Well, Bless Their Hearts

How It Went....

2012-02-17T09:36:00.008-05:00

Monday, I posted our Valentine's day tradition of spending the evening at home and making fondue. I was happy to hear that others share our same tradition and a few couples started a new one this year! AND....after reading that post, a sweet friend called and said I could use her fondue pot and see how I liked it. Yay for fondue and thanks so much, Amy!

This year I tried this recipe that uses beer as the base along with the usual players like dry mustard, worchestire sauce, garlic, pepper and CHEESE.

As soon as the beer hit the pot, I knew it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I was immediately taken back to lovely evenings at The Melting Pot...the smells were the exact same.

Aaaahhh.....garlic and beer.... simmering together....making sweet, sweet....

Ok, I'll stop.

Then I added the cheese, handfuls at a time, and just stirred while staring off dreamily in the distance. Josh who?

I kid, I kid. :)

A few shakes of dry mustard, worchestire and pepper and that was it! It's so easy, it's a shame we don't do it more.

A quick side note: the recipe said to add a small portion of cheese. That's a freaking joke, and surely a typo. We used an entire bag of cheese and most of the bottle of beer.

{I may have gone overboard.}

Our dippers...

Beautiful baguettes (a take and bake loaf from Aldi of all places!), broccoli, carrots and apples.

After that little trip to paradise, I went to remove a few articles of clothing that had become uncomfortable (after eating, you know, a bag of cheese) and put on pajamas.

{This, friends, is one of the greatest advantages of staying at home.}

Josh and I both looked at each other at this point and decided that neither of us could fit our pre-planned skillet meal in our tummies and still have room for the chocolate. Well, THAT was not going to happen. Not on my watch.

NOT ON MY WATCH.

We went straight for the chocolate.

I splurged a little this year and bought the best Walmart had to offer. Ghirardelli.

Oh sweet merciful heavens....

I just added chocolate and cream....then more chocolate and a little more cream, stirring as I went.

Then I made the 2nd best decision of my entire life. I plopped a big, ol' spoonful of creamy peanut butter into the gloriousness.

I can't even talk about it.

For dippers, we had bananas, coconut covered marshmallows (those 2 tie for our favs), regular marshmallows, oreos, frosted oatmeal cookies and clementine wedges.

I am proud to say that we actually did leave leftovers this time.

We like to count the small victories, folks.

I feel like I need a cigarette now.

Then we skipped the movie and pretty much collapsed into our sugar comas.

It was beautiful.

{Psst....if you tried it this year, how did it go for you? I just love talking about cheese and chocolate. :) }

{Linked to Tatertots and Jello}

Valentine's Night In

2012-02-13T11:58:00.009-05:00

If you're like us, you spend most of your nights in. Valentine's day is usually no exception. We have small kids, it often falls on a weekday, we want to save money, etc... And honestly, though sometimes we make up for it later on a weekend night, we don't really mind staying home.

Over the last few years we've figured out how to make it special and feel like a fancy date that we get to wear our pajamas to. THAT.... trumps almost any restaurant in my book.

Here's why I say "almost."

Which means this...

Be still my very hungry heart.

The Melting Pot has been a birthday or anniversary tradition of ours since we were dating. In fact, there is a framed picture of us on our first date there in our bedroom. Fondue is near and dear to our hearts.

In fact, during one very financially hard season for us, several of my dearest friends pitched in and sent us there so we wouldn't miss our tradition. I know! They're wonderful.

Back to our Valentine's day tradition.....so one year I decided to try to recreate this experience at home. It was a huge success! We loved it! I cut the boys' naps short in the afternoon so we could feed them an easy dinner and send them to bed early. Party time for us!

Now, I didn't do the meats...that would have been too much for me to try in one night, so I sent Josh to the store for a quick, frozen skillet meal and I got to work on the cheese and chocolate fondue. This has become a new tradition for us on Valentine's Day.

I think this picture is of our cheese fondue from last year....

We get our favorite bubbly....Chimay for Josh and Martini & Rossi Asti for me. :)

Then we have cheese fondue with all the dippers. Mmmmm. My mouth is watering. This is the recipe I normally use although I'm pretty sure I've used one that called for beer (just like The Melting Pot) and it was amazing! Either way, it's a win....trust me. Here's a recipe that claims to be from The Melting Pot. It looks great and I love how the url says "low cholesterol."

For the dippers, we use cut up apples, baby carrots, broccoli, pretzels and cubed french or italian bread (our fav). We don't have an electric fondue pot (which I hear are great!) so I heat it on the stove until we're ready, bring the pot to the table and we chow down.

We eat our lovely skillet meal (it's usually Bertolli and I think they're really good) and then it's time for dessert! Woo hoo!!!

{Seriously, get excited people. It's REAL good.}

Now, I'm a simple girl so I'm probably not going to track down the highest quality unsweetened, semi-sweet and milk chocolate. Just keepin' it real. :)

Here's a really basic recipe that is everything you need and you don't have to go to Madagascar for the ingredients.

For dippers we use bananas, strawberries, apples, pineapple, marshmallows (we LOVE the coconut covered ones), brownie bites, cheesecake, angel food cake, rice crispy treats, oreos, our fingers....whatever we can find!

If we can keep ourselves out of a sugar coma, we usually rent a movie from Blockbuster Express and cuddle up on the couch. The perfect end to a sweet evening.

This year I've been wanting to see this:

I really love political thrillers and anything with a conspiracy theory. Don't judge. Has anyone seen it? Is it worth the $2 it costs to rent it? :)

Although this post is for Valentine's Day, I'm pretty sure fondue is DE-lightful for anyone, anywhere....married or not. I think it sounds like the perfect girl's night. In fact, I think it sounds great as an afternoon snack all by myself. Hmm....I may have to rethink my plan. :)

Let me know if you've tried this...I'd love to hear how you do it!

{Linked to We Are THAT Family, New Nostalgia, I Heart Naptime, Not JUST a Housewife and A Pinch of Joy}

Easiest Homemade Applesauce EVER

2012-02-09T08:55:00.005-05:00

We all really love applesauce, but I don't buy it unless I can find natural or no-sugar added applesauce because, really? I just think God made most fruits sweet enough without adding white sugar. So for me, a sugar free recipe was important. I also wanted a little instant gratification and didn't want to wait on a crock pot for hours (though it's REALLY good in a crock pot!).

Now, I can't for the life of me, find the recipe I used, but all it called for was 3 lbs of apples, 1 1/2 cups of water and spices. I used cinnamon, nutmeg and ground cloves because I like it a little spicy. :)

Here's all you do (and again, let me apologize for the pictures ahead of time. a camera phone in my kitchen is not ideal).....

Peel and chop the apples....

Put apples and water in a pot. Add your spices and stir. Let it come to a boil and then lower to a simmer until the apples are really tender...about 15 mins or so.

At that point you can decide what kind of texture you want. You can put it in a blender, food processor or leave it really, really chunky. I decided to use my immersion blender to get it to the consistency we like....creamy with a few chunks. So easy!

And the results?
I think that speaks for itself. :)

{Linked with New Nostalgia, Not JUST a Housewife and We are THAT Family}

My Journey to Simpler: My Notebook Review and My Guest Post!

2012-02-06T16:18:00.015-05:00

{I'm working my way through Tsh Oxenreider's book Organized Simplicity. If you missed the first 3 posts you can read them here: family purpose statement, I'm spending 2 days a week on WHAT? and The Home Management Notebook}

So, as you can tell, this journey is a sloooow one.

I haven't posted about it in awhile because I've been making some big changes and I want them to really sink in. After I made the notebook, I put off reading the next chapter because I wanted to actually use the notebook and get used to having one. As you know, I was somewhat skeptical that I would like it, but I'm pleasantly surprised!

I use it almost every day and on the days I don't, I feel a bit lost.

Here a few of the benefits I've noticed that have happened directly because I've used the notebook:

a To-Do list each day that (for the most part) actually gets done!

lots more progress on projects I've long put off....mainly because I have time for them now that I'm not spending TWO WHOLE DAYS A WEEK ON FACEBOOK.

I know what we're having for dinner on almost any given night. I have one place where all my meal ideas and recipes are. No more searching around in drawers and on countertops trying to remember where I put the dang grocery list.

I have one place where I keep all my ideas for my shop and this blog. My brain has proven pretty unreliable in pregnancy so this is a very good thing.

I can now look at our calendar for the month AND plan our meals accordingly at the same time! No more running back and forth from a calendar to the computer, etc trying to remember.

My days are broken into blocks of time and tasks are assigned to each block. I can plan for times during the day when my energy is high (morning) and low (afternoon). Now I know that I want to plan my low-energy tasks to get done during the boy's nap time, for example.

My weekends are MUCH more restful and I'm spending at least one day just lounging around with my family without feeling guilty because I got so much done during the week.

Downtime is more intentional and, therefore, more restful (one of the biggest perks by far).

I don't freak out when someone comes by on short notice. My house hasn't been too embarrassing and I have extra food in the freezer to share.

I'm more available in general for unplanned events because there is a base level of order that wasn't there before.

I've added my bible study materials to it, a master project list and am hoping to add a place to count the gifts soon (something I've wanted to do for awhile, but haven't because I never had a place to write them down).

So there you have it! Several weeks in and this non-planner is actually enjoying the added bit of structure because.....say my mantra with me.....it serves me and my family!

I may actually need a bigger notebook. :)

{Psst....I have a little guest post over at Stacey and Michelle's place today on how I menu plan. (Stacey is my sweet sis-in-law and Michelle is a dear friend from college who now lives in China!) I'm far from an expert and it's definitely not a how-to....but if you're curious, head over there and take a glance. They have a great blog chock full of things a girl like me needs in her life. I think you'll get a lot out of it too.}

(Linked to We are THAT Family, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, New Nostalgia and Home Stories A to Z)

Jewelry Display Ideas

2012-02-03T11:22:00.011-05:00

This week I've been getting my shop ready for an arts market that happening here in Charlotte tonight. I'm not a craft fair pro by any means, but I've learned a few tricks for making my table cute, and have had lots of people stop and comment on my displays instead of my jewelry! Maybe I should start another shop...

