Southern Hospitality » Family Friends and Me

The House is Ours!

Rhoda — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 09:00:03 +0000

Closing last Thursday went so well, 45 minutes later, we were the proud owners of a 1979 fixer-upper with lots of potential. I was so happy I told my mom I wanted to jump up and down like a little kid. She smiled and said, go ahead. I was jumping inside!

It makes me choke up when I think back to one year ago and what darkness I was facing, to where I am today. God-sized dreams do come true when He is in the middle of things. Without my parents help, I could not have done this anytime soon, but they are amazing people and they love their baby girl (they love ALL their girls). This house will be something that I can afford to pay for and it will be a house I’ll be so proud of when it’s finished. Not that it will be finished anytime soon. There will be a million projects that I’ll want to tackle down the road, not to mention the outside with landscaping and the screened porch fix-ups.

We are eager to get started and the work has already begun. If you missed the first house post, check it out here for all the rooms.

There are 2 cherry trees and a pretty pink dogwood across the front of the yard. One lone azalea is blooming left of the front steps. At least I don’t have overgrown landscaping. There’s hardly any landscaping to speak of. A blank slate. I kinda like that.

Coming in the front door. The door has not been protected from the weather and under that wood down there is some rotted out plywood under the door jamb, which will have to be repaired. We’ll tackle things one at a time. We have quite a bit of molding to add around the windows inside too. One great thing that the house has is newer vinyl double-paned windows that tilt out for easy cleaning. That’s a huge perk! But, whoever put them in didn’t know how to trim out windows and they need some help. We’ll get that done too.

I don’t love this wood railing, it’s a little rustic for my taste, but after it’s painted it will look a lot better. I’m concentrating on priorities first and that will be painting every inch of this house inside, flooring and the kitchen.

My contractor is checking out the windows.

I pulled back the carpet to see what the stairs look like. Does this look familiar? Oh Em Gee, it sure does to me. These look exactly like my old Birmingham stairs and in case you didn’t see how I finished them out, you can read all about the how-to’s here. I have even better plans for these stairs which will require less molding, but still a great look, so these will get refinished and painted too.

I see lots of staple pulling in my future. There are 3 sets of stairs. One coming in the front door, one going upstairs to the bedrooms and one going down to the bonus room/den, which I didn’t show you before.

It’s a huge room downstairs and one set of windows, which lets in plenty of light. The room is entirely paneled and I can’t wait to paint that out. When we first looked at the house, there was concrete in this space and I thought, oh cool! I will finally get to stain some concrete. When we came back after we won the bid, look what the bank had done. Yep, they installed some brand new carpet. OK, I’ll take it. It’s a nice neutral beige/cream color and it will be fine down here.

This room is way bigger than my old den, but my furniture will fit nicely in here. I have room to do 2 living areas here. There’s a big cubby area around the corner on the left that you can’t see. Huge room! This will be the TV/entertainment area and yippee, I get to use both sets of furniture. One for the den and one upstairs in the living room. All that furniture I have will come in handy. There’s a dropped ceiling in this room and I’m going to peek up there and see what it looks like, but I imagine I’ll want to keep it covered up.

I imagine it will probably look like this ceiling. This is the doorway coming in from the den. And this end of the room is for the washer/dryer. Not very pretty now, but I have big plans in here too. You all know what a pretty laundryroom I had in my old house. It was definitely a laundryroom to envy, but I’ll make this space pretty one day too. I’m going to stain or paint this concrete floor. Paint the walls and even though the ceiling is all open in here and there are exposed pipes and ugly stuff that would best be hidden, I will eventually paint out the entire ceiling in black (spray paint with a spray gun!). My friend, Debbie, did that in her office/crafting space at her house and it is SO cool. Very industrial. So, that’s my plan in there. If I can make that ugly ceiling disappear with black paint, then I can work on beautifying the rest of the space. It’s big enough in here to add a craft table and shelves for that too. If we can salvage some of those pine kitchen cabinets without tearing them to pieces, we’ll bring a row of those down here for that left wall, uppers and lowers and I’ll paint them and use them for storage in here.

Here’s the other end of the room. It’s a long skinny room. That white door goes out to the backyard and it’s even stubbed for a commode in the corner and that white pipe is for a sink. Ummm, no, I don’t think I’ll try to make this space into a bathroom. We’ll just have to go upstairs for that. I might, however, put a utility sink in here. This room is SO big, I think I’ll put a wall up on the other side of the door and across to the other wall (eventually). That space to the back of the room, I’ll line with nice tall wire shelving and use it for Christmas storage and overflow storage. That will come in handy.

Back upstairs in the living room, we are going to wall up that door on the far left. In fact, it’s already walled up on our first day of renovations. My dad didn’t waste anytime on that and it’s already GONE. There were 2 doors going into the kitchen, but space in there is precious, so taking out this door from the living room will give me more cabinet and countertop space on the other side of that wall.

Here it that door from the kitchen side. I’ll gain about 4 or 5 feet of countertop space and cabinet space below. And I have some really neat rustic shelves that I bought before I moved from Alabama that I’m going to use for open shelving on that new wall in here. I can’t wait to see it all come together. The kitchen will probably be the last room we tackle and the most expensive part of the project. I’m still going to do things on a budget since that is where I live.

We can access the kitchen through the dining room and that will be just fine. I’ll enjoy having more cabinet and countertop space more than an extra door. The kitchen is not huge, but I’m going to try to maximize my space as much as possible. It is nice and bright with a window over the sink and a huge double picture window at one end of the room, so closing off that door won’t change that a bit. In a dream world, it would be fun to take down the wall between the kitchen and living room, but that would require way more $$ and energy than we have right now. Plus it would get rid of one entire wall of cabinets and countertops.

I have already met my new neighbors on one side and she invited me in to see their new kitchen that was done a couple of years ago. Her hubby did all the work and they designed it all themselves and it is absolutely beautiful. They got Shaker cabinets from Ikea and did a wonderful job in the kitchen. They opened up a wall between their kitchen and livingroom and it is so pretty, but their kitchen has a lot more space than mine does on one end, so that plan will not work for me. I do pretty much have my mind set on Shaker cabinets too. All the cabinet pics that I’ve been saving have been white Shaker style.

Another peek at the dining room. I’ll be adding new hardwoods in the living room and hope to get all this wood sanded down and stained darker. I am planning to take hardwoods up to the master bedroom too, at least I hope that all comes together as I want it to. And I’m going to do a fun board and batten treatment here in the diningroom. I’ve got some plans to do quite a bit of molding in the house, I love how much charm that adds to plain drywall.

Upstairs, this is the main hall bathroom. It has some OK tile that I’ll probably leave for now. The vanity bottom inside is completely rotted out, so will have to be replaced. Of course, I hate the sink and countertop too and would love to rip all of this out, but we’ll have to see how my budget goes. This will be last on the list and if I have to, I’ll replace the rotted board inside and just paint this thing out and live with it for awhile. The drywall around the top of the shower has to be patched too from water damage.

