Archives for January 2012

Thank you so much for all the kind comments, emails and all the prayers and words of encouragement I have received since yesterday.  You guys are too, too kind.  Please know that I completely appreciate it…the prayers especially.  Thank you!

Turns out since this crazy grief has set in, I don’t sleep well.  I go to bed super late at night.

Laura Kelley Grief Fun Fact #97:  When I am up super late at night I tend to do strange, mindless shopping online.

Example:  The other night I bought the following cookie cutters from Cheap Cookie Cutters:

Letter H

Letter S

Anchor

Tennessee

Batman

Salmon

Did you catch that last one?  Yes, I bought a salmon cookie cutter at 3:30am.  Who does this?  Apparently me.

So my strange order of cookie cutters arrived and today I declared it cookie day at the Kelley house.  I was not about to buy a salmon cookie cutter and not make a salmon shaped cookie.

I love this sugar cookie recipe from The Adventures of Sugarbelle.

It’s super yummy and really easy to work with.

The icing colors alone made me smile.

I’ve tried lots of icing recipes, but continue to come back to this Royal Icing (sort of) Recipe from The Decorated Cookie.

If this isn’t the most random assortment of cookies, I’m just not sure what is.

And the heart cookie doily designs I saw HERE on Pinterest.  They are truly amazing.

And my personal favorite…I mean, other than the salmon…

When he gets home I am going to make him one million cookies.

Saturday declared Cookie Day equals success.

I knew I needed that salmon cookie cutter.

Grief is so freakin’ tricky.

These are uncharted waters for me and honestly…I’m struggling to keep my head above water.  I could never ever put into words how close my mom and I were and I couldn’t even begin to convey how much I miss her…that parental love and support and encouragement and affirmation and the hugs and kisses.

The amount of things I see each day that immediately bring her to mind is quite ridiculous.  I didn’t just talk to her once every few days, but multiple times in one day…I even saw her almost every day.

She lived not far from us and her office is literally minutes from our house as well.  She would swing by almost everyday to see the kids or have me drive by her office so she could see them.  She gave us date nights several times a month, me and her went to the flea market every month together, we ate dinners together and just spent time with each other.  Loosing her is hands down the hardest thing I’ve had to do…no questions asked.

And that’s it…I’m struggling and struggling pretty hard.  We’re talking, flailing arms, fighting the wind and waves and doing the big ugly cry often.  I wish I had read a book on grief or loosing someone so close to my heart to prepare.  It’s not just that I’m sad and miss her…it’s that life has literally flipped upside down…it’s all different, unrecognizable and plus, you’re not even the same person you were before…you’ve changed and drastically.  Maybe it’s just me, but grief has a really bad name in my head 🙂

Now I’m left with a complete new life, plus trying to refigure out who I am.  Praying is hard now because honestly sometimes I just don’t even know what to say.

The other day I read the verse Exodus 14:14: “The Lord will fight for you…” and just like that I have a new simple prayer…asking God to fight for me because currently I’m all out of fight.

And just a few days after I read this verse I found a note from my mom from a few months ago.  She had photo copied a page from her devotional and written this verse on the page.  It was during a time when we needed God to be fighting for us.  What an incredible blessing it is to have a godly mother…who prays and petitions God on your behalf.

So I have a new prayer…simple, strong and true.  “The Lord will fight for you” and I believe it…I have to.  I am not strong and I need someone fighting on my behalf.  Thank God for a Savior who fights and fights like crazy for His children.

And while griefs swirls, life moves along.  Josh and the Kelley kids still need a semi-sane wife and momma.  And so life continues on.

Have I mentioned I am an emotional eater?

Books and light sabers everywhere in our house…even in the bathroom floor.

Shrinky dink making.  Harper’s heart skipped a beat.

Our first snow fall of winter and the waiting….yes it continues on.

Cold, cold, happiness.

And hot chocolate to warm up with.  Plus extra marshmallows.

Target trip to purchase super hero books.  I’ve never seen my boys so smitten.

