Ah yes, work! Summer makes it easy to forget you have a job, but then I start to lose my mind and remember I need to create…and it needs to be colorful.
6×6 hand lettered canvas
Bib and burp cloth combos
Sweet Guatemalan tees
“Grace” word pillow
Key Fobs
And I’ve got a bunch of key fob sets up for sale on Instagram. I’m pitterpatterart. Each set has 5 key fobs, $36 shipped and all the money goes towards buying supplies for 160 sweet Swazi kiddos. Check them out.
Happy Thursday!
Today is her birthday and I started my day out quietly in a hotel room. Josh Kelley surprised me yesterday with a little staycation in Nashville…a short 15 minute drive…with some help from his sister Jen and our friend Susan. I got home from the gym yesterday morning and he said “Pack your bag.” I cried. It’s been a while since I’ve been alone and by lunch time yesterday there I was, completely alone in the sun by a pool.
We went to dinner and I had the best fish tacos known to man and some tasty cocktails. We went to a free concert where I purchased my new most favorite tshirt…I wore it all day today and plan on sleeping in it tonight…it’s just what I do. We ran into Eddie George. #titanup We laughed, stayed up late and watched cable TV. It was glorious.
I slept in this morning. Lounged around milking every last minute before check out and before I headed back to reality. I thought about Mom. I thought about God’s goodness and how thankful I am for His healing and redemption. I thought about how I will continue to remember her by choosing kindness and love.
The rest of the day we did our normal summerness. While the kids had their iPad time I contemplated painting my Bible. I have the plain black ESV journaling Bible and now there are all these super cute patterned ones. I went through my fabrics and decided I’m going to paint one of these two designs. Big decisions people.
After naps we headed down to the little bakery just one street over and everyone picked out treats. We got extra because birthdays deserve treats and we had special dinner plans.
And then we spent the rest of the night with 4 boxes of $5 Little Caesar pizzas, a bunch of sweaty kiddos and our littlest’s momma at the park down our street. I watched as she hugged her girl tight over and over again. We all chatted and ate…some of our family dropped by too and I loved making each introduction. I thought about how different things are now…how much I would love to tell Mom…how I know she would have been at that park in a heartbeat to meet this special momma…how I know she would have been one of her cheerleader’s too. And then my mind raced right back to God’s goodness again…all these unique and rare gifts He keeps filling our life with…what an honor…and Mom was definitely one of the rarest gifts of all.
Happy Wednesday.
Summer has already gotten the very best of us…and our time…and my work time…and our late nights…and…and…and. It’s like the best/worst little world to soak up and squander away…it’s my fave. I love the easiness and laziness of summer, but it also proves to be a much larger challenge for me to get work done with 5 kiddos in tow 24/7. Who knew?!?!
Everyday is awesome/really hard. Does that make sense? The balance part of summer might be getting the best of me. I want to go to the pool and do fun stuff every single day, but I also have a small business to run and want to hear myself think some days and orders to complete and do you know how much food 5 kiddos eat during the summer time?!?!?! Holy cow. Our grocery bill has tripled. Who wants a key fob 🙂
Insert sidenote: Our breakfast, lunch and snack charts + our big kids doing all their own meal preparation = the greatest parenting decision we’ve ever made…even if it was due to laziness/overwhelmedness. Hey, it has seriously changed my summer world.
We’re every single morning cartoon watchers now. We’re late night movie watching any given night of the week…movie nights aren’t just for Fridays during the summer. We lay on the couch and the big kids have iPad time every day during the littles’ naps.
Sleeping in and late nights. Crafty projects at any given moment. Imaginations run extra wild in the summer…Lego bowling…why not?? Baseball in the house constantly. Lego creations everywhere…even more than normal. We play in the rain and go to the park and sometimes the emergency room…only when things get crazy fun!
We wave pool far too much because it’s tradition and it’s kind of the greatest. Sun and water. Giant floats and fun waves. Can we hold church at the wave pool for the summer because Sundays together there are my favorite.
#flashback Please note Amon is now wearing Hudson’s swim trunks. Someone punch time in the face right now for me.
Insert another sidenote: This is my new go-to wave pool lunch: broccoli salad, grilled chicken, chopped tomatoes, salsa and crushed tortilla chips…or even better those yummy sweet potato tortilla chips. Solid man.
We’re swimming pool junkies. Everyone is extra tan and Hudson and I have extra blonde strands with all those summer rays. Invite us swimming and 10 times out of 10 we’ll say, “Yes!” We tear through sunscreen likes there’s no tomorrow. By the end of summer each one of our bathing suits is that perfect sun faded color. It’s just what we do.
Yes, summer is where it’s at. Now come August we’ll all be jonesen for time alone, teachers’ love and school friendships, but until then, we’re going to live it up/survive…no matter how hard/smothering/awesome it is. Makes perfect sense.
Summer, we love you!
Happy Tuesday.
Each month it is so fun and awesome to see how God uses the Bible journaling class funds. For May’s class we settled on spoiling a local DCS office full of social workers and their supervisors. This is our caseworker’s office and our foster daughter’s caseworker’s office too. When talking with our caseworker about needs for the office she said they always needed blue ink pens. I wanted to do 2 things with the money we raised 1) I wanted to help meet a need and 2) I wanted to make this office of over worked and under thanked people feel loved and appreciated.
