Saturday Spotlight: Linda from Linda's Life Journal

Hi, everyone!   Kris from Junk Chic Cottage and I wanted to do a regular feature on our blogs, something unique that hasn't been done before.   So we came up with an idea to 'spotlight the real life behind the blogger' in a more personal way.

There is so much talent and inspiration in blogland, and we thought it would be fun to bring you a closer look at the person behind the blog.

Every week on Saturday we will spotlight a blogger and have them tell us a little bit about themselves and their blogs.  You will be able to see and read about each of the bloggers on both Kris's and my blog. 

      

Please let me introduce today's Spotlight, Linda from Linda's Life Journal.  Linda has one of those blogs where you always just feel happier after visiting! Her zest for life truly comes through each and every post, and seeing pictures of her 'grands' make me smile (you'll see what I mean!) 

Please sit back, relax, and enjoy getting to know Linda better.

Hi, my name's Linda and I share my little slice of life online through my blog at Linda's Life Journal. I've been blogging since 2010, inspired by my daughter, Amber, who created her own blog when she and her husband moved away to Scotland for a year. It was a great way for her to share their adventures and travels with their extensive group of friends and family and to keep in touch with all of us back at home. She continued her blog when they returned home to the States and it motivated me to consider beginning one of my own. I didn't even know or understand how blogging worked! I slowly began to follow other blogs, which led me to more blogs and enjoyed the process of learning to create more and more posts on my own site.

I've written a few guest posts for Amber on her blog when I was helping her keep everyone updated about her pregnancy with quadruplets (they were born in 2012), but other than that this is my first official guest post!

Here goes....

I look at my life as a series of seasons, if you will. The 'Spring' was my first 25 years! I was literally a child bride, marrying at 14 years of age. I gave birth to my first born one month after turning 15! Three years later my first born son was born. We moved to the home where I currently live shortly after his birth, and I've been here ever since. That's nearly 50 years!!!

In the 'Summer' of my life I had two more children - again, a girl and a boy three years apart from each other! There is a 19 year span between my two 'sets!'

By the 'Fall' of my life, I found myself divorcing after 41 years of marriage. I will forever remember what my oldest daughter, Summer, said to me. "Most people think of divorce as the break up of a family. I think Mom getting a divorce was the healing of ours!" Fall has been the happiest season so far!! I met my husband, Louis Dean, on eHarmony and within three months we were married! I think this surprised a lot of people - and I was one of them!!!

My entire family - from my children to my siblings to my mother -has embraced him as their very own! It took us about three years to 'combine households!' He lived in Brownwood when we met so he had a home there, plus he was attempting to restore an old family home in another small town. He came with a lot of STUFF!!! Doll cases and an extensive doll collection, several musical instruments including a baby grand piano, large pieces of furniture and tools, stuff and more stuff!

We had to incorporate all this into an already highly occupied home. He, in turn, says he had to learn to live in a Barbie Doll House!!! My family are all on the shorter side and he tops 6 feet! However, I have told him there is nothing in this house that I value more than I do HIM!! He has now grown accustomed to living with every square inch of wall space covered with paintings and decorations. He even proclaims he LIKES living this way!!! We have truly made this house OUR home!!

We are now in our tenth year of marriage and have never had a real argument - and most likely never will. Once, early on, I was upset by something and he held my hands, looked me in the eye and said, "Linda!!! Never forget that I am on YOUR side!!!"

I thought I would walk into the fall of my life alone and in bad health and struggling to survive! Instead God provided for me everything I needed for this most wonderful season! A job when I needed one, health care and surgeries that turned me into a healthy woman instead of the crippled one I was becoming, a wonderful man who loves me and whom I love with all my heart, restored relationships with ALL my children, eight precious grandchildren and more happiness than I ever dreamed possible!

I am so very grateful! I figure I have about ten years or so left in this Fall season, and I intend to live each and every one of them to the fullest!

Linda, thank you so much for stepping out of your comfort zone and being my guest today! I just adore your love story-you and Louis Dean were meant to be!
Please visit Linda's Life Journal, then head over to Kris's blog and read about another blogger Mindi from My Love 2 Create.
Have a wonderful day! :)