Archives for May 2016

So I was thinking about favorite things in my life right now and then I realized a lot of them are in the color blue family.

I am a shoe minimalist.  Too many shoes stress me out so seriously, I will wear a pair into the ground before replacing them.  My old, old Brooks Pure Flows finally bit the dust with new holes and busted shoe lace holes.  I dragged Amon and our littlest to the mall and bought these sweet things.  I am in love.  They are great gym shoes for non-running days and to slip on for errands and hikes.  I plan to wear them for a long time.

New Balance Women’s WL574 Expedition Pack Running Shoe

I am officially a hair product person solely because of this one bottle and all it does for my new do.  It’s amazing.  It makes my hair piecey, but still soft and the best thing is it actually looks even better the second day…no hair washing two days in a row.  I love it.  I ordered the one linked, but apparently it has new packaging so I got the pretty aqua bottle.

Enjoy Shaping Lotion

Favorite chapstick ever and it’s crazy easy to find in all my giant bags I carry.  I’m linking everything to Amazon so you can see them, but I got this cheaper at Target.

eos Sweet Mint Organic Lip Balm

This is my new go-to finger nail polish.  Sinful Colors Wonder Mint.  Couldn’t find it on Amazon, but I bought it at…wait for it…Target.  I love how fresh it is and love the soft blue color.  Plus it helps me to not bite my fingernails.

And lastly, if you are looking for an easy running watch this Garmin is where it’s at.  I wear it all the time…even more than my old fossil watch.  Oddly enough, I love that it keeps up with my steps and I have become crazy intrigued with how many steps our running miles equal out too.  When we finish our half on Saturday I am giddy to see how many steps it will be.  A little ridiculous, yes!  Totally recommend for people looking for a simple and efficient GPS watch.  And the battery life is awesome.

Garmin Forerunner 15 Small, Teal/White

These are all just things I am loving and using like crazy and am super pleased with.  I tried to look up everything on Amazon, but some stuff will probably be cheaper in an actual store VS online.  And these are all Amazon affiliate links.

Happy Tuesday!

Kicking off another week and my head is already spinning and I’m kind of dog tired already.  Ha.  Hey Monday, why you gotta be a jerk sometimes.  The weekend was perfection with zero commitments and just hanging out which was exactly what our wild little tribe needed.  Let’s all just go back to Friday and pull a Groundhogs Day for the full weekend.

Sorry is in heavy rotation around these parts.  It was one of my most favorite games as a kid, so I happily jump in on games and let Amon move my pawns.

Marcie and I packed bags for Swaziland.  17 bags.  Each one almost 50lbs each.  Packing for these trips is a freakin’ art.  There is so much strategy which goes into it…I was sweating when we finally finished.  You have to think about the bag, how supportive is the bag, what needs to go in supportive bags VS not so supportive bags.  You need to maximize your 50lb weight limit.  Do certain items need softer barriers which we can build with things like 160 wash cloths and 160 toboggan hats.  You must take advantage of ALL.THE.POCKETS.  These are just a few of the questions which pour through our brains.  Then weighing each bag to make sure it is right at or barely under the dreaded 50lb limit.  When it’s all done though…wowzers…what a huge relief.

Amon and I hit up Kroger on Friday evening.  I honestly try to avoid the grocery store like the plague on the weekend, but we needed the essentials like ice cream and mini M&Ms and a Redbox movie…the things Fridays are made of.  After I loaded our bags in Josh’s truck Amon said, “Hey Mom.  Look.  Huddy and Sol are going to think this is hilarious.”  Yes, yes brother boy.

Each one of the big kids reported their feet hurt in their shoes and that their shoes had holes.  Holy cow…they weren’t kidding.  I took them shoe shopping Saturday and 2 out of 3 kids were in a full one size larger and 1 kid was in a half size larger.  Also the holes were so bad all three old pairs went straight in the trash upon arriving home.  That evening they had running races in different heats to show off the new kicks.

Shortly after this picture she, again, found a Sharpie and colored her foot…and her shirt…and one leg.   We obviously need to keep our Sharpies in a safer location, but we keep rolling the dice because she will sit forever and just color her heart out.

Sunday was long run day.  I have totally loved training with friends for this 1/2.  For my other halves I’ve trained alone, so this has been quite different and so much more fun.  I’m already trying to talk other friends into doing one and for the first time ever ever ever in my life I’m considering a full marathon.  We shall see.

Things got weird in Genesis this weekend.  I had to take a few days to try and understand Noah’s drunken exposed stupor and Ham’s role in it.  Crazy to the town, but think I picked up on what God was impressing on me.

