I want to take a moment to mention an old friend of mine, who I have recently learned is participating in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure walk for breast cancer. I knew Lisa from church and highschool marching band when I was just starting highschool, and she has decided to do this walk because, like many of us, she has friends who have been taken by breast cancer. She does it in memory of them, and in support of the people who are fighting with breast cancer currently.

On her blog, Perky and the Tits, she talks about the steps she’s taking to prepare for the walk, which will take place in early November, along with some other interesting stories. But one of the biggest steps she’s working on is the financial contribution she still needs for her team to be able to participate. If you would be willing to donate to the Perky and the Tits team for the 3-Day, you can do so by clicking here, and then clicking the donate button on the left hand side. The team still needs quite a bit to achieve their goal, and every dollar helps! Your donations will also be tax-deductible.

And now, I’m off for the weekend! See you on Monday!

Why should you drink coffee?

Because it’s made out of a bean, not a nut. Duh.

No, but seriously. I love coffee. I love it even though it give me terrible heart burn, and I have to take Prilosec OTC every day to counter it. It makes me tall! And strong! And smart!

No, but seriously. (What?) I find coffee to be a great social-interaction-maker. I don’t smoke, so when I worked at an office I couldn’t take smoke breaks outside with other people. However, I could go to the back and pour myself some coffee, and interact with the other coffee drinkers. We have something in common right off the bat! When I worked at the hospital on some days, I could go downstairs to the little snack shop, order coffee, and chat with the other customers about how much cream and sugar we use though we know we shouldn’t. And how expensive the coffee is, and how much better it is to buy it here than at Starbucks, where the prices are so outrageous.

Speaking of which, I think I’m in the minority here. I am a coffee lover who actually likes Starbucks. I don’t go there often because I’m a cheapskate, but if I get a gift card…I’m all over it! I love it. The atmosphere, the flavored coffees, the friendly staff. But that’s okay. Not everyone can be as classy as I am!

To sum it up: you should drink coffee because “it does a body good” – or is that milk? Hmm.

What do you think? Love it? Hate it? Drinking it since you were under the age of five, like me?

I’ve been not writing because I’m too worried about what YOU might think. Things keep running through my head, such as: You won’t think I sound professional enough. You won’t think I said anything interesting. You won’t think I write as well as those other blogs you read. You won’t like me. You won’t come back.

You know what?! I don’t care any more! You don’t like my writing? Screw you! You’re still here, reading, aren’t you? You disagree with me? Fine! Tell your friends, or don’t for all I care.

I’m going to write, and I’m not going to pretend to be anyone else. I’m going to write, and I’m not going to worry about anyone else. I’m going to blog whether or not I get any traffic. It’s going to be written in my style, in my words, as often as I like. Unless, of course, you have a friendly suggestion or request….

…Or something like that.

A couple years ago, my mom got me started reading a series of books by Beverly Lewis about the Amish. Despite the books being a little slower-paced than I’m used to, I quickly found myself hooked, looking for more and more of the books at my local library. There was something appealing about their way of life in those books. They had real, close relationships with each other, and they did work that bettered lives and fulfilled them. They worked together, studied together, lived together. I don’t know about you (though I can guess), but I often feel disconnected. I talk to my family on the phone sometimes, I email my friends, I work with near-strangers, and I shop at a huge supermarket with other strangers. It was during this time frame, while I was reading all these books, that I started talking to a few of my friends about my plan: I wanted to be Amish. Or something. Why not have a few of us move off to the middle of nowhere and live as a community. Grow our own food, build our own homes, sew our own clothes.

Well, life goes on, and we do what we must, and I read other books and forgot about the whole thing – until I was recently reminded of that desire. It’s an attractive idea to me, still! My husband and I watched a movie with our friends called Food, Inc, a documentary about where the majority of our food comes from. If you’re anything like me and wary of sitting down to watch a documentary, I promise this one shouldn’t put you to sleep. It had us riveted. It’s scary, too! It’ll almost scare you into growing your own food. Do you know about how they raise the chickens we eat, how many of them grow so fat, so fast, that they can only take a few steps before falling down? Their legs are too under-developed to hold up all the weight. Did you know that we’re feeding our cows massive amounts of corn, because it’s cheap, rather than the grass diets their bodies need, and that this is a huge factor in the outbreaks of E. coli we’ve seen lately? Did you know that a small handful of companies manage a huge majority of all of the meat sold and used in restaurants and grocery stores?

Sound related to Amish? Well, no, not directly. But it provoked one of our friends to say that she and her fiancé, my husband and I, and a couple other friends of ours should go live on a farm and homeschool our kids. And suddenly I was reminded of my idea.

And I still can’t say I think it’s a horrible idea. (Only – what would we do without the internet?)

While it may be a bit extreme to think that I’ll really go live on a farm and leave society completely, there are some aspects of a simpler, more natural lifestyle that I try to incorporate into my own life. We eat less fast food and frozen pre-prepared foods and instead try to cook our own meals more often. We try to DIY, when possible. (My husband just completed a new set of shelves for our bedroom on Monday!) And I’m starting to look for more organic produce at the grocery store.

But I want to do more.

And I can’t shake this feeling that maybe the Amish are doing it way better than the rest of us.

