Archives for October 2015

October 13, 2015 By 3 Comments

More Sketching

I really am loving this sketch-a-day challenge I have been doing.  It’s super fun and challenging and has made me think outside the box.  The prompts are all different which I love.  There’s still plenty of time in October if you want to join in.  Details HERE.

Here are my sketches day 6-10.

Day 6: Fair.  Roasted buttery corn is my fair jam.

Day 7: Campfire.  Found this “camping font alphabet” on Pinterest.  Super fun.

Day 8: Plaid.  Old thermos’ are my new go-to flower vase to give people…well, and pickle jars.

Day 9: Hay.  Simple and to the point.

Day 10: Boots.  I’m not a shoe gal…I don’t even own a pair of boots, but if I did, I would like to think they might be rainbow.

You can follow along with my sketches on Instagram @pitterpatterart and also grab the hashtag.

Happy Tuesday!

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October 12, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Hey Monday!

Fall break wraps up today and it’s actually been quite fantastic, I mean, not that I didn’t almost lose my mind temporarily, but we did enjoy each other’s company as well.  It’s a balance.  I submit to you a small re-cap.

Costume thinking-about/trying-on/Harper’s-the-only-one-who-can-make-a-desion.  She wants to be a witch…again.  I’m thinking same dress as last year, maybe just add a new fancy witch hat since her $5 one from last year is long gone.

Target popcorn snacks.

Playing outside and mountain biking.

Spent all Friday morning with sweet Allie and her video equipment.  My Bible journaling class has officially been videoed and I was incredibly awkward, but honestly, I’m just crazy excited/relieved this part in the process is done.  The Interwebs will surely not know what to do with all of my awkward faces, words and hand gestures.  Allie was a dream to work with…crazy kind and sweet.

Pumpkin patch visiting and pumpkin and gourd purchasing.  And spelling gourd correctly took me 3 more times than I’d like to admit 🙂

Pan!  Oh my.  Need I say much more, but I will say this…I loved it!!!!  Like triple loved it.  And I have firmly decided it has my most favorite scene in a movie ever.  Four word clue: Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Reading, reading and more reading.  I officially have 3 readers in the house now.  Harper reads all the time…she loves a good book, but now Solomon is hot on her heels.  I feel like he’ll join a book club.

Baseball watching.  Full Count games are my fave.  These teenagers and coaches and parents…gah…makes me all gushy-love feeling and just thankful I get to watch it all take place.

And cousin sleepovers.  Harper can never get enough girl time…ever.  It does her little heart good.

And I already hear little voices scheming about the day.  I start my sugar detox today as well.  Oh my.  I don’t even know who I am.  I’ll probably die, but I’m excited to give it a try.  I do like a good challenge.  I’ll keep you guys posted.  In three days there will probably be a very angry post in all caps…that will be your sign it’s not going well 🙂

Happy Monday.

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October 8, 2015 By 3 Comments

Surprise Star Wars Lego Party

Birthdays are a big deal around the Kelley house.  We’re not a party-every-year-family, but we most definitely still celebrate in some way.  This year we decided to let the kids have a party for their birthday.  Harper chose to invite just the girls in her class and her girl cousins for an art party.  For Amon’s party we just had family.  Solomon went with a couple of his favorite guys and a sleepover.  Hudson has been thinking about his party all year long.  He contemplated a sleepover, a capture the flag party, lego party and mountain biking party.  When it came down to making a final choice he asked for a Star Wars Lego surprise party and then changed his mind about 2 weeks later, but at that point it was too late and he was none the wiser.  He’s kind of our fickle decision maker…loyal to a fault in his heart, but don’t ask him to really decide on just about anything.

Other than actually surprising him, my favorite part was finally telling Harper the day before.  She was hilariously cute.  “I cannot believe you guys pulled this off.”  “You and dad told a lot of lies.”  “I want a party like this.”  She was so excited and just thought it was tons of fun.  Hudson thought I had a Bible journaling class party day, so he thought nothing of all the cars at our house when Big Daddy and Nene brought him home.  Our family and a few of his favorite friends and their families joined in on the fun and surprised him real good.

He just stood there staring at everyone completely in the dark.  It took him a few good minutes to figure out exactly what was going on.  Everyone was moving on…his friends had all run off to play and he still just stood there.  I leaned in and asked him if he wanted to go play and he said, “Yes.  This just feels like a dream.”  He was the sweetest birthday boy.  He thanked all his guests all on his own before the party even ended.  Special things like this or compliments are not wasted on this child…they pierce his little heart and make him soar.