We threw around several ideas, but finally went with a catered lunch for the whole office and of course, blue ink pens. I did some calling around and finally went with a local restaurant called Crave our friend Brian recommended. I let my fingers do the walking, as my Mom use to say, and called first to see if the lunch was going to fit our budget. We had right at $650 to work with. Jocelyn at Crave was a dream. I told her what we were trying to accomplish along with our budget and she laid out all my lunch options and got us way under budget. Being under budget allowed us to purchase 600 new blue ink pens and provide sodas, waters and ice for the lunch as well.
When thinking through what kind of food we wanted to provide the office, we kept in mind that the majority of these people are crazy busy and on the go most of the day. We wanted the lunch to be nice, but also something they could grab and take with them. I finally decided on gourmet boxed lunches which included a full sandwich, homemade chips and cookie. We did a variety of smoked turkey, honey ham, italian, club and buffalo chicken. Each lunch was boxed, labeled and included all the condiments and silverware…something easy to grab and go if needed. When I saw how carefully put together each homemade lunch was, I cried. I just really wanted this to be special and Crave did just that!
I always want our kids to be apart of these things and serve along side us, but the boys ended up having baseball camp today…you win some, you lose some. Harper and I made the pick up and delivery and Josh Kelley also met us at the DCS office to help unload and set everything up.
As we were making 10 different trips to and from our car and into the DCS office Harper said, “I see why we brought them lunch. They are all so excited.” And they really were. It’s amazing what you can do when people come together and decide to give a little of what they have. Thank you to all the ladies who came to May’s class and bought up extra goodies.
And then Amon decided to be a yahoo and we headed to the ER right after we got back. He’s fine, but our day was high-jacked. Never a dull moment around here. We’ve been home shortly and everyone is ready for bed time already.
Happy Thursday!
So life is officially crazy, crazy town for us. Even though things are slowing down for summer, I’m afraid I’m getting about zero accomplished and sometimes I feel, what’s the word for it…Smothered!! Kids everywhere. All the time. Oh summer!
Just wanted to stop in and let you in on 2 things.
Number 1: I had a customer who claimed these 4 canvases, but then it didn’t work out. So they’re back up for grabs. Hand lettered 6×6 canvases. $60 shipped. Email or message me HERE if you would like any of them.
And Number 2: You know I love a good product that gives back. Purchasing with a purpose is a good thing. Over 2 years ago I wrote THIS POST and talked about my favorite headbands of all time from Banded2gether. I’m happy to report after over 2 years of many, many miles and lots of sweat and wear and tear I’ve just now had to replace those headbands. Can I get an amen for a good, long lasting product which also provides meals to people in Uganda?!?!?! Seriously, it just doesn’t get much better than this. I’m a creature of habit and although I do love my No.41 headband too, I had to get me some new Banded headbands.
I recently got a wild hair and decided I was going to attempt wearing tank tops this summer. Again, creature of habit. I love my tees! I purchased one of their crazy soft tank tops and now I want to order even more. They had a deal going when I ordered and I also received this way adorable headband for free. Harper has already claimed it and she’s quite possibly the cutest thing I’ve ever seen wearing this headband.
So there you have it. Let me know if you want some art and go buy some headbands and tank tops for summer. You won’t be disappointed.
Happy Wednesday!
I made THESE swig cookies this weekend. Sooooo, they tasted delicious, but I think I did something really weird to the icing because after they sat out for a while the icing became very glisteny, meltish and sticky. Glisteny and meltish ARE real words. Despite my probable conundrum with the icing texture they tasted delicious.
I think I’m going to be making THESE for Saturday’s Bible journaling class. My friend Alissa made the best homemade vanilla ice-cream I’ve ever tasted for our friend Courtney’s swimming baby/birthday gathering. It’s all I can do to not think about the amazing combo of her ice-cream and those cookie bars. #ivegotcookieprobs
My friends and I poorly communicated on who was making what for our little baby celebration. There were iced sugar cookies, fruit pizza, homemade ice-cream and banana pudding. Last minute we ordered pizza.
June’s Bible Journaling Class is this Saturday. I have 4 spots left and it’s not too late to sign up. Email me or shoot me a message HERE.
I cannot believe June is here. We are wrapping up baseball this week and I’m officially one month away from Africa. This makes me excited and my blood pressure rise. So much to get done before we leave. So many things to purchase to take with us. I have about 10 different lists going currently and sometimes I start to breath rapidly and can feel my chest caving in…that’s not normal right?!?!? 🙂 Crazy excited though…excitement wins for the Overwhelming Feeling Award. Cannot wait.
Our youngest little one got a hold of red paint. This was her shirt when I found her. The path of her red paint destruction included, but not limited to, our couch, rug, coffee table, floor, bed spread and Amon. We shall never speak of this incident again.
And I have currently read 1 Corinthians 15:35-58 a minimum of 42 times. I have stayed here for days and days and read and read and re-read. And then gone back and read again. And then cried. And cried some more. Never have these words held such weight and hope and made more sense to my heart. Pain and loss and grief are just everywhere and there are few words to say which can do anything, but God…the hope in Jesus and the promises He lays before us when we are flat out broken…no, shattered…that’s all we can hold onto.
Happy Tuesday!
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