New topless bedtime attire…for boys only 🙂

I come from a long line of cooks…my mom being one of the best.  Our family even has their own cook book.  They are the Hall Family and yes, we are just that cool.

Cold snowy day crock pot dinner…you will thank whoever invented this recipe, and my mom submitted it as mine, later.

She really wanted me to have a recipe in this book…I’m not exactly top chef 🙂

And there you have it…grief swirls, but life goes on, but God is fighting for us.

“The Lord will fight for you…” Exodus 14:14

She’s quirky and smart and funny and kind-hearted and loving and creative and independent.  And I like her…a lot!

Harper came home from school today and decided she wanted to get a head start on her Valentines.  I like Valentines that are cute and all match and our coordinated, etc.  So when Harper had her own little mind made up about what kind of Valentines she wanted to make, I had to make a decision to let go.

So that’s just what I did…I let go of all those matching and coordinating and perfectly crafted Valentines.  And I’m proud of myself and more importantly, I’m proud of Harper.  She definitely has a mind of her own and I’m proud she likes to create and create she does.

So long mom-crafted Valentines…maybe the boys won’t be so opinionated 🙂

We are still rockin’ on with our 2012 goals.  One of those being our kid dates.  Tonight was Huddy’s.  Josh and he headed out tonight and Huddy could not have smiled any more.

He kind of went with Harper’s plan from her date, but was really excited to go out with Josh all alone…just Josh and him.

McDonalds for dinner.  Check.

Ice cream for dessert.  Big check.

Lots of games at Chuck E Cheese.  Check and check.

And one happy, feeling-pretty-special little boy.  Check, check and triple check.

And today is my niece Campbell’s 9th birthday.  This weekend we celebrated at her snow themed birthday party.

We partied with snow bingo and a fun snowflake craft.

And snowflake cupcakes.  White chocolate on a wax paper = easy snowflakes.

We definitely partied hard.  9 is kind of a big deal…if you didn’t know.

Happy birthday Campbell.  Super glad I’m your aunt.  Love you tons.

PS:  14 Months Waiting Art Giveaway coming this weekend.  Praying it won’t happen 🙂  I can hope right?!?

We’re in home study mode again.  Ours doesn’t expire until May, but just in case, we are going ahead and getting a jump on it.  I was a bit bummed to have to start this process again last week, but it hasn’t been that bad.  We will be done with it by the 23rd and that’s cool with me.

My friend Courtney brought over her updated reference letter in this envelope…makes me super happy…all our updated home study papers reside in this envelope now.

We have also been continuing our Random Acts of Kindness for 2012.  A really easy thing we’ve done is to stock our car’s glove box with food gift cards.  This way anytime the opportunity arises to show some extra kindness, we’re ready.  This has come is handy, especially when buying our Contributor Newspaper.

We buy a paper with a few dollars and also hand over a food gift card.  Easy, easy way to spread some kindness.

And we’re still rockin’ on with our planned crafts.  This craft is easy and fun.  All you need is some coffee filters, watercolors, scissors, ribbon and hot glue.

When I taught kindergarten we did this every winter season.  Kids love this and it’s super, super easy.

All you do is get your paint on.  Paint and paint and paint as many coffee filters as your heart desires.  When we watercolor, I usually put layers of newspaper on the table because kids tend to over paint and the newspaper helps soak up that extra water.

After you finish painting, fold your coffee filters in half.

Now here’s the fun part…you can do two crafts with your painted coffee filters.

With my kindergarteners we always made snowflakes.  Nothing new I know, but so fun and easy.

Just keep folding your coffee filter like below.

And then cut.  Harper really enjoyed this a lot.  The boys didn’t do any cutting on these, but they helped paint.

And then unfold.  Voila!  Beautiful, fun and funky watercolor snowflakes.

The second WAY easy craft you can do with your watercolored, folded coffee filters is some fun bunting.

I had my hot glue gun out, gluing Jessie’s head back on and decided to whip up some new bunting as well.