We chowed down on pizza, salad, fruit and veggies.  There were plenty of mini orange Fantas…per Hudson’s request…and a blue Stormtrooper cake with ice cream.  We thanked all our littlest guests with easy, inexpensive Star Wars Pez dispensers I found at Walmart.  Pez is a hit in our house.

My mom always made our birthday cakes.  I have a long memory of lots of Wilton star-tip piped birthday cakes.  There’s not many things which take me directly back to my childhood like star-tip pipping on a cake.  Hudson wanted a blue chocolate cake with a stormtrooper in cream cheese frosting.  This was a super easy cake to pull off.  I used THIS RECIPE to make 2 round cakes.  I made them the day before and then put them in the freezer.  I love to freeze my cakes prior to icing because I think it’s easier to ice a frozen cake, but also love how moist it makes the cake.  After I got the cakes iced in blue I started making the stormtrooper.  I found this stormtrooper template, cut around the outside and then used my small scissors to traces the lines, but never all the way to the end so as to keep the stormtrooper completely intact.  I laid the template on my cake and then just traced all the lines with a toothpick.  Pulled the template off and there was my stormtrooper ready to be iced.  Super easy.

When I put Hudson to bed I asked him what his favorite part of his party was and he said the cake.  Success.

I absolutely love having a house full of people.  It’s one of my most favorite things.  The conversation and food…the celebrating and playing.  I love it all.  Every little boy left our house that night absolutely filthy.  They played their little hearts out.  No party playing plan, they all just ran crazy and did their own things which consisted mostly of the boys playing baseball and Legos and the girls playing outside and in Harper’s room.  The adults chatted, ate, watched football and ate some more.  It filled my heart right up and Hudson’s too.

 

(Easy decorations: chalk art, fabric bunting, crate paper streamers & white butcher paper on tables for guests to draw on.)

My personal favorite moment of the party was when Hudson was opening his presents.  His Aunt Jen had wrapped two lego kits for him in a Rice Krispy Cereal box.  He opened it up and read the box.  Jen told him it was Rice Krispy cereal for him.  He looked at her with the sweetest face and said “Thank you.  I love this cereal.”  This is Hudson Kelley.  Jen just laughed and then told him to open the box.  He looked a little confused and then opened the box to find Lego kits tucked inside.  He just laughed and smiled.  It was my favorite memory of him from the party.  These are the things I don’t want to forget.

When it was finally time for bed, everyone was wiped out in the best kind of way.  Hudson gave me a big hug and thanked me for the party.  He said it was his best day!  Now onto those thank you notes, which will most definitely take us far too long, for all our sweet guests who helped make his day so special.

Happy Thursday.

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October 6, 2015 By 3 Comments

And Just Like That…

It’s not even my regular blogging time because honestly I just could not wait.  You should see the utter chaos…full on wrestle mania which I am referring while I type.

I had a completely different blog for today and then my phone started blowing up.  I had been detained by the world’s worst dirty diaper I have ever seen in my entire 8 years of mothering.  It was horror story worthy.  There were curse words.  I tore through half a pack of wipes easily and ended up putting her in the bathtub because things were too out of hand.  Her clothes were not salvageable.  The other kids gasped.  It was bad.  But I digress…my phone was dinging away and little did I know, but our Swazi team was going crazy because Marcie discovered the Ngungnwane Playground Fund at over 100% this morning.  Everyone was losing their minds.  I might have text cursed.  This was insane.  Texting continued.  I told my kids…they cheered.  I cried.  Harper and I hugged.  Amon gave me a high-5.  I’m still sitting here just in awe.

Brooke pointed out we were in Swaziland just 3 months ago.  3 months.  $16,288.  We got a front row seat to watch God do what only He can do.  I said it over and over again…we’re going to let God do what only He can do.  This felt big.  This felt daunting.  This felt like too much.  This felt impossible, but yet, God!

I remind myself all the time that God does not need me.  I can get in the mind set that I am a vital piece of His kingdom and really I’m just a flawed sinner and He’s the Creator of the universe…He’s going to do what He wants with or without me, but He invites us into His work.  He asks us to join Him.  He gives us the honor of being a vessel…playing a role.  And what a crazy blessing it is when we say yes.

