About

My name is Melinda.

Many times I’ve heard that in order to change your attitude about something, you should keep a gratitude journal.  For several years on Facebook, I’ve noticed that people will keep a record of their gratitude during the month of November.

I want to do more.  I don’t want to be grateful only in November.  I want to be grateful everyday.

I used to post here at Hugs, Melinda

And here is a little bit more about me.

Let me see.  I was born on a Tuesday night after my mom was in labor for 26 hours.  They don’t let you do that now, but then, it was fairly common.  My mom and dad have both told me that I was a “good baby,” that you could put me down in the kitchen floor with some pots and pans and say “stay there” and I would stay.  I learned how to read really early.  I don’t ever remember a time that I haven’t had a book in my hands.

I was the oldest.  My younger sister was born in 1982.  I don’t remember a lot prior to her arrival.  I mostly have flashes.  A blue carpet.  A swing set being walked down the street.  A climbing rose bush.  Getting a little red Bible and a Mickey Mouse sleeping bag for my 5th birthday, and getting a Strawberry Shortcake canopy bed for my 6th birthday.

After she was born, the flashes are a sleepover 8th birthday, “camping” in my canopy bed, 4th grade where I got “Little Women” for a Christmas present, getting sent to the principal’s office, changing schools, band, choir, so on and so forth.

I’ve always kept some sort of journal.  For the longest time, it was handwritten spiral notebooks.  The rapid pace of technology and social media means I’ve gone to Facebook and Blogging as my “journal” now.

After a somewhat horrible semester at a college that was 4 hours away from home, I returned, basically friendless and heartbroken.

I met my husband Dale that next semester at the worst musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” ever.  EVER.  It was bad enough that sitting on the front row, we talked back and forth through the whole 2nd act.  Then he had the audacity to tell me about a week later that he didn’t want to date me!  (That’s a story for a later time.)

We got married too young, had a baby, have lived in Arkansas, Kansas City, Missouri, Louisiana, Georgia, Louisiana again, and then back to the Kansas City area.  We’ve been through tough times with the loss of 2 parents to cancer and multiple deployments.  We’ve been through happy times with our beautiful daughters and finally finding what feels like “home.”  And through it all, we’ve remained best friends and hopelessly in love. Not bad for him not wanting to date me.  😉

When we lived in Georgia, I was struggling so very hard with wanting to stay home with my baby girl and feeling like I had to work.  A very wise woman who has since gone to her reward sat me down and told me, “Melinda, being a stay at home mom is the very BEST job you can have.”  At that point in 2003, I became a stay at home mom, when I had never before imagined it.

In April of 2009, Dale looked at me and said, “I think bullying is a problem in today’s schools and I think we should homeschool.”  I looked at him and said, “I don’t like what today’s teachers HAVE to teach our children, and I think we should homeschool.”  We talked and prayed and talked some more, and we are now in the middle of the 6th year of our homeschool adventure.  It is a very difficult job, but it is absolutely the most rewarding I’ve ever had.

I like reading fiction, watching movies, playing card games and board games, riding bikes, singing, and baking.  I haven’t always been a very good cook, but I’m getting there.

There are days when I contemplate working outside the home again.  I wanted to study to be an ultrasound technician after a tech basically saved my life in 1999.  I’ve thought about getting a “professional teacher’s” degree and license after doing it as “an amateur” for 5 years now.  Shoot, I’ve even thought about becoming a singer again.

But time after time, I look at my girls and I know how blessed I am.  For now, I am a stay at home mom who homeschools her children.

And that is the very best thing I can be.

Hugs,
Melinda