Have you ever been attracted to running away to a simpler life? What would you miss about your life if you did?

For now I just want to share a little bit of how I got where I am now. To me it is evidence of God working in my life!

My writing – I’ve always, always loved to write. I admit that in fourth grade I despised “Writing Wednesdays,” but that was just because I was being forced. The first stories I wrote (that I remember) were in second grade. Our teacher would staple together little booklets, and we would fill them in during class. I swear I filled in almost twice as many as other kids. I’ve also kept some sort of journal almost all my life, starting when I was probably in first or second grade until now.

I enjoy writing. I enjoy grammar and languages. I didn’t learn to enjoy it at school, but in a lot of ways despite school (I did not enjoy my composition or English classes very much). Now, I’m at the point of having participated in NaNoWriMo twice, winning both times, and dreaming about one day publishing a novel. But speaking of writing, this leads right into…

My blog – Blogging is something I wanted to get into because of how much I enjoy writing. It’s a thrill to move my fingers across the keyboard and have words appear, words that mean something. I enjoy trying to make my words flow and have a certain “sound.” In person, I’m quiet. After being so shy throughout my childhood, this quietness is sort of stuck in me, and I don’t really mind it. It just means that I usually won’t speak up unless I’m sure what I’m saying is relevant and important/useful. But it’s a different story here. Here, I can and will say what I want to, when I want to, and I know that only those who are interested will continue to read. And I’m okay with that! It’s a way for me to express my opinions, experiences, and thoughts that I might otherwise hold back, afraid no one is interested.

My art – I come from a very artistic family, on all sides. My father’s mother painted numerous landscapes, one of which is currently hanging in my living room! I have a niece whose drawings get better every time I see them. My mother’s brother, aunt, and grandmother are all very artistic, and even my stepfather brought in some income for a while by selling his art online. My husband is a whiz with a pen, with paint, with almost any medium he’s tried, so our kids may end up artists as well!

As for me, I never saw myself as an artist. I was just another kid who drew people’s faces. Until, one day, I decided to really try, and I impressed myself. I took an art class in grade school, and a tried a tutorial online one time, but other than that, I’ve been completely self-taught, and I’m proud of how far I’ve come.

Avon – I started selling Avon for a number of reasons. One, I had recently quit my job due to getting married, and I wanted to help bring in some extra income for our little family of two.

Second, I wanted the flexibility of a basically self-employed status because, as an army wife, my husband’s schedule can sometimes be unpredictable. I want the freedom to be able to work when my husband is working, so that I can be spending time with him when he’s not working.

Third, I wanted the challenge. I’m an opinionated person. I can be forceful when I need to be, as I demonstrated at my previous job when I had to speak with insurance companies regarding lack of payment on claims. And I’ve taught myself to be less shy than I used to be. But being a salesperson, developing relationships with strangers, and being assertive is another story completely. I didn’t know if I could do it, but I was and am determined to prove that I can. And you know what? I’m really loving it. Also, I get discounts on products that I’m growing to love.

I am beyond excited about this website. I’m thrilled because for me, my day job is now my passion as well. It wasn’t always the case. I’ve spent many years working at things about which I’m not passionate. It’s not a fun place to be, and I hated that time in my life with, dare I say, a passion.

I hate how it seems that we’re forced to work without passion. Yes, we’re told we should find a job we love, but if all else fails, find something that pays well. In the end, that’s what we’re pushed to go for. By society. And we have to, because we have to have that well paying job to live, really.

Not everyone can give up their day job for their passion. I was lucky, in a way. But then again, most things that seem like luck are just God working in my life. He has guided me and opened up the doors, putting me where I now stand: at the threshold of my passion.

One thing I know… Even if I’m doing what I’m passionate about every day, it’s still going to be work. My day job is no less of a job now than when I went to Dr. Chiang’s office five days a week to sit at a desk. Despite people thinking that homemaker and self-employed are the same as has it easy, I’m finding that my passion requires real work. I have to set goals, make lists, put in effort. It’s definitely more enjoyable than my old day job. It’s definitely fruitful. It’s definitely worth the effort. Why? Because I love writing, I love sharing what’s on my mind, and I love meeting similar-minded people and making friends!

I wanted to share some of my goals, or, in other words, my passions. I’m in a new phase of life: a new army wife, new to “homemaking,” newly self-employed, new problogger. How I got here is amazing; where I plan to go is exciting!

I want Ocipura.com to reflect me in more ways than it does now, in ways beyond just being decorated in my favorite colors. I want my thoughts and opinions to be easily understandable when my current and future friends read them. I want the site to mean something. I want to reach other military families who “get” me, other homemakers (be they wives or husbands), other animal- and art-lovers. I want to help people understand why I love my God! I want to share my thoughts on marriage and military and the work I do. I want to see more traffic coming to this site and also to my Avon store as I give my honest opinions about products. I even want to welcome those who disagree with me and want to argue their points.

When you come back, you can expect to find a place where you and your friends can hear about opinions and experiences of some one who may be going through the same things you are going through. I plan to include posts about what I’ve learned about home business, homemaking, art (I enjoy casual scrapbooking, drawing, crochet), being an army wife, marriage, and cooking (including recipes)!

I’m excited about the future of Ocipura.com! What do you do as a day job? Are you passionate about it? What would your dream job be??