Since I'm already in the mode, I thought I'd share a few of my cheap, DIY displays.

1. Hanging earring display:

There are lots of them out there floating around on Pinterest...

I found an frame at Hobby Lobby on clearance and have done it this way several times, but I didn't have the wire or jute secured and it almost always led to my earrings crashing down over and over. Then I saw that you could use chicken wire on the back of your frame....

{source}

I'm in a hurry today and didn't have time to run to Home Depot for the chicken wire, BUT...

I did have the mesh bag that my oranges came in. (wink, wink)

So, I just cut the mesh bag, pulled it as tight as I could and taped it to the back of the frame.

Works like a charm!

2. Tiered displays

These are SUPER easy to make! I just went to Hobby Lobby, bought several plates on clearance and a couple cheap candle sticks. Then used E6000....the this-stuff-holds-anything glue...and glued the candlesticks to the plates.

This one was made using dollar store pie pans and the same cheap candle sticks. It currently is a fruit holder, but tonight will moonlight as a cute accessories display.

Bringing dignity to the dollar store....it's a calling, y'all. :)

{And yes, for some reason I decided to be different and glue the candlesticks

upside down. Different does not equal better, people.}

Here is just another example of using a plastic plate and cup from the clearance section and a little glue..

3. Hanging jewelry display

This used to be my favorite one until I put that stupid chalkboard label on it. I had just gotten them and thought they were re-usable so I tried it out on my display board. Yeah, they're not reusable and I can't write neatly in chalk to save my life.

I'm talking to someone about it...

So, I found this ugly painting in the....wait for it....Hobby lobby clearance section. It was marked way down so I took it home, flipped the painting around and painted the back of it this Martha Stewart seafoamy color.

(For the record, "Seafoamy" is not the name of the color)

I got Josh to screw in these cute knobs and I spray painted the wrought iron drawer pulls at the bottom (they are turned upside down to hold the earrings). It was all really easy.

Now this is kinda what I want to put in my bathroom...

{source}

So, there you go. I'm sure y'all have seen tons of other ideas too. It's so much more fun to use something YOU have made! Have fun. ;)

{Linked to We are THAT Family, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, New Nostalgia and Home Stories A to Z}

Pinterest Project: Sunburst Mirror

2012-02-02T12:28:00.005-05:00

Ok, here's the original pin. Isn't it gorgeous? I love how her's pops out against that wall color. Mine didn't turn out quite that good (and there's not as much contrast with my wall color), but I still really like it.

I got the reeds from Hobby Lobby and followed the instructions for cutting them at a few different lengths.

I already had the faceplate to a clock that was broken. I wanted to use it because it already had the hardware on the back to hang so I just took of the hands, removed the battery and frame and then spray painted the face.

I found the round mirror at Hobby Lobby.

Then I used one of my most favorite products, E600 glue, to glue the mirror onto the faceplate. Then stacked books on top for weight while it dried. (fantastic book, btw!)

Then the fun of hot gluing the reeds begins. I staggered the different lengths all the way around. This part was time consuming, but this is where you get the cool starburst shape.

I covered the mirror with paper before spray painting the reeds white.

I primed and then sprayed 2 coats of white on it. Looking back, I think I should have done one more coat. It was challenging to get all the reeds completely covered.

I hate that my pictures of it didn't turn out as great as I had hoped, but you get the general idea here.

One of the things I didn't really expect was how BIG this thing is. It's really big, but I had a pretty big wall space to fill so it fits nicely. :)

It's not perfect, but I like it. :)

{Linked to New Nostalgia, We are THAT Family, Not Just a Housewife and the DIY Project Parade}

House Goals

2012-01-27T14:20:00.009-05:00

This has the potential to be one of the most overwhelming topics I could write about, yet it also helps me to organize and then prioritize the projects I would like to tackle. Something my husband would really appreciate.

The Nester had a link up awhile back so I'm really behind, but this is a year of big changes for us and our house is going to have to change as well in order to be up to the task.

In April we will meet our precious Zoe girl, and while we are SO excited about her, we are also feeling a little unsure of how our house is going to adjust to her being here. So, that's the top priority. Getting ready for Zoe. :)

(I will more than likely break these down into smaller posts and show the before and after pics later.)

1. Move Isaiah and Manny into the playroom.

(We have a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house. Right now the boys share the smaller bedroom, and the larger one is a playroom.)

{somewhat feasible boy's room inspiration}

2. Transform the playroom into their bedroom.

3. Make their old bedroom the nursery.

{We are re-using this bedding that we had with Manny.
We chose something neutral because we didn't find out what we
were having. I absolutely love it, but also feel it's my duty to Zoe
to girl it up a bit. I know, I know....she doesn't care.}

{I really like this room. Modern whimsy is sort of
what I'm hoping for. We shall see.}

{Is that not the most precious thing?}

These top 3 things can be broken down further to include:

clean out Manny's closet (his clothes are being stored in their bedroom, while Isaiah's clothes have been in the playroom)
clean out Isaiah's clothes
move Manny's clothes/shoes into the closet/dresser with Isaiah's
move the boys' books into their new bedroom
acquire and set up bunk beds in the new bedroom
reassemble the crib
make nursery cute
make boys' new bedroom cute

{I love the idea of them having a place to draw on the walls}

{closet inspiration}

{I just love this}

4. Paint hallway, living room and kitchen (or at least touch up a LOT)

5. Paint trim, baseboards and chair rail

6. Paint guest/boys bathroom

7. Paint side table in living room (either a glossy Tiffany blue or gray/blue)

{I wasn't really thinking distressed, but I'm loving the look of that!}

8. New window treatments in every room except kitchen (white with thick yellow horizontal stripes in living room)

{Kinda like this but with yellow}

9. Change out the armoire for a desk in our bedroom.

10. Do this to our bathroom mirrors:

If I stared long enough, I could come up with at least 10 more things, but I'll stop before I put myself into labor.

So, who wants to come help me? :)

{linked up at We Are THAT Family and New Nostalgia}

My Journey to Simpler: The Home Management Notebook

2012-01-25T16:37:00.013-05:00

{I'm working my way through Tsh Oxenreider's book Organized Simplicity. If you missed the first 2 posts you can read them here: family purpose statement and I'm spending 2 days a week on WHAT?}

I truly never thought I would EVER title a blog post that.

Moving on. Tsh thinks this is a good idea and since I'm giving this whole thing a fair shot, it was my next step toward living simpler. I must say, though (and she says this in the book), getting to a place of simpler living is hard work. It's much more than cleaning out closets and getting rid of clutter.

I've thought about having a notebook like this for a long time and even started to make it several times, but I was thinking about it all wrong and got easily turned off. I kept thinking of all things I should put in the notebook instead of what I would actually use it for. (Like I said before, if it doesn't serve me and the family.... notgonnadoit.) This is why I've left out a lot of sections that Tsh uses. I just don't need them yet and that's ok. I will add as I go.

A side note: it is very important to me that my notebook look cute....otherwise, I won't be as likely to use it. I discriminate that way. Not with people, just inanimate objects. So, useful and cute. My 2 very important things. I found this printable here.

Also, I had the binder, dividers and page protecters already so this little project was completely free!

Here are the sections I've added:

daily dockets
weekly/monthly cleaning sheet
monthly/year-at-a-glance calendars
menu planning/grocery list/recipes-I've-ripped-out-of-magazines
home projects list and inspiration (currently looking for a cute printable for this. Let me know if you find one.)

This is Tsh's daily/weekly/monthly cleaning list. I just slid into a clear sleeve and will mark things off with a dry erase marker as I get them done. Easy peasy.

Recipes I want to try in a section divider and my menu planning printable.

I'm working on getting enough meals into a rotation that I can just plug them into a monthly calendar. I drool at the thought of looking over a month full of meals already planned out. Brilliant.

The reason I get anything done all day. Daily Dockets. My family thanks you, Tsh.

I'm trying out a new way to budget online right now, but I may end up adding a section for it to the notebook along with a section for gifts ideas, kids activities and random work and blog ideas.

What do you think? Do you use one? Is it helpful?

...Is it cute? :)

Surviving the Winter with Littles

2012-01-20T15:02:00.011-05:00

Honest confession (I hope you're all ok with being my accountability partners): I ADORE my boys. I could write you a very long list of all the unique things about each one that sweep me off my feet and how I feel so, so blessed to be with them every day at home.

However... more times than I want to admit, I don't really enjoy doing the things they want to do. Maybe it's partly because they're boys, but I think it's mostly because I'm lazy and would rather do stuff I enjoy than engage with them. Sad, but true.

I have been really convicted of this lately and am trying to implement special times through out the day that I stop everything and am just with them. (I'm sad that I even had to write that last sentence.) One of the things we've been doing is having story time everyday after lunch...either on the couch or snuggled up on their bed. They each pick a few books for me to read and I always read out of the Jesus Storybook Bible. This has helped them calm down (a little) before nap time and I'm praying that it instills a love for reading in them.

We also do normal things like play-doh, coloring, activity books, etc but I find myself needing some more ideas, especially during the shorter, grayer winter days when going outside isn't as much fun. And, much to my chagrin, it seems that having a plan for what we're doing helps me.

Recently, a friend of mine wrote an article listing some great kids activities and it got me thinking. I thought I would share a few ideas of things we're either going to try or have tried.

1. Bath tub paint

This is first on my list to try. In our house, the bathtub is not just a place to get kids clean. It's a recreational activity and often my go-to when I need them contained or to just break up a somewhat boring day. Just shut the curtain and let them have fun!

2. Building with marshmallows

Isaiah loves this. Manny loves to eat them. Win-win, I say.

3. Glow sticks in the bath tub

(this website is chock full of great ideas for a large age range.)