Back in the master bedroom, here that’s built-in vanity again, that I want to tear out. It’s in its own little alcove.

This little area is tiled around this piece. I’d love to bring the hardwoods into this area too and leave the tile in the tub area right next to this. That’s my plan now, to bring hardwoods all into this little cubby, as that will look so much better than keeping the existing tile. I don’t mind tile, so I will leave the tile in the tub area and then I can update that space later. I’ve got another sink in the bathroom that I will use. I measured and my vanity/desk with mirror will fit in this alcove. It will be the perfect spot for my makeup area.

To the left is my master closet. It’s not huge, but not tiny either. It’s pretty long and has lots of shelving and hanging poles and it’s nice and deep.

I’d love to take all of this out and get one of those closet systems, but again, that will probably have to wait awhile. That budget gets in the way of the plans in my head. You too?!

Outside, the backyard is very nice. I’m loving it! It has a little bit of a rolling hill, but is mostly flat. One clump of trees in the middle of the yard is all the leaves I’ll have to deal with back here and that is fine with me. There’s a nice buffer of trees on the backside of the property and there is a 2 lane road back there, but nothing really busy and loud.

There’s my contractor again, checking things out. The porch will need some repairs on the outside and inside, but it is structurally sound.

All the screening needs to be replaced and I want to add some beadboard inside on the lower walls and the ceiling. The bank had a handyman add these stairs back here, which I’m so grateful for. He told my dad there were no stairs here at all, they were gone.

I’m so excited about this project. It’s going to be a lot of hard work, but boy, how rewarding it will be. I will be sharing it all, every step of the way. Ya’ll have been my cheerleaders all along the way, through all the tough uncertain days this last year and I can’t tell you how much that means to me. To have you all out there rooting for me is the best thing in the world.

Most of my worldly possessions are housed in this storage unit and hopefully in about 6 mos. I’ll be unloading it and moving it into my new house.

So, we’ll call this the house that blogging built. That’s what it is going to be. A house of restoration and healing. A house of love and gratefulness.

My house. I can’t wait!

I have to share this with you too. After closing on Thursday, my mom shared with me a devotional that she had written 1 year ago on closing day, April 12, 2011, from Streams in the Desert. It was about Jesus’s resurrection and how that sometimes we fail to remember that “in the pitch-black night when there’s no outer light, it is the time for faith to shine.” She had hand-written at the bottom of that post, “We are trusting you for Rhoda’s dark night to turn into a morning of joy. Increase our faith.”

One year to the day later, we closed on a house for me! and yes, indeed, my dark night has turned to joy.

I got all teary-eyed when she showed that to me as I recounted how faithful God has been to me this past year, every painful step of the way.

That’s the kind of parents I have and I’m SO very grateful for them.

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Spring: Pass it Forward with Bulbs

Rhoda — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 09:00:58 +0000

Just in time for Easter, my mom got a beautiful bouquet of bulbs! Stop over and see a great gift idea for those loved ones, a living gift of spring bulbs.

The gift that keeps on giving! Click here to see the pretties she got for Easter!

Yippee, the house closing is today!!! It’s almost official!

Beach Bumming in Destin

Rhoda — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 09:00:15 +0000

Last year, right after I moved back to Georgia, I went along with my sister and brother-in-law on their annual camping trip to Destin. They camp at a beautiful camping spot (Topsail State Park) right on the Gulf and it’s a gorgeous spot on the map. We took our bikes and rode a few miles, relaxed on the beach and ate a lot of seafood. Fun week, as you can imagine! We did have quite a bit of rain this year, but on those days we just hit the stores and did a little shopping.

I’ll show you a few of the highlights of our week. We thrifted one day and hit the outlet mall another.

We did have 3 full days of sunshine and took advantage of that. We rode our bikes to the beach and hauled all our stuff down there for a few hours and it’s always heavenly to be on the beach with my feet in the sand.

The boardwalk going down to the beach is a long one, floating over the dunes.

And the water…that beautiful blue green water that this area of Florida is known for. Hard to resist and again, the most beautiful beaches in the U.S. in my opinion.

I love the dunes and vegetation.

That sugar white sand is just amazing.

Flags flying to show wind speed. We had a very nice breeze to enjoy.

These photos are not retouched with color, that is just how stunningly beautiful the water is here in Destin.

Natural beauty that doesn’t get better than this.

The boardwalk makes it a nice hike to the beach. So, on the days that we didn’t do the beach, we thrifted and browsed the plentiful shops in Destin. We hit one called The Shabby Chic shop that had some great painted furniture and upholstered pieces.

Loved this rustic mirror. They build lots of their furniture and redo other pieces that they find along the way.

Fun painted pieces.

These slip covered swivel rockers were SO comfortable.

Loved the painted back on this bookcase.

I found a really cool burlap rectangular lampshade at the Goodwill store for $7.50 that I’ll be showing you soon. I have big plans for it in the house and I’m sure I can find a spot for it.

One morning, I got to meet my long time blog friend, Kat, for breakfast at the Donut Hole. It’s always great to catch up with Kat and she is one of my very first bloggy friends that I met in person. We have been friends ever since and I think I’ve met up with her in Destin every year that I’ve been blogging.

Me, my sister, Renee and our friend, Susan after dinner one night. The 2 couples have been camping together for about 5 years and enjoy it a lot. I’m just glad that they asked me to tag along. We have fun together.

Sunset on the beach. This is one of my bargain tops that I found at the Ann Taylor Loft store. $4.88 on clearance, you know I love my bargains! I found several great looking tops this year, all from Ann Taylor Loft at Silver Sands outlet. Just in case you are looking at this pic and wondering what in the world is up with my hair, I have some major bad hair at the beach in Florida. I thought Georgia weather was bad on hair, but Florida is the worst for me. I just give up on good hair while I’m down there. My hair, it wants to be big no matter what I do to it.

Bye from the beach! It was a fun week down there and we will enjoy the memories. I wanted to share a few snippets of our trip there.

I’ll be back soon with more house updates. I’m still so excited to get in there and get busy. Waiting to hear a closing date.

Soon, I hope!

House Hunting!! BIG News!

Rhoda — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 09:00:10 +0000

Happy day, happy day!!

You’ll have to excuse the lack of Feature Friday today, but I’ve got some news to share that is making me about to burst with excitement.

I haven’t written a lot about my house hunting journey, mainly because it’s been fairly uneventful and not a lot to talk about. It would have been along the lines of, look at this cute house, we put a bid on it. Aww shucks, we didn’t get it, outbid again.

I really wasn’t planning to actively begin the house hunting process this early, until I started looking for fun, then we would go check out the houses in person, just to see what was out there. It really got interesting and then as the last 2 months continued, we actually decided to start the bidding process on a few houses and see what they were going to go for. My parents have been great and when I found a house to look at, they eagerly went with me to check them out.

