Because it doesn’t have to be fancy or complicated or super creative.
Because it doesn’t have to be Pinterest worthy to be beautiful and fun.
Because they do not care one tiny bit.
And every time…every single time…these will be my most favorite cookies.
Happy Wednesday.
The list is long…the things I am anxious about these days. So very, very long. If I listed it all out this would be more like a book rather than a blog post. We are trying to milk the last of summer for everything it’s worth, but I’m battling keeping my joy real, rather than just faking it for my kids. I’m battling finding my joy in this anxious part of life. I’m not the best at quickly remembering I’m not made to carry worry or anxiety…I’m not the best at handing it over to God immediately. It seems every time I’m in this type of season I run wild with trying to fix everything and find all the answers myself. I just put all 4 Kelleys down for a nap or quiet time and I felt overwhelmed…covered up in my anxiousness. I sat here for a moment and thought about all that is weighing so heavy on my heart right now, then I looked at my To-Do list and then I kind of wanted to curl up in the fetal position in the corner and rock myself. Then God nailed my heart to the floor.
Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
I’m kind of funny about scripture. I always like to look at the one gazillion different versions. I dig the NIV, but love the contemporary realness of The Message too.
Philippians 4:6-7 (The Message)
6-7 Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
So now I’m thinking on these. Trying to let them settle deep into my heart and penetrate those anxious feelings that will just about suffocate me if I let them. But I get a choice. A big choice. I get to choose where I let my mind go and what I let fill my heart. It’s not always easy…like most of life, but I am trying to dwell on the fact that God did not create me and my heart for anxious feelings and worry. I’m letting Him in on all my concerns and giving Him the thanks and the props He so deserves and I’m anticipating His sense of wholeness…letting Him…His love and faithfulness and grace…fill me up to the tip top and then it completely spilling right over.
We spent almost the entire day Saturday getting our house in order. Which means…cleaning and organizing and everyone pitching in and doing their part. Sometimes our little house is just a hot mess and needs some major love and attention and a large trash bag. That was our Saturday. Harper and I did some big cleaning and organizing in her room too. She can be quite the collector of crap, so we do some serious purging every now and then and she’s become quite good at letting stuff go and recognizing when something needs to hit the trash can.
We also worked on the one big wall in her room. For the longest time there were two very large paintings I painted for Harper when I was pregnant with her hanging there. Eventually I just got kind of tired of them, so I relocated one to another part of the house…I’ll keep that one for Harper when she’s ready to move out…and the other I found a new home for. Her wall had sat there very empty, minus a string of little globe lights, for quite some time. I have been too busy soaking up summer and doing life in general to do anything about the wall or to even worry or think about it.
Saturday I decided we needed to knock it out. I posted this picture on Instagram (pitterpatterart) with the comment, “This will do just fine.”
Shortly after, Courtney text me and said really sweet things about my decorating…she flattered me for sure. And it cracked me up. Here’s why. When I commented that “this will do just fine” I meant it. Harper’s wall is full of holes. We’ve been in our house for 7 years, so the wall had accumulated quite a few small, big, large and extra large holes from my haphazard decorating and the fact that I never use a tape measure, ruler or a level. I’m quite the hole maker. Also there’s a fuse box on her wall I needed to cover also.
So here’s what I did. I think when you do a wall collection it should be made up of things you love. Even if they don’t all match or go together or jive. I feel if you love each item, then you’re probably going to love them collectively as well. So Harper and I started gathering things she loved…a favorite picture of her and Josh, several of her own art pieces, a little girl silhouette that was my mom’s, an art piece I made for her, etc. Things she already had in her room. I added the cross stitch that was my Mom’s and I also strung an old frame we had with twine so Harper could hang up a few of her favorite pictures and art work. Then I got busy covering holes and the fuse box. I used the large cross stitch to cover the fuse box and then everything else is strategically placed to cover holes. You would not believe how many holes the green frame is covering. I like strategery.