Dollar store, here I come! And apparently, the bubbles really add to the experience.

4. Angry Birds activity.

(anything to do with angry birds is a big win in our house)

There would have to be some strict rules here (no chucking rocks at your brothers face...or glass), but they would go nuts with this idea.

5. Blowing pom-poms around with a straw

6. Giving them a spray bottle filled with water and a rag and set them loose "cleaning"

Both boys are really into helping me clean these days. Especially if there's money involved. Manny is my duster and vacuumer. Isaiah wipes and scrubs almost anything I ask him to.

7. Fill the kitchen sink with soapy water, add a ladle, cups and bowls and let them do the dishes.

I find that on days that I let them "help" me in the kitchen, they inevitably end up at the sink with dirty dishes and water. They usually spend more time there than they do actually helping me.

8. Let them help me bake....and decide ahead of time to be ok with having an extra cup of flour thrown in somewhere. :)

How do you keep your sanity on stay-inside days with the kiddo's?

{linked to: http://makingtheworldcuter.com}

"Don't Cry. Disney owns the rights to that emotion."

2012-01-20T14:01:00.004-05:00

Random Sharing

2012-01-20T10:33:00.007-05:00

A few things I wanted to share...

1. Recently made this recipe from Pinterest and it was SUPER. And healthy. And easy.

You just blend together 2 cuties (clementines), a frozen banana, milk or yogurt and a tsp of vanilla in a blender. DE. lightful.

2. Speaking of beverages, my husband has been making some amazing coffee in the mornings. Because he's getting such pure flavor from the coffee, this particular roast (Mocha and Java from Counter Culture) tastes like blueberries in a cup. I don't even put my flavored creamer or sugar in it. Just a little half n half and I'm a happy girl.

{Here are 4 reasons why you should try his nerdy method.}

(please forgive this grainy pic and the ones that follow. they came from my archaic phone camera.)

3. This just cracked me up. I walked in the living room this morning and saw this, but couldn't find Isaiah...

The room was silent and I kept asking Manny, "where is Isaiah???" Then, this appeared...

Silly boys. :)

4. And speaking of silly boys (don't you like all my clever segue's?), my mom got the boys the Tickle Monster Laughter Kit for Christmas.

They loooooove it! It has become almost a nightly routine for Josh or me to put on the "tickle monster claws" and have a tickle fest before bedtime.

It's charming, witty and best of all....rhymes! We laugh and laugh. I dare you read this to your kids when you're in a bad mood. It's the perfect cure....

...and I am now convinced it is the perfect gift.

That's all for now. Have a great weekend!

My Journey to Simpler: I'm spending 2 days a week on WHAT?

2012-01-12T11:23:00.010-05:00

I'm making my way towards a simpler way of living and chronicling the process for you (kinda like my own Julie/Julia project...except Dana/Tsh). You're so welcome. Here's the first post in case you missed it. :)

The next thing I started tackling as I go through Tsh Oxenreider's book Organized Simplicity is how I spend my time.

What was that? Did I hear a collective groan? Oh, was that just me?

I really, really, really do not like the topic of time management. Remember? I like to fly free. I don't like to be constrained. In fact, right now it's 11:34 and instead of getting lunch ready, my kids are eating candy in their pajamas while I, on a whim, type up this post. I do acknowledge that time management is good and necessary, but it has felt like prison to me in the past. I'm hoping to change that.

If I'm going to manage my time and keep up with how I spend it, then it better darn well be worth it. I will not do this unless it serves me and my family in the end. Bottom line. Selfish? Probably, but if I'm not honest about it, I will fizzle out quickly and lose sight of the purpose....thus, wasting even more time.....and then wasting your time reading this post... and ruining your life. You see how bad that would be, right?

So Tsh had me make 3 lists: a list of all the things I would like to be able to do in any given month (coffee with a friend, date night, blog time, etc) , a list of basic things I must do to live (eat, sleep, clean, etc), and a list of all the things I actually do in a month (it was a long list).

Then, you circle all the things in the 3rd list that weren't in either of the first two. These are your time suckers. Some of them were necessary and fine. Others made me nervous to write down (facebook).

Here came the fun part (ahem): of the circled items, try to estimate how many hrs you spend doing them each week. Then total for the month. I really highly recommend you do this.

I was not at all surprised to see that facebook, blogs and pinterest were taking up a lot of my time. What made my jaw drop was exactly how much time. I tried to be really honest about it and I'm hoping that perhaps I overestimated, but what I came up with was staggering.

Here's where it gets real, y'all. Don't judge, ok?

According to my calculations, I have been spending 29-42 hours a WEEK on the computer. I mean, that has to be wrong, right?!?

I still can't believe it. 1-2 days a week are spent on my freaking computer! Is this how my kids will remember me? Sitting on a chair in front of a screen?

Well, this has to change. Pronto.

I'm taking baby steps. The first one being to have a daily to-do list, a list of the 3 most important tasks (MIT's) that need to get done that day and a general time outline of how the day will go. I printed out Tsh's daily docket sheets to help me with this.

I love how she doesn't suggest that you write out every single hour and what you plan to be doing...that's overwhelming to me. Instead, it's just a general scope of the day.

Here's an example of a day earlier this week:

9:00 Take boys to my mother-in-law's

-walk with a friend

-organize Manny's shoes and start on cleaning out his closet

-lunch

2:00 Pick up the boys

3:00 Boys nap

-work on orders

-finish MIT's

-rest

-start dinner

6:00 Dinner

8:00 Boys bedtime

-time with the hubby

I've been pretty good at completing my MIT's each day, but there is definitely a learning curve to this. For instance, I don't homeschool, my 2 boys are not going to school yet but are pretty independent during the day and, honestly, some days are just really laid back. Like today.

Yesterday was really busy and we were out of the house most of the day but today we're home, there aren't a ton of pressing projects (though there are certainly things that could be done) and so I've spent the morning blogging, which was on my list of things I want more time for, but maybe not what I should have done with the morning.

My MIT's for the day are to vacuum the house, finish the laundry and make a few phone calls. Of course there's always dinner to think about and the boys require attention, but there's still a lot of down time. Figuring out what exactly to do with that time is challenging. So, I'll just learn as I go. And maybe start by feeding my children lunch. :)

So far, it has been amazingly helpful to have a loose plan for the day and at least 3 tasks that will be done (hopefully) by the end of it. I have gotten so much more done, spent more quality time with the boys, I know what we're having for dinner and I'm just not as caught off guard by life's happenings in general...not that we can always avoid that.

I mean, I'm probably down to, like, 24 hours of computer time a week now. :)

PS....I've heard through the grapevine that the kindle version of Tsh's book is free right now on Amazon! If you don't have a kindle, here's a way to download the book to your computer. Run, don't walk, people!

My Journey to Simpler: family purpose statement

2012-01-12T10:02:00.005-05:00

Simplicity has been a theme everywhere lately, and my brain is no exception. Here's why...

--In April, we will have 5 people living in a small house (1100 sq ft).

--We would like to move eventually, but that requires us to pay off debt and save for a down payment.

--I would love to not freak out at 5pm over what we're going to have for dinner.

--I want to stock our freezer with meals for nights when I don't want to cook and for when baby Zoe gets here.

--I want to read more.

--I want to have more people over and build deeper relationships.

--I don't want to get completely overwhelmed by the messes that are made in this house.

--I don't want things in our house that we don't love and/or are not useful to us.

--I want to have some idea of what the day will look like when my feet hit the floor.

--I want to be available for last minute play dates and people dropping by without losing my mind over what our house looks like.

--I want to engage with my kids more.

--I want to be available to meet needs around me.

--Bottom line, I want to be more intentional with this life.

So, I'm reading this book right now from Simple Mom's Tsh Oxenreider:

I wrote a little blurb about it here, and it has been really helpful to me. I'm not one to follow people's instructions (read: slightly rebellious), but I am really trying to do everything she suggests in the book so I can get the full experience.

One of the first things she talks about is drafting a family purpose statement. Honestly, that sounded a little hokey (and intimidating) to me, but as she explained that it is the measuring stick by which you will measure many little daily decisions and, therefore, live more intentionally, I was listening.

Though it felt uncomfortable and completely out of character, it made sense to me. Being able to ask the question "does this line up with what we believe our family is called to?" sounds really freeing and a great way to make decisions a little easier.

{from here}

It should be simple, timeless and general, but not too general. You want to be able to put real feet to it. She lists a ton of thought-provoking questions to ask yourself to help you narrow your purpose statement down so I answered them. Questions like,

--What are a few strengths of each member of our family?

--What are the top four priorities we want our family to value?

--If our home could be filled with one emotion, what would that emotion be?

Then she suggests that you have your husband (if you're married) answer the same questions and then come up with a statement together.

This is where we stalled out. I haven't given him the questions to answer yet, but she did give a few examples from her book of her's and other people's statements:

"As a family, we want to glorify God in all we say, do and are.

We will...

-Put each other first.

-Cultivate deep relationships with one another.

-Extend love to those around us.

-Live Simply.

-Be true to who God made us.

-Take care of our health.

-Be good stewards of creation.

-Be lifelong learners."

"To be focused on peace."

{from here}

So we're gonna try it (and I'll be sure to come back and share it with you!). I don't know how exactly it will end up serving us and I'm sure we will change it and tweak as we go, but I'm optimistic. :)

{from here}

Have you ever done this? Has it helped you? Does this sound completely crazy?

My Fun Finds!

2012-01-10T11:53:00.006-05:00

{I'm telling you upfront that this is a completely self-serving post. And superficial. And it makes me happy.}

So, Saturday I left the boys with Josh and ran out for a quick trip to Target. We had gift cards from Christmas and I had a list of storage bins I wanted for various things around the house.

I didn't find many of the storage bins, but I did find these....

