A Feathered Nest

Feathering our nests!

I thought I would expand the blog a little to include a few other areas of my life.  I love food and kids and teaching kids about food, but I also love a lot of other things as well.  I love my family.  I love art, design, travel, museums, architecture, and holidays (any kind of celebration, really...can we say Happy Columbus Day).  Most of all I love the Lord.  I love my Savior passionately and completely, though certainly not perfectly (as those of you who know me personally can attest).  I love to study the Bible, read about missionaries, practice hospitality and get my kids excited about a personal relationship with the God of the Universe.  Pretty amazing stuff, huh? 

When I write about food, I feel pretty safe.  Who doesn't love food?  I know, people differ in their taste, in their ideas about health and nutrition, but basically I can write about food and feel like I am not sharing too much of myself with the giant world wide web.  This may be a good thing.  After all, it seems as if everyone in the world has a blog sharing every aspect of their personal lives.  I think some parts of our life are sacred and personal and should probably stay that way. 

Therefore, I  have tended to enjoy blogs that were topical, about a particular interest like food, crafts, gardening.  I have gleaned great information from other people's experiences and avoided a few mistakes myself...learning how to make a wreath or rid myself of garden slugs or double sift the flour for a perfect pan of brownies.  But, I have also experienced a deeper connection, a spiritual connection when online "friends" have shared about their struggles with patience or anxiety or overloaded schedules.

So, I suppose if we have a higher purpose other than making ourselves look good all the time (one of my greatest struggles), then we can encourage one another, challenge one another and have fun together.  I have several friends who have opted out of Facebook or reading blogs because it was either too much of a time waster or it was tempting to become a little envious.  So there is a little warning, a caveat to the blog world!!  A friend once told me, "Don't compare your inside with someone else's outside."  Such wisdom!  Things are rarely as they seem.

As an example, I called my sister last week, crying about the lack of focus and direction in my life and she said, "Wow, everything on your blog makes it seem like your life is always great."  "Wow" is right!  After we finished laughing (nothing like a good laugh to cure a good cry) we talked about authenticity for awhile.  Living honestly in front of others is not an easy task.  I only report the good stuff on Facebook.  Who wants to say, "I burned dinner, forgot an appointment and yelled at my husband." :)  Not me!  But oh, if someone did I would be so relieved!  Relieved to know I am not the only one.

I realize I have gone on too long, so I will stop the blogging for now.  I just want to say that most of the stuff my mind focuses on is the idealistic side of life.  I am a recovering perfectionist, trying very hard not to make my life look like a magazine ad.  (I will blog about that a little later).  So come visit me again, I hope things will look pretty but maybe, just maybe, not all of the time.




Click on the following to find links to posts about the Walls' feathered nest:

High Ho, High Ho, It's off to work we go
How soon is too soon to put out the Fall Decorations?
Teaching Thankfulness: Consider the First Thanksgiving
Teaching Thankfulness: Focus on Others
Merry Christmas: Advent Calendar