My name is Chelsea Bass. I’m a novice housewife and a student of speech language pathologies. I’m a modern girl with prairie flare. Some people think I’m creative, but the truth is, I’m a good mimic. Thanks for sharing with me in my adventures through love, life, and domesticity.

I have strange dreams almost every night. Last night was a doozy! I don't remember the whole plot of this dream, but the bits and pieces I do remember are so strange, that I just had to share them.
  1. I was living in a dorm at a faceless university. I had two roommates just like I used to at Illinois, but I don't know who they were.
  2. Kyle, who was still my husband in the dream, woke up one morning to find that Henri Matisse had sneaked into our room overnight and left a work of art in our window.
  3. I went around the dorm telling everyone what had happened, but know one knew who Matisse was, so no one was excited.
  4. Finally, someone said she already knew about it, and that I was supposed to go downstairs and talk to someone because I was the grand prize winner.
  5. The next thing I remember is walking down the street of a town that looked a lot like Gatlinburg, TN. There was a group of people waiting to tell me that I'd won $1,000 cash and a Carnival cruise.
  6. After that, Kelly Clarkson appeared on the street with her boyfriend (does she really have one?), who looked like Derek Webb, and sang a song to me about locking down my pillow, and appreciating what a good man I have.
  7. I looked over and Kyle was sitting around a table with my cousin, Tyler, my old friend, Amy Miller, and a bunch of unknown faces, *taking shots. Oh, but they weren't just any shots. It was a trivia game. A trivia game in which the prizes were all from Anthropologie. The bartender would show the prize for that round, pour you a shot if you wanted to play, and ask the question. You drink, and then shout out the answer. The first person to answer correctly won. Let's just say Kyle was winning me some pretty sweet loot.
  8. The dream ended and I was awakened shortly after Amy requested they do a round of **peanut butter shots, in which you take a shot of peanut butter.
*To my knowledge, Kyle has never taken a shot, nor taken shots for prizes.
** To my knowledge, there is no such thing as a peanut butter shot.

One of Cousin Steph's boys recently made it in the news! Dylan chose to raise money for Haiti relief through the Red Cross for his birthday instead of a traditional 10-year-old birthday party. What a kid!

Dylan
(Photo courtesy of Cousin Steph)

Please check out the story here: Boy Raises Money for Haiti

"In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." Matthew 5:16

Today, I'm giving glory to God for the work He is doing in you, Dylan!

Woodland Robin

by Emily Dickinson

I have a Bird in spring
Which for myself doth sing—
The spring decoys.
And as the summer nears—
And as the Rose appears,
Robin is gone.

Yet do I not repine
Knowing that Bird of mine
Though flown—
Learneth beyond the sea
Melody new for me
And will return.

Fast is a safer hand
Held in a truer Land
Are mine—
And though they now depart,
Tell I my doubting heart
They're thine.

In a serener Bright,
In a more golden light
I see
Each little doubt and fear,
Each little discord here
Removed.

Then will I not repine,
Knowing that Bird of mine
Though flown
Shall in a distant tree
Bright melody for me
Return.

  • Waiting to see if I or Cousin Steph win the PW Weekend (we're taking each other if one of us wins)
  • Waiting on Ellie to stop this bad little phase she's going through
  • Waiting to stop this whole cry-at-the-crop-of-a-hat phase that I've been going through (I've always been sensitive, but COME ON)
  • Waiting for February 6, when I get to celebrate my birthday and meet my fam in StL where we will shop and eat, and I will pass off things that need to go into storage before we move
  • Waiting on God to show me how I can most effectively encourage and minister to other young women this semester
  • Waiting on answers from graduate schools and law schools
  • Waiting to see where we will be in just over six months
  • Waiting on answers to long-term prayers for our family
  • Waiting on God to give us our first child (I think it's going to be a while)
  • Waiting to see where that child will come from (My womb? Someone else's? This week, I wondered about Haiti... we're wide open!)
I'm no good at waiting. I'm an only child, for Pete's sake!

It's particularly hard to wait when I see so many in need right now. I want to help them right now. I want to grab one of those babies and hold them and rock them and teach them about a mom and dad and a God who love them right now.

I'm trusting in God's sovereignty that now is not our time for babies. Those babies are out there, though. Maybe our babies are out there. So since I can't bring them home with me right now, I'll pray for them fiercely, and I'll wait.

Then please, please check out this beautiful post by one of my long-time favorite bloggers, Toni Weber, at her blog Waking Up in Bavaria. You've heard me talk about her before. She began inspiring me nearly three years ago with her crafts and photography at her old blog, Simple Sparrow.

Read her blog. It's magical.

Across the Brandywine