Archives for November 2014

November 12, 2014 By 4 Comments

Thoughts After Midnight {Part 2}

Well, I’m on a roll.  What can I say?!?!  Yes, here I am again…after midnight.  No Kelley kid in our bed this time…just me and my wandering mind. And I’m happy report no snakes showed up in Amon’s bed last night.

*Why if all surrounding public schools were not out for Veterans Day was Amon’s little MDO out?????  I was graced all day with his presence.  I did however nap when he took a nap and I dreamed about chips and queso.  Good thing it was taco Tuesday night for dinner.

*Grocery shopping with a tribe of small children is not for the faint of heart.  More jewels in my crown?  I think so.  And queso got added to our list after my enlightening dream.  And Amon’s pose…he clearly comes by it honestly.

*So I totally forgot to tell you guys Amon is yet again on this “I’m going to stick everything I can find in the toilets” kick.  He flushed Luke Skywalker in the boys toilet upstairs.  How do we know…well Solomon saw him do it…then Hudson proceeded to lose his mind when the water started to rise.  Josh and I spent an insane amount of time plunging the thing.  It was intense and not pretty.  And in the end, we apparently budged Luke just enough for the water to pass by ever so slowly.  I should probably video tape and then post to youtube how slowly their toilet now flushes.  I’m sure it would be a viral sensation.

*We clearly have lots of bathroom issues in our home.

*Yesterday was s’mores bars, today was chocolate chip cookies.  Hey, you do what you have to do to survive.

*This is my new at home gym…because I eat too many cookies…and s’mores bars.

*God bless the public library.  Do you go to yours?  If not, I highly recommend it.  I usually can indulge in a total of 1.2 minutes of quiet solitude, but then Amon starts bullying a kid on the preschool computers by standing in his personal space and whispering in his ear, “my turn” pause “my turn” pause “my turn” pause…then the kid’s mom starts looking around like “who the heck does this creeper kid belong to?”  Enter me on the scene to apologize and then physically remove Amon from the kids personal space while he flails and screams “myyyyyyyyyyy turn”…like I said 1.2 minutes of quiet solitude.

*Oh and our library now has awesome lanyards they give out when you get a library card.  This is amazing for kids.  Easy to keep up with…hello, just hang it around your neck.  Everyone gets their own books and DVDs…everyone checks their own stuff out…I just assist with looking up on the computer their desired subject matter.  And please don’t envy how clean our car’s console is.

*Amon doesn’t have his own library card.  He would surely flush it.

 *Remember last night when I blew your mind…6 Saturdays to go and Christmas is on.  For all you locals who buy real Christmas trees listen up…Full Count Ministries is having a Christmas tree lot this year.  Yep.  I will always push buying with a purpose and here’s an opportunity to do just that with your Christmas tree.  All proceeds go to send students on mission trips…I love love love this!  The lot will be located at Fox Pools in Hendersonville…780 W Main Street.  They open the day after Thanksgiving and there may even be baked goods.  Now that’s a good Christmas tree lot.  Check them out on Facebook HERE.

*We’re still waiting on our first foster care placement.  I want to be as open and honest as I can throughout this process.  We did receive our first call last week, but sadly did not accept the placement.  We are technically only approved for one child because of our house size and number of children and the placement was for multiple kiddos.  I felt extreme guilt the following days, but just continued to give and re-give it back to God.  I bounce between anxious to receive another call because I believe this is something we are suppose to be apart of and then glad we don’t get a call because when we do it means a child(ren) and their family have suffered great loss and brokenness.  It’s a very different place to be.

*If you would like to order something for Christmas now is the perfect time to do so.  I’ve had some super late nights…lots of working and have whittled my list down to just a few orders left to be completed.  It’s nice to be caught up…I like quick turn around times.  You can contact me HERE if you are interested.

 *I watched this sermon by Pete Wilson Midnight Caller (how ironic is the name right?!?!?) and just yes…so worth the time!  Loved the insight and thoughts on prayer.  All week I’ve been trying to constantly tell God I need Him…I cannot do this life alone…I am not capable…I need Him!!!!  I can be so dang prideful…praying everyday for God to strip me of it.

*I’m really knocking this weeks blog posts out of the park…so enlightening and spiritual and you know, lots of high level thinking going on.

*Thank you for reading my crazy little piece of the internet.  I love the comments.  I love the emails.  You make me smile and encourage me and I think you’re straight up crazy kind for even stopping by…I so greatly appreciate it.  Now, yet again, give me all the sleep.  Going to try and settle this wild running brain of mine down.