There have been some real bargains around, listing at $50,000 to $70,000 and I was looking at some of the low ones to get an idea of what was out there in that price range. If I could snag one that cheap, it would be amazing. Major fixer uppers for sure! And we quickly found out that bidding wars are happening in those lower prices too. Like 12 and more bids on one house, kind of bidding wars! House hunting for a foreclosure fixer-upper is not for the faint of heart. You can’t get too attached, cause chances are it is not going to happen in a market this tight. We made bids on a few houses, really fairly certain that we would get that one.

And we didn’t! So, after 5 heartbreaks in a row, over about a 2 month period, I toughened up and knew that the right one would eventually come along. I could not become emotionally attached to any of these houses, although I couldn’t help but walk in and decorate and renovate them all in my head in the short amount of time we walked through. You’d do that too, right?

Let me stop here and just say this! Some people live like pigs. No kidding! We could NOT believe the condition of some of these houses. Did these people ever clean their carpets, bathrooms, or vacuum the air vents? It sure didn’t look like it when we were looking. That just amazed us that so many of these houses were just trashed. Holes in the walls, doors missing, and so many things wrong. I know some of that was probably vandalism, but all of it wasn’t. Some people just live that way apparently.

We tried to look at the market objectively. Would it be better for me to keep saving my money and have more to put down, so that possibly I could get into a better house that didn’t require so much work? That became the question that increasingly became difficult to answer. With all those bidders out there, it seems that is driving prices up, at least it is for the near future. Banks will catch on to the bidding wars and raise those prices, you can be sure of that.

Not only that, the bank practices have been really frustrating too. When bids are put in and there are 12 or so bids on one house, then it was nothing to wait a few days and get notice that the bank now wanted our “highest and best offer”. What in the world! I thought that is what we entered in the first place. The object was to get people to frantically raise their bids and thus, drive that house price up.

This happened at least 2 or 3 times. We lost out every single time! I could only go up to a certain amount, since I don’t have tons of money sitting around. My dad is helping me get into this house and I have been fortunate to save a nice chunk of change for buying a house in the last year. God has blessed me SO much in all of my trials and I’m so happy to be out of the mess I was in. We will pay cash now and fix the house up with my cash during the next 6 months. Then, I’ll get a mortgage and pay my dad back and it will be something that I can afford to get into. That’s the only way I could do it now.

Com along with me and I’ll share the 5 that we didn’t get and when I look back, I know that the one we are getting is the best one for me out of all of them. God is SO smart!

All of these houses were within 10 miles of my parents, so that was an important factor in looking. I wanted to stay close to my family and so I looked at a few zip codes that were in the surrounding areas, scouring the MLS every week.

This was one of the first ones I looked at and when I drove up, I could immediately see myself in this house. That cute front porch was begging for some rocking chairs. It had been completely repainted and recarpeted inside and was move in ready. Not to say, there weren’t some things I would change in the kitchen and bathrooms, but it wasn’t anything that couldn’t wait until later. Unfortunately about a dozen other people decided they wanted it too and the bidding wars commenced. We didn’t get it the first time around, but the asking price was $75K and that was the top of what we were comfortable with. Someone else got it and then about a week later, it fell through and they came back again asking all the bidders to bid again. This happened one more time and now it’s under contract again. What we found out the 2nd time around was this house is in a flood zone and in fact, HAD flooded in the great flood of 2009 here in Georgia, so that is a blessing in disguise. Whoever buys this house will have to buy flood insurance on top of regular home owners insurance, so that one is out. As cute as it is, I wouldn’t want to be in a flood zone. It may never happen again in 50 years, but you never know! This one ended up going for only$76K. Someone must have paid cash and didn’t mind the flood zone.

This next house was another contender. I liked the outside and inside and it was a pretty nice layout, a split foyer, with a nice room downstairs that could be used as a den. Double garage and deck in back, but nothing really fancy. Listed at $54,500, I think (it’s hard to remember them all) we bid around $63K on it, but it ended up going for $67,500.

This cute Cape Cod was another one we looked at. Of course, I started falling in love with all of them, but quickly learned that I couldn’t get my hopes up, as we got one NO after another. This one was listed at $52,500. It was really outdated inside, but the bones were good. Both bathrooms and the kitchen needed major updates, but all the bedrooms and baths were good size. It only had one main living room and no extra bonus room and no dining room either, so I wouldn’t have been able to use my dining room furniture or my den furniture in this house. It went for $61K.

I really didn’t love the exterior of this house, but liked the floor plan inside. I figured I could get the exterior painted one day. It was listed at $75K and was a short sale, top of my price range. Swarms of people were stopping by and that happened with every house we looked at, for the most part. We could just about be sure that someone else would be looking as we checked them all out, one by one. It went for $80K.

This last one was in the same neighborhood that my friend, Tammy, just bought in. She bought a foreclosure too and has just moved in within the last month. She is tickled to get something too. In fact, this house is the exact same floor plan as her house. I liked it well enough and knew that I could fix it up and make it cute. It had a nice big deck across the back and the inside was not in bad shape, just needed plenty of cosmetic work. It was listed at $70K and we put in a bid slightly over that. We didn’t get it and it ended up selling for $79K.

One year ago, I did not dream that I would be where I am now, buying a house! I have saved my money, lived frugally and lived with my parents for the past year and it’s been great. But, I do miss having my own space and being able to spread out and use my own furniture. My stuff! I sure didn’t think it would happen anytime soon.

But, the good news is, after 5 heartbreaks…..we finally have a winner! And I’m about to pee my pants with excitement. Never thought I’d be so excited over a 1979 fixer-upper that needs tons of work and TLC. I’m more than willing and ready to jump in there and tackle what needs to be done and my dad will be right there with me. Mom too! It will be a family project and you will see it every step of the way.

I’m about to bust out with happiness over the prospect of getting into this house!

Are you ready to see it? How about a BIG woooohooooooo!!!

We got this baby for $70K, still a bargain for sure and we had to bid $10K over the asking price to get it. Never did I dream that I would be able to find a house to fix up and something that I could afford to get into one year after moving back to GA. When my friend, Tammy bought a fixer, that is when I found out that they were out there for such a great price right now. This is the best time ever to find a fixer-upper, it seems. When is the last time you saw any houses selling for less than $100K? It’s been a long, long time in the area we live, Cobb County.

She is nothing fancy, but has plenty of potential and that’s all I need. No landscaping was ever done to this 1979 house, but you can bet, I’ll be adding some later. There are 3 flowering trees in the front yard, 2 cherry and a beautiful pink dogwood. That’s a sign, I think that God was smiling on me. It will take years to complete, but I enjoy working in the yard too and adding plants and flowers will be a joyful journey for me.