For the bunting all you do is hot glue the top, straight part of the folded coffee filters to the back of a piece of ribbon, like below.

Flip it over and hang it up.  Done and done.

Really easy.  Really fun.  And now you have some super cute kid-made decorations for your house.

Have a great week!

They just don’t get any more super than these three.

Pow!  Whap! Bam!

Their superhero powers consist of eating large amounts of food, resisting the urge to nap and making floors extremely dirty just minutes after being vacuumed.

Pretty dang super…if you ask me.

Thanks to everyone who entered the key fob giveaway.  I absolutely loved reading about everyone goals or resolutions for the new year.  The winner of the custom key fob and one to share with a friend is…

#90 Chrissy Vas.  Super congrats Chrissy and check your email for a message from me!

One of my goals for 2012 is to have a weekly planned craft for my kiddos.

Being prepared is not always easy.  Life happens and we get busy…it’s just a fact.  One thing I got from teaching kindergarten is if you have a good book, you always have a craft.

I am one of those crazy people that has one shelf on my kid’s bookshelf they cannot reach and on that shelf I put holiday or season books.  So winter, spring, summer, Easter, Halloween, fall, Thanksgiving and Christmas books only get brought off the shelf at the right time.

I know, I know…I think it’s another teacher thing.

Right after we put up our Christmas books, we brought down our winter and snow books.  One of our favorites being A Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.  If you don’t have any of his books…go get some now.  We have almost all of them.  For this weeks craft we pulled out A Snowy Day and each Kelley kid picked their favorite page.  And then we got busy crafting our favorite page using paper, paint, stickers, etc…you can use whatever you have on hand.

Huddy’s favorite page was mostly snow.  He painted his snowy hill and then put on as many snowflake stickers as his heart desired.

I did have to draw and cut out Peter (the main character) for Huddy and Sol.  They are decent cutters, but they struggle with small pieces, so I lent a hand.  They glued and also put little faces on Peter.  I just freehand most things like this, but if you want it to look just like Peter, then you could use tracing paper or even some thin paper like notebook or an old envelope.

Sol chose the bathtub page.  I again cut out Peter, the boat and the duck, but Sol did all the gluing and he cut out the bathtub and all the pieces of paper for the floor.  For the bubbles Sol used the eraser on a pencil and I cut a circle out of an old sponge.  Stamping the sponge and the eraser tip was his favorite part.

And Harper chose the snow angel page.  Harper cut out everything and glued and painted and just crafted her little heart out.  She’s got the craft thing down.  She cuts way better than the boys, so Peter was a piece of cake for her.

And we used some fun winter stickers for the tops of the buildings.

When we were done…fun had been had and a mess had been made.

If you have a good book, then you have a craft.  All of these could have easily been done with only paper.  Get your creative juices flowing.

And how about an easy, easy recipe.  I am always looking for quick and easy recipes…always.  My friend Courtney made this one night for Bible study and we have been addicted ever since.

So all you need is about 3 chicken breasts (I use frozen), a can of black beans, a can of fiesta corn, some salsa (as much or as little as you like) and a pack of taco seasoning.  That’s it.

Drain the corn and just dump everything in your crock pot.  I even put my frozen chicken in there.  Stir.

I usually start this around noon and cook on high until a little before dinner and then I just turn it on low.  Or you could cook it on low all day.  It will be more soupy when it is done.

Then before dinner, take the chicken out and shred it.

Dump the chicken in a bowl and I use a measuring cup to dip out all of the goodness.  We like ours less soupy.

Then mix it all up.  The yum factor is just off the chart.

We eat ours on soft tacos, crunchy tacos or just chips.  Everyone devours this…every single time.

Make this for dinner tonight…you can thank my friend Courtney later.  Enjoy!

One of our goals for 2012 was to bring our next little guy home.  We are hoping that this will get going pretty soon.  I’m ready for a fourth set of just about everything.  Yesterday I noticed their cute little shoes lined up and then their cute little feet.

We need a fourth pair of shoes in the mix and I am about to bust over a fourth pair of feet.