I watched members of our team simply give God back what He had given them…their talents and resources.  Some we’re word spreaders…they made handouts and postcards and emailed their friends and family often.  They talked to their churches and people they knew.  They took to social media and would not stop talking about this community and these precious kiddos.  Some gave financially.  Some bought tshirts for themselves, their husband, children, brother, mother, sister, cousin, their cousin’s friend and next door neighbor.  Some made those 1000 t-shirts that were purchased.  They prayed…they prayed their hearts out.  They love this community, they listened to the go-gos words, they heard the calling and said “Yes God.  We are in.”  I’m so humbled to know these people.

And a lot of you guys gave and bought tshirts and took classes and gave above and beyond and helped us spread the word and prayed with us.  Thank you!  Thank you forever and ever amen.  You are kind and love big!!!

I still keep sitting here just floored.  I’ve text a 1000 times over “I am just dying.”  It’s amazing and incredible and phenomenal.  God is good and mighty.  I’ve boo-hooed like a giant crybaby.  Sometimes when God does the amazing things He chooses to do, I find myself feeling unworthy of His gifts…His blessings…like why would He choose to do this when He knows I’m going to be crazy excited…like I make or break the deal…and then I quickly remember He gives good gifts to His children.  He is a God of wonders.  He wants the praise and glory and He wants His name to be made known.   He does things for us to marvel at Him.  And marvel I will.  To God be every bit of the glory!

Happiest of Tuesdays!

PS:  The Noonday party is still on.  I think we’re going to go after a garden next 🙂

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October 5, 2015 By 2 Comments

Fall Break Kick Off

We are officially on fall break which meant grocery shopping with 5 kiddos this morning.  I need a nap 🙂  I kid.  Kind of.  They are actually usually totally fine at stores…Amon just tends to get a little crazy with his small cart.  I yell things like “Watch your heels people.”  I don’t really, but should.  They are home for the next 7 days straight…they have off next Monday as well.  Last night right before bed I got super anxious and stressed and could have cried thinking about all “the things” for this week.  I kept thinking how His mercies are new every morning and this morning I felt much better.  I did decide to do major food prep today because not worrying about dinner takes my stress level down like 7 notches.  I precooked ground turkey for tacos and chili.  I’m thawing 2 things of chicken which I’ll precook tonight for White Chicken Chili (I use almond milk for milk and plain greek yogurt for sour cream) and marinate in THIS served with cooked cauliflower.  I will be responsible for feeding them lunches this week too…God save the queen.  They get free breakfast and lunch at school.  I went ahead and attempted another batch of cornbread and am soaking pinto beans tonight for Crockpot Pintos again…perfect, easy lunches.  And I made up a batch of Tuna Cakes too.  And now I need another nap.  Honestly, this absolutely helps my anxiety!!!

Our littlest has a pretty big meeting this week.  I keep praying and praying for us to simply love and support and show the love of Christ.  Reunification feels close at hand, which is amazing, but this is also very new for us.  Praying God makes us worthy of His calling and we make Him proud in the way we love.  This verse from 1 Timothy 1:5 the Message is where it’s at!

“…Simply love – love uncontaminated by self interest and counterfeit faith, a life open to God.”

Hudson’s surprise party was too fun.  He was adorable.  More on that later, but Sunday rolled around and 2 kids were nursing colds, we all had a birthday party hangover, Josh Kelley had his d-group with his high schoolers and so the kids and I skipped church and stayed home for 2 movies and a popcornfest.  It’s what we do.  I also attempted to give myself a few dreadlocks.  Which one I ended up wrapping in brown string.  When Josh came home I told him what I had been doing he smiled and said, “Good to know you’ve been using your time wisely.”  Hahahahahahahha.  He loves me.

Apparently October is the month for 31 day challenges.  I’ve seen a bunch of different ones…writing, blogging, exercising, etc but when Lesley Zellers posted her sketch a day challenge I decided to make the commitment.  I have loved this so much.  The prompts are great, it is challenging and new and makes me think outside the box.  It’s not too late to join up.  You can see my posts on my Instagram along with the hashtag.  Find me @pitterpatterart.

And Josh and I are extremely out of touch with any kind of pop culture…like clueless.  We had some movie theater gift cards tucked away and the boys went to a sleepover Friday night, so Josh took Amon and Harper to the movies.  When he got home he told me how out of touch we really are…bahahahaha.  If you have not picked up on Josh’s dry sense of humor by now, well, you’re missing out.  Dude keeps me laughing all the time.  Anyways, he told me about all the fun previews for upcoming movies.  I laid in bed Sunday morning with Solomon and watched every single preview we could find for Pan.  I really want to see this.  It just looks amazing.  We hardly ever go to the theaters, but I am considering not waiting for this one to come out in Redbox.

