I’ve been really thinking about where I want this blog to go, how much time I want to spend on it and what my goals are for it.

With going into the new homeschooling year,I’m working HARD on a daily schedule with blogging time scheduled in each day. I have so many blog drafts written up and so many blog topic ideas I just haven’t had the chance to sit down and do them justice.

I have SO MANY fun pictures from this past Spring and Summer to share. (Yikes!  That’s how far behind I am!!) I think I’ll have to do a weekly picture recap or something to catch up. I have some great reviews and giveaways coming up, Maddy’s 4th birthday pictures, Jocelyn’s 5 month pictures, 1st day of Co Op and Homeschooling and so on and so forth.

I’m thinking of  posting reviews on weekends. Reviews on products, books, movies and audiobooks. I’m an avid audio book listener and I’ve listened to some great ones and am thinking of sharing the list with you on weekends. That’s how I get my “reading” in at this season in my life.

I pray this blog is a blessing to people and that if someone reading doesn’t already know God that my blog will help lead them TO God. I want to be real and transparent on here and share my struggles and how God is working in me.

In summary, what you can expect from my blog for 2012/2013:

~Homeschool journey updates, ideas and resources.

~Weight loss and fitness journey updates. I’m trying to lose 60 pounds in a year or thereabouts.

~Parenting posts.

~ Recipes/ Meal ideas and posts. They will be more about what I’m trying rather  than expert advice FROM me. Haha

~Reviews and giveaways.

~Audio book, book, and movie reviews. Mostly likely scheduled for weekends.

~Faith/God/ Scripture/Bible study.

~ Housekeeping/Homemaking ideas and tips from my own journey to organize and simplify MY homemaking.

~ Marriage talk.

~ PICTURES of my darling girls, of course.

~Whatever else strikes my fancy!!

QUESTION: Is there anything YOU would like to see me talk about? I also love having guest bloggers so if there is a topic near and dear to your heart and you think would fit this blog contact me!

I want my blog to be a positive, uplifting place to stop by. Although I have STRONG opinions about a lot of controversial topics you won’t find many of those here. I have strong views on the sanctity of marriage, abortion, politics, religion etc etc etc. But you won’t find too much of that here. I’m not looking for controversy and arguments on my blog. I want this to be a place of peace and fun. I know not everything is always fun and it’s impossible to stay away from controversy and disagreements but I’m going to do my best to try to keep Simply Mel that way.

I hope to provide you with a better blog in the year to come.

I hope you will keep coming back, follow a long and participate here with me.

I truly appreciate ALL of you who read and participate!

God bless!

~Melissa

1. Is this meme something you’d be interested in participating in? I know there are so many out there!

2. If I made it a monthly thing instead would that make it more fun? I was thinking of  adding these options/changes in:

a) Either a typed out interview or a video of the child answering the interview questions.

b) Making this meme only video clips of an interview with your child OR just a funny/cute/precious moment you caught on camera that month.

c) Instead of me featuring just one interview a week on my blog, doing a monthly link up of videos and written interviews. Each mom who participates can just post the interview/ video clip on her blog and then link up on my blog. Then we could all blog hop and catch the cute video clips that were linked up. C’mon…we all think our children are stars and worthy of a little adulation.

What do you guys think? Would you link up and participate? I personally am leaning towards the video clips. I think they would be hysterical! We could call it “Precious Moments”  or something like that….

Hmm…

What do you guys think? I know you must get some great moments caught on video of your children.

Here’s an old Kid-Terview Friday post from my old blog for you to take a peek at.

Psalm 139:13-16

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

¹⁶ your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

God celebrates life at conception. He ordained Poppy’s life from the beginning to the very end.

Was it hard and awkward having to tell people I just told that I was pregnant that I wasn’t pregnant anymore?

Heck yes!!  I’ve had several awkward moments over the last few days. Several offers of congratulations to which I’ve had to reply that I lost the baby. One of the mom’s from Katelyn’s dance class asked me how I was feeling this past Saturday regarding the pregnancy. I had to tell her the news. She didn’t know what to say and it was very awkward.

Aaaaawkward! And more so for the other person, than for me!

But would I do things differently if I had the chance?

No.

When I get pregnant again (and I have hope that I will!) I will most likely tell everyone pretty quickly again. I’m glad we celebrated Poppy’s short life. I think he/she deserved it. Me telling people acknowledged that that little life was important. To us and to God. It deserved celebrating.

I’m still kind of in shock. I had barely gotten used to the fact that I was pregnant before I began the descent into being unable to believe that I wasn’t anymore. It all feels like a distant dream now. Except that I have the physical reminder that it wasn’t a dream.

It was hard to have to take those pregnancy tickers down off my sidebar. I had so much fun putting them up. I’m still getting pregnancy updates and tips from Baby Center. I definitely need to unsubscribe from those.

Since the girls are now back into their old room our third room is empty. We put the crib up in there. It was Mike’s idea. I told him I didn’t want it set up yet. I had been excited about setting it up before. But now I don’t see the point of having it set up in there until I know I”m pregnant again. Mike thinks it’s a good reminder that we will be using that crib again in the future. So we might as well have it ready.  That made me smile.

A few days ago Katelyn said to me ” Mama, I’m sorry our baby died.”  That broke my heart but also was one of the sweetest things I’d hear all day.

I have to tell you all THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. The comments, messages, e-mails, phone calls and cards have been amazing. We’ve been blown away by the love, support and prayers.

In fact, I’ve started feeling guilty about it!  You guys have truly been “weeping with those who weep”.  I don’t feel as if I deserve all of this support. I mean, my baby was only  the size of a poppy seed. I know so many people who have lost babies who were the size of full term babies and even bigger. You guys have truly given validity to my baby’s life and Mike and I truly appreciate that. Some of your sweet and caring comments have even made me cry. In a good way!

Mike has been wonderful during all this. Obviously he was hurt by this as well but he’s let me do all the crying, moaning and sleeping.  He wrote me the sweetest e-mail from work on Thursday. That’s a big deal because usually while he’s at work, I never hear from him! Unless it’s something he really needs me to do. It’s a running joke with us. But he wrote me an awesome and encouraging e-mail.

Right now I’m doing better day by day. I want to get back to normal. The past two weeks I’ve eaten horribly and haven’t exercised a bit. I know that’s contributing to my lethargy as well.  I want to get back into God’s word. I don’t want to be angry anymore and I certainly don’t want to get cynical and bitter.

Phillipians 4:8

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

I want to devote my thoughts to the Lord and focus on His goodness so I don’t focus on things I have no control over.  And I will continue hoping and praying that the Lord will give us another child.

A little quick blog business:

My brother has kindly converted my blog to Disqus which is sort of like a “universal” commenting system. You can sign up with Disqus to have your own profile and then every time you leave a comment you can just sign in with your Disqus info. By doing this you’ll you have your own profile picture and you can see a history of your comment and any comments in reply to yours. If you don’t want to sign up with Disqus you can just leave your name and e-mail in the section provided for that and still leave a comment.  It will certainly make replying to your comments a whole lot easier. You will get my reply right to your e-mail inbox. I won’t have to reply in the comment section and hope you saw ir OR reply via e-mail individually to everybody.

Thank you again for your continued support and love. And for all the comments!

I’m still adding all the buttons and pages so you’ll see more things added as the days go by. And if you were in my blog roll before but don’t see yourself now it’s because I’m still adding to that too.

I’m so excited about this new phase of my blogging. So…take a look around. And as usual- leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you.