Without great fanfare

Here I am in this space again. I've been wanting to be here all along - taking photos I thought would be especially nice to share, composing post upon post upon post in my head, etc.
So I'm letting go of my perfectionistic tendencies. I don't have to have an exquisitely beautiful layout. I don't have to have perfectly photoshopped photos. I don't have to have the most riveting stories, nor the most facinating writing. Nor do I have to post EVERY single day. There can even be a grammatical error here and there. Right?!
I've always been slightly awed and intimidated by those bloggers that start out writing with a purpose statement for their blog and always stay within those parameters. Yikes! But upon more consideration, I've realized that my desire to blog can be broken down into 4 different reasons. Since I love lists, here you have it:

1. To capture the precious, oh, so fleeting moments of my days with my children. (Certainly a blog can't take nearly as much time or expense as a scrapbook for 5 children!)

2. To allow family and friends to keep up and stay connected to all the ins and outs of daily life here at Joyful House Farms.

3. To share the abundant blessings the Lord has bestowed upon me and the occasional thoughts of my heart regarding the life lessons I am learning along the way.

4. To have an outlet to share my creative endeavors and curious passions. (Cause, really, I just don't know too many people locally that get all giddy over the granny chic nature girl stuff I love so much. But I DO know that some family and friends new and old will, or at very least find it amusing.)

I've gone back through all my old posts from long ago, leaving only the ones I felt worth saving. If you happen to go back and read what I've left, you're bound to happen across some dead or broken links. Sorry 'bout that.

So, with that little bit of housekeeping, and this intro, I begin again.

P.S. That photo above is our home late Saturday afternoon as the rain began lifting.