And when I almost had everything hung up, Harper asked to add the small random bunting which was actually in her bathroom. She had some ideas of her own and I wanted her to love this because it’s in her room…she’ll be the one looking at it the most, so we added the bunting and I’m so very glad we did.
So there’s some decorating tips for your day…pick things you really love and strategically hang them over the holes in your wall. Boom.
Happy Monday.
We’ve had a good week at the Kelley house. Not all weeks are good weeks…we definitely have our crummy, challenging ones, but this one held some pretty sweet things.
Coming home and reuniting with Josh Kelley after a week of us in Florida and a week of him in Nicaragua. The words and stories he brought back with him made my heart want to explode. God is doing some mighty things through the game of baseball and some crazy sweet Full Count guys.
Birthday joy. Harper’s most favorite part of every party…hers or someone else’s…is the singing of Happy Birthday. Here’s some proof. I like her heart.
Time with Campbell…my stellar niece. We got our sweat on and then she told me all about her dog’s quirky ways and the new kittens she found and what she was excited about for 5th grade and taught me about some new apps she had and we took funny pictures. I like her too.
Boyish ideas. People often say, I’ll miss this time when it’s gone. I can honestly say I do not miss the sleepless nights of having wee babies…check that crazy jazz later. I like my sleep. But I do believe I will miss the pure insane and crazy ideas little boys come up with…like balancing on the arm of a chair while trying to see if they can touch the fan blade with a pool noodle. Part of me knows the crazy and insane ideas will probably never go away. #medicalinsurance
Their quirks. I hope I always remember their tiny, detailed kid quirks. Like how they always, always, always separate their Skittles and M&Ms by color before they even eat one.
School supply shopping. I have always loved school supply shopping, but last year was a tad on the insane side. The stores are so busy and everything is almost or already out of stock and see, I have these 4 little humans too. This year I’d like to tip my hat to myself for thinking it through more carefully. We went at 8am on Sunday morning…Sunday because most God-loving people are in church…and clearly God-loving people also love Target which equals less crowd…Sunday is when new sales start so everything is re-stocked…word up…and 8am because that’s when Target opens and we saw only 2 other people in the store besides employees. I’d like to think I beat the system this year…and it felt good…and we all enjoyed Target popcorn for breakfast.
Soaking up our last days of summer. We’re down to one week. I.Cannot.Even.Believe.It. Water and sun and lazy mornings and easy goingness may be my new love language.
10 year photos. When thinking about my most favorite parts of our wedding day I landed on my top two being 1) jumping on the trampoline in our wedding attire and 2) when every one threw bird seed at us. Hands down. My faves. I wanted to capture these moments 10 years later and Cheyenne of Shots by Cheyenne did just that for us last night. I put back on my wedding dress…which is waaaaaay snugger than 10 years ago and Josh got all handsomed up and the rest is just Cheyenne’s magic. Definitely my most favorite moment of the week and a top moment for 2013.
And Sonic’s Pretzel Dog w/ Bacon and Cheddar. In my wedding dress. In the cab of Josh’s truck. Just like when we were young. Thank you Josh Kelley for snapping this pic. You know me so well.
Yes, it was a pretty sweet week. Here’s to an even sweeter weekend.
Happy Friday!
Amon is changing so much. He’s so crazy and so fun. He’s had a big week and will be starting some new therapies soon. I’m especially anxious to see how speech therapy goes for him. Right now he really wants to talk, but just cannot communicate so he does this ear piercing scream…like screams when he’s excited, happy, sad, mad, laughing, etc. It’s got some serious pitch to it. We’ll all be a tad happy when it’s gone and words are there in it’s place.
He also got some shoes finally. Yep, he’s been walking since March and I just now bought him shoes. He loves them. I figured it was definitely time when I was reprimanded by our friends’ 4-year-old for Amon not wearing shoes at the ball park. #4thkid
He’s an eater…just like Huddy. They will have many fond memories of food together. I love that he loves to eat…especially when it’s at Chick-fil-A.