Did you see the price? $2.98 marked down from $9.99. I withheld my public happy dance, but I was really, really hoping these would be there. I LOVE to grow things. I usually procrastinate and don't do it much until the spring, but I've noticed that having something alive and growing during the winter months really helps me fight the blahs.

So, I bought 6 kits. 3 Paperwhite kits and 3 Amaryllis kits. One is called a Minerva amaryllis...I think I just might start calling her that.

2 Paperwhite kits are started and one of the amaryllis' is now tucked in by a window.

(I swear I don't wonder around the house just checking in on them at least 8 times a day. Now, that's just taking it too far.)

So, if you live near me, the SuperTarget had a ton of them left so go get you some winter cheer!

Anyway, I left there slightly high and decided I would see if my luck continued at the Goodwill nearby.

Winner winner chicken dinner! I found this chair for really cheap and in great condition so into the back of my van it went.

I'm a sucker for chairs. I like to buy them cheap and promise to turn them into the princess of the ball. I feel that we have a very special relationship.

And Josh just loves this about me. Especially when they sit in the garage for 6 months.

But who doesn't love tufted leather?

And who can resist a brass nail-head trim?

Not this girl anyway.

I've been thinking of painting her wood a lovely creamy, glossy white. But then I look again and I kinda like her like this. It's just that we have so much dark wood in that room.

And the thought of it makes me tired. What would you do?

Pinterest Project: Shower Fizzies (a tale of trial and error)

2012-01-06T09:42:00.009-05:00

Every year my extended family draws names and makes homemade gifts for each other for Christmas.

It's kind of a big deal...with it's very own chant every time someone is opening a homemade gift.

Anyway, this year Josh and I drew 2 of my girl cousins so I decided to make these:

I won't go into all the instructions (since you can read the ones on the link). I'll just detail what happened when I made them.

I chose peppermint and lavender for my scents and bought the oils ($6-$8 each) and a 5 lb bag of citric acid ($16) on Amazon (thank you, Amazon Prime!). I bought the ornament mold at Hobby Lobby for a couple bucks and I already had the food coloring and baking soda on hand. It put me slightly over budget, but they will last me a really long time and I should be able to make TONS of fizzies in the future.

So you mix the citric acid and baking soda together in a big bowl. Separately you mix water, essential oil and food coloring in another container to be VERY slowly added to your citric acid mixture. You don't want to get it wet and start the reaction too soon. The instructions suggest using a spray bottle (and then mixing till your hand comes loose at the joint) and that's what I found worked best as well.

And bonus! Now when we use the spray bottle to wet our hair, we smell like peppermint-lavender. Josh is especially appreciative. :)

Here's where my first error was. I did go really slowly in adding my liquid, but I got the citric acid mixture too damp. You should stop adding when it's able to just barely stick together in your hand.

You can see in the above picture that as soon as I put it in my mold, it started reacting and expanding. This is what you want it to do in the shower...not in your mold.

See? Big blobby mess on the left....yeah, you don't want that.

I learned better on my 2nd batch and stopped as soon as it could do this:

I left at least a tablespoon of liquid in my spray bottle.

And here's the final product...

Aren't they cute?

Now here's my one complaint. I kept a few of the peppermint fizzies to use in the shower and I haven't been able to smell them at all...which is the whole point. I was hoping to use these when I have a cold to clear my sinuses....something I've read lots of people do.

I used the recommended amount of drops of essential oils, but next time I will probably double it. (I can't believe how much those little bottles of oil hold! I barely put a dent in mine, even after 3 batches!)

Also, I am now in love with essential oils. I want to add them to everything! My homemade laundry detergent, cleaning supplies, etc. This girl is gonna have herself a par-tay....cause that's how I get down. :)

Let me know if you ever try these!

Thoughts from a Non Planner

2012-01-03T08:35:00.007-05:00

I'm not a natural planner. I don't thrive on meal plans, schedules and charts. My closets aren't arranged by color, I don't know what we'll be eating for dinner in May and my toiletries are all thrown together in one basket (not that those things are bad).

My personality falls much more on the creative, free spirited, spontaneous side. I (typically) don't like rules and I don't like to be told what to do. I thrive on creating. I like to rethink things and come up with my own way to do them. I hate reading the instructions. I'd rather figure things out myself (which, yes, is sometimes disastrous). People will trump a plan any day....which is why I missed a lot of music theory classes in college. I love ideas to be outside-the-box, fresh, new, colorful, different. I like having freedom in my day, and the friends we see the most are the ones that text in the morning and ask us if we want to hang out for dinner that night.

I'm am so much more aware of this right now because this is the time of year that we are all inundated with a better way to meal plan, organize our closets, chart our chores, come up with new systems, get on a schedule, exercise with a better plan, etc.

It's everywhere.

And in this season of "do better, be better," it's SO easy to just feel like you're not enough. Like you have such a long way to go. Like the world would rather you do things differently than the way you already do them. Be different than what you are. It fits them better. I'm am convinced that we live in a planner's world.

"When you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

Having said that, I really do acknowledge that there is much value in planning and being able to best serve your family and those around you.

She's up before dawn, preparing breakfast
for her family and organizing her day.
She looks over a field and buys it,
then, with money she's put aside, plants a garden.
First thing in the morning, she dresses for work,
rolls up her sleeves, eager to get started.
She senses the worth of her work,
is in no hurry to call it quits for the day.
She's skilled in the crafts of home and hearth,
diligent in homemaking.
(Proverbs 31)

I'll be honest, sometimes I don't like the Proverbs 31 woman....or maybe I just don't like the way we have represented her. Whatever it is, she's a hard worker, she serves others well, her family is blessed and her Father smiles. And that....is the reason I try to plan and organize. That...is the reason I'm working hard to get meals in my freezer, reduce our clutter, make our home more manageable and peaceful. It's certainly not because I just like it or thrive off of it. And slowly (very slowly), I'm learning to be ok with that about myself.

Some of my dearest friends are great planners and I appreciate this about them. They offer a different perspective and can be so helpful to me, but if you're more like me, I just want to offer a little encouragement... He loves you.

In fact, He delights in you. He rejoices over you. He sings over you. He calls you "Beautiful" and "His." He can't wait to wrap His arms around you and have you home.

And this is your reality right now; for how you are in this moment. Not the "new improved" you that may or may not emerge sometime in 2012. He gave you a voice. He gave you something to say, to contribute, that He didn't give anyone else. He didn't make two of you. You are worth more than diamonds.

This beautiful truth is for all His children, but I feel Him specifically reminding me of it right now when I don't measure up (often), when I struggle with just getting dinner on the table, when I haven't done a good job with my laundry, I've spent more money than I should have and I've wasted too much time on facebook.

We don't have to be put together to be His. He's promised to help us and hold our hand. How freeing!

And this is what I hear Him whispering as I struggle to grow in my gaping areas of weakness.

Chin up, non planners!

My favorite books of 2011

2011-12-31T11:45:00.012-05:00

I'm not much of a reader....but I really want to be.

I love a good story.

And I love getting completely lost in it. Sadly, other distractions like tv and the computer eat up most of my down time and that's something I'm trying to shift. Especially as I realize how much they drain me.

Anyway, this isn't a long list, but I did want to share with you some of my favorites from this past year. In no particular order...

1. The Help.

~~at this point, you've probably read it, seen the movie or at least heard about it. It was wonderful. I couldn't put it down. Saw the movie twice and blubbered through it each time.

2. The Hunger Games Trilogy.

~~I would have never read this if Josh hadn't talked it up so much. His students at school were reading it and he got sucked in. In fact, knowing the premise wouldn't have made me want to read it either...doesn't sound like it's really up my ally but believe me when I tell you.... could. not. putitdown. I was riveted the entire time, on the edge of my seat, unable to go to sleep until I knew what happened next. Oh, and there's a love story that will leave you hanging on until the end. The movie comes out in a few months and was filmed here! I've become a little obsessed, but seriously, if you're looking for something you can't put down...this is your trilogy.

3. One Thousand Gifts

~~Ooh. This one is hard to describe. It seems that people either love or hate her writing style. I think it's absolutely delicious. She can pierce your heart with the most beautiful little wisps of a sentence...kinda like an intricate, ornate little dagger that can cut to the very core of you. I could have camped out and spent weeks contemplating each chapter, but the overall message was really simple....each day, each moment is laden with gifts from our Father to us. An outpouring of love, even in the most painful moments... and learning to see them (and count them) is key to seeing and relishing His heart for us. Does that do it justice, friends that have already read it? I will read this one again.

4. Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ

~~I read this in a women's bible study at church and got so much out of it. We also watched the videos of him preaching. I have loved Piper's books and sermons for a long time so his writing style was already familiar and also seemed like one of his easier reads. The questions were great and I walked away feeling like I had truly savored more of Jesus through the study. It has definitely helped me love Him more. :)

5. The Mark of the Lion Series

~~Honestly, I can't remember if I read this in 2010 or 2011, but either way, it's worth mentioning. This is officially the BEST series I have ever read. I mean it. Francine Rivers is a capturing author so I already loved her, but this! The main character genuinely made me want to love Jesus more, but in a subtle way I didn't notice at first because I was so caught up in this artfully crafted story. It almost felt like a fairy tale...but a real one. There are painful moments, overjoyed moments, angry moments, soft moments...she takes your heart on a wonderful roller coaster. This might be the perfect winter reading and I'm really tempted to read them again. Josh complained that he never got to spend any time with me because I was so caught up in these books. So maybe set some limits for yourself if you decide to read them, ok?

I am currently reading....

Kisses from Katie

~~I'm so captivated by her, her life, her daughters, her heart...and mostly how God is working through her. I have already cried the ugly cry several times, smiled more than that and think about it constantly when I'm not reading it. She's a great writer, but the story He is writing is even more evident. Her blog is wonderful as well.

