Who needs a hobby?

I am overwhelmed.   What a gift this is!   There I was on the 24th of June, frosting cupcakes for my birthday party, in the process of chasing Dudley the weimaraner around the kitchen to wrestle cupcake number 3 out of his slimy mouth, when Casey yells down the stairs, “Hey Kristjana… can you come up here and look at this for a minute?”

Our son, Kenny, aka “No Nap Joe,” had decided to settle in for an actual mid-day snooze, and I was blissfully baking cakes (ok, blissful except for digging the remnants of the gooey chocolate ones out of Dudley’s mouth) and Casey was upstairs going over scripture that we planned to read for Kenny’s dedication ceremony, which was to take place at my birthday party on Sunday.   I deftly secured the remaining cakes on the highest point in our kitchen and came upstairs to see what he had come up with.

He started into some strange banter  looking  for  “Mommy Blogs” on the web, typing in random web addresses and going on about how there needed to be something started that could be not only a blog, but also a community for moms, and on and on.   And to be frank, my mind was starting to wander…

“I wonder how much longer Kenny will sleep.   I need to finish the cupcakes, mop the floor, fold the laundry, clean the guest bath…”   when suddenly he typed in “mommyblog.com” and I thought, “nice color sceme…” and then saw a cartoon of the many beautiful faces of my little boy growing on a tree!   And me!   And Casey’s Happy Birthday message!!   This was for ME!

I am often sweetly asked, “What kind of hobbies do you have?” by other stay-at-homers, and they are most often met with  a blank stare.   Hobbies?   When do they do hobbies?   “You know, when your baby is napping?”   So that’s it!   Ok, well, my  baby doesn’t really nap.   He will occasionally doze in my arms, or go down for what I call the “20 minute special” but a nap, in any real sense of the word, is not something I can count on.  

I’ve been recently remarking (ok, more like wistfully wishing) to Casey that I had a “time-out” or break during the day where I could do something that was just ME.   Not housewife (which I think is a great occupation; I love being able to stay home), not Mommy (which is the coolest invention next to marraige!), but ME: Kristjana Cook.   I’ve been needing  a creative outlet – after all, we were created by the foremost and perfect Creator – the need for such an outlet in is our DNA!

(more on all those thoughts ~ from staying at home to wife and mother to being creative as a result of being Created ~ in later posts…)

And here it is.   Not just an outlet or a hobby; not a start-up scrapbooking kit (I’d be so awful at that!) or a sewing machine, but a real, live, living website!   I love how Casey always thinks BIG.   And this is huge.   I can’t wait to see where this goes and what becomes of MommyBlog.com.

This is a dream opportunity!
And would you know… my baby is NAPPING right now.   Sleeping.   Mid-day.   Even smiling in his sleep.   Imagine me taking a huge, delicious breath and  smiling from ear to ear.   This is going to be so much fun.