I really want to add a cute peaked roof to this little front porch, to protect the door and get folks out of the weather. That will probably happen after we finish the inside. You can see the stairs were recently replaced. The bank did a few repairs before it was put on the market. I love the door! It’s begging for a new light fixture too. Yep, she’s got potential!

Stepping inside the tiny foyer, there’s a short set of stairs. I’ll be ripping up all this carpet. I’m lucky that there are hardwoods in the dining room and kitchen and I’m hoping to be able to afford to get hardwoods in the greatroom and sand down all the existing floors, stain them all darker and finish them out.

Here’s the large greatroom with fireplace. There are 2 sets of windows on either side of the fireplace and this room is very spacious. This is where I want to add hardwoods. All the trim will be painted white. Those white marks on the walls are where the bank had a handyman come in and at least start some repairs. That’s less that we have to do, so we are grateful for all of that!

The stone fireplace is begging for a rustic mantel and that’s what I’ll do.

Looking back towards the foyer, that flight of stairs on the right goes up to the 3 bedrooms above. The master bedroom suite is at the end of the hall. The stairs to the left go downstairs to a bonus room in the basement area. It’s really large and I forgot to take a pic of it, but it will make a nice den. You can see some paneling and carpet down there. The first time we looked at the house, that area had concrete floors, which in my head, I was going to stain the concrete. When we got the bid on the house and came back, the bank had added carpet. OK, I’ll take that! The rest of the existing carpet will have to go. It’s nasty!

This is a small dining room, but I’m so happy to have one for my round table and chairs. I have fun plans for this space too. Through those sliders is a cute little screened porch.

Do you see the smile on my face?! I know that the Lord gave this to me, He knew how much I wanted a screened porch. It needs work, but it will be adorable when I’m done with it. The backyard is nice and flat, nothing fancy, but no dangerous trees nearby, which we were glad about too.

The kitchen needs work! When we came back the 2nd time, a handy man was putting in a new dishwasher, courtesy of the bank. We are so grateful that they have done some repairs on the house since we looked at it and put in our bid. The house was also missing the hot water heater. We totally thought we’d be responsible for all of that, but were thrilled to come and find that there was a brand new hot water heater installed too. We are checking out the furnace and AC and don’t know what shape it is in yet, so we may have repairs on that. But, if we don’t get any other concessions, we are happy with what they have done so far.

These pine cabinets are not worth saving, so I’ll gut the kitchen and start over. I think I can find some reasonable cabinets to put in here and it should be a cute little kitchen when I’m done. There are 2 huge windows on the far side. It’s not a big kitchen, but I can make it work.

Upstairs, here is one of the bedrooms. I’m planning to get a roommate when I move in, so this will be her room. I’ve got a friend in mind already, who is living in Colorado, but is planning to come back to Atlanta in the Fall. We are hoping our plans work out. I’ve got swirly ceilings, but I can live with those. Better than popcorn! Yep, we’ve got some wallpaper stripping to do. Glad it is only on one wall.

The other extra bedroom upstairs, this one will be my office. It’s plenty big for that and yes, more wallpaper to strip. We’ve got to add some trim around that window too. Luckily, there were brand new vinyl windows installed in the house, so that is a HUGE plus.

Closet space in what will be my office.

Master bedroom at the end of the hallway. It is nice and big and has 3 windows. I love having a lot of light coming in a house and this one has plenty of windows.

The other end of the room, with a one sink vanity and the bathroom is to the right of this space. I will more than likely tear out this sink vanity. It’s ugly and I don’t really need it, since there is another sink in the other part of the bathroom. They did that a lot back in the 70’s. I would like to put my vanity desk in this nook and I’ll have to see if it fits. Great place to put on my makeup. The master has a small walk-in closet to the left. Not huge, but I can make it work.

The master bath is nothing special, more wallpaper to remove and I hope to be able to replace both of these vanities and sinks. They are butt-ugly in both bathrooms, not to mention falling apart. Check out that lovely laminate countertop, original to the 70’s. Hey, someone framed out the mirror, not the best job, but maybe I can do something with it.

Tub and shower. Just basic, but I’ll make it pretty!

So, that’s the house! You can bet, this will be a journey that I’ll be sharing along the way. I’ll never run out of blog material now! It’s going to take me years to get this place totally the way I want it.

Going through what I have and losing so much has taught me a valuable lesson. Finding contentment and happiness in the small things is what life is all about. I could care less about having a fancy big home anymore. I will be so proud and happy to fix this place up and make it a home. Once I can bring all my things in here, it will be my own little haven and I will absolutely love it. I could not be happier about a house. It’s not the fancy house I used to have, but it will be mine and I will praise God for it.

He has brought me SO far the last year and I know you all have watched the journey with amazement too. No one is more in awe than I am at where I am a mere one year later. God has answered one prayer after another for me. It was one year ago this month, when we packed those moving vans and brought me and my stuff back to Georgia and in with my folks. I envisioned years of waiting for another house, so to have it happen this fast, well, I’m just so happy about it all. I have my parents to thank for their willingness to help me do this, they are the BEST!

Never in my life have I experienced the grace and faithfulness of God in such a real and tangible way, as I have experienced this past year…the hardest, yet possibly the most blessed year of my life.

So, get ready to watch a real-life home renovation in progress. I’ll be taking pics all along the way. We are going to take our time and I probably won’t be moving in until Fall, at best. We are not going to rush and I’m going to be paying cash along the way, fixing this place up and making her beautiful. And you know I’ll be sharing every step of the journey with all of you.

Thank you ALL so much for your prayers, support and love! I appreciate all of you more than you know.

My head is spinning with ideas, colors, and inspiration on all I want to do in this place!! It’s going to be a blast. Lots of hard work, but I cannot wait!

Don’t go anywhere, we’ve got lots of work to do!

I’m heading to the beach on Saturday for a week with my sister and brother-in-law in their camper. We had such a great time last year and I can’t wait to do it again. I’ve got plenty of fun posts saved up, so will have them up next week while I’m having fun in the sun and sand.

Celebrating the Ones We Love

Rhoda — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 13:00:45 +0000

{Giveaway is Closed}

Winner is #91: Anash

Sharing time with my family, especially my parents, at this time of my life is certainly sweet. I don’t take them for granted anymore and know that time is limited with them. The days will go by quickly, and the older I get and they get, I know I have to savor the moments when they come.

Paying tribute and honoring my parents is very important to me at this time of my life. I don’t plan to move very far from them at all, if I can help it, when I find another home of my own one day soon. We are bonded and we need each other.

Family is forever. I couldn’t have made it this past year without them.

My mom’s birthday and Mother’s Day are both in May, and Father’s Day and my dad’s birthday come around in June and July. Sharing family time with them is special. My mom and I have breakfast together every morning at the table, eating cereal and sipping coffee, each reading the paper, knowing the other is there. It’s very comforting.