Organized Simplicity

~~Another book birthed from a fantastic blog. Tsh from Simple Mom has been one of my favorites for awhile so when I kept hearing about this book, it went on my Christmas list. Simplicity is something I crave, but I didn't expect it to go so deeply as I've found reading her book. I thought a lot about decluttering, living with less, etc but I hadn't thought about how it all ties in to what I believe is my life purpose and the purpose for our family. Lots of thinking in this ol' noggin.

So, what were your favorites this past year?

{Want to see more great book lists? Head over to The Nester.}

A Decidely Lovely Christmas (in pictures)

2011-12-31T09:58:00.008-05:00

Welp. We did it. We made it through.

My brother got married.

{my sister, Doria, and me. best picture I had. SO sorry, Doria!}

We had a wonderful time with all of our family.

And then we did something we haven't done right after Christmas before. We left town.

My mom had rented a roomy 3 bedroom log cabin at a gorgeous resort in Virginia and invited us to go along. Because my siblings were working and my dad was hunting, it would just be us, my mom and my niece. We agreed to come for a couple of days and almost canceled several times out of sheer exhaustion, but it ended up being the best idea ever.

The last 30 mins of our drive we quickly realized that we were in horse farming country. Miles and miles of white fences surrounded the land and stunning houses on the farms.

The cabin was beautiful (looked to be brand new) and was nestled in the woods against a lake and surrounded by green horse pastures, stables, a general store, tons of amenities and rolling hills set against the mountains.

Sigh.

And though our surroundings were gorgeous, we mostly stayed in the cabin and enjoyed the wood burning fireplace (my absolute favorite part!), reading, movies, games, and just resting.

{2 books from my wish list that I've been really loving.}

Josh had a blast using his brand new pour over coffee stuff.

(Although there were more than a few Breaking Bad jokes about what he was actually going to use it for. No worries. We like to keep things around here legal.)

I won't go into it all, but basically, pour over coffee is a way of combining the exact right amount of coffee with the exact right amount of water at the exact right temperature and then poured over the grounds using the exact right speed and technique to extract the absolute best flavor from the coffee.

Yeah, it's science.

{I've accepted that he needs a nerd outlet.}

{See? Happy nerd.}

{Ok, maybe a happy wife too.}

Before we left, we took the kids to see the horses at the resort stables.

They loved it. And it made me go instantly back to my 9 yr old self who wanted to own a horse more than anything in all the world.

There were also a lot of chickens, hens, roosters, turkeys and a peacock to keep us on our toes.

{See the darker spot at the bottom of the wall?

Manny may have left his mark on the barn.}

What made it even more beautiful was that they had the stables all decorated for Christmas. I wish I had taken a picture of it at night. So, so pretty.

{The horses were extremely tame and gentle so we all had a great time feeding them straw and grass out of our hands.

And then used lots and lots of hand sanitizer.}

{This captures a little bit of the scenery. Be still, my heart.}

We came back rested and happy with talks of making it a tradition every year. There's something about being away and not feeling the need to constantly organize, clean and declutter. We did a lot of that before we left so when we got home, it wasn't in terrible shape.

I have a lot of new thoughts about simpler living, but I won't go into now. For now, I'll just keep breathing deeply.

Do you do anything that helps you recover from the Christmas craziness?

Well, I sure hope you are finding some time to rest here and there. Happy New Year!!!

Smile kids, we're giving away your toys!

2011-12-21T13:27:00.007-05:00

Well, we got a good start. At first, I sat in the middle of the floor and just kinda stared at everything. I hadn't really thought through how I would do this. So I started where I pretty much always start....we threw everything in the middle of the floor.

I began sorting the toys into bins based on category. Toy Story toys, monster trucks/cars, duplex blocks, outdoor toys, dress up stuff, farm toys, tools/construction toys, toys too big for a bin, stuff we didn't know what to do with, etc... Oh, and I had a big trash bag handy that I managed to completely fill without the boys ever really seeing what I was doing. Thankfully, they never asked about it either.

Once everything was categorized we went into the living room and unloaded the big truck that was also filled with toys. THEN, we finally went through each category and I would tell the boys how many they could keep and the rest went into our giveaway bin.

I was really, really proud of the boys. We didn't have one fight about it. Once we got started, no one cried and they actually were really cheerful about giving their toys away to kids that may not have any. {I should throw in at this point that they have had a huge collection of GeoTrax in storage for awhile so this purge was, for them, mainly motivated by wanting to bring the GeoTrax back down.}

This is our first bin....

I will also say that it was somewhat hard for me to see all those toys go in the bin. I'm SO excited to see less in our house and to give to other families. I'm also passionate about teaching our kids to think for others and to have generous, giving hearts.....and that toys and possessions are not what satisfy us.

But... after seeing so many brand new toys (many that Josh and I bought them for our Disney trip this past summer) get tossed in the bin, I had to remind myself a few times why we were doing this.

This is where we ended up after several hours of work. Don't let the angle fool you...the basket and bin both hold a lot of stuff and the trash bag is full of stuffed animals. Whew!

We still have a little more to go and then we start on mine and Josh's room!

Now we just need to get these toys out of that spot by the door and into the hands of some folks who could use them. I'd call that a purging success. :)

If you've donated to families in need, I'd love to hear where! I'm looking for some good places to take this stuff so please... do tell!

Merry Christmas to you!

2011-12-20T09:05:00.002-05:00

We wish you a merry Christmas and a year ahead of joy, delight and hope in the Jesus we celebrate all year long.

Merry Merry Christmas

Heartfelt: Christmas photo cards and holiday cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

My cheap and easy Christmas decor

2011-12-16T08:35:00.019-05:00

Ok, I just wanted to share a few really simple ways I've decorated for Christmas this year. How my home feels really effects me. I have to pull in the reins on myself all the time because I LOVE home decor projects and if I were to ever open another etsy shop, it would definitely be full of fun decor items that I repurposed, brought back to life, etc.

Having said that, you know my goal this year is simple and to spend less so here is what I came up with.

1. Epson salt "snow"...

I got this idea from one of my favorite bloggers, Melissa, from The Inspired Room. My pictures don't pick it up well, but I love how the salts shimmer in the candle light like real snow. It adds such warmth and soft glow to our living room. And I love anything in a mason jar! :)

{Epson salt was ~$2.50 for a 1/2 gal carton at Target and filled at least 10 jars. I already had the candles and jars.}

2. Work with what you have...

We put up maybe a third of our ornaments this year so I found these cuties in a box and stuck them on top of candle holders I already had. I love how they glimmer in the candle light.

{free!}

3. Plant in galvanized tub...

I will be the first to admit that I'm not the biggest poinsettia fan. I think they're overdone and I get really turned off by the shiny green and red paper their pots come wrapped in. But... I had picked up this little silver planter at Ikea for about $2 for an amaryllis bulb that I was growing. When that thing bloomed it was gorgeous and after the blooms died I just had to have some kind of colorful plant in it's place.

{Poinsettia plant - $3.47 at Walmart; metal planter - $2 at Ikea}

4. 3 tiered pie tin stand with leftover ornaments...

I made the stand with dollar store pie plates and glass candle holders to use as a craft fair display for my shop so I just pulled that out of the closet and filled it with silver, red and tiny green ornaments. I felt like the top needed something so I just plopped in a pillar candle I already had on hand.

{free since I already had everything, but the entire thing would have cost me less than $10.}

5. Old Christmas card collage...

I have saved Christmas cards for several years waiting for a project to come along. Finally, last night I just couldn't wait anymore so I took some of the cards and taped them together in a collage. (I think even if you didn't have Christmas cards on hand you could just use cute wrapping paper.) Then I printed off the words "comfort" and "joy" in a font and size I liked, cut them out and glued them on the collages. I stuck them in the floating glass frames we already have above our couch. I chose a harder font to cut out so that part was time consuming but I like how they turned out and I spent NOTHING. :)

{free!}

6. Wreath...

I started with a vine wreath form from Hob Lob and some bulbs I already had.

I found this wooden letter "H" (also at Hobby Lobby) and painted it silver.

Using floral wire, I secured the "H" to one side of the wreath...

and I hot glued the bulbs to the other side...

I only lost one bulb in the process and definitely would have preferred shatter proof bulbs but this is what I had on hand. (I did pick up the little green bulbs in the $1 section at Target. They were out of silver or red so I settled for green.)

Finished product...

Please excuse the pictures as I was taking them after dark.

(It looks like someone wanted to say hi....)

{wreath - $3 with a 40% coupon from HL, wooden letter - $1.50 at HL, floral wire - $3 at HL, little green ornaments - $1 at Target}

linked with I {heart} naptime.

{linked with Works for Me Wednesday}

A Simpler Christmas update

2011-12-14T13:35:00.007-05:00

I thought I'd just pop in real quick and give you an update on how my plan to have a simpler Christmas is going. (You can catch up on the full plan here.)

So far we have...

--started our Jesse Tree....

I can tend to want to over-do projects and make them more elaborate than I have the energy/resources for, but I stuck to my plan here and went as simple as I knew how. I just printed out the ornaments, cut them out and had the boys help me glue them to red, green and blue construction paper. After punching holes and tying raffia through them they were done!

I plan to use these in years to come, so I was content with how easy that was. For our tree we are just re-using the branches and vase from our Thankful Tree.

Now here the update on how it's actually going.... we have stayed a good 4 days (or more) behind consistently. Manny can barely sit through the short devotion much less understand it. We ad-lib and change words a lot so Isaiah can understand it. It's a struggle and we miss a lot of days.

On the plus side, Isaiah has really enjoyed it and it has done all of us a lot of good to just sit and hear the Word together as a family. I love how it's stringing together the stories of the old testament with each one pointing to Jesus. I really do feel that my heart is engaged more this year than in years past, and that's what I've prayed for.

--Put up our Christmas tree and a few decorations...

I really wanted a table top tree this year, but didn't have the energy to go to a store and didn't want to spend any money on it. My parents gave us their tree, but after assembling every. single. freaking. branch. we stepped back and realized how huge it was. It completely overwhelmed our small space and so back in the box it went. In exhaustion, we settled for our normal tree (the one where you can see the pole through the branches at just about every level), Josh strung 4 completely different kinds of lights on it, we put up only our very favorite ornaments and called it a day. It is a sight. Bless it.

