Archives for June 2014

Celebrating Solomon {Early}

Solomon’s Gotcha Day is coming up in a few weeks and sadly our family won’t be all together in the same place for the two weeks surrounding his special day.  We decided we would need to do some early celebrating while were all together.  Each year on his Gotcha Day we let Sol pick something special for us to all do together as a family.  Since he was old enough to pick, age 3, he’s chosen the Chattanooga Aquarium, then an Atlanta Braves game and this year he wanted to do another baseball game.  This is the last year our local Nashville Sounds will be in the old Greer Stadium so we decided to spend Friday night together celebrating Sol and celebrating our family at the ballpark.  It was perfect.

Sol chose pizza for dinner…eating in the actual pizza place…we got fancy.  Then we headed off to the ballpark and enjoyed sunflower seeds, M&Ms and ice cream in baseball hats.  Solomon was in heaven.  He is absolutely in love with baseball…he plays every single day…so being at a big ballpark and watching the big guys play made his heart happy.

There were even fireworks afterwards, the kids got to run the bases (those 3 little blurs our Kelley kids running super fast) and Harper was given two foul balls which she kindly gave to Sol and Huddy.  She’s a good sister.

Amon hung with us for the whole game, but while we waited for the kids to run the bases he gave into his tiredness.

We were some of the very last people in the stadium which was really cool and special for our family.  Everyone was exhausted, but we all agreed Sol’s choice for celebrating an amazing day in our family’s history was just perfectly perfect.

And what a special kid Solomon is…what an important role he plays in our family as son, little brother and big brother.  He’s simply amazing.

Happy Monday!

MJ + The Village People + Build-a-Bear = Magic

You guys, I just have to tell you I have gone flippin’ crazy on our house today.  We were going to go swimming and then I called a cease swim because I got this smothering feeling and then myself along with the wee Kelleys have been going through each of their rooms and cleaning out…purging like no others.  I have felt it brewing…this happens quite often to me…and when it reaches the tipping point it just has to be done.  We’re getting rid of stuff left and right.  All that to say, now my house is an even bigger disaster…it has to get worse before it gets better…this isn’t my first great purge…I know how it works.  So with that, I will leave you for the weekend with these golden pictures of Amon.  Some are blurry, yes, but seriously, they are amazing.  Doesn’t everyone let their older children dress their youngest toddler child in Build-a-Bear Clothes?!?!?!  So what if I assisted in pushing his tiny squishy body threw those even tinier fireman bear pants.  It was the most hysterical thing ever.  He was channeling his inner Michael Jackson/Village People/Mr. June 2014 of a fireman calendar.  My favorite part might have been when he stopped to pick his nose.  It’s just too much.

And if you want to see him getting his groove on there just may be the cutest little video over on my Instagram.  You can find me at pitterpatterart.

Enjoy your weekend.

Happy Friday!

Home Dreams

It’s no secret were looking like crazy for a house.  We use to be really narrowed in on one area, but now we’re kind of wide open.  While we’re on the hunt I have been dreaming about what the next place will hold for us…how everything will come together and the thought of starting over with a clean slate is so exciting.  I have been Pinteresting my little heart out…ideas, wants, dreams, DIYs…all fun house related things.

I definitely want to get a new couch soon.  I wish you could see ours.  It’s so flippin’ gross.  When people come over I put a quilt over it.  Now our friends know my secret.

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Maybe our next house will have a real or fake fire place or gasp…maybe even closets.  I would die.

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We’re thinking bunk beds are going to be in order soon.  Maybe even for Harper too.  The more space the merrier right?!?!

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Kids room decorating with fun fabrics and unique touches and bringing in their own little personailites…I am game.  Endless possibilities.

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These are totally Harper.

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I am digging the brightly painted metals and I have about 10 different 6s to adorn our walls now.  I’m thinking a 6 collage will be in order.

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And how cool is this bathroom sink?  This would be crazy cool to have in our next home.  Dreams people, dreams.

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So while I’m dreaming and planning and longing for our next place to call home, I’m trying really really hard to remind myself our current home is the place God has us for a reason and His ways are far better than our own.  I don’t think He minds me planning a little though 😉

Happy Thursday!

Currently…

Listening:  Birds of Tokyo.  I am digging their recent EP album Lanterns.  So good.  So much to sing along with.

Eating:  Apple and almond butter because life is so much better with any kind of nut butter.  Although I do wish I was eating these Chocolate Chip Cookies again.  Harper made them for a party we went to this past weekend and honestly, I’m just not sure there’s anything better than a really good homemade chocolate chip cookie.

Drinking:  Water.  All the time.  I have a giant Bubba cup my SIL Becky gave me and it’s become an extension of my body.  It goes just about everywhere with me.  I shoot for a gallon of water a day.  I also totally dig Spark.  Right now orange is my favorite and fruit punch in Josh Kelley’s favorite.  Around 3 o’clock everyday you can find me mixing one up and pouring it over ice in my ginormous cup.  These are survival tips people 🙂

Wearing:  Sweats.  With an unshowered body and 3-days-since-it’s-been-washed hair.  #noshame

Feeling:  Overwhelmed.  We are in the strangest season of life right now and I feel like we’re on the verge of crazy good stuff, but then nothing happens.  Nothing seems clear.  Everything is cloudy and we’re unsure of every step we think we’re taking forward.  And I may or may not have had an intense conversation with God where I begged and pleaded and demanded He just do something…just something to let me know He was still there.  And I still feel confident in our relationship…His love for me…because one thing I love about Jesus is He is big enough to handle and love my entire self…the bad, the doubts, the mistakes…me and all my crap.

Wanting:  To feel settled and confident in where God is leading our family.

