is a very, very small part of it.

For a lot of us, DD is a much healthier choice than sublimating a very deep part of ourselves, hiding our true faces from the person who loves us most. I guess the comment seemed to me to be saying that by believing in DD as a true lifestyle, I'm being silly and delusional and taking something that's nothing more than a game way too seriously. I don't agree, but that's not so important here. What I want to make a point of saying is that if you're new at this and struggling to accept the part of you that needs more than just play, please understand that there is nothing at all wrong with your needs and desires. Yes, I have my own struggles with it, but those struggles are not with the fact that I need DD, but rather with the fact that I sometimes feel like it's too much work for Nick.

Anyway, really - blogging is a sign of obsession? I guess there are a lot of us out there who are obsessed then. Some people blog about their kids, some people blog about their hobbies, some people blog about their jobs. I blog about spanking and DD. Although as it happens I blog about all of those other things as well. The fact that my blog focuses on spanking and DD for the most part is nothing for me to be worried about or ashamed of. This is my outlet, and I think it's a perfectly healthy one. I know from experience that what's truly unhealthy for me is to not have any outlet at all.

I understand that DD will have its ups and downs, sometimes (like now) going away completely for a while. That's actually the point of my last couple of posts. And so that I'm not driving Nick crazy with all of this, I come here and post. I think that moderation is definitely a relative concept. I'm not out looking to have my needs met outside my marriage. I'm not spending bill money on implements. I'm not even having daily conversations about this with my husband. I think I'm a long way from being unhealthily obsessed. I think my kink is fine just the way it is.

Oh my goodness! **Updated to include new friends!**

What a fantastic bunch of comments you guys left! I got to meet a bunch of wonderful new people and hear from some lovely old friends too! I'm afraid I'm awful at leaving comments myself. There are so many awesome spanko bloggers out there that usually I just plain old don't have time to leave comments. But I really do try when get the chance, and I always appreciate each and every comment I get on here. A big thanks to Bonnie for hosting this again this year! It's been a lot of fun, and I'm glad she came up with the concept. I'm going to respond to everyone here:

padme amidala, hi sweetie! It's always so good to hear from you, and I always love to read over at your place! You're one of my favorites too!

PK, I'm so glad to hear from you! I'm afraid I don't comment on yours as much as I'd like, but I'm always over there!

hermione, thank you! I can't take any credit for Bonnie - she's an amazing blogger! But I always swell up a bit when she's so generous with her compliments. I look forward to reading your blog!

AKB, thank you! It's lovely to meet you, and I've added you to my Google Reader!

Kaya, it's always great to see you!

April, what a lovely comment! Thank you!

Dove, hi and hugs to you too! It's very nice to meet you!

Hi, Ofia! I enjoy yours too!

Paul, always lovely to hear from you, dear friend!

Kallisto, I'm afraid I'm guilty of that too, but I visit you guys all the time too! Thank you for commenting today!

Bonnie, this year turned out even better than last year. Thank you for doing this again, and for being an inspiration to all of us!

Thank you, luna. I've read you for ages too.

Thank you, Maggie! I always love to stop by your blog!

Ellie, it's so very good to hear from you! Thank you for a beautiful comment!

mthc, thank you for commenting - it's always nice to hear from you!

SelfSpanker, I'm the same way - I do keep up with your blog, and I'm glad you popped in to say hi.

Thank you, Todd & Suzy. I love yours too!

Grace, my sister! Every time I read your blog I think "That is SO me!" Well, except for your Muslim mother in law. You're one up on me there. (But seriously, you guys have my prayers on that). I'm so glad you stopped by.

Hello, Nigel. Nice to meet you!

Carye, hi sweetie! I'm always so glad to hear from you, and I'd love to email with you regularly!

Bethie, I'm the same way - I read your every post, but I just don't get the chance to comment like I'd like too. I always love your blog though!

Thank you, Valdor! Lovely to meet you!

Naughtybuttcute, you're welcome, and thank you for stopping by here!

Thank you for the comment, Marcus, and I'll be back to yours as well!

Danielle, it was a pleasure - I'm so glad I could help! And it's good to hear from you!

Frank, thank you - I always enjoy your blog too!

preggo_spanko, thank you for the lovely compliment! I've enjoyed watching your blog grow!

Erik, I appreciate you stopping by!

Susan, thank you for your comment - I'm glad you stopped in!

Oh my...

I know, I know - three posts in one day...hell has not frozen over. But I had to mention this post from Grace, especially since Blogger has refused to let me leave a comment for her there. Holy cow! Bossman is very creative, and he can just hang out right where he is. We need no such crazy ideas at my house!

Just a quick note...

In the last few days I've had a couple of comments left that were each just a link to a blog. They were actually both kind of interesting, albeit neither were about spanking, but I've removed both comments for one reason: these were blatant attempts to sneak links in without asking me. Now if you've read my blog at all, you know I'm very generous about linking other spanko bloggers. And I have a few links up that aren't to spanking blogs/sites at all. If you feel like I'd be interested in putting your link up, just email me. The link to do so is right there on the right. But please, don't drop a comment just to promote your link. I consider that spamming. If you email me and give me the chance to make the decision, I just might add your site, but if you try to sneak it in, it's going to get deleted.

Aaaarrrggghhh!

Okay, I really didn't want to do this, but I've added the word verification feature to the comments. I know this is a pain in the ass, I really do, but I've just spent an hour hunting down and deleting around 40 spam comments scattered throughout the blog. It's not fair to anyone, me or you guys, to have links forced in on us. I don't mind people sending me a link if they genuinely think I'll be interested. But my personal blog is not the place to push cat toys, ceiling fans, or 6 day body makeover plans.

Comments and an Apology to NonBlogger Members

Tonight I read a post on Aunty Agony commented on that post, stating that she had come to the same realization, and she was kind enough to say how she fixed it. So, I went and corrected the settings, and now everyone should be able to comment. I'm always glad to get feedback from anyone who reads here, and I'm very sorry if any of you had thoughts to share and were unable to do so. My friend Sue started her blog so that she could comment here, but I didn't know there was a way to make it so that you don't have to have a Blogger account or even a password. Anyway, it's all fixed now, so please keep reading (and get to posting! LOL)