about me

Welcome to my blog!

(cracks fingers to warm up for the flood of inspiration that will ultimately follow)

And?





*crickets*


Nothing?? Nothing.

(sigh) People are TOTALLY going to want to read this blog.

Why is it that I have such a hard time with these? Maybe I'm just too much of a perfectionist that I know I'll never be happy with it even after the 100th edit. Maybe I'm suffering from flashbacks of all the testimonies we were forced to write in Youth Group growing up ("I grew up in a Christian home..."). Maybe it's the pressure that people may make their decision about whether or not to come back based on how clever I manage to come across in this post (HA. Is this thing even on?). Maybe I'm afraid that any effort I make to try to make my mommy life sound exciting will come off as trying too hard.

Or maybe sitting down to describe myself will confirm what I already suspect... that my life really ISN'T all that exciting...

But isn't it? I guess it depends on your definition of exciting.

Last May, with two days notice, my husband and I packed up our (then) two boys and moved 4000 miles KILOMETERS away (this is a Canadian blog, yo). From oil-rich, ranch-heavy Calgary, Alberta, to the capital region of Ottawa, Ontario. Since Peter's job with the Canadian Foreign Service requires him to be fluent in both of Canada's official languages, he started right away into an intensive French language course. Because we wanted to immerse ourselves in the language (read: couldn't afford a house in Ottawa), we settled across the river in Gatineau, Quebec.

(For those of you not familiar with the region, there's kind of a St Paul-Minneapolis thing going on here. Except that St Paul and Minneapolis would be in different states AND HAVE DIFFERENT OFFICIAL LANGUAGES.)

Even though we're only about 10 minutes from Parliament Hill, we're technically in a parallel universe different city and province entirely. It's been quite the culture shock adventure at times.

I have to admit that I'm not entirely sure what I want this blog to be. It started out as a private family blog, but is beginning to grow into something more.

I enjoy writing. I enjoy connecting with others online. I enjoy sharing the crazy, sometimes destructive, often funny (at least in retrospect) antics of my boys, who I think are pretty great.

I also enjoy -and NEED- this blog as an outlet. Not only as a place to record the life of myself and my family, but also a place to put my thoughts "to paper".

I suppose you could describe this as yet another mommy blog. Other areas I have or hope to post about would/will include:

- spirituality, God, grief, musings on eternity and the after-life (I can FEEL my subscription numbers soaring)
- crafting (mainly my sewing attempts... I'm great at STARTING projects)
- cooking (whole foods and issues relating to Simon's many allergies)
- photography (and my half-a$$ attempts to master my camera -a Nikon D40, if you're wondering)
- life in "the Nation of Quebec" (Seriously. That's what they call it.)
- frugal living (which will be my excuse to hit up garage sales every weekend come summer! SO. EXCITED.)

Are ya hooked??

So yeah, maybe not the most super exciting line up, but I'll try to make it a fun ride. And for those who stick with me, you'll be able to follow my family when we get posted overseas... hopefully somewhere in Africa.

The name of my blog, "muddy boots", came for the lyrics of a song I listened to as a child off the album, Bullfrogs and Butterflies. The premise of the song is that there's always sunshine after a rain and that, as followers of Christ, we have a "different kind of sunshine". One of my favorite lines says,

Rain's spreading blessings here and there.
My boots may be muddy but I'm going somewhere.

Living, loving, learning -blogging?? It's all a journey. Hopefully at the end of it all we'll be able to look back and say that we were better off for it.

~ Amy