Needing:  To work.  I have orders which need to be completed and started.  Thank you notes to write.  Key fobs to make up.  Emails to send and reply to.  My house = a hot mess.  There will always be a list a mile long won’t there?!?!?!  But instead we swim…almost every day.  We are legit pool hoppers.  Going from one pool to the other to the other and soon I’ll be sending off a 2nd grader and 2 kindergarteners.  Time is flying.

Thinking:  I recently finished reading Tattoos On The Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion.  Please read this.  There is some swearing in the book, but it is filled to the brim with love and Jesus and compassion and will challenge you…at least it did me.  It pushed my thoughts to the very edge and made my heart stir and my mind think and I cannot kick it out of my thoughts just yet.  I think it’s taken up residence for a bit.

“No daylight to separate us.  Only kinship.  Inching ourselves closer to creating a community of kinship such that God might recognize it.  Soon we imagine, with God, the circle of compassion.  Then we imagine no one standing outside of that circle, moving ourselves closer to the margins so that the margins themselves will be erased.  We stand there with those whose dignity has been denied.  We locate ourselves with the poor and the powerless and the voiceless.  At the edges, we join the easily despised and the readily left out.  We stand with the demonized so that the demonizing will stop.  We situate ourselves right next to the disposable so that the day will come when we stop throwing people away.  The prophet Habakuk writes:  “The vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment and it will not disappoint…and if it delays, wait for it”  Kinship is what God presses us on to, always hopeful that its time has come.” Gregory Boyle Tattoos on the Heart

Enjoying:  This picture of Amon.  He woke up from his nap the other day, walked down stairs and Harper, Sol, Hudson and I just stared at him.  His hair.  What exactly had happened during nap time?!?!  Comments that followed his arrival downstairs: “What’s wrong with his hair?”  “His hair is so…uh…tall.”  “How did his hair do that.”  I personally felt he looked exactly like Kramer from Seinfeld.

Enjoy the rest of your day.  Thank you for stopping by and reading.  I totally and completely appreciate you!  See you guys tomorrow.

Happy Wednesday!

He Is…Always.

Just a little chalkboard word for your day. I don’t know about you, but I needed this.

Happy Tuesday!

*Quote from Song of War by Cliff Grisham…a Josh Kelley read…and I added the arrows and triangles 🙂

Awesome & Not Awesome

How was your weekend?  I hope it was swell.  Ours was busy and fun and crazy.  Awesome stuff and not so awesome stuff.  But lots of things to be thankful for.

Not Awesome:  Our air went our early on Friday and couldn’t be fixed until today.  Talk about hot.  Kids all slept downstairs because the boys room upstairs was a furnace.  We had fans going and everyone hydrating.  We all were crazy tired…Josh chalked it up to the heat and how our house immediately went to island time.  Today I’m crazy thankful for air conditioning.

Awesome:  Harper baking chocolate chip cookies all by herself.  It was a really proud mom moment…it also sent the hot factor in our house through the roof.

Awesome:  Running into friends at our favorite local Mexican restaurant and making it a full on two family dinner date.

Awesome: Outdoor Lego Movie watching party, a surprise party and 2 swim parties with friends.  Thats a lot of partying for 3 days.  Good friends are pretty dang special.  Ones who really want to do life with you and yours…who love you and your kiddos…the good, the bad and the different.  Josh and I are really blessed with some amazing friends.

Not Awesome:  Harper chipping her new front tooth on Hudson’s head at one of our pool parties resulting in a trip the dentist this morning.  #eyelashesfordays

Awesome:  Hudson and Solomon’s team party even though cupcakes melted in the heat.

Awesome:  Josh’s mom treating all her granddaughters to a local Willy Wonka play.  Harper loved it.

Not Awesome:  Figuring out you probably have some weirdly sick kids after an entire weekend of thinking maybe the heat was just getting to them.  We’ll be enjoying an afternoon of doctors appointments.

Awesome:  Finally getting this video to post because my web dude Randy ended up doing it for me.  Randy has launched a really cool organization called The Orphan Care Network.  You can check out their Facebook HERE.  Randy is my go-to website guy and I would love to help get his name out there even more with his new venture.  I think he explains TOCN best:  “We are creating TOCN network churches and help them launch community-based orphan care ministries.  We provide all on-site training, host a launch event for the church/community, provide curriculum, online resources, branding and help with getting people from the surrounding areas there and involved.  We truly believe the only way to have a healthy and sustainable orphan care ministry is through community groups and getting all who have a heart for orphan care walking together.”  Check out their site and see if this is something your community or church would like to participate in.  Thanks so much Randy for your hard, good work.

[vimeo https://vimeo.com/97764616]

Hope everyone’s Monday is off to an awesome start.  Here’s hoping for a really awesome week.

Happy Monday!

Fridays Are My Jam

The weekend is here and everyone is feeling fine.  Friends, the sunshine and pool fun totally helps.

Amon falling asleep at the wave pool…even better.  Our saga continues.  He actually fell asleep In.The.Wave.Pool.

And why yes he can sleep sitting up while balancing on a picnic table bench.  #talented

Everyone is napping now (hallelujar), were enjoying an outdoor movie with friends tonight, I’m about to rock out some cookies & cupcakes for weekend festivities and then tomorrow is Saturday.  Things are looking up.

Hope you enjoy your weekend and soak it in.

Happy Friday.

Goodness

In the midst of chaos and confusion and doubt and the unknown some goodness showed up in our mailbox yesterday in the form of our recent family pictures.  It was just what I needed.  Every single photo melts my heart into a drippy puddle.  These are my people…my home…my consistency.  As always, thank you Cheyenne for capturing our family just as we are.  Your talent never ceases to amaze me.

Let the photo overload commence because really, how can I not.

Happy Thursday!