And upon taking some photos of my friend Natalie’s Hooked On Consignment sale this week, I discovered Amon loves those little Fred Flinstone cars…like true love. I was there for about an hour and he stayed in the car almost the entire time. I so need one of these at our house. #icouldgetsomuchdone
By the way, Natalie’s sale starts this Saturday for all you locals.
I’ve actually made some goodies this week. Made up a baby gift for a friend and some Minnie shirts for some cute little girls I know. It was really nice to sit and sew. It’s been too long, but summer is winding down and I know August will hold a lot more time for creating.
And we enjoyed a family date night this week. This is so rare for us to be spontaneous and just up and do something randomly fun. This is in huge part because I’m a planner. Now I love me some fun, but I have extreme OCD tendencies most of the time, so I like a plan…you know, preparation. But I am trying to be more care free and wild and spontaneous. We decided to head out to our local mall, which is ginormous and it was almost bed time…that’s me being spontaneous. We ate dinner at home, so we let the kids pick out some candy at one of the candy stores. I may have cried as we walked around the mall watching them eat their random bags of candy they picked out. It was just a lot of fun and they were super cute and thrilled and I could tell they felt special and loved. That made my heart swell…which resulted in tears in the mall. I am a complete lost cause at this point, so I just welcome the random tears at this point.
At the Lego Store.
Candy and Sol who is king of “I’m always going to make a strange face for pictures.”
Bass Pro Shops
And my personal favorite moment of the night was in Bass Pro Shops. They have tons of taxidermied animals through out the store and we had lots of conversations about killing animals and “stuffing” them and what all taxidermy entails. Very enlightening stuff to two 4-year-old boys. Then as Huddy sat there in that canoe with Sol he pointed behind me and asked, “Did they really kill the people too?”
“No, Huddy. No they did not kill any people. That’s called a mannequin.”
Happy Thursday.
Harper recently bought her very own camera with all the money she has been saving. She was beyond thrilled with her purchase and she has been taking pictures and videos ever since. I’m trying to teach her about lighting and the flash and making sure her little finger isn’t blocking the flash. She’s funny and she really wants to take good pictures, but she’s also care free and just bounces around taking pictures on a whim and of anything her little heart desires.
I took note of a few things while surveying all her documentation of our family.
A) I think she loves us. She takes random pictures of her room and art projects, but 99% of her pictures are of us. All of us. I don’t know if Josh and I have posed for more pictures than we have over the last month. We’re talking extreme cheeseyness and usually some kind of thumbs-up action. We’re fools for her. I wanted to post every single photo she’s taken of Josh and me, but some of them, believe it or not, Josh and I look even more stupider in. Shocking, I know.
B) She digs her brothers. This is hard to remember sometimes as they battle it out some days. They are siblings and they can fight like mad, but when it all boils down they love each other fiercely and I thank God for that. They effortlessly mix their moments of mayhem with truly enjoying each other. They want to be with each other. And Harper can express extreme frustration and annoyance and immediately turn around and care for them like a mother hen. She tries to guide them and encourage them and she is tender to how they are each different. They are her brothers and I’m just not quite sure anyone loves them as much as God, Josh and myself…besides Harper.
And C) She’s watching us. And even worse, she’s modeling us. Oh.My.Freakin.Geez. It makes my stomach hurt and my heart beat faster. She is watching every thing we do and hearing every thing we say, but those actions speak so much louder than those words. And this is an incredibly scary revelation for me. I knew it…I’ve always known it, but you go through parenting and forget about it…at least I did. And then looking through her pictures…seeing all the times she was mimicking the photos I was taking, well, it just made my heart stop and think. We are who she is looking to. I want to beg God for her eyes to see us acting in love, compassion and grace. I want her eyes to see us being generous with every part of our lives. I want her eyes to see us coming along side others. I want her eyes to see us acting in kindness and loving as Jesus did. I want her eyes to see us loving each other. And I know her eyes will see us make a plethora of mistakes…so, so many mistakes…so I hope not only her eyes, but her heart too will see us see ask for forgiveness, make amends and learn from where we’ve been. I pray her eyes will be forgiving of us and she will always see Josh and I as flawed sinners in need of grace and Jesus’ love.
