What's In A Name?

Why is this blog titled "The Tiara Diaries"?  Am I a domestic diva? So. Far. From. It.  Do I have some lineage that connects with royalty? Not that I know of!  Are we living in a castle we've inheritated from a long lost uncle?  In England?   HAHAHAHAHA....my own imagination amuses me.

It all starts with an incredibly messy little girls' room.

My two dear daughters (dd's) share the upper 1/2 story of our house.  They are lovely dd's, and I enjoy them immensely.  However, they are too much like their mama and they have her habits.  Namely, the joy of starting a project and the lack of tidying up when they are done.  Therefore, even if we work and clean their room so it is a garden of blissful tidiness, we will eventually get to the place where it once again looks like a tornado has hit.

It was one of the "tornado" days when I was upstairs grumbling and complaining about the state of their room.  I was on my soapbox, declaring that this was the last time I was going to help with this disaster when I stepped on something sharp.  Howling, I looked to see what it was I stepped on, and there it was.  A bent up, once darling, sparkly tiara.  The tiara was a remnant from being flower girls in a dear friend's wedding and looked as though it had sat under a pile of junk and was stepped on multiple times.  It was not pretty.

I bent it back into shape--sort of--and decided if it wasn't loved enough to be put away, it wasn't loved enough to be kept.  So, I put it on my head.  When one of my dd's saw my head, she giggled and said, "Mom, why are you wearing that tiara?"  I replied, "Because I'm the queen of clean, that's why."

Later that day, I had the wonderful job of preparing our taxes.  I always dread this task.  I still had the tiara on, and when my husband saw me at the computer, papers and receipts everywhere, with a tiara askew on my head, he almost asked.  I just looked at him and said, "Everything is better when you're wearing a tiara."

And so, when I have a particularly nasty task, I get the tiara out.  It lives in my nightstand drawer now rather than on the dd's floor.  Somehow, wearing it helps me change my attitude.  Maybe it's silly.  Maybe it reminds me of who we women were meant to be.  Maybe it just appeals to my longing to live out the dailyness of life with a little bit of flair.  Maybe...

A Long Pause

Despite my good intentions, it seems life has a way of taking over and the blog, which was exciting to start, fell by the wayside.  I wanted to blog so I had a way to remember this life and journey--as I don't remember much that I haven't written down!!  So, once again, I've decided to start anew, and to marvel at this unique experience of life with all its ups and downs.

Here's to a new day, and a new blog post!  And hopefully, many more to come. 

Living Artfully...

I feel I am on a journey of sorts. A journey that began long ago and has had many detours along the way. A journey of growing into who I am and who I want to be as well as growing into the responsibilities and roles life has given me. I suppose all of us go through this journey…I’ve just been made very aware of my journey recently.

It has always been in my DNA to teach. I love to teach people to do what they want to do to get where they want to go in life. I have a passion to be involved in teaching my children about the many things in this world. I have a passion to teach women to study the Bible for themselves without relying solely on others opinions or ideas of what it says. I have a passion to help people create things they think they can’t. And I have a passion to create myself. This last one is a rather new revelation to me. I am an artist. And for a long time, I didn’t allow myself to acknowledge that.

Other things always seem so much more important than following your heart on something that feels very personal, very special, very selfish perhaps. It feels noble to spend yourself on others and selfish to pursue your inner desires. It feels more important to teach Bible than it does to sit at a desk and create from within your soul. But what happens if your soul can’t express itself? Can your life and outward service have deep meaning if you are denying what is just as much wired within you as your hair and eye color?

A few years ago, I realized it was a gift to be able to create. That maybe, just maybe, God created me with this insatiable need to generate ideas and create. After all, He is the ultimate Creator is he not? Are we not made in His image? Not that everyone has the same desires I do, but I find throughout human nature that everyone holds some sort of creativity in their personality. It may not be the art of painting, drawing, or crafting, but perhaps it’s the art of cooking, gardening, music, building things or capturing things on film. Perhaps it is the art of speaking, connecting with others, fleshing out ideas, counseling or problem solving. Perhaps it’s the art of teaching, researching, hospitality or encouragement. Whatever it is, it is a form of creativity gifted to the individual from the Maker.

Since having the revelation that God had made me to desire to create, I have slowly pursued exploring and examining my ideas, my desires, my particular bents. In the midst of being a homeschooling mother of three, I have been experimenting, searching and waiting for God to show me more.