My dad and I have enjoyable conversations about blogging and life. He is still my defender, my strong and capable dad, whom I’ve always looked up to.

Celebrating them and the time I have with them is very important to me right now, and I’m doing just that.

It makes me happy to see my mom smile from the bedroom and bathroom renovations we’ve been able to do these last few weeks. I’m overjoyed to do this for them, and it makes me happy that they are sharing in benefits and perks that come along. I enjoy spending time with them, getting their opinions, hearing wisdom shared day by day. So, how do we share and celebrate those people in our lives who are so important to us?

We savor and enjoy the everyday moments of life, letting them know how important they are to us.

How do you pay tribute to the people you love? Leave me a comment answering that question to be entered for a chance to win a $100 Starbucks card, courtesy of BlogHer.

Sweepstakes Rules:
No duplicate comments.You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.
This sweepstakes is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.The Official Rules are available here.
This sweepstakes runs from March 15th to April 1st 2012.

Be sure to visit the Promotions & Prizes page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ stories and find more chances to win!

You loved Tribute Blend so much, Starbucks brought it back. But, only for a limited time. Tribute Blend is a spicy, full-bodied blend with dark cherry notes, featuring four of our highest quality beans aged Sumatra, sun-dried Ethiopia, Papua New Guinea and Colombia beans.

Raise a cup once more to the limited-time return of Starbucks Tribute Blend. It’s still just for you, and still because of you. Available for a limited time in whole bean and Starbucks VIA.

Joss and Main: Online Shopping Event

Rhoda — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 18:00:56 +0000

So many times, I take all of you along with me on my shopping jaunts, checking out a new shop for home decor items. Wouldn’t it be fun to go shopping with me?

Well, now you can! Virtually, at least.

Imagine my excitement when I received an email from the online decor shop, Joss and Main! I had joined their site and looked at products over there for a few months and it’s a fun shopping spot. I never dreamed that they would choose ME to curate an event. But, they did! Curate is a fancy term for choosing items that showcase a certain style or theme.

Joss and Main features flash sale shopping events showcasing high-end decor items discounted a certain amount, that only last for a few days and when the products are sold out, that is it. Several of my blog friends have curated events with Joss and Main and I’m so excited to get the opportunity as well. Here’s a sampling of some things that will be offered:

What fun to be a part of Joss and Main and to pull together products to offer in my own Southern Chic design event. From furniture to accessories, there will be something for all tastes and styles. These are things that I would have in my own home and represent a little sampling of my Southern style.

You’ll even see a bunny or 3!

If you’d like to join Joss and Main and browse all the new events coming out, you can sign up under my special code and there’s no waiting to get in. If you sign up under my name and purchase anything over there, I’ll get a $15 credit which can be spent on the site. You can do the same thing! Once you join and share your link, others can sign up under you too. It’s FREE to join, there is no obligation to purchase and you can browse all day long. You can cancel at anytime too. They will send you email alerts for each shopping event that comes up.

I will get a small commission on any sales generated from my event and I’d love for you to take a look. No pressure to buy at all! You might want to go ahead and register, so you’ll be ready to browse. It’s easy and they just ask for your email address.

Of course, you just might spot something that you can’t live without. I’ve seen so many beautiful home decor items over there that I’d love to have. And when I get in a house again, I’ll be looking at Joss and Main for some fun items to add to my home.

So, I hope you’ll come back on Thursday, March 8th, when my shopping event will go live.

The Amandas: 6 Degrees of Separation on Reality TV

Rhoda — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 17:00:31 +0000

Close to 2 years ago, I received an email in my inbox from a production company looking for messy people in the Birmingham area to possibly be featured on a reality organizing show that was going to be filmed in Birmingham. I often get pitches like that in my inbox and didn’t think much of it, but sent the email on to my friend, Debbie, In Birmingham. She read it and decided to write in and turn in her son, Brandon, and his wife, Jocelyn, who had moved into a house. She thought they desperately needed help with organizing their messy spaces and would be great candidates for this new reality organizing show.

She later told me that they got accepted to the show and in the meantime, I had moved away from Birmingham. I heard a few details about the show and she didn’t know when it was going to air. I had no idea what the name of the show would be.

So, last week someone commented in my comments about a new show called The Amandas, a reality show all about a pretty young woman who lost everything to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. She had moved to Birmingham to start over and she had her own organizing business, hiring a bevy of beauties who she then sends out to organize and beautify the spaces of her clients. It’s a colorful cast of characters. The girls all go out in cute dresses and high heels to do their jobs, which is pretty funny to watch.

I had never heard of the show, which just started airing and I was at my sister’s last week and she was watching an episode, which happened to be organizing the office space and delivery truck for Dreamcakes, a very popular and well known bakery owned by Jan Moon, in Birmingham. I had met Jan at one point at a wedding reception, when she delivered the wedding cake a couple of years ago and I was helping the flower person.

I was immediately hooked on the show, which features lots of scenery in and around Birmingham that was so familiar to me. One of the girls on the show, the blonde Rachel, was at my niece’s wedding last March (that’s her in the striped dress). At the time, she was dating one of the groomsmen, so she came to the rehearsal dinner and wedding and of course that is a novelty to see her on the show.

I set the show to record on the DVR and was watching an episode this week, when I saw a snippet from next weeks show (it airs on Monday nights, 8 pm on the Style network) and saw my friend’s son, Brandon and his wife, Jocelyn mentioned, so that’s when the bell went off and I realized The Amandas is the show that they are on. So, next Monday their episode will air. It was filmed last October just before the birth of their baby daughter. My friend, Debbie, was their during filming and will probably get some air-time too.

So, that’s a cute little story about reality TV and how it can brush with real-life. If you want something else to watch, The Amandas is fun to watch and highly entertaining. And you might see some good organizing tips too! For more information, visit My Style.

Have you seen it yet? What do you think?

Looking Your Best: What are Your Favorite Beauty Tools?

Rhoda — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:00:28 +0000

I’m joining a few other bloggers today on the topic of looking our best. Lord knows, we all want to look our best, don’t we? I sure do! Even though some days I get lazy, I do like feeling cute and dressing up in a stylish outfit and a new haircut can do wonders for my self-esteem.

Last week, I went to a brand new hair stylist who really nailed my hair, in a good way. I have some crazy wild, unruly, THICK hair that not a lot of hair stylists can really tame. But this new girl did it! She gave me a great cut, flat-ironed it and I left feeling pretty darn good. She’s got a new customer in me! Some of you saw this pic over on my Facebook page last week. I can’t fix it exactly like my hair stylist, but I think I came pretty close to this when I styled myself. I need 4 arms to do it like she does, do you feel that way too?

So, what are your favorite beauty tools for hair and skin? Let’s dish some beauty secrets!

