Welcome to the Gypsy Soul - An Introduction
Hi...Hello!
Welcome to the first of my blogs. My name is Jacklyn Watkins... just Jackie to most folks... I answer to Jack for a few special ones... and when I answer the phone and hear "Mom" it still is the best name on Earth! I have perhaps been called a few other things in life but we will leave those out of this blog. I'm not your typical blogger because I'm not your typical person. Number one, I'm older than most bloggers. I was born at the end of the '50s. When I graduated high school there was not a single computer in the entire building. Thus... one reason for the dark hole in my head where the 'techie room' should be. Like a lot of gals my age... we are trying to improve our 'techie' but we are wired a bit differently. I am however, proud to announce that although I was raised in a home that had one phone (attached to the wall) I am glued to my cell phone. My attachment to this small device could put any teenager to shame...
But I want to blog... Why? I've got something fun to share!!!
I have always been cut from a different cloth. I have a gypsy soul... many interests.
I have loved life and loved my home, and fiercely loved those around me. I have crafted and sewed and knitted. I have painted, decoupaged. I love anything with clay... fabric is a friend
I have raised a garden and plants and I have seen things through different eyes and still rolled with that gypsy soul.
I have so many loves I know others will love too!
That's why I want to blog.
Sure... I have seen some spots in life that were less than what I wanted... Some days I wished I never had to live, but I found that those were the days that sharpened my character... Even made me funny at times.
Come along with me... you won't regret the trip. It will be filled with much life. It will have crafts, sewing, children, friendship, decor, gardening, travel - with some unexpected surprises, and much more... and at this stage in the game I hope each blog comes with a shaker full of hope and a cup of inspiration!!
I'm bringing along my younger friend Tara... She will be an active part of this blog... together we can offer a more diversified life story and of course, let's be honest... a gypsy is scattered... she's a drifter, her mind is in a thousand rooms in an hour... (it isn't easy living in this gypsy soul brain!)
I need help staying focused and organized... and of course, my patience level for technology that isn't working perfect is 5 minutes. So in life... do what makes it work... Tara makes it work...
Hey what's up everybody?
My name is Tara and I'm about to introduce you to a whole new side of crazy that you never knew existed, and if you did - where have you been all my life, because I needed you around to help me feel normal!
Now let me just start out with there's definitely different crazies when it comes to us gals! There's the normal/fun/innocent crazy (we all have that one friend -you know who she is- you're grinning right now thinking of her). Then we have regular woman crazy (let's face it, all of us have a touch of this and there's nothing we can do about it but try and tame it every now and then). Some of us have been blessed with mom-crazy (I myself am mom-crazy four times over), and then there's scary crazy (we're not going to get into scary crazy, we all know what that is, and hope and pray we don't have to live it frequently or on any sort of routine level.) I've been a little of all of these- at times a lot of all of them, but I'd like to say that I've evened out now to just a touch of one or the other at times, instead of all at once. :) No seriously, I'm off my medication and everything! (that's prescribed meds and self medication!)
You see, I'm 36. Like I said, I've been blessed with mom-crazy four times over...
My kids... I've got what a friend calls "2, 4, 6, & 8." And I didn't plan on raising them without their father, but that's a whole other story. Let's just say he's not in our picture, he's got a new picture and I'll remain fair and say that he has "2, 4, 6, & 8" equal amounts of time as I do.
I'd consider myself to have lived through a lot for my age, but maybe I'm way off.
I was a 9-1-1 emergency dispatcher for 15 years. I was a police officer for 4 years and I was a wife for 12 years, and obviously gave birth to 4 kids all two years apart also during those 15 years.
I would consider a lot of my craziness to have popped up during that 15 year period of my life, but there's that batch of normal/fun/innocent crazy that I've had since I was just a little kid. I can remember when I first was signed up for sports and my dad was the coach of the softball team, yelling at me to stop goofing off... I was the kid that didn't sit still, was way too hyper, laughed at everything- even if it wasn't funny... sometimes I'd get a good hysterical laugh going just out of nerves, I never knew... but it sure was exciting.
BUT... you want to know what the craziest thing I have done so far in my life is though? It was trusting my gut, and the Good Lord with what I feel is where I need to be in life right now, next to this crazy free-spirited gypsy soul, who has been through a lot of the same (and probably a hell of a lot more) that I have been through.
Yeah, you could say we're both a little crazy, but we're each a little of our own crazy, and we are a good compliment for each other. I can help my dear ol' gypsy with some of this technical stuff (which admittedly now as I get older and it all gets newer - I need to step my game up) and she is going to help me with life! She gets it! She's been there, done that! She has graciously (in my own opinion) taken me under her wing and is letting me work with her. You know what?!? I FREAKING LOVE IT!
If you would have asked me a year ago if I could ever in a million years imagine myself where I am today, doing what I am doing to get by in life, I would have probably punched you in the throat and flipped you the bird, or helped you check into the local nut-house to get your crazy checked.... because I wouldn't have believed it, but here I am. Ready and willing, because I see that there is just too much coincidence for me not to stick around, there's too much of a Divine Hand in this pushing me along, to not stick with it. So, here I am, right next to Jackie, ready to take on the world and share the experience along the way.
Here's a peek at us "in the shop" with the Gypsy on her phone (of course) and Judy pitchin' us a vase...
...P.S. We forgot to mention that coming along on this adventure with us are occasional cameos from JR and also Tara's kiddos, Judy w/ Judy's Treasure Hunt, and last but certainly not least, Leonard & Max!
Hello Jackie and your crazy lady click. Welcome to the internet blogger world. I look forward to reading what you and your gals have to say.