And now I’m off to pick out my menu for Thursday night’s Noonday party.  Oh I do hope some of you are coming…even if it’s just to eat all the dang food…that would be awesome!!!  I’d love to see your face and hug your neck and feed your mouth 🙂  And bring a friend with you…all are welcome…the more the merrier.  Party is come and go from 5:30-8:30.  And this weekend Noonday started their Shop the World Sale…whoa now.  Crazy good deals.  Email me or shoot me a message HERE if you want more party details.  And if you can’t come to the show and would still like to order you can do so HERE…just make sure Ashley Mills is listed as your ambassador and Laura Kelley as your hostess.

I want the following all from the sale:

Acai Rope Necklace, Fuchsia

Carved Plume Earrings

And totally the Meera Bracelet

And if you have any awesome go-to recipes that are good for parties, send them my way!!!

Happy Monday night!

1.  I’m already almost out of eggs.  Look how pretty they are…ahhhhhh!!! (insert heart eye emoji)  But guess what, I’ve got more eggs coming on Monday.  My life = complete.

Sidenote:  Our littlest did get in the fridge and take some eggs for herself.  This meant a little egg rush and roulette.  The white tray is for boiled eggs.  The yellow trays are for not boiled eggs.  We were living on the edge.

2.  Made this super fun flower craft with Harper and Solomon’s classes this week.  I could not love them more.  I’m already trying to think how to forever display them in our house.

3.  Such a sweet mail day right before Mother’s Day.  Amber is the sweetest and she even knew how desperately I had been waiting for the audio of her book.  Boom pow!!  Go out and pick up both of her books asap.

4.  Our littlest is not the best and hide and seek.

5.  I got all my hairs chopped off.  In the end it was like 13 inches or maybe more.  It was a lot of hair, but I love the new do.  It’s easy to fix and takes me 1 minute and 6 seconds to wash.  Crazy easy!

6.  Sunday is our 10 miler.  And then next Saturday is race day.  I cannot wait.  Plus, we got a race email yesterday and it listed out all the food at the finish line…ummmmm, hello bbq sliders.

7.  She would color all day long if only she wouldn’t at some point color all over herself with things like black sharpie markers.  Alas.

8.  They get me.

9.  Geneis is killing it.  I cry almost every single time.  The Bible makes me incredibly emotional and I can be quite regretful feeling when I think about all the years I missed out.  If only I’d known then what I know now.  Crazy town.  This book is just slaying me in the best way possible.

10.  This Thursday is my Noonday show from 5:30-8:30.  Come join us for crazy good food and drinks and for some purchasing with a purpose.  Just could not love this company more and all they stand for.  Even if you just want to come look and not purchase, you are more than welcome.  I will have plenty of food and I’ll squeeze your neck.  And if you can’t make the party and would like to still make a purchase you can do so online HERE…just make sure Ashley Mills is listed as your ambassador and Laura Kelley as your hostess.

11.  And the best/worst parenting decision I’ve made lately was letting Amon vacuum.  It seriously keeps them occupied for forever!!!!!  But then all of a sudden the vacuum wasn’t working quite right and then I discovered it was completely blocked with oh, about 500 large lego pieces.  Amon was obviously just walking around vacuuming up whatever his little vacuum loving heart desired.  You win some, you lose some.

Happy Friday!!!

First, you guys are crazy kind!!  Thank you for holding my thoughts and feelings about death and my Mom and life so kindly.  Seriously.

Second, here’s the deal…it doesn’t take much in my life to really get me excited, so I am insanely elated to report I have an egg couple in my life now.  I met the wife this week…they live just down the road with all their sweet chickens and roosters.  She is the sweetest, cutest women in the all land and I wanted to coax her into a long endearing hug…I imagined her hair smelling delightful…like homemade chocolate chip cookies or fresh bread…but realized this might give the wrong message and I did not want to send her or her fresh eggs running away just yet, so I restrained myself.

I was on the phone with Josh Kelley when she knocked on our door and I was all “I’ve gotta go.  My egg lady is here.  Bye.” Click.  It’s so silly, but I could not be more excited about my eggs and she said I can have them every Monday!!!!!  It’s the greatest news.  I’m afraid Josh might start sticking wooden screwers in his ears to keep from hearing about my new love for her and the eggs themselves.

And the eggs are beautiful.  So beautiful I went out and got egg containers so I could see them every time I open our fridge.  Yes, this is a huge glimpse inside the insanity in my brain.  But now I can give back their eggs containers immediately and recycling can commence all the while I can stare at our eggs for as long as my eyeballs please.

So if you ever wonder what I look like on Monday mornings…imagine my giant face grinning ear-to-ear with starry glistening eyes…my hair might be tousled just right as well 🙂 while I chat with the kindest lady who has just brought 3 dozen beautiful eggs to our house.  I think I’m going to make them cookies next week too because clearly they must be cookie loving people. They just must.

Happy Wednesday!