I use hair products for frizzy hair (currently using Redken Smooth shampoo and conditioner) and usually use a hair serum and de-frizz spray. Do you have any great hair products you’d like to share with me on taming unruly hair. I wash my hair about 3 times a week and I don’t always flat iron it either. With this hair style, I can wear it messy too if I want or I can tame it with the flat iron, which I usually do.

How about you? Got any great beauty tips you’d like to share on hair or makeup? What are your favorite beauty tools.

I love my makeup brushes and use them every day that I put on makeup. And I love my Bare Minerals makeup too. I also love Olay’s Filling & Sealing cream in a tube before I put on my mineral makeup. I feel like it’s spackle for the face!

I’m joining some other bloggers on this topic over at Blogher.com and would love for you to stop by there and leave your comments too. There’s a lot of great beauty tool tips shared. And there’s a Life Well Lived sweepstakes going on as well that you can sign up for.

I’m not getting paid for this, but thought it was a fun topic to talk about!

My Blogging Story: Part 3

Rhoda — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:00:46 +0000

If you want to catch up with my story so far, read Part 1 and Part 2. Get settled in comfortably, this is a loooooong one.

We begin Part 3 at the end of 2008. I had been blogging nearly 2 full years by this point. I’ll start this post by giving some of you new bloggers some tips on how to start your blog. When I began, most everyone I knew started with a free Blogger blog. We chose a name and set up a Blogger blog and all ended in .blogspot.com. That was the norm and still is a good platform for starting a new blog. So, that’s what I did too, when I started mine in February of 2007. I was doing it for fun and a hobby and didn’t know that in a couple of years I would feel compelled to move from Blogger.

(via Etsy)

Blogger was a great platform to learn on. That first year was a complete learning experience for me as I learned how to size photos, change my background, make a really lame header, and play around with html. Blogger does a really good job of walking you through the process on adding things to the sidebar, etc. Learning html has been such a challenge and I’m not there yet, trust me. I know enough to be dangerous and I leave the real technical stuff to people that have a clue. I can run my blog all day long, but behind the scenes stuff, with coding and html? Way over my head!

I have been fortunate to learn all my computer experience with on the job training. I got my first computer in the corporate world around 1985 or so and after being initially resistant to learning it all, I completely embraced my PC and learned many programs along the way, including Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and many other programs during those years. So, all those years in the Corporate world prepared me for blogging too. You younger girls can’t relate to that, since you all grew up with computers from grammar school on up, but we older gals did not have that luxury. I was already very comfortable with computers and had always been online since the beginning of the internet. If you are computer savvy at all, you can learn to blog. And even if you are not, you can learn. Computers are part of everyday life now and I would definitely encourage you to learn as much as you can about computers and how they work. I am not really young anymore, but I’m young at heart when it comes to staying up with current technology.

Although I still don’t have an I-phone.

(via Sitsgirls, Blog design article)

So, that is something to pass along to you if you are serious about blogging as a business. If you have aspirations to make it more than a hobby, then you may want to think about this:

Get your own domain name right from the start, (.com or .net), pay for a host service (I use Bluehost), and get yourself set up on WordPress. I didn’t do any of this until I had been blogging for 2 1/2 years (mid-2009), so if I had known at the beginning that all of this would grow and evolve like it has, I would have gone ahead and at least gotten a domain name and set up from the start on WordPress. Getting a domain name is less than $10 and paying monthly for a hosting service is not that much either, around $100 or less per year. Not bad at all. So, many want to know WHY you should move from the free Blogger service? Well, for me it was a matter of having complete control over my own blog. I did not like the idea that Blogger really owned all my content.

If you do decide to sign up with a hosting service, I have been very happy with Bluehost and I signed up as an affiliate, so if anyone signs up with them using my link, I get a small commission:

CLICK HERE TO SIGNUP FOR BLUEHOST.COM

If anything happened to their site and servers,then all of us on Blogger were affected. And those glitches did happen pretty often back then and probably still do. There were problems with loading pics at times, problems with leaving comments and loading posts. Blogger could even take down a blog at their own discretion at any time and I sure didn’t like that at all. So, after experiencing a few things like that those first 2 years, I began to make plans to move and finally get off Blogger and get my own domain name. That was definitely the smartest thing I did in 2009. It was scary, but the best thing I did. I hired a blog designer who could move me over and got all of that completed. At the time, I am not sure that everyone had it figured out how to not lose subscribers and I had to start over with my RSS subscribers at that time, but it quickly caught back up to where I was and surpassed my original number in a few months. I think now that many blog designers have figured out how to not lose anything on a move from Blogger to WordPress, so if you are contemplating doing this, I would say GO FOR IT! You won’t regret having complete control over your blog and WordPress is a wonderful blog platform. Make sure you choose someone who is very savvy on moving to WordPress. I still have no idea how all of that works, but I do love working with WordPress. Here are the advantages I see, that aren’t necessarily just WordPress, but things that I have learned:

Easy to use for posting. Once I got used to WordPress, it was just as easy as Blogger to learn. Blogger is really user friendly, but if you can learn Blogger, you can definitely learn WordPress. And WordPress has a lot of advantages that Blogger does not.
WordPress has built in SEO. If you are a new blogger, that might be a new term for you. SEO = Search Engine Optimization. You want people to be able to find all the great stuff that you have written and SEO is how they find you. So, when you are writing posts, make sure you title your posts something that describes what that post is about. Don’t use fluffy titles that are cute. You want to be sure those search engines can find key words that you are writing about to bring people to your posts. This is especially good for us home bloggers who post a lot of decorating projects. So, WordPress has built in areas that you can add your own tags and titles to optimize the search engine traffic to the max. I get a lot of organic traffic from Google, when people search for projects that I’ve already done and documented on my blog. Spray painting furniture black is one of my most clicked posts.
Name your pics. Another thing that I have just started doing diligently this year is labeling my pictures. If you keep the default pic name for your pics, no one will be able to do a search and find your pics. So, get in the habit of naming your pics so that they can be found easily in a search and they will show up in Google Images. This will get more traffic to your posts also. It took me a long time to get in the habit of doing this, but I have finally started to stick with it for the most part.
Resize your pics. My blog will hold a 500 pixel photo and I resize all my photos to fit my space before I upload. That ensures that they load as fast as possible too.
Watermark your images. This is another one that I just started this year. With the way pics are floating around the internet, if you watermark (add your blog name) to your pics, then they will be easily seen as coming from your blog. Just one more way to get your blog out there and protect your pics too.

Windows Live Writer: I started using Windows Live Writer when I was still on Blogger and when I moved to WordPress, I was advised not to use it (was told it adding extra coding in a post), but I have heard differing opinions on it and have recently gone back to using WLW for my posts. It’s the fastest way to load photos that I have found and it makes writing a blog post so much easier to me. Read my post on using Windows Live Writer that I wrote back in early 2009. Once you get it set up, it is easy to post pics and save the Draft to your blog. I post TONS of pics and this is by far the easiest way to post them that I have found. While I was still on Blogger, I ran out of picture space with Picasa albums, which is where pics are stored for Blogger blogs. I did have to purchase an upgrade for pics, since I host my pics on my site and don’t host them on Flickr or elsewhere. These are now hosted on my server. That post will give you all the low-down on using Windows Live Writer and I do really enjoy working with it. Speeds things up for me!