Are we experiencing deja vu…a little Groundhogs day…maybe…Happy “technically already Wednesday.”

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , 4 Comments
November 11, 2014 By 2 Comments

Thoughts After Midnight

*This guy just came down the stairs not feeling his best.  The conversation went like this-

Hudson (with his very serious furrowed brow he was born with):  My belly hurts and my legs hurt like they’re broken.

Me:  Are you going to throw up?

Hudson:  Well I sure hope not.

Me:  I think you have growing pains.

Hudson:  What are growing pains?

Me:  They are pains in your legs you get when you’re a kid from getting bigger and taller…because you are growing.

Hudson:  Did you know when you have a ‘teen’ in your age that means you’re a teenager?

Me:  Yes.  When you turn thirteen I’ll just die.  And be the saddest lady in the world.

Hudson:  *Smile cracks and furrowed brow dissipates*

And now he’s laying beside me and I think I’ll let him stay for a bit.  In his defense I wasn’t even in bed yet when he came down and he never gets up…easily the best sleeper and we actually have a house full…minus the small toddler child who now has a phobia of snakes being in his bed…can’t imagine WHY or HOW that happened…cough cough…I’m not laughing now…I’m sure I’ll see him in a bit.

*I may have spent the last 30 minutes searching our house over for my 2 brand new black flair pens.  They are my absolute favorite and immediately when I buy a new pack they are gone…poof…into thin air.  I might have even gotten super flustered when searching.  I finally found one in the floor of my office under a pile of pretty paper.  This is a real problem people.

*I forgot to tell you, but our one bathtub in our house stopped holding water a while back.  These are the important things.  And then on my birthday it started holding water again.  I told Josh Kelley it was a birthday miracle.  Amon then preceded to say to himself “Happy day meercle”.  We liked that.

*Speaking of Amon talking…he’s doing amazing!  He still has speech twice a week, but both his therapists think come age three he won’t need it anymore.  It makes me a tad weepy.  Early intervention is simply outstanding.

*It was a long day so I made these…crowd pleaser.  Then I ate two, gave one to each Kelley child and cut the rest up and bagged them individually.  Car rider line staff and teachers will have a Happy Tuesday treat in the morning…all Tuesdays deserve s’more bars.

*Sol is the star student this week in his classroom and we had to dig out some baby Solomon pictures to send in.  I die.  For realz.  Smitten to the core.  I mean, come on, look at those little tiny baby teeth.

*Why when our heat comes on in the night it immediately starts wafting around Kelley kid art that’s hanging up which sounds exactly like someone is trying to break into our house and kill us all.  I instantly FREAK OUT!!!!!  Note to self:  Remove hanging kid art tomorrow!

*I’m tired.

*And hungry.  A s’more bar is calling my name.

*Hey remember that time I was a 53 year old mom and Refresh Beauty on Facebook made me look 43?!?!?!?!  Oh and hey Oprah!

Delirium is setting in.  Give me all the sleep now!  I know there were other super important things I was going to convey to you tonight, but this post is about to be renamed “Thoughts After 1 am”.  In the morning I’ll probably find 1000 grammatical errors.

Happy “technically already Tuesday.”

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 2 Comments
November 10, 2014 By 3 Comments

Monday.

Instagram recap with backstories?  Sure, what the heck.  It’s Monday and I’m already tired and need a nap.  You can find me at pitterpatterart and follow along.

That time I tried taking a sweet sentimental picture of Harper girl and myself.  Only to realize when looking more closely at the photo I apparently was a hater that day and trying to shoot the Instagram world a bird.  It happens.

Tea time because she is easily the most patient big sister with her littlest brother.  You may be shocked to know 🙂 but Amon is not the most well mannered tea guest…demanding he pour his own tea, knocking over cups and saucers left and right, taking Harper’s utensils when she’s not looking.  Another jewel in her crown for not giving him the boot from her room asap.  And come on Belle…put some pants on, it’s a tea party!

Yet another birthday celebration in my esteemed honor.  What a night.  Crazy fun, but I was super bummed at the end of the night when I realized I had lost my beloved Noonday Berry Clustered Bracelet.  I later noticed apparently this happened when excitedly blowing out 32 candles on one single cupcake.  My sweet Everest Bracelet had come unclasped and my Berry is missing!  Say it aint so.  Thank goodness I noticed my Everest unclasped and saved that little gem because hello…it’s seriously my fave!

Side note:  Christmas is right around the corner…only 6 Saturdays to go…mind blown right?!?!?!  Noonday is spot on for the most perfect gifts…shopping with a purpose.  Head over to Ashley’s Noonday Site…load up on goodies…and make sure you choose Ashley Mills as your ambassador.  She’s the best!!!!  End Side Note.