 That’s it!  That’s all I have for today.  Here’s to a good fall break and a great start to another week.

Happy Monday.

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October 2, 2015 By 1 Comment

Notes.

As a blogger I am constantly making little notes to myself about things I would like to blog about.  High on this list is the randomness which is my brain and our wild little life.  When I sat down to type this post I laughed out loud at all the little notes I had pecked into my Notes app on my phone through out our week.  You guys, this is just me.  This is my crazy brain and honest to God I can’t believe any of you stop by to even read 🙂  Thank you!!!  Here were my notes:

*Dancing Honda Civic dude.  When I’m driving one of the highlights of my driving experience is often the car dancer.  This is the person in front of me who I can see jammin’ out to some good tunes and they are not afraid to show it.  The other day I was behind this guy in a Honda Civic and he was gettin’ down, like so much so that it occurred to me, “Maybe he’s not groovin’ to his jam, but yet yelling and fighting with his lady passenger”.  I mean, there we’re a lot of hand motions.  A LOT.  Well this straight up got the better of me and I just had to find out.  Full speed ahead.  “Oh I’m sorry children mother cannot have this important Jesus conversation right now because I must find out if this gentleman is dancing or fighting with his female companion.”  This is my brain.  I positioned the ole van as to not appear too crazy…Me?  Crazy?  Never!…and I was so relieved he was rockin’ out to his beat.  I then conjured up his epic playlist and what his girlfriend’s name was…it had to be his girlfriend…not his sister or cousin or just friend…only a girlfriend would best fit his story…it was Josephine by the way.  She was a total Josephine.

*Tuna.  I can’t remember if I’ve shared this already, but I have been making some killer tuna lately which Josh Kelley, Amon and myself love.  1 can tuna drained, good.  Random amount of mustard, good. A few spoonfuls of plain greek yogurt, good.  2 boiled eggs chopped, good.  Chopped pickles, good.  Josh Kelley had the audacity to say “Did you go heavy on the pickles this time?”  To which I responded, “There is no such thing.”  Pickle lovers unite.

BTW:  I’m starting a new pickle jar ministry.  I feel like this will be all the rage and it will take off like wildfire.

*New shoes.  This is a testament to the Brooks Pure Flow (1st generation) running shoes.  I even did a search on my own blog because I wanted to see when these sweet babies entered my life.  I did some estimating based off of HERE (don’t get me even started on baby Amon…I die) and determined these shoes have assisted my feet in running many many miles since around May of 2013.  And now…

This is just one of 3 holes.  And sadly, I’m still not sure I’ll go buy another pair just yet.  The extra weird part of me wants to see just how far my shoes and I could go together.  I’ll report back.

*Amon’s books.  Every day at nap time Amon picks a book out for us to read and every day he chooses one of these four.  Never for a second does he waiver.  He is currently crazy obsessed with 2 things…1) Baseball and 2) Bears.  And if you’re wondering, Choco’s mom is a bear.

 

*Amon baseball.  Yeah, so obsessed.  He would play baseball all day long.  Me throwing to him.  Him throwing to me.  Me throwing and him hitting.  Him throwing and me trying to hit his fastball.  The sooner we get this kid on a team the better.  Yesterday after he hit several zingers in a row he came over to me hand raised ready for a high-5 and said “High five.  I mash & pound.”  He’s clearly got a confidence issue.  And we’re also clearly succeeding in teaching our kids humility 🙂

*Beans.  So over the last two weeks I’ve taken something to the dry cleaners and I made my first thing of pinto beans.  I have officially arrived to adulthood…forget marriage and all these small humans.  Dry cleaning and pinto beans are where it’s really at.  I used THIS RECIPE and they were awesome!!!!  I did make cornbread muffins too, but we shall never speak of them again.

**Difret trailer.  I watched this trailer and can’t shake it.  Will definitely be figuring out how we can watch this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEWireKsK8U

*Purging gift basket.  My life continues to cycle through a series of normal, normal, stressed, super stressed, purge the house, normal.  It’s like my life coping mechanism.  I’m hard wired people.  Anyways, I have this basket I keep full of gift items to give on any random occasion.  It stays in our cabinet piece in our living room and well, I was feeling a tad stressed the other night, looked at the cabinet and thought -It’s on. The end result was more stuff being donated, but I also decided to empty my gift basket.  I immediately started brain storming and item by item I figured out just the right recipients for each gift.  I packaged them all up yesterday and away they went this morning.  And now I can breath a little easier.