This was my 5th Mother’s Day without Mom which truthfully makes me cringe a bit.  Time just keeps marching on and won’t slow down for anyone or anything.  5 seems like a lot.  5 seems older rather than newer.  5 seems like it shouldn’t hurt or carry as much weight.  5 seems easily forgotten by others.  I could feel all the different emotions swirling around.  I recognized them.  Called them by name.  I try to be super intentional with days like Mother’s Day which if I let it, could sweep me into myself rather than into others.  I don’t want that.  I’ve done the holidays where I let grief take too much so I just waved my white flag and gave in.  I can feel the healing.  I know God has restored and renewed and redeemed.  I’m not the same person I was in November of 2011 or maybe more importantly, I’m not the same person I was in November of 2012.  I’ve done the dark days and I’ve come toe-to-toe with God…all my complaints and “how dare you”s and “the world owes me now” comments easily flying from my mouth.  But I know better now.  I know healing, redemption, mercy, love and forgiveness…all of which I so desperately needed extended to me from Him.

I finished up Color of Goodbye by September Vaudrey last week and it was amazing.  I can’t even tell you how much I loved this book and all the weird, quirky truths about grief she talks about.  I tore through it’s pages shaking my head in confirmation, crying, laughing and underling with my pen.  My favorite portion from the book hands down was the following:

“I began to notice that the people I looked up to most had this in common:  life had dealt them deep pain or disappointment, from the death of a loved one or from divorce or a significant illness or the demands of raising a special-needs child – any type of life alternating loss.  But rather than becoming stalled in their grief or letting it drive them to bitterness, over time they became more alive, more joyful and wiser than might have been possible before they acquainted with heartache.  They had allowed their sorrow to do its transforming work in their souls.  They had stewarded their pain well.  I wanted to be like those people.”

I want to be like that too.  I want to be so very very intentional with my life because I’ve only got one.

I felt all the feelings and emotions rising up…I wish Mom was here, I wish I could remove the loss which is embedded in Solomon and Amon’s stories, I wish our littlest could go home, I wish I could fix the heaviness this day carries for so many others.  I could feel them all as the week pressed forward towards Sunday.  So I fixed my eyes on what was at hand…who are women in my life who need to be celebrated now…who needs encouragement and love…”when you don’t know what to do for yourself, you can always do for others.”

Mother’s Day was good.  I felt like I had a good handle on my emotions…I felt like I had been intentional and stewarded my pain well.  I woke up to the 5 most beautiful children in all the land bringing me eggs and bacon and doting cards they had written and colored and drawn themselves.  Hudson’s card even said “You are the smartest Mom ever.”  Nailed it.

I made two requests for Mother’s Day 1) That our laundry room get it’s last and final coat of white paint and 2) That we hit up the cemetery early so we could beat the crowd 🙂  Cemetery’s are hoppin’ on holidays.  Both requests were met.

Every year we take pretty flowers, rice krispy treats and a quilt out to Mom’s grave and just do our thing.  The kids always form a game of hide and seek behind head stones.  This year I laughed so hard as I watched Harper in the distance lifting our littlest up so she could touch the fake Jesus headstone statue.  This is just us.  This is normal which is hilariously wonderful.  At our library book sale this week Harper brought me over a book about talking to your kids about death and grief.  She showed it to me and laughed, “Well we don’t need this one do we.”  Death isn’t a touchy subject around our house and the cemetery isn’t creepy, but delightful to our small tribe.  It stings a bit, but also is incredibly lovely in it’s own weird way.

We celebrated Solomon and Amon’s birth mommas by letting them each pick out flowers to plant in our yard in honor of them.  I cried.  I wanted to pick Solomon up and squeeze him into a thousand pieces when he insisted on carrying his flowers the whole time.  He was so proud of what he picked out and I was so proud of him.  We celebrated Josh’s mom the rest of the day.  Yummy food and dessert, baseball in the yard, darts, jump rope, lively conversations and grandkids everywhere.  Our littlest’ momma joined us for lunch and toted her around the majority of the afternoon.  One of Mom’s friends called me to tell me he thought I was a great momma.  I cried.  He didn’t have to do that, but he thought about me on a day that isn’t ideal and decided he needed to speak some life giving words into me and I could not have been more grateful.  The day was really quite extraordinary and beautiful and painful…hahahaha…isn’t that life.

When the day was over and every Kelley kid was asleep I sat on our bed and just sobbed letting every last emotion fly.  Josh Kelley came in and I told him every single thought I was feeling and it felt so good just to let each one go verbally…out loud to another human…to know I was heard.  It was all those emotions like how I miss being someone’s kid…someone’s daughter…how on Earth is our littlest’s story going to end…what is God up to…how will He use Solomon and Amon’s loss…how I’m just recently letting myself love, love our foster daughter.  I let that good hard cry go and I let the words fall from my mouth and into Josh Kelley’s ears and relief and peace followed.  I felt better.  We enjoyed sandwiches and ice-cream with homemade chocolate sauce afterwards for dinner by ourselves and it was just the right ending to a grand day.