{I did decorate with a few new and really inexpensive items that I've enjoyed. I'll post about those later.}

-- I have almost completely caught up on all my etsy orders....

and honestly, this has demanded most of my time. I forgot to mention in my original post that my shop turns into more than a full time job during the holidays, which is a blessing, but is all-consuming for awhile.

Our house is a wreck....toys everywhere, crumbs dug into the carpet and all over the kitchen floor, laundry clean but unfolded and piling up, dishes done sometimes and sometimes not, dirty toilets, I've found crayon drawings on permanent furniture, there's yogurt that's been stuck on the table for days, I've found the fridge door standing wide open for who knows how long....you get the idea. It's real life around here, y'all.

(this is semi-picked up and un-staged)

--Christmas cards are done!

--Shopping almost done...except for the gifts I'm making this year... (Amazon has been one of my very best friends this year. I heart you, Amazon.).

--My brother's wedding is this weekend and most preparations are in place....

Sigh. There's still plenty to be done and then there are the actual holidays, but there has been a shift in my mentality this year. Maybe part of it is being pregnant, but I have just given myself an out from the pressure and expectations that I normally put on myself. (Maybe you do it too and they're ridiculous, right?!)

It's ok if my house isn't gorgeous. It's ok if my gifts aren't high end or beautifully wrapped. It's ok if we don't get to our Jesse tree devotions every night. It's ok if the food I bring to the party came from a box. It's ok if my own family eats a lot of pizza, soup from a can and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner right now. It's ok if we're not spending our nights by the fireplace (that we don't have), sipping hot cocoa and singing carols, but instead are passed out on the couch by 8:30pm. It's ok that we have to turn down some things because we are desperately trying to preserve sanity. It's ok that I can't do the "super easy" diy projects I've pinned on pinterest. It's ok that I can't enter a fancy blogger's Christmas Tour of Homes.

But, you know? I don't think any of us feel like we're missing out in the least. I'm actually really enjoying this season with my family. I'm enjoying the freedom of not doing it all.

This..... isn't reality for me....

...and isn't this kinda how it was for Him?

{A photo of a manger from the period of time of Jesus' birth.}

I think it was pretty simple for Him too.... and then He went and saved the whole wide world.

So, deep breaths. It's ok.

Fun Giveaway of my little creations!

2011-12-09T08:25:00.003-05:00

So most of you know I have an etsy shop called Happy Little Lovelies, right? Ok, well I do. I've been creating, making and shipping my jewelry for about a year and a half and I LOVE it. It's the perfect creative outlet that I need and I'm so grateful for how God has blessed it.

I also have a sweet sister-in-law...

...and another sweet friend (who lives in China).

I've known them both for what feels like forever and love them both dearly. Said sister-in-law and friend have a blog called Getting Through the Day and it is chock full of tips and practical ideas to help you do just that....get through the day. You know, stuff like meal planning, organization, schedules, getting out the door in a timely manner, etc....things that moms of young kids are constantly tweaking (they both have 4 small kids!). Seriously, you should check them out. :)

Also, they just so happen to be hosting their very first giveaway today and have decided to feature my shop! Isn't that nice of them? All you have to do is subscribe to their blog and leave a comment....super simple! The giveaway ends tomorrow at 6am so please head over there and introduce yourself to them. They would love to meet you!

Christmas Morning Cappuccino Mix

2011-12-07T07:59:00.003-05:00

A few posts ago I mentioned that we enjoy Christmas Morning Cappuccino every year. Well, I thought it to be unfair to even utter the words without sharing the joy with you sooo....

This recipe has been part of our Christmas morning tradition for years now. I got it from my Gooseberry Patch Merry Christmas cookbook. Gotta love those Gooseberry Patch girls!

I make a big batch and take it over to my mom's house that morning and we have it with her amazing breakfast casserole. She keep a big coffee urn of hot water going for the next several days and we just slurp down this spicy, warm goodness. :) Oh, and if you really want to go overboard (plus impress and amaze your family), plop a few of these homemade marshmallows on top. ohmyWORD. (You can read my post about them here.)

It would not be completely inappropriate for you to now go slap your grandmother or name your next child after me. :)

{If you're especially picky about your coffee like me, you may take issue with the instant coffee this recipe calls for, but you're just going to have to trust me. All the other ingredients will make you forgive it.}

Three Lines!!!

2011-11-30T10:42:00.008-05:00

Yesterday was a really fun day for us because we found out that we're having a girl!!!

I'm not gonna lie. I really wanted a girl. I've been praying for her to come into our family for awhile now, but really wanted to be just as excited to have another fun, cutie-pie boy. {I guess now we don't get to see what my true reaction would have been, but I like to think it would have been the picture of graciousness. ;) }

We hope to adopt one day, so I just told myself...and Josh....that if we didn't have her biologically we would adopt her. In fact, I think my exact words to him were (after enduring a lot of flatulence at my dinner table *again* one night), "You WILL get me a girl. Either biologically or by adoption...you WILL get me a girl."

I love when God does what I want Him to! We are seriously, SO thankful for a healthy baby ....and, according to the nice tech, we have a very fiesty girl who would barely stay still for her pictures, shoved her head up against the camera over and over and then kicked me with Mia Hamm force. I don't know where in the world she would get that from. ;)

Sorry for the quality of these pictures. They were taken with my sad phone camera.

{Grammie helping Isaiah sound out the word "girl" on the picture.

Once he figured it out, he ran around the house, jumping on the couches

and doing a happy dance for at least 10 mins.

He REALLY wanted a baby sister and has been convinced that's

what we were having all along. I can't wait

to show her the video one day.

He's already a precious older brother to her.}

{At this point, Isaiah was having a melt down and Manny

was the excited older brother. Is this how it's going to

play out?}

{Our beloved Zoe Brennon}

My (Slightly) Simpler Christmas Plan

2011-11-25T16:31:00.015-05:00

I have been thinking about this so much lately. This idea of a meaningful, quieter and simpler Christmas is something that has eluded me and my family every year. Not that I'm complaining....we are so blessed to have both mine AND Josh's family 15 mins away (including extended family). Our boys enjoy time with their grandparents on a weekly basis and are growing up calling their cousins "best friends." I absolutely LOVE this. It's important to me and I can see how it has enriched our lives in countless ways.

Having said that :) .... one of the challenges of living so close to our families is balancing our holidays between them. Here's how it looks right now:

Thanksgiving: every year we alternate who we spend it with. This year was our year to be with Josh's family. Next year we will be with my family, etc.

Christmas Eve: we arrive at my aunt's house (all extended family on my mom's side come) around 3pm for our yearly tradition of singing, eating, my grandmother reading the Christmas story, opening presents, etc. At around 5:30 we leave and head to Josh's parents' house (30 mins away) for their tradition of Josh's mom fixing a huge dinner and all us kids and grand kids being together and opening presents with each other. This is my most favorite day of the year!

Christmas Day: as soon as we can get up, we head over to my parent's house for a wonderful breakfast and Christmas Morning Cappuccino (I'll have to post the recipe later) and then us kids and grand kids open presents with my parents. At noon we round ourselves up and go to have a big lunch with Josh's extended family. Sometimes (because the morning is so rushed) we go back to my parent's house and spend the rest of the afternoon and evening.

I'm tired from just writing that.

{Now, I'm sure you practical planners out there already have a million solutions as to how we could do this better (and I'm sure they're great!). I have thought through some big changes that would make things easier too, and we will probably have to implement them in the future (esp with a new baby coming), but for this year at least, this is what we're doing.}

So, one of my dilemma's is carving out our own family time in the midst of this craziness. The other (bigger) dilemma is having time to really reflect and celebrate JESUS (you know, the main character in the story) with the boys. The way we're doing it now, I fear, will only leave them with the impression that Christmas is when we see lots of family, eat lots of food and get LOTS of presents.

My "Miracle on Main Street" Plan:

(We live off of Main St. Get it?)

--use Christmas Eve morning to celebrate Jesus' birthday with canned cinnamon rolls and birthday candles. I love the idea of a simple breakfast everyone will love that requires no prep on my part. This plan, however, will require me to be completely ready for the next 48 hours of festivities by the time we wake up.

--implement the Jesse Tree this year which includes a daily bible reading and short devotion. I'm actually thinking of foregoing the traditional tree in favor of just having a table top Jesse Tree. (I really love how Ann did her decorations so beautifully and simply. Raffia bows with paper snowflakes and popcorn and cranberry garland. Sigh.)

--doing a major pre-Christmas purge. Since we are preparing to fit 5 people into a small house this is a necessity anyway but especially essential when I know that we will be schlepping lots of new gifts home. My plan is to attack the boys toys hard in the next few weeks and pare down to only their very favorites. I plan to donate what we don't keep. Fingers crossed there.

--plan, plan, plan ahead. Have I mentioned that my brother is getting married on December 17th and the boys and I are in it? Yeah... So, I hope to finish up ALL Christmas shopping this week, send out Christmas cards in the next couple of weeks, bake and freeze goodies.... and basically just stay as ahead of the game as I can.

Oh, wouldn't it be wonderful to look back at this season and remember more sweet moments than hectic ones? To really sink into the fact that Jesus came quietly? And that there was no endless flood of people or special deals or tons of merchandise being lugged from house to house? And that Him coming means so much more -- the difference of life and death for us?

I usually look back and am grateful that it's over. I just don't think that was what the Father had in mind for His Son's birthday.

And I really do think it's going to take a miracle to have a peaceful heart in the midst of this season (especially if my little plan doesn't work), but... given His track record... I'm pretty sure He can handle it. :)

Praying for a peaceful heart for you too, friend.