And those are all my notes for the week.  Some of you may feel a tad dumber now 🙂  Some of you might come back again.  Either way, happy Friday party people!  The weekend is here.

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October 1, 2015 By Leave a Comment

Shameless Re-Post {Not The Garth Brooks Kind}

Today I totally and completely hit the copy and past button and then made peace with myself.  Ha.  I am shamelessly reposting yesterday’s entire post because it’s just this important to me.  I know some will be all “yada, yada, yada” and sometimes I too “yada, yada, yada”, but I figured it’s my blog and I can repost if I want to (insert music notes).  So here’s a reminder of yesterday’s amazingness and another push for Ngungwane’s playground.  I’ll be back tomorrow with my regular scheduled randomness programming.  Thanks for being kind to this bloggy lady and for putting up with all my playground shenanigans…because I do madly love these people and this community!

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So I am so excited to report we are officially at 61% of our goal for the Ngungwane playground fund.  You guys, this is crazy town.  We are almost at 10K!!!!!!!  I am so blown away.  I had decided to stop checking the fund every single day and when I checked in yesterday morning we were at 42%.  Marcie text me and said her sister was dropping $3090 in t-shirt sales in the account that day too and BOOM, now we find the fund sitting pretty at 61%.  God is so so crazy good.  Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has helped in anyway.  I am just over the moon.  I told Marcie I was about to start crying in Target and being the supportive and loving and nurturing friend she is she said if I did to please videotape it :)  I’m just constantly floored at how God works and moves.

So here’s the deal, we’re going to press on.  We’re going to continue to work and do our part.  I told Josh Kelley yesterday I don’t want one thing for my birthday, nor do I need anything either, but he can make a donation to the playground fund!!!  And there are so many ways you can help too.

1)  Share the Ngungwane Playground Fund with family and friends and strangers.  Take to social media, email, text or word of mouth and simply share the page.  Telling people…getting others in on the action…is such a HUGE help!!!

2)  Make a tax deductible donation HERE and directly impact our goal.  There is no amount too small.  My kids recently dug into their piggy banks and brought me a grand total of $4 and I added it into some other money going in.  No donation is too small.  Every single bit helps.

3)  Book a Bible journaling class.  I’m taking to the streets and coming to you to teach my Bible journaling class.  Think parties, Bible studies, small groups, women’s events, church classes, girl’s night, etc.  All the money from these classes goes directly to the fund.  Message me HERE if you are interested.  And I’ll be hosting the next class in our home in November…date to be announced.

4)  Buy a t-shirt.  Sasquatch Design Society, Meagan, Marcie and Nick, have been hard at work and it has seriously paid off.  All those t-shirt sales has brought in over $3K in profit which is absolutely amazing.  Thank you to everyone who has already purchased…we are so grateful.  Christmas is coming and this is definitely purchasing with a purpose.  And tell a friend ;)  You can read more about the tees HERE or head straight HERE and make your purchase today.

5)  We’re hosting a big Noonday Collection show Thursday, October 29th at our house!!!!  You guys know I love a good party.  I am a huge Noonday fan and we’re using all the free goodies we get from this party to throw a huge “Thank You” giveaway again.  We did this last time when raising funds for tables and chairs for Ngungwane and it was a big success.  The more purchases made at the party, the more free stuff we get to help raise funds with!  You can read about what we did last time HERE and HERE.  So add it to your calendar…think Christmas shopping party people…and invite a friend…the more the merrier is always my party moto.

6)  My goal is to have my Bible Journaling class ready for purchase via the inter webs by the end of November…hopefully before.  I’m praying this will be a huge way to help raise funds for the playground.  All you out-of-towners get ready because my class will be available for you soon.  Keep your eyes open and I will share all the details when we’re legit and ready to roll!

And 7) Pray with us.  Pray for these kiddos and this community.  Pray God would receive every bit of the glory He so deserves.  What an honor it is to join hands with these amazing people and community in this adventure.  We are so grateful.

Thank you guys so much for all your help so far.  You are kind and crazy awesome.

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See you tomorrow.

Happy Thursday.

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