What I know is just because a day looks differently than it use too…just because a day feels heavier than others…does not mean it still cannot be incredible and life giving.  Pain, joy, beauty, loss and extraordinary things can all coexist with one another.  They can all surprisingly go hand-in-hand and make up some amazing days and life long memories.  God’s goodness always reigns.

Happy Tuesday.

When a week has held so many emotions and I haven’t quite come off the crazy train just yet, I find myself flipping through this sequence of pictures over and over again.  This week has been hard and not fun and emotional and the weekend is something I don’t dread, but it also carries weight for so many reasons, but especially because Mom is gone, the loss which is unavoidable through adoption is heightened and the hard reality is I’ll wake on Mother’s Day with our littlest who’s momma wishes it was her who was waking up to her girl.  It’s just so many many emotions.

And I now could not be more thrilled with the fact that I am a photo junkie.  I take pictures any chance I get and I am so thrilled I snapped these when Solomon saw how big his hair was in his yearbook picture.  It makes my heart soar, my mouth stretch wide into a grin and my eyes a bit teary because he hasn’t had any easy road and when he laughs like this I want to bottle it up and pour it straight out onto the world.  He’s a good one and I am so freakin’ grateful he calls me momma.

Happy Friday!

I still sometimes can’t believe we have 5 kiddos.  This parenting/foster parenting gig is wild.  And shout out to our church for providing dinner almost every Sunday night.  Makes our night just a little easier with dinner off the to-do list.

Speaking of lots of kids and food…we buy sooooo many eggs…about 3 dozen a week usually.  Each week I go ahead and boil an entire dozen to kick off our week.  Kids and adults alike can grab them for breakfasts or lunches.  Anyone local sell eggs I could buy?!?!?!

It’s teacher appreciation week and we’ve had little goodies and treats each day for our teachers.  Pickle jars filled with Kroger flowers…check and check.

THESE cookies were legit good.  I don’t even normally like coconut, but I’ve jumped on the coconut train and refuse to get off.  So yummy!

Yesterday was May the 4th…May the 4th be with you.  The force is crazy strong with these two.

We’re almost to our 1/2 marathon…only about 2 weeks left until race day.  We’re in the long run stage so 8-10 mile long runs each week.  Some people thought they would surely die from such runs and yet, they are still alive.  It’s a miracle.  I feel like a big dork, but I am so excited for my two newbie 1/2 marathon running friends…they are going to kill this…and I get to cross the finish line with them.  I’ll probably cry because…again…big dork.

My Noonday Collection show is coming up Thursday May 19th 5:30-8:30.  Hope you’ve marked your calendars.  Would love for you to join us.  I’ll feed you crazy good food and drinks and you will laugh…guaranteed!  Plus, you get to check out all the Noonday goods…in person.  I cannot wait.  If you can’t make the party you can still make a purchase online HERE…just make sure Ashley Mills is listed as your ambassador and Laura Kelley as your hostess.  And today they released a little summer line.  The Chennai Crossbody is whoa!!!  So adorable.

I gave Solomon’s teacher the Half Moon Necklace because A) It’s ridiculously awesome and B) It’s made in Ethiopia.  I saw her wearing it yesterday and it only confirmed what I already felt in my heart…I’m going to be purchasing this necklace.  It’s crazy good looking.

On Monday’s I work at our kids’ school.  I always leave feeling all the feels.  This week I did a fun spring art project with Hudson’s class.  Next week I’m doing the same in Harper and Solomon’s classes.  If I haven’t sung the praises of our teachers and school staff enough…let me sing some more.  They are simply amazing.  This place makes my heart beat faster and my head dream bigger and my arms love wider.  It’s such an honor to be apart of this incredible school doing so much in our community and for these precious kiddos.

And today I discovered these pictures.  Be still my heart.  I am one blessed momma for sure.

Happy Thursday!

Hey guys, just a quick reminder today is the last day to sign up for tomorrow’s online Bible journaling class.  This class is like my in-person class except all the information is in video form.  This class runs from May 4th – May 18th.

The class is $50 and you will have access to all the videos and discussion page for 2 weeks.  This means you can move through the content at your own pace over the course of our time together.  Once the two weeks is up we will begin a new class.  I will be checking in daily and sharing about where I am currently in reading the Bible and hope you will too.

The videos will talk about the process of Bible journaling and I will share how I go about this each day.  We will also talk about supplies and tips, tricks and techniques I use.  You can see all the supplies I personally love and use everydayHERE.

 Today is the last day to sign up for tomorrow’s class, but if you’d like to join in just CLICK HERE or email me at pitterpatterart at gmail dot com and I will be in touch with all the additional information you will need.

Happy Tuesday.