It's been awhile...

It's been almost two years since I last posted here. At the time I thought we were going to sell Walnut Cottage, go off on a grand adventure to North Dakota and live in a camper. I started a new blog about oilfield life and was excited to tell you all about it. But the house didn't sell, the permanent camper living proved untenable and we added a new member to the family.

We attempted to sell Walnut Cottage as the housing market was gaining steam. It should have sold easily. It didn't. Now I know why. We weren't meant to leave it. We've now been back here for nearly a year and I'm ready to start blogging about our sweet little life here at Walnut Cottage again.

Some things are the same. Jacob is still working far away and our hearts ache for him and we miss him daily. I regularly scheme up ways to get him home while maintaining a good quality of life for our family. I am grateful for the oilfield and the life it provides us, but it has also brought us much heartache. This is why I choose not to blog about it exclusively anymore. While I appreciate it I don't want it to be my identity.

Some things are different. We have added a new beautiful little girl to our family. Her name is Litha (her due date was the summer solstice) and she was born right here in my bedroom in Walnut Cottage. I believe this was the primary reason why Walnut Cottage did not pass from our hands. That is, it stayed with us in order to provide a warm, comfortable entrance for our sweet gal.

In light of our peaceful birth experience  I am currently studying to become a birth & postpartum doula and childbirth educator. Since I was blessed with such a peaceful, quiet birth I feel like I have a duty to help other women acheive the birth they want. I will be finishing up my first few classes on my journey in January and will then be certified in pregnancy and postpartum nutrition education. I can't wait to begin this journey.

Of course, I can't go any time without arts and crafts so I've been working on getting my etsy store back off the ground. It will include the batiks that I've always sold, but I've also been working on essential oil diffuser jewellry as well. Please check it out and buy something if you see something you like.

In closing, I hope you will once again join me at Walnut Cottage. It is our family's home and we love it. We may spend some time away from it to visit Jacob in North Dakota from time to time, but we will always come home to Walnut Cottage.