My blogging story may become a little out of whack as I go along, but I’m trying to think of real tips that I can pass on too as I write this series. Tips that will help those of you who are new to blogging as well as those who have been at it for awhile. My knowledge has been 5 years in the making and none of this was learned overnight. I still feel that I have SO much to learn at times! One thing with blogging, there is always something new to learn and learning keeps us sharp!

(via Etsy)

So, back to 2009! Going into that year, there was a new blog conference that had just been around for a year or so. Blissdom! Many of my peers were going and I really wanted to connect with them in real life. I made plans to go to Blissdom in January of 2009. If you get the chance to go to a blog conference, I would definitely suggest you do it. It was a perfect way for me to jump into learning more about blogging, where I wanted to go with it and to connect in real life to many bloggers that I had rubbed shoulders with the previous year. Meeting other bloggers in real life has been without a doubt, the most positive and energizing thing about blogging. We are all on the same journey. Those girls get blogging and how it works and learning from and being around them all was such fun. That first Blissdom conference, I met many women and most of them are still blogging to this day. You can read my experiences at my first Blissdom here and see all the Home bloggers that were at that conference. Compared to today, it was only a handful. (Emily, me, Jen, Sandy, Melissa, Kimba, Nester) This group was the beginning of the Home bloggers and we enjoyed that first year at Blissdom (actually 2nd official year, the very first one was really tiny) and have gone on to forge our own blogging paths. It was so fun to actually meet in person and connect with those girls whose blogs I had been reading for over a year.

(This was my first time to meet Julia, with Hooked on Houses too and it’s been great to get to know her.)

Blissdom is a great blog conference with many various types of bloggers. Many women who started in blogging way before I did began as moms and writers, those who were aspiring to become writers and share their stories on the web. Many of those bloggers we heard on the panels at Blissdom were coupon bloggers too, so that 2009 Blissdom was a time of learning and figuring out which direction to go next. Many of us who were there definitely fit in the home niche and we bonded over that. We were not mommy or coupon bloggers, but had a whole different slant to our blogs. We wanted to share our home decorating ideas with the world and that was the commonality we all had. There were only a handful of us at that conference, but it was a great start. Since that year, the home/DIY niche of blogging has just exploded, as I’m sure you have noticed!

(This sweet girl, Susie Harris, was there too. We are still great friends and I can’t wait to see her at Haven this year!)

Some of the things we heard at the conference was way over my head. I had already been with BlogHer ad network for almost at year at this point, making a few dollars along the way, as I mentioned in Part 2 of my story. I was certainly not looking at blogging as a full time job, but still just a fun hobby that earned a small little income. At that time, I didn’t feel the absolute need to grow my blog and make it work. I was married at the time and didn’t rely on my income to make it. But, going to Blissdom gave me more confidence to try to grow my blog for the fun of it and why not? If I was going to stay home and do it for fun, I figured that if the possibility was there to make it more and make a little more income, then why not? I still loved the whole blogging community and sharing on my blog and leaving Blissdom gave me the push to add my own personal sponsors on my blog. So, when I came home that year, I did just that. I added small business ads in my sidebar and opened it up to see what would happen.

I did get a few advertisers that first year of starting my own sponsors, but certainly it wasn’t huge. Still not anything close to a sustainable income. I started off by charging sponsors only $20 per month, certainly not a lot of money, but it was a start. Later that year, I went up to $40 and then $50, which I stayed at for way over a year. I have recently gone up to $60 per month and will probably not go up too much from that. Many bloggers charge different amounts for ads and I have tried to stay competitive and reasonable at the same time, for my blog size. Back then, I’d say my monthly stats were around 50,000 hits a month, and over 100,000 pageviews. I currently get over 600,000 pageviews per month and per most blog advertising formulas, I could charge much more than I do, but I would rather keep those sponsor ads reasonable. Most of them are small business owners like myself and this helps both of us to grow.

In July of 2009, I officially moved from Blogger to WordPress. I chose my new domain name and moved. I didn’t understand all of that at the time, but quickly learned that I would need to pay for a domain name (less than $10) and then find a host service. I ended up on Bluehost after moving from the first one. I am still on a shared server at Bluehost, but if I keep growing, will probably have to move to the next tier up to make sure my blog loads and runs smoothly (I think the next tier up is a VPS server). I’m still fine for now, but that is always an option. Many of the bigger blogs are on their own servers, to handle the traffic that their blogs get. I would love to have that problem, but for now, the shared server is fine.

I hired my blog designer, Darcy, to do that for me. She is one of the prominent blog designers out there and did a lot of my blog peers blog designs. At the time, I still had not had a complete blog design makeover and it wouldn’t be until Spring of 2010 that I would get that done (also by Darcy). Darcy with Graphically Designing is a very saavy designer and she helped me walk through the scary process of moving over to WordPress. That meant that all my content, 2 1/2 years worth, would have to be moved over. All the posts, comments, pics, everything had to be moved. We successfully did that with minor inconveniences and I still have it all with me now, thank goodness. I did have to go in and manually fix some broken links, but for the most part, it was very easy. And as I mentioned, I had to start over with my RSS subscribers (those of you who sign up to read by a reader or by email). I do think that has changed now and most that move over to a new domain name, can take it all with them. Be sure to get a really savvy designer and technical person who can do it all for you. If I had tried to move myself to WordPress, it would have been a complete disaster for sure. That is not something I would ever feel comfortable doing myself.

I did things a little backwards and moved to WordPress before I got the whole shebang blog makeover to make my blog pretty. My old banners were way too big and once I got a new design, I was really happy with it. The new blog design was about 6 months after the move to WordPress. So, word of advice. Get it all done at the same time! Don’t drag it out like I did. If you can afford to get a blog design and move, that’s the best time to do it all. I may eventually do a new header, but for now I’m still fine with it as it is. It really expresses who I am and what my blog is about and that is the most important thing with a blog header. Does it portray WHO you are?

By the end of 2009, I felt very good about where I was going. Still not getting rich by any means, but making a decent part-time income. My income more than doubled from 2008 to 2009, I’m not going to continue sharing how much I’ve made over these last couple of years (most people don’t go around talking about their $$ income), but I will say that it has grown tremendously. As my blog traffic has grown, so has the monetary compensation and that has been the biggest blessing in my life at the moment. I’ll get more into all of that in later posts, so stay tuned.

