Ramblings of a Thirty-Something

Hi, I'm Kaitlin, and I have a problem. I may or may not be addicted to crafting. Granted, there are worse things in the world to be addicted to other than reading and crafting. I could be addicted to crack or something equally as destructive to my body. Although, I suppose that if I stayed indoors crafting all the time, it would be pretty destructive to my body. I know there are others like me out there. Some of them are probably reading this blog post. Let's get real for a minute. How many of us get that feeling  when we step inside Hobby Lobby or Michaels?  When you walk past row after row of colorful paper, stickers, washi tape? Boxes of pens and adornments? Skeins of yarn and bundles of embroidery floss? I just got a really funny picture in my head of a bar...people walk up, the bartender says "What's your poison?", and the customer whispers, "Knitting." And on the wall behind the bar, instead of bottles of liquor {although those could be ...

I know April is officially over {and has been for awhile now}, but I have three final books to review for AUSTEN-INSPIRED APRIL! Not all of these books were on my original list, but because I finished the list I made, I decided to do a few more books. So there! The first book is actually just a short story, and it was on my original list. LADY SUSAN  by Jane Austen {yes, that one}. So Lady Susan  isn't so much "Austen-inspired" as "Austen-written." In the book, there are three stories by Jane Austen--two of which are unfinished, as she passed away before she could complete them. But Lady Susan  is complete and is, in fact, hilarious.  The story is told through letters between Lady Susan and the various people in her life, including her best friend {whose husband doesn't approve of Lady Susan}, her sister-in-law, her sister-in-law's brother and mother, and her lover {who happens to be a married man}. Lady Susan is an unashamed flirt who is bo...

Mother's Day is always a good day at our church. Our choir season always ends on Mother's Day, so we sing something fun and peppy. And it is also the end of our Sunday school year, which is fun. Usually we have treats and do a neat craft for their mothers. We also usually have our students sing in church. And this year, I almost didn't make it through. Our six little three- to six-year-olds stood up at the front of the church and sang If I were a Butterfly, This Little Light of Mine, Zaccheaus, and Jesus Loves Me.  They did the cute little hand motions. Some of them sang, some of them didn't. And when we got to Jesus Loves Me,  one of my counterparts suggested we sing it twice and on the second time, have the congregation sing along. That song is one of the first ones we learn in Sunday school every year. It's one of the first songs I learned in Sunday school all those years ago. Usually, I'm fine. Yes, I'm an incredibly emotional person. I can...

Real quick on non-blog related things:  I am SUPER RIDICULOUSLY PROUD of my Scholastic Bowl team!!!! We won regionals last night by the skin of our teeth  {literally, we were relying on a team we had just beat that was seeded last in the regional to beat a team we had lost to in an earlier round just to stay in the running}! Then two tiebreaker matches, which my kiddos destroyed, and then finally our championship round against a team we'd never played who we remembered as being very good the previous year. And we won. And I wanted to cry, because this team is made up of kids who are super-involved and yet so incredibly dedicated and really played their hearts out...and now I sound sappy and cliche, but that's okay. Because they did something amazing and deserve to be proud of themselves. Ahem...okay, so now, let's move on to London  again. Our second day in London was, as the title suggests, rainy. Thank goodness we had bought umbrellas in Munich. Our first stop--our...

Random musing for you:  has anyone else ever had that moment where you're laying in bed and are just a little  cold {like not cold enough for a blanket} and so you just throw a pillow over top your legs and contort your body to make it work? Anyone? Just curious if anybody else's day started off like mine...moving on! I have already shared two books with you off my AUSTEN-INSPIRED APRIL   list, and now I have two more for you. And get excited, people, because I undershot how many books I'd be able to read in a month, so I've added two more books to the original list ! I can see your eager faces through my computer screen {really, I can't. It would be creepy if I could.} First up, we have THE SECRET DIARY OF LIZZIE BENNET  by Bernie Su and Kate Rorick. This book is actually based on a web series called The Lizzie Bennet Diaries . You can find all the episodes on Youtube. It's pretty amazing, actually. Very short episodes {there are 160 total episode...

I've decided to resurrect an old favorite {or something I did, like, the first three weeks my baby blog existed in this online world}. By now, I'm sure you know of my affinity for lists, and as I may {or may not} have stated back for the first FRIDAY FIVE, five is a good number for lists. It offers enough for a quick read without getting too many items on topic to make your reader bored. And I don't want you to be bored. Seriously, it keeps me up at night. Okay, not really. But still! I'm sure you, dear reader, appreciate my mission to keep you boredom-free.  Today's re-inaugural FRIDAY FIVE is on a simple topic. It's not one in which I feel I'm an expert because, believe me, sooo many of you have sooo  much more to juggle than I do. But it's still something I get asked every once in a while. How do you stay so organized? Sometimes, I don't feel organized. But most of the time, I do. I pretty much know 90% of what is going on in my l...

I did it, folks. I braved the hazardous conditions {i.e., the farm machinery and steep ladder} and ventured up into our barn to retrieve my journal. Now I can write about England. I'm super excited, too. Why? Because...I love London. It might be my favorite city of all time. Paris is, of course, beautiful and has this romantic mystery to it {which I've never actually experienced...I have a theory about this, though...and a future blog post in mind}. Salzburg is gorgeous and soooo  clean!  But London has my heart. Yes, the Underground is busy. Yes, people {as in any city} can be rude. But there's just something about London that I love. And I got to spend three days there this past summer! So let's get to it. To fully appreciate our exploits that first day in London, let me back up and set the stage. The night before, we had landed in Heathrow after spending our last day in Munich. We had to make it through all the passport fun-times and then get from He...