(found here)

{If you're trying for a simpler Christmas this year, I'd love to hear your suggestions}

Pinterest Project: yarn wrapped letters

2011-11-16T16:24:00.011-05:00

In my experience, Pinterest can either be inspiring or maddening. There are SO MANY great ideas out there it's very easy to think "I could totally do that" and, before you know it, there's about 237 new projects now on your to-do list.

Enter this little project. I am always looking for very cheap, very cute decorative things to do to my house. My house and I are in a love-hate relationship and so I try to do what I can to make it cute, but on a limited budget. I'm not interested in sinking a lot of money into this house.

I bought the stuff for this several months ago....

I really liked the look of the cute letters and I wanted to add something interesting to the floating shelves in my kitchen so I bought the letters EAT and yarn at my local Hobby Lobby.

The letters are cardboard and were on sale so they were about $1.25 each. I chose a mustard yellow yarn and it was $3-4. LOVE decor that costs under $10 including tax....and I had tons of yarn left over for other projects! (I already had the glue gun and glue sticks.)

There are instructions at the link above, but they're not really all that necessary. I pretty much just started wrapping the letters in yarn and glueing here and there. It was pretty straight forward once I got the hang of it and decided how I wanted to wrap them.

The "A" was a little tricky so I sucked up my pride and looked at her instructions. :) I will say though, it was time consuming. It took me a good couple of hours to finish, but I really, really like how they turned out. :)

If you have cute decor ideas, please share!

I have another completed project and now 236 projects to be completed so I'm sure I'll be sharing about them.

Eventually.

The Thankful Tree 2011

2011-11-16T15:32:00.009-05:00

I just realized that I posted about this very same thing last year, but I'm a year older, pregnant and don't remember anything so you'll forgive this similar post, right?

And I'm happy to say that I managed to finally get this done a full week and one day before Thanksgiving. That makes me one day ahead of where I was last year! I'll take it! :)

So, the Thankful Tree? Chances are you've heard of this before, but in case you haven't, the Thankful Tree is just a tool to help us maintain hearts of thankfulness through the Thanksgiving season. The ideal is to start at the beginning of the month. I am not the ideal, but you're reading this so.....you must be ok with that. ;)

It's a pretty simple project and great to do with kids. My boys really got into it this year. Here's how we do it:

I usually find some leaf clip art that I cut out and the boys color. When we're done, I punch a hole in the end and then tie some ribbon in the end to make a loop for hanging.

Here's where it gets fun. We sit down and I ask the boys to tell me what they're thankful for as I write each thing on the back of a leaf. I'm always hoping they'll name things like food, shelter, warmth, Jesus dying to take our sins away, etc. You know, deep, spiritual things.

This year I managed to get "myself" ..... from both boys. Oh, and Manny threw in "my head" and "my hair" (he really does have senator hair). So, while they were feeling very thankful for themselves, I prodded us to consider just a few more things they left out. We'll keep working on that.

We had already gathered some branches from outside and put them in a vase so now we hang the leaves on the tree.

The overall goal for us is to take a leaf (or a couple) each day and thank God for what we wrote on it. I put our tree in the niche with some burlap underneath and a few decorative things I had laying around and there you have it!

I'm thinking that in December I'll spray paint the branches white or silver and make it a Jesse Tree. We haven't done that before and I'm pretty excited about it. One of my favorite bloggers, Ann, tells you how to do it in her ebook here.

The Hard Moments

2011-11-09T11:24:00.010-05:00

I am just about 16 weeks pregnant now and, I have to say, this feels like the hardest of all of them. Now, in full disclosure, I do have pretty easy pregnancies. I don't get very sick, I don't require medication for nausea, I'm not bed-ridden (except by choice) and I am not high risk. So, I feel bad complaining at all because I know women in all of those categories and I think they are freaking champions. Truly.

However, I was expecting to get my energy back around 12 weeks like I normally do, but instead what I have is the ever-shrinking will to live. Not really, but it feels like it. It takes everything I have just to get myself ready in the morning, and if it's a morning that I have to get me AND the boys ready to be somewhere (several times a week)....I am pretty much done for the day by the time we reach our destination.

The real issue here is not just that I have zero energy. It's more that I have zero patience. I apologize to my poor boys at least once a day because the daily norm has caused me to lose my pleasing personality over and over.

And can I be honest? I know this is going to reveal some ugly stuff, but when I spend time with the Lord in the morning and it doesn't "fix" me...I feel robbed a little bit. I REALLY want to be gracious, loving and patient to my kids and not get mad at them for being the sinful little creatures that they are. I want to give them the loving, gracious training they need from me....but in the moment, I lose the battle more than I win it.

I guess somewhere I believe that the end result, me being gracious and patient, is the only proof of God's grace to me when it's hard. And if I'm not those things, somehow I missed out on that grace. Wrong, I know. It's just a little harder for me to swallow that sometimes the grace is that I come to the end of myself and cry out desperately to Him. And sometimes the grace is that we got through the day alive...no, it may not have been pretty, but there was (hopefully) confession and forgiveness and Jesus died for it....and tomorrow is a new day.

So, here are some things I'm trying (and plan to try) to implement both before and in the midst of those crazy, rage blackout (as my friend calls it) moments to try to regain some sanity:

--send kids outside to play in the back yard until I can pull it together

--send kids into separate rooms with doors closed until we all calm down

--go Ikea, use the free childcare, get free coffee and sit and read for an hour or so

--pull away (usually locked up in my bathroom) and try to count the gifts of the day that I'm thankful to God for

--confess right there to the boy(s) that Mommy is having a hard time and can we pray together? (pretty much breaks the cycle in my heart immediately)

-- start a pot of water for hot tea and light a yummy scented candle...both very soothing to me

--keep on top of the clutter as much as possible so the house doesn't feel like another stresser

--put on music

--go to the park for awhile and get fresh air

--schedule a coffee date with a friend 1-2 times a month to look forward to

--have verses about God being my help and rest up where I can see them easily

--realize that today is just a particularly hard day and a movie for the boys and pb&j for dinner is ok :)

Got anything to add?

PS...I enjoyed reading this article and I especially love her closing line: "Thank you Lord, for loving my holiness enough to give me kids."

Hi there!

2011-10-18T07:33:00.006-05:00

I've been thinking about popping in to write again. Don't worry. I have very low expectations...I don't even expect that this little blog is still on anyone's reader, but lately I've found myself thinking multiple times during the day "I just wish I had an outlet to share this" so I figure...why not?

I probably won't post very regularly and may post in fits and spurts, but sometimes I just need to sort things out or share my heart and I really do love how blogging gives you that opportunity when you need it.

I think it's been close to a year since my last post so here's the quick update:

Isaiah is now 5 (!)and Manny is 3 (!).#3 will arrive in late April. And we're going to find out what we're having this time!

Josh is still teaching 7th grade math and I still have my little jewelry and accessories shop on Etsy. We still live in the same house (more on that later, I'm sure), and are still happily plugging into our church. Lately, my days are filled with attempts at running this house, my shop and being a mom that won't get brought up on a therapist's couch one day. So, other than pregnancy, not a whole lot has changed around here. :)

Some things rolling around in my head a lot lately that I hope to eventually share more about:

--the challenges of being an adult and now relating to adult family members...as an adult

--grace-based parenting

--setting the tone in my home (being the thermostat and not a thermometer, so to speak)

--surrendering people (and their issues) to the Lord (BIG challenge right now)

--surrendering myself (and my issues) to the Lord (also challenging)

--logistically making our little house work with 3 children

--making changes that lead to simpler living

--paying off debt and saving

--small things I'm trying to incorporate into my day that make the day better

--cheap, diy decor projects around the house

Like most women, I don't really sit around and think of all the things I'm doing well. Pretty much everything I listed is something I'm trying, would like to start doing or am really challenged in right now.

I have lots I want to write about so if you're reading, thanks for still being here. :)

The Undoing and a Shift

2011-01-24T07:52:00.005-05:00

Have you ever experienced God obviously calling out your sin and bringing you gentle proof after proof of it? And then stringing together conversations and moments and readings about that very sin, and showing them to you one after another?

Here's the thing: I often don't love like a mom when I'm being a mom. I'm not always here when I'm physically here.

I'm distracted. They want to talk. I have an agenda that "needs" to get accomplished. They get in my way. (They need a lot.) Then there's facebook (and blogs). Oh, facebook. He has a dirty diaper and he needs help with his shoes. And the etsy shop. And the messy house. And they want me to build them a fort. And my expectations for the day. And they want to eat ALL the time. (They need a lot.) And sometimes, I want to be anywhere but here.

Some days, I just drift.... and live inside my head....disconnected from the 2 eternal souls at my waist.

Enter this post called "What Housework is Really About." (And this one too. What can I say? The Lord was speaking loudly.)

And then this one called "Life with Little People Part 1" and "Part 2."

Enter tears. Enter sobbing tears. Enter pulling each boy onto my lap and looking into their beautiful blue eyes. Enter tearful confessions to each sweet son. Enter the undoing. Enter precious forgiveness.

I want to want to be here. This. It's where He has graciously put me. I'm afraid I'll miss it.

It won't always be this, you know. The cuddle sessions, boo-boos that need kissing, snacks and juice, boy games and blanket forts, rhyming and opposites, tickles and knee pinchers, first questions about the essence of God and Jesus and us, shoe tying and teeth brushing, training and instruction, chore charts and vivid imaginations, little boy laughter.

Even all the picking up and wiping down and gluing back and putting away.

I feel the undoing happening to me. Acknowledging. Releasing. Letting go.

Coming back to here.

This.

What we do when packed in ice

2011-01-12T13:12:00.009-05:00

In no particular order and because I'm a tad bored....

Put the children to work doing manual labor.

Josh has joked before that we should have made Manny's middle name "Labor." Emmanuel Labor. Get it? Yeah, I know.

Josh found my very first trumpet and insisted that I give Isaiah his first trumpet lesson. (We were both music majors and constantly go back and forth about whether or not the boys are talented enough to play our instrument. It's all very mature.)