Yet another another birthday celebration.  Courtney = my jam!

Amon wears only hand-me-downs and all is right with the world.  I made this hedgehog shirt for Hudson and I totally love Amon rocking it now.  I do still make tees every now and then so shoot me a message HERE if you would like to order.

This weekend the weather was perfect for roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.  I like the old school jet-puff marshmallows too…they instantly take me straight back to my childhood…give me all the high fructose corn syrup…I don’t even care.  I would also like to point out Hudson is wearing Harper’s pink striped coat and Solomon is wearing her purple ruffle coat.  Also when the fire got low and we were out of wood Josh Kelley threw in a carved pumpkin.  #truestory

And lastly, I feel like I am doing work for the kingdom when I have to take all four kids to the doctors office at the same time.  This happens 99.4% of the time.  May the Lord bless me with many many jewels in my crown for this motherly service.

Another week people.  I predict it will be a crazy, but oh so very good one.

Happy Monday!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , 3 Comments
November 7, 2014 By 4 Comments

Shake It Off

By now you have surely all heard the incredibly catchy Taylor Swift song Shake It Off.  I’ll be honest in the fact that I love this song.  I  feel like you can’t even be a decent human and not love it.  Come on…adorable Taylor and a crazy catchy tune?!?!?!  I might have ran 5 miles the other day with this song on solo repeat the entire time.  Josh Kelley might have been with me and called me out, “Have you been listening to the same song the entire time?”  Why yes, yes I have.  No shame people, no shame.

And then my friend Ashley goes and posts this video on Facebook and I just want to die.  It’s kind of the greatest thing I’ve ever seen..like ever!  I have laughed and laughed and laughed some more.  This is my gift to you on this glorious Friday.  A happy send off to this week and a welcome to the weekend.  Hope you enjoy!

Happy Friday!

Filed Under: Uncategorized 4 Comments
November 6, 2014 By Leave a Comment

B/C I Heart Halloween

A random Thursday post which includes some Halloween pictures because I do really love Halloween.  And since Halloween is gone every store is now full on Christmas.  Harper went on a small rant in Target yesterday about how she doesn’t like people skipping over Thanksgiving.  I kind of agree.  Although I live with Josh Kelley who wants to put up our Christmas tree right now.  So I’m still living in last Friday.

We tried doing some trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, but after a few houses and some epic Halloween fails we decided to ditch our own and head over to hang with some friends.  We’re lucky in the fact we have friends who don’t mind us crashing their festivities with 4 children.

My favorite moment of the night was when Hudson hopped in the car and said, “I can’t wait to eat this chocolate Santa.”  Whaaaattt????  A chocolate Santa.  Harper then replied with, “Yeah, I got a Reeces shaped like a Christmas tree.”  So yeah, one house gave out last years Christmas candy.  Josh Kelley and I laughed pretty hard.  We thought by chance this might have been this years Christmas candy, but alas with further inspection all the Christmas candy given out had expired in July.  We can’t make this stuff up.

This was Amon’s first year to actually participate in Halloween which made us laugh and want to go crazy because he was kind of a hot mess.  My friend Ashely brought me an entire baseball uniform for him to wear because she’s awesome and knows I could use all the help I can get.  He loved dressing up, he loved going door to door and yet was freezing and on multiple occasions made his way into strangers houses.  This meant Josh or myself issuing lots of apologies and pulling him from strangers homes.  Amon does not know a stranger and in no way honors personal space EVER.

 He also got into an intense conversation with an older lady who had a dog.  He lingered far too long at this house and Josh had to go in and get him.  Then there was the house where all the big kids came back, but not Amon.  I finally went up to see what the hold up was and there he sat cowering in full panic behind the home owner who was consoling him and passing out candy to the scary dressed teens on his front porch.  We’ve got several of those #1 Dad and #1 Mom mugs 🙂

And then there was the house where Harper reported back that Amon upon energetically bounding onto the front porch knocked over the home owners table which held the bowl of candy and let’s just all thank God for Harper Kelley because she helped get it all picked up and apologized on his behalf like the responsible first child she is.

So Halloween was a riot.  Too much fun.  Hilariously hilarious and yet when arriving back home Josh and I felt like we’d ran a marathon.  Amon was toast…ready for bed and couldn’t have gotten in it quick enough.

Happy Thursday.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Leave a Comment
November 4, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Election Day Thoughts

My Election Day thoughts are completely unpolitical.  I don’t really do politics.