I hope that sharing my story this way is not too disjointed. All this information that I want to share pops into my head and I’m trying to make it somewhat cohesive and easy to understand. I thought the best way to share my story would be to describe it as I lived it, one year at a time. If any of you have questions along the way, please feel free to ask in the comments and I’ll be glad to answer.

Word Up: Hope

Rhoda — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:00:41 +0000

Since my friend, Layla, is having a word of the year party (scheduled for early Monday a.m.), I thought that would be fun to join. I am not one to often make New Year’s resolutions. Those seem to be lists doomed to fail for the most part, so why set yourself up for that? But, as I approach my 5 year blogging anniversary the first of February, this is a good time to stop and count my blessings.

Choosing a word for the year seems to be a good way to start the new year off on a positive note. A sweet word can stick in your head and heart and help guide the way through the days and months that lay ahead in the coming year. So, why not a word? I pondered and thought and read some devotions, bouncing a few words around that I thought I could embrace.

And I came back to one that continues to grip me.

HOPE.

At four letters, a little word, but a powerful word.

(via Tumblr)

What do I put my hope in? Who do I put my hope in?

(via itthings)

Oh, that has certainly varied over the years. As little girls, most of us hope for a Prince Charming to come along and sweep us off our feet. A wonderful knight in shining armor that we can fall in love with and one who will complete our lives, bring us happiness and with whom we will live happily ever after. Magical words. You know, just like the fairy tales we grew up reading? Oh yes, I had those hopes and dreams too, as a little girl blossoming into a young woman. I looked for my Prince. Found a few hopefuls and had my heart broken along the way. Married this one and that one. But, unfortunately, my Princes didn’t complete me, in fact made my life worse instead of better in so many ways. I’m sure I was not the Princess they had hoped for either.

(via Pinterest)

Those dreamy young-girl hopes were dashed. Reality was not as I had hoped for in my dreams and life did not turn out as I had imagined.

What do you do when your hopes and dreams don’t come true?

It would have been so easy for me to give up with what happened in my life the last year. To crawl under the covers and go into a deep depression. Hide from the world. I could have easily stopped blogging. How in the world do you talk about the ugly side of life on a happy home blog? Grief, loss, and failure was a big part of all of that.

One year ago, I was sitting in a big house, alone, facing the realization that my life was about to change in huge ways that I couldn’t even imagine. The man I was married to had just run away from facing some big responsibilities, instead choosing to leave me with the aftermath of his horrible choices, all of which created a domino effect. A house that I had lovingly made a home for the past 5 years was going into foreclosure and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. I was also sifting through lies and truth, trying to get to the bottom of what I was really facing. I still don’t know the 100% complete truth, but I knew plenty enough then to know I had to get out of that situation as quickly as I could. My ex-husband continues to sit in jail in AL since last April, facing some serious financial fraud charges and I have no idea when that trial will happen. When it does, I will be at the trial unless there is a plea bargain first. Life can certainly turn ugly sometimes.

Feeling pretty hopeless at the time, it seemed that my life was crumbling to pieces. I ran home to the safety of my parents, which is the best thing I could have done.

Oh, that the Lord has brought me this far!

And now, for me, my reality has taken me down the path of gratitude. Instead of feeling sorry for myself, for the disappointments in life that have come my way, instead of wallowing in self-pity, I choose to keep hope at the forefront of my mind.

Not hope in a new man. Nope, not that, not yet anyway. One thing I have discovered in my personal journey is this: No one person on this earth can make you happy and complete. You have to find that in and for yourself and the only one in whom we can find wholeness and healing and true joy, is the one who created us.

Jesus Christ, he is my hope. He is the man that I count on and rely on. I know his promises will always be yes for me, promises for a brighter future, a good tomorrow. And that gives me more peace and contentment than money could ever buy. Not an easy life with no problems, but I know that He is always there to walk with me no matter how rocky the road. And boy, was last year rocky.

(via Pinterest)

In spite of lost houses, failed marriages, and money woes, I’m hopeful for a future that will be better than anything I’ve experienced thus far. Finding a little fixer-upper house will be one of those things in my future that I’ll be looking forward to the most. I will be so excited when that happens and will wait for the right one, which gives me hope that I can find something affordable. I just know it’s out there waiting for me!

I have no idea if God will bring love into my life again. If He does, then I’ll know it and be ready for it, but it’s not going to be something that drives me. Besides, anyone that comes into my life will have to run the gauntlet of family and friends. They’ve got my back. A complete background check wouldn’t hurt either.

I can be content single, enjoying my friends, both single and married and loving life. I have a joy and a purpose and blogging is a big part of that. God has blessed me so much this past year in bringing me through the torrential rain, into a place of safety and peace. And gratitude. And joy.

(via Etsy)

Jeremiah 29:11 says it so well and is one of my favorite verses of the Lord’s love for Israel. I can hold this promise in my heart as well.

This year, I will have hope in:

First and foremost, Jesus as the Lover of my Soul.
My family, who love me unconditionally
My friends, who support and love me through it all
My purpose and work, from sharing this blog with all of you to experiencing so many new and exciting things that I know are going to come along this year, including a brand new blogging conference, Haven, that I’m privileged to head up here in Atlanta.
New opportunities and open doors that I can’t open myself, but only God can do. I gladly trust Him to do that.
Enjoying life one day at a time and really reveling in the journey. Living life like never before.

And my hope is this, that these words will speak to someone out there who is losing hope, wondering if there is an answer for you. Does God really care about you and your situation? I hope my life and experiences will speak to you and let you know that yes, there is hope, always. When we trust in the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, He will never let us down. His plans are so much higher than anything we could ever dream of.

(Lamplightart.com)

We all face trials and difficulties in life and what and who we put our HOPE in will determine the outcome.

I know I’m not the only one who has gone through divorces and disappointments. It happens all the time to so many women. No one ever goes into a marriage with intentions of failing and you can come out of divorce feeling like a great big Loser, with an L on your forehead. For those of you who have experienced hard marriages, I feel for you. I know exactly how it feels to live in disappointment, deception, emotional pain, and loss.

If you found your Prince Charming as a young woman, had his babies, and are now living happily ever after, you are blessed indeed. Be thankful every day for that! It didn’t happen that way for all of us. That was my dream too, to meet my Prince Charming, have a couple of kids, and to live happily ever after following God’s perfect plan.

One thing for sure, I cannot give up. YOU cannot give up! We must keep going and know that there is a reason for it all. Hard times make us stronger. I’m definitely stronger than I’ve ever been, but my strength is not in myself, it is in my Lord. Not on what I can do, but on what He can do. When I am weak, He is strong. It feels so good to lean on Him and not try to fix it all myself, as I so have a tendency to do.

And one thing I know. Nothing is impossible with Him!

Nothing, do you hear me?

Hope.

A small word, with a heaping helping of meaning. Hope endures. Hope believes when we can’t see.

Do you have a word you are clinging to this year? Please leave a comment if you do, I’d love to hear it.