A Decidely Lovely Christmas (in pictures)

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!!!

Over the river and through the woods

I'm off to spend the day with this amazing lady....



This is my mamaw. She is now my only living grandparent....and, to be completely honest, she's always been my favorite. :) She has 5 daughters and I am her first grandchild. There are 12 of us, a lot of spouses and 7 great-grandchildren. She's a true matriarch.

I'm going to her house where we will put up her Christmas decorations, talk about anything and everything, eat and probably watch something on the Hallmark channel. I love her and I can't wait!


Sooo....the blog name reveal will come later today. Stay tuned and sneak a quick vote or comment in before it's too late!

Aw Shucks

I am so grateful to be part of a church small group that loves to have fun together. Our little group is made up of our family, Terrance and Courtney (and little boy C in the oven), Keli and Caroline. We all are or have been teachers. We all live in the same area. After that, we're a pretty diverse group, which I LOVE. We're the newbies, but they have taken us in (and all our issues) with wide open arms...as if we've been there the whole time.

So, today we all (minus Terrance who had to work) went to Aw Shucks pumpkin patch and corn maze. Isaiah and Manny (and me, if we're being honest) each had their own things to overcome through the day, but all in all we had a lot of fun! The girls were so patient and helpful.

We walked through the (tiny and sad) pumpkin patch, made our way through a corn maze that looked like the Lowe's Motor Speedway logo in record time, took a hay ride, ate hotdogs, checked out the little general store, fed sheep, pet goats, gobbled at turkeys and Isaiah rode a pony. And the weather was BEAUTIFUL!

Manny, Caroline and Courtney

The General Store with an inflatable turkey
(I should let my neighbors know they make one)

The Pumpkin House

Just plain cool.

Keli!

In little boy dream land.

Seriously? You call this a pumpkin?
(yeah, November is too late to get big pumpkins at
the patch)

Most of us were glad to be there.

Isaiah may have found his calling. He already talks like a red-neck...
to the point that almost all southerners who hear him laugh.
And now we know that this trait is matched perfectly with
how much he LOVED feeding those nasty, dirty, mangy sheep.
(not that people who feed sheep are red-necks. noooo.)

Huh?

The girls: Caroline, Me, Keli and Courtney (and little boy C).
They were troopers to come along with our clan!
The day did not come without it's fair share of pit stops,
wet pants, spilled drinks and meltdowns.

The ticket!

First pony ride! I walked the 1st lap with him, but he decided
he wanted to do the 2nd lap all by his big-boy-britches self.

What we did Saturday...

And the end result...

"Declare His glory among the nations"
(Ps 96:3)

"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf
that we might become the righteousness of God in Him"
(2 Cor 5:21)

Matt Terry at Fu's is the awesome guy who worked really hard and long (Josh's took 4 hours, mine took a little than 1 hour) on these for us. He also has done 6 on one of my most absolute favorite people in the world, so he's definitely proven himself. And speaking of her, she traveled down from Raleigh to spend this weekend with us, sat with us for a VERY long time while we got them, helped pay for them and then took us out to dinner...and didn't get mad at me when I was in pain and mean. She's a good catch, that one.

So, all in all, the outline hurt like Hades. The color shading really didn't. It was expensive (well, Josh's), but we're both really, really happy with them. I think Josh's is one of the coolest ones I've ever seen and fits him completely. Matt told us it was really hard to design and do because everything had to be so clean and precise. He surprised me with the banner around mine. I really like the way it looks old and torn (I didn't know he would add that element). I want the globe to look more "old world" and faded, but he said it would fade more over time. I'm still just getting used to it. It's weird to see in the mirror. Both are healing really well.

I was really proud of Josh. He sat there patiently for over 4 hours while Meg and I played cards and talked about whatever came to our minds, all while snapping pictures randomly at him while he was in pain. He said it took him about an hour to get in "the zone."

(Apparently, there's a "zone." I never found it.)

Matt told us so much of it is mental. You have to focus on breathing and kinda hunker down and zone out. Yeah, that didn't work for me. I put my head down so no one could see my face and tightened every muscle in my body. When it was over I was shaky and sweaty. I guess I'm a pansy. I was really hoping for just the "annoying tickle" I kept hearing over and over. Parts of it felt like that, but the outline felt like what it was....a needle stabbing me over and over again at a very rapid speed. Go figure.

Anyways, we wanted to do something big for our 30th birthdays. Both of us have kinda been flirting with the idea of a tattoo for awhile, but never really talked much about it. We had planned on going sky diving, but decided on tattoos because a) it lasts longer, and b) you don't die. But neither of us would have gotten one just to get one. It had to be significant to both of us. Josh's is the gospel in one verse. He originally wanted it on his chest so he could see it every time he looked in the mirror (but, um...no), and mine was from Ps 96:3..."Declare His glory among the nations; His marvelous works among all the peoples." I cut it in half when he said it would take up my whole shoulder blade. Good. Call. Taking the gospel to the nations is a big deal to both of us so it was something I feel is significant enough to wear on my body forever.

Josh is talking about adding some kind of cool border around it later in the future. Maybe the reference at the bottom. I think I'm good for now. ;)

A LARGE amount of pictures from the month of June

I just can't help but chuckle when I see this little face

Pretty sure bringing the wagon was a FANTASTIC
idea. They loved it!

This was happening pretty much every time all the cousins
were together

The Hartness family is happy at the beach :)

Pretty sure this will copied, scrapbooked or framed at some point.

Not sure which one of us took this one, but can you
tell we're wanna-be's?

Sooo easy on my eyes :)

What is required for 8 adults and 5 children to enjoy at
day at the beach
(and no, we don't make Isaiah pull it)

Doing boy things together

Very cautiously eyeing the catch and looking to see
who will be brave enough to get the closest

The unfortunate crab, caught for 24 hours of observation and much taunting.

I just LOVE this picture...they have such fun together.