So while we are still waiting we are also getting started on another goal for 2012…individual dates with the kids.  The truth is, they just don’t get that much time one-on-one with Josh or me.  Sol does get some time every Tuesday and Thursday and we do the random grocery store trip where Harper only wants to go…or other things like that.

But now we are starting planned date nights with each of them.

Harper was up first.  She had quite the plan.

McDonalds for dinner.  Check.

Eat dessert and play in the play area.  Check.

Chuck E Cheese for games.  Check & Check.

Joanns to buy some new crafts.  Check.

Go home and craft while the boys had gone to bed.  Check, check & triple check.

Huddy gets next week with Josh.  And Sol is up after that.  Our goal is to just keep the rotation going.  Each kiddo gets an individual date alone with one or both parents each month.  Hope we can keep it up.

And today we had our planned craft.  This was one of my personal goals for 2012…planned craft each week with the wee Kelleys.  It turned out great.  More tomorrow.

And don’t forget…key fob giveaway ends tonight.  Winner gets a free custom key fob with their choice of fabric and text, plus one to share with a friend.  CLICK HERE to enter or scroll down to the post below.  Ends tonight at midnight.

Well it’s officially here…2012.  We brought in the new year pretty low key.

Josh and I enjoyed Chinese, TV reruns and watched the ball drop at midnight.

The boys apparently partied pretty hard when they were suppose to be sleeping.  This was how I found them before going to bed…a bit after the new year.

How about some 2012 randomness…

I finally got busy hanging art up our stair wall.  Most of these pieces are from my Mom’s house and most of the artists are my Aunt Dorothy, my cousin Mike Steele, my Mom, Josh and myself.  This makes my heart swell.

I needed to read this.  Like really, really, really needed to read this.

+ I dig Josh’s handwriting.

This is for my Aunt Linda, Aunt Peggy and cousin Cheryl.

There may have been a pretty heavy debate over Christmas about if Neufchatel cheese and 1/3 less fat were the same cheese or in fact different.  Looks like younger minds prevailed with the fact, that yes, they are in fact different and even come in bars and not just tubs.  Yes, our family is a bit on the odd side, but wouldn’t have it any other way.

Anyone else have a love/hate relationship with Play-Doh?

I love it because it’s so fun and squishy and my kids LOVE it even more.  They will play for a long, long time.

I hate the insane amount of tiny pieces of play-doh that are absolutely covering the floor and table when we are done.  I did in fact sweep all of this off our floor after this morning’s play-doh session.

I like the only lonely grape.

Homegoods, Ross’ and TJ Maxx may in fact be a little piece of heaven on earth.  I know everyone is instagramming it up these days, but since I don’t have an iPhone, this is my Verizon LGgram…smart phone it is not.  They aren’t that different from my regular pics…give me points for trying to be tech savy while out without my camera.

And I won’t even admit to how long it took me to get these pictures off my phone.  It was sad…like real sad.

And I have officially set my goals for 2012.  Some, but not limited to…

* Daily Devotion (love my Jesus Calling).

* Aim for 4 date nights a month with Josh.

* Individual dates with our kiddos…each kiddo gets at least one a month.

* Run another 1/2 marathon.

* Keep running.

* Drink more water.

* Eat less sweets.

* Do lots of good things with our money.  Bless others like crazy.

* Be more patient with kiddos…no raising my voice…aka no yelling.

* Build a well at our Swaziland Carepoint, Ngungwane in Mom’s honor.

* Do one planned craft with the wee Kelley’s every week.

* Get more sleep.

* Go to Africa at least twice.

* Be an encourager to others.

* Heal.

* Bring our sweet boy home.

I’ll let you know how it goes.  So what are your goals or resolutions for 2012?

Leave a comment with one of your goals or resolutions and I’ll use Random Generator to pick a winner.  Winner gets a custom key fob with their choice of fabric and text and one to share with a friend. 

Happy 2012.

Giveaway ends tomorrow night, Wednesday, January 4th at midnight.