Her perspective is so very sweet to see…what her eyes are watching and what she is trying to capture. It’s a much needed reminder for me as her momma. A reminder I really needed today.
Happy Wednesday.
When traveling with the kids we try and make it as easy as possible. We don’t let them take a ton of stuff, but they each have a small backpack with books, paper, scissors, glue stick, tape, crayons, pencils and a few toys to keep them occupied on the road. We also take their tag reader & books and the iPad. They take turns using these rotating between the three of them. For our latest road trip I also went ahead and stocked each of their backpacks with all their snacks. So when it was time to have a snack I just told them to pick any snack they wanted out of their backpack. And since they all have their own scissors there was no need for me to open the package for them either. Boom.
At one point during our travel I looked back and Harper had taped all her snacks to the window beside her. I totally cracked up. She said, “It’s like one of those machines you buy snacks from.” When it was time to have a snack she would just reach up and pull one down. And so she invented the car vending machine…minus the money. I like where her head is.
Happy Tuesday.
Well I’m just plain tired. Like exhausted. I think I could sleep for days. I guess that’s what vacation does to you…or the fact that Amon decided to grace me with his presence every single morning of vacation at 5:30ish. Rude. Crazy rude. In real life he does not get up this early and I was solo parenting since Josh was in Nicaragua. Ummmmm, I’ve decided I do not like babies at 5:30am. There, I said it. He’s cute and all, but I need more sleep. I digress.
We seriously had a great time. So much stinkin’ good fun. Aunt Linda and Uncle Tom are those really kind people who just smother you in hospitality and love and yummy food and fun. They’re those good type of people. Like really good. It was wonderful to be with them and spend every day on the beach. I’ve decided I would like to live on the beach. I could do it. Can you imagine how amazing it would be?!?!?!?! Sigh.
The kids loved every single thing about the beach. No fear at all which was amazing to watch/scary to watch. I was on high alert, but didn’t want to scare the crap out of them, so I just played it cool with educational beach/wave/under toe information. And Ashley and I kept our eyes on them. Right now I’m doing the Meet the Fockers v-shaped finger eye point Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro do at the red light near the end of the movie. Yep, that was us. Eyes on those wee Kelleys.
Huddy did some serious ninja chopping of the waves. He literally spent 99.9% of the time in the waves…deep and fighting them. It was quite the Boy VS Nature battle.
There was sand castle building of course. And Ashley wore herself out on some serious sand castle building. It was intense.
Amon was hilarious. He adored it. He would run straight into the ocean and would have easily drowned himself if Ashley and I weren’t so dang good at picking him up. We finally dug him a hole and put him in it. He liked this very much.
Amon’s favorite thing about the beach was easily the people watching. You see, he’s a creeper. A little tiny cute creeper that wants to get all up in your business. It’s just how he rolls creeps. Example A: This family got some chuckles and big smiles out of him. He did some serious creeping on them. Lucky family.
Amon’s other favorite thing about vacation was Uncle Tom…or Baba as the kids call him. Amon + Baba = BFF. Amon literally just followed him around the house. He wanted Uncle Tom to hold him the whole time and if he wasn’t holding him Amon just creeped around Uncle Tom’s legs. Yep. Amon enjoyed hanging out with Uncle Tom’s legs a lot.
We had quite the time and everyone was sad to leave, but I know we wore Nina & Baba out. They were so gracious and sweet to us, but I know if I was tired, they had to be too. I’m so glad we decided to venture their way and I’m even more glad they were cool with welcoming us in. A sweet, fun time was had by all.
Thanks again Aunt Linda and Uncle Tom for always being crazy kind and opening your home up to us wild Kelleys. Thank you for loving us so well. We totally appreciate it and think you guys are really stellar.
Happy Monday.
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