Election Day means school is out and school conferences and my niece Campbell hanging out and me still hating the dreaded fall back time change which has caused all of our children to awake at promptly 6am.  I really wish Election Day contained a nap.

Who knew strep throat could cause severe asthma attacks.  I learn something new all the time from my allergy kid.  Currently Hudson is heavy on the breathing treatments and amoxicillin.  Anyone else grow up calling this the bubble gum medicine?!?!

Pretty pumped for Full Count’s celebration banquet this Thursday night.  It’s their main fundraiser and it’s always a blast to be with friends.  This ministry is so important and just invaluable to our family.  You can learn more about what Full Count does HERE.  And you can help by making a tax deductible donation to further this ministry’s reach HERE.  Perfect end of the year donation 🙂

November 1st we kicked off our traditional thank you leaves.  Each day a Kelley kid takes their turn giving me something they are thankful for and the leaves adorn our chalkboard.  I kind of love that Hudson chose Grammy to be thankful for.  Makes me melt a bit.

Yesterday evening while I was folding towels in our bedroom Amon took it upon himself to draw all over our couch with a dry erase marker.  I may have lost my !@%*.  Not our new, sweet “I’m in love with you and want to make out” couch.  It was so bad Harper wrote an apology note on behalf of Amon.  The picture below is after I scrubbed and scrubbed…Harper came over to me and said, “Mom, do you think it looks better or worse now?”  Hahahahaha.  I am happy and relieved to tell you cold water got it all out.  I was shocked.

TOMs are my winter shoes.  I have about 6 pairs of shoes total…running shoes are my year round shoes…flip flops are spring, summer and early fall…TOMs are for winter.  It’s just how I roll.  As I slipped on my TOMs the other day…on the first really cold day here in Tennessee, Josh Kelley replied, “Oh, breaking out the winter shoes.”

 And tonight I am excited to report I’m heading out for another birthday dinner.  You guys, everyone should have good friends and at least a week minimum to celebrate their birthday.  It should be a law.  I’m thinking it will be the perfect end to this Election Day!

Happy Tuesday.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Leave a Comment
November 3, 2014 By 5 Comments

32 {Better Than I Planned}

Yesterday was my birthday and originally I was suppose to be over the Atlantic Ocean on my way home from Africa.  This was my plan, but it fell through.  I always wonder when I will learn to plan in pencil.  I think I have the best laid plans and really God does.  One of my favorite verses is Isaiah 55:8-9

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

I think about this verse a lot.  It’s assurance and reassurance and then I’m always shocked and surprised when this happens…when God knows better than myself.  I’m prideful and could use a big dose of humbleness…a lot.  I had grand plans for this years birthday, but God had even grander ones.

On Saturday some friends had a little birthday dinner and it was perfection.  Thoughtful gifts, homemade dinner, drinks and just good honest conversation.  I think honesty and openness is absolutely life giving between women…you quickly realize you are not alone.  Jessica even made homemade lasagna and tres leche’ cake.  Jess is one of the most hospitable people I know.  When you come to her home for an occasion she makes you feel crazy special and loved.  It’s definitely one of her gifts.

I woke up Sunday to a decorated house by Josh Kelley and his 4 helpers…streamers and balloons and Shipley donuts and handmade cards…all my faves.  I got to run and workout with Josh and eat Publix sushi for lunch.  Then a giant asthma attack hit Hudson and an after hours positive strep test put me at home for the rest of the day with 4 kiddos and I had to miss a really special night.

One of Josh’s Full Count high schoolers…this sweet young man who Josh picks up each Sunday for church and sometimes he holds Amon’s hand while they walk through the parking lot…got baptized.  I was so so bummed about missing it, but realized, thanks to Josh Kelley who is humble as humble can be, this wasn’t about me…this was about this sweet boy and his declaration to the world he was a new creation because of Christ.  And I cried my eyes out as pictures blew up my phone and texts like ‘awesome night’ and ‘it was a full crew…lots of tears’ came through.  I’ll hug his neck and tell him how proud we are of him next time I see him.  This was easily the best part about my birthday…God’s grace and mercy and forgiveness transforming one life at a time.

Here’s the thing…my birthday played out exactly as it should…better than I could have planned…minus the asthma attack 🙂  I have a lot to learn and I am a constant work in progress.  God is changing me still…and one thing He teaches me through Josh, by his example, is how being available, willing and humble are so important.  32 is looking quite fine.  I’m thrilled and excited and honored to see what all this year will hold.

Happy Monday!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , 5 Comments
« Previous Page