I think I might frame this one. What a proud moment for me.
(I'm sparing you the video)

I made a few Valentine's Day lovelies!

And finished a few orders...

Josh built a fort for the boys...

I took WAY too many pictures of icicles. But they were really cool!

And finally covered some ugly pillows. I plan to make shams to cover the red ones next.

You can't see the pattern well in the picture, but I love it. AND it's like I got 2 new pillows for $6!

Sweet nap times...

Made the yummy marshmallows I posted about. (Have you made them?!?)

And when I was REALLY bored, I convinced this cutie that he wouldn't look like a girl if he let me put his hair in a ponytail. I don't think he looks like a girl AT ALL...more like a very handsome athlete.
I don't think he or Josh agree with me.

And this may mean that we are near the breaking point and NEED TO GET OUT before I start sewing the boys dresses.

Pillowy Clouds of White Delight (revisited)

2011-01-11T13:45:00.005-05:00

Once upon a time last year I made THESE.

(You can read about it and see the pictures here.)

And then a few angels came down from heaven and threatened to beat me up if I didn't give them some. True story. They're THAT good.

(I'm just so glad I've finally overcome my exaggeration tendencies).

So, since the Snowpocalypse of 2011 has descended upon us, I've decided to make them again. (The yummy syrupy mixture is simmering on the stove right now.) And I thought that the most loving thing I could do for you right now was to gently point you into the direction of puffy, soft, sweet goodness.

Now, say you're blind....and you aren't sold on these, allow me to appeal to your pride: you can announce that you are making these FROM SCRATCH on your facebook status (like I just did...it helps to type things in all caps, btw. you'll get more attention) and have all your friends think you are SOOO intimidating.

Also, if your children ever grow up and say to a therapist that you weren't a good mother, you can say, "Shut up. I MADE you marshmallows."

And if you STILL need convincing, I can tell you from experience that making these little squares of euphoria will ensure that:
1) people will like you more,
2) you will become instantly more beautiful,
3) the world will turn into white sugar and
4) heaven will come down and visit you.

(Give them what they want).

Lists

2011-01-03T11:55:00.004-05:00

Whew! We made it!

Sorry about the absence of posts last month. Very anti-climatic after a relaunch, huh? I hope you haven't given up on me forever. December came like a hurricane. Etsyians talk a lot about the craziness of the holidays and even gave us a Holiday Boot Camp plan that started back in October. In short, I should have followed that plan.

My little shop that I thought maybe 5 people would be interested in, reached over 150 sales in December (from July). That may not sound like a lot to you but when you consider that each sale takes several hours to complete....that's a lot of hours. Don't get me wrong. I'm so, so grateful. It has been a provision for our family that I never saw coming. God had amazingly blessed us through it and I really, really enjoy it.

But it was crazy.

So, here we are in January. It's only the 3rd day of a fresh, new year. And this is the time of year where I dream big, come up with tons of goals and then work my stomach into knots thinking of all that entails. I'm the type of person who is NOT a natural planner. I am also the type of person that doesn't get much done without a plan.

I have about a million things jumping around in my head right now and so, instead of me just jotting them down on scrap pieces of paper and putting them up on my already-cluttered fridge, I will write a bunch of it down here and share it with you.

Who knows....maybe you have similar goals and ideas and we can inspire one another. I LOVE hearing about other people's goals. It's incredibly inspiring to me so it would tickle me pink if you would share a few of your goals/ideas for this year.

DIY Projects:

--make pillow shams and accent pillows for bed

--cover couch pillows

--finish upholstered, tuffted headboard for our room

--paint frames, fill with cute stuff and arrange over headboard.

--finish painting dresser and armoire in our room.

--hang window treatments in our room

--paint frames and freshen up decor in living room

--paint the guest bathroom and hang wall hooks for boy's towels

--look further into creating a pantry in our kitchen

--spruce up the boy's bedroom and playroom (take down Isaiah's nursery decor....geez)

Personal:

--wake up early enough each morning to have quiet time before the boy's wake up

--have scheduled reading time through the week for books that help me grow

--manage my time with the boys, keeping up with the house and managing my shop better

--have meal plans and, if possible, meals in the freezer each month

--carve out time for exercise

The boys:

--research and try to get a plan for homeschooling next year

--start prepping Isaiah for school more intentionally

--have more structure in our daily routine

--continue to work with Isaiah on his chore chart

--spend time each day ENGAGED and PLAYING with the boys

My Man:

--date night at least 2 times a month

--become more intentional about doing thoughtful, little things for him (notes mailed to work, etc)

--reserve enough energy through the day for when he comes home

Ok, I'm overwhelmed now. I'm sure I'll be revisiting this list and tweaking it into more manageable bite-sized pieces. I know some of these things are things that I will work my whole life to accomplish. I would simply like to GROW in those areas this year. :)

Your turn! What's on YOUR list????

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases,
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is thy faithfulness.
"The LORD is my portion," says my soul,
"therefore I will hope in him."

Lam 3: 22-24

This is my Christmas present to you :)

2010-12-10T10:52:00.002-05:00

Pure. Worship.

I have been so moved by what happens in this food court that I just can't not show you.

(If you've already seen it....watch it again!!!)

It's not just that I'm a music person....it's that we ALL are created to worship and the God of the bible, the Gospel, all these great truths we hold on to is the God of MUSIC, ART, DANCE and all creative expression.

He's artsy and creative and musical and brilliant because He is THE Artist and THE Creator and THE music and all the ideas behind it.

And frankly, it's pretty awesome to see Him show off like this. :)

Enjoy!!!

(actually, just click on the title since my blog wants to cut it in half. :))

Tour De Ornaments!!!

2010-12-09T10:29:00.009-05:00

Our tree is fake. It's us-lit...not pre-lit. There are lots of places where you can see the actual pole in the middle. And the ornaments? They are a complete hodge podge of colors, shapes, sizes, styles and ages....no theme whatsoever.

But we love it.

There is MUCH sentimental value in it. And I'm sure most of you would say the same about your tree. I love decorations that have history. A story. I think they should bring up joyful memories that we will treasure in our hearts forever.

So, I thought it would be kinda fun to show you a few of our ornaments that mean so much to us....and get ready cause I want to see yours too!

I have quite a few of these....my great-grandmother crocheted them. She was a spunky, fiesty lady, the mother of one of my most beloved people on earth, and I love having something that came from her hands.

I also have a lot of these cute, retro, wooden, hand-painted ornaments. My Mom painted these for my parents' first Christmas together. I love them!

This one brings tears to my eyes. It's probably my favorite of all our ornaments. Yes, I know it's just a McDonald's straw stapled together, but it's symbolic of God's faithfulness to my parents. When my parents got married, they didn't have money to go buy ornaments for a tree so my mom used straws from McDonald's to make their first ornaments. The Lord has provided in amazing ways for them....and us.

My first ornament. :)

Then, when I was two and my sister had just been born, my mom painted this for me. She also painted us dresses (that she also made) and shirts; had her own wood saw that she used to make and paint goodies that she gave as gifts and sold at a craft store; and sewed, stuffed and painted our own baby dolls.

What do I do? I blog about it. That's what I do. Hope you're proud, Mom.

Made by me at age 11. I'm surprised mom could get me to stop thinking about boys and New Kids on the Block long enough.

This was one of my favorite gifts we received when we got married. I make sure it gets a very prominent spot on the tree each year.

Bought in a street market in Nassau near our cruise ship. An AMAZING honeymoon. I can still hear the steel drums when I look at this.

4 years ago we had a little baby and so we did what every new parent does at Christmas. We stripped him down and stuck his foot in white plaster over and over and over again until we captured that little foot print just right. Today he wears a boys size 13 shoe.

2 years ago we had another little boy with an apparent fondness for Spock. Live long and prosper.

So there you have it. I've showed you mine and now I would like to see yours. :)

I really love hearing other people's stories behind their treasures and since we can't all go to each others' living rooms let's have a virtual peek! Show as few or as many as you like!

Please feel free to leave a comment OR, if you feel so inclined, leave a link to your own post so we can see it!

Let the Tour De Ornaments begin!

How will we die?

2010-12-06T15:11:00.002-05:00

I just finished watching this man preach his heart out.

He asks over and over, "Will we die in our religion or will we die in our devotion?"

I can't unpack this sermon for you and it's a time commitment to watch it (35 mins), but every single minute is WORTH IT.

I don't have much to say right now. I feel like God, in one way or another, has been asking me this same question. This blog, though wonderful for many things, can be a huge temptation to write about things and not live them.

I hear a refrain in my head over and over and over asking the question,

"What if no one could see you, Dana?
What if no one was there to give praise and approval?
What if no one was there to hear you and possibly criticize in their hearts?
What if no one had an opinion?
What if no one knew about your sacrifices?
What if they knew you didn't sacrifice?
What if the only people affected were you and the ones you were reaching out to?
How would you live?
Would you still do it?
Would you even start doing it?"

David Platt: SBC Pastors Conference 2009 from Todd Thomas on Vimeo.

A quick announcement of cheer and joy

2010-12-01T09:20:00.003-05:00

Hi, there.

How YOU doin'?

I've been on the couch the last 2 days with various mugs of hot tea and a roll of toilet paper because my nose and sinuses hate me, but I'll be back soon with a post and pictures of our Thanksgiving weekend...you won't believe how fierce of a football player I am.

But that's not why I'm here. I wanted to drop by real quick in between nose blows and sinus washes to let you know that my friend Carrie aka

is doing a GIVEAWAY for my shop today over at her blog Little Llamas!!!!

Carrie and I have known each other since college (I think we met in '98) and even spent a summer in South Africa together so it's really cool to me that she's doing my first giveaway. She's got an adorable blog over there so go check her out and enter to win your own lovely and a great discount!

I even made my own button!!!

So, here's your proverbial slap on the behind....go get 'em, girls!!

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!!!