Plum out of midnight oil and a needed recharge

Welcome MAY!

I love apple blossoms, and check out that mammoth lilac bush. My husband can't even go in the back yard while it's blooming or he gets a massive allergy attack. But I love it. I just sit and inhale!

Wow April was something else. Opening an etsy store, guest blogging, Wonderland giveaways, and quilt festivals. I don't know if I'll ever recover. My inbox is still a little out of control, so if there is someone out there who has asked me a question and I haven't got back to you, please email me and I will answer right away. I know there are questions buried in my inbox and I'm not sure when they'll be unearthed!

It has been crazy, and exhausting, and fabulous, and fun. I couldn't be more grateful to all of you for your kind comments and encouragement.

But I was pooped. And in serious need of some battery-recharge.

So, perfect timing for BYU Women's Conference. This is an annual 2-day event at Brigham Young University where about 20,000 women from all over the country, of all ages, stages of life (and stages of pregnancy), come for a massive GNO. There are 95 different sessions with speakers on subjects as varied as raising small children, supporting someone in the military, heart disease, prayer, being an empty-nester, going back to school, etc.
There are also multiple service projects going on at the same time. Some are in over-flow rooms where women can listen to session broadcasts while they assemble basic school kits to be sent overseas. Some women are knitting hats and booties while they attend sessions. (It is one mega multi-tasking party.) In the evening there is a massive service project where 100's of quilts are tied, and 1,000s of humanitarian hygiene and newborn kits are assembled. It is truly awe-inspiring.

And massive amounts of fudge and Costa Vida (tex-mex) salads are consumed in the process.

I am so inspired by all of these good women. Not perfect women, but women who really want to do the best they can. This is one such woman, my good friend Cami.
And do you know what? I feel this way about many of the people I've come across in the blogging community. So many good women. Who want to do good things, whether for their families or the greater world at large. I'm so glad to know you!

(And speaking of friends from the blogging community I saw Sherri! We were both swiftly moving in opposite directions so I didn't have the chance to publicly accost her, but I knew it was her by her Wonderland bag. :)
And to continue the GNO (girls' night out) theme, I'm taking my girls to the Beehive Bazaar tonight. This is not your mother's craft fair. It's actually more like your grandmother's craft fair with all the cool retro-vintagy stuff there. I can't wait.

I have already promised my girls that I would not repeat last year's performance of parking too close to a really deep, former-irrigation-ditch gutter, which I then rolled the front passenger-side wheel into, thereby high-centering the car. And my husband was at a campout miles away with our boys. Fortunately some lovely friends came to our rescue and let us borrow one of their cars to get home that night and then another good neighbor towed our car out the next morning. This time we will park in the parking lot.