December 13

What, what!  It’s Friday.  I could not be more thrilled.  Harper has a slumber party she’s attending tonight, so I’m going to enjoy an all boys evening while watching Turbo and eating yummy food that is in no way good for us.  It’s going to be grand.

Today for our kindness we showed our mailman appreciation with coffee and cookies.  Baked good can change the world people.  It totally can.

Tomorrow we are giving away kids books in a local store.  My kiddos love this one.

Moving along…You know those people who have all their Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving?  They are crazy and I envy their organization and dedication.  That’s just not me.  I’m still working on getting everything bought or made up.  Gift giving is something I absolutely love.  I love trying to pick out or make just the right, unique gift.  And handmade…don’t even get me started.  It makes me all jolly and happy.  I’m still finishing up the last of my handmade gifts.

I recently read this post about packaging cookies.  These are all fabulous ideas, but I’ve made zero iced sugar cookies this season.  Zero.  But what I have made are lots of handmade items…like key fobs and camera straps and onesies and burp cloths…and who wouldn’t like some handmade lovelies all packaged up in a wrapping paper stocking and sewed shut?!?!?!

Ashley facetimed me the other day while I was wrapping presents.  I told her I had decided to buy zero Christmas wrapping paper this year.  Every year I buy new paper and have some leftover.  This is the year for using up all those years of leftover Christmas paper.  I refuse to buy any.  Not even one little roll.  I’m going to use up every last inch of the leftovers.  I’m determined.

So I’ve got a hot Friday night planned.  Hanging with my dudes, watching movies, eating yummy food, wrapping a few more presents and hopefully finishing up some last minute gifts.  Enjoy your weekend.

Happy Friday!

December 12

Today is a good day folks.  I am proclaiming it.

For our kindness advent today we put fun post-it note messages on public bathroom mirrors.  It’s always interesting to me how we balance this whole advent.  I want everyone in our family as involved as possible, but it’s not easy at all.  For this one, since Harper is in school during the day, she got to stay up a bit later last night and write and color her post-its.

The boys did some this morning and then before MDO they helped stick some at one store and then Amon and myself stashed the rest in random bathrooms where we had to run errands.  We did get busted in one bathroom which made me all nervous and silly feeling and I got all flustered and little girlish as Amon and I bolted from the bathroom.  It’s really hard maneuvering a giant cart nervously out of a store bathroom.  #i’mabigdork

Harper was hilarious writing her compliments.  I told her to just try and think about compliments she would like given to her.  My favorite’s she wrote were “You look lovely today.” and “You have very pretty eyes.”  She also was a tad confused by my  “You’re lookin’ fly.”  She read it and then said, “That just doesn’t seem like a very good compliment.”  I laughed then tried explaining it meant cool, hip or awesome.  I feel like she came away from the conversation a little more educated.

Tomorrow we are leaving a treat for our mailman.  We have been wearing him out with the packages lately and he is always just as kind as can be.  I even have time to make some homemade snickerdoodles.  What, what.

And because I’m a big cry baby and just bawled while watching this super fun Christmas video, I thought I’d pass along the sweet weepiness.  CHECK IT OUT.

Then to off set the tears GO HERE and laugh.  Who doesn’t like a spiderman dancing to Mariah Carey?!?!  Enjoy.

Happy Thursday!

December 11

We are still marching on with our kindness advent.  Today we did a little donut delivery to Harper’s school staff.  Yesterday was a snow day, so it worked out perfectly to welcome the teachers back with yummy goodness that is the Krispy Kreme donut.

If you are planning on doing this advent day, make sure you call ahead.  When you call ahead to Krispy Kreme and give them a 24 hour notice you get a 25% discount.  Well worth the phone call and the advanced planning.

Tomorrow we are leaving fun post-it note messages in a public restroom.  Fun and easy and sure to bring a smile to someone’s face.

So who all is stressed feeling today?  Just me?  Golly geez sometimes I can have so much anxiety and stress over the littlest, most minute things.  I feel crazy some days.  I’m trying to breath a little more today and relax.  Looking around.  God is so mighty and so good.  And I do love this season.

Sometimes I let my to-do list rule my thoughts, actions and even my heart.  Goodness knows just about everyone’s to-do lists right now are lengthy…tis’ the season.  I can get so frustrated and act like such a jerk sometimes…especially when it comes to me being selfish about my time.  I find myself saying, “If I can just cross X, X and X off my list I’ll feel better” or then I can play with the kids or etc, etc, etc.  I’m reminding myself that if my list stays long and I only ever so slowly cross things off the world will still turn.  I’m sucking up my pride and admitting to myself that I cannot do and be everything to everyone…and that is just fine.  Grace.  A big dose or grace.  I need it…please and thank you.

So if you are a stresser today like me, I challenge you to breath deeper and accept some grace.  Prioritize and delegate and just down right procrastinate some.  We’re doing our best and trying our hardest and that totally deserves some major props.  Here’s to you.

Happy Wednesday!

December 10

Today for our kindness advent we were going to give a gift card to a single mom…actually it’s a single grandmother.  And then we awoke to snow, so the gift card is just hanging out in Harper’s school folder, until it will be officially delivered tomorrow.  Whether you are a parent or grandparent and you are doing this whole parenting thing solo…kudos to you.  If you don’t personally know many single parents, check your local school or church.  I guarantee if you ask the front office if they know of a single parent who could use a little extra help, they will totally be able to point you in the right direction.

Tomorrow, as long as school is back in session, we are treating our school staff to donuts.  Ummm, donuts could make the world go ’round.

And we are already enjoying our snow day.  I actually just saw out our front window Sol pick up a piece of cardboard he found in our yard and lick the snow off it.  Gross.  Maybe this is why they have such good immune systems.  We will for sure be watching movies and eating cookies on a Tuesday.  I kind of love a good snow day.

So, you remember a while back when I talked about wanting to do craft nights?  Like in our house?  Our tiny little house?  And, yeah, it totally happened.  This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time and I finally said, “To heck with you fear.”  And gave it a whirl.  16 woman.  2 crafts.  And feedback forms at the end to see what they thought and to hear their input on how things went.  They were my guinea pigs for the legit thing.  And I actually think come 2014, I might open it up to the public.  It makes me all nervous and giddy and excited and fearful, but I think it may work.  Just maybe.

And I’ll leave you today with this little gem.  It was brought to my attention that I do not have not one of those classic crying baby with Santa pictures of Harper, Huddy or Sol.  I actually have zero pictures of them with any Santa.  They actually just met the dude for the first time last year just by coincidence.  I don’t know why because we actually do Santa, but it just never occurred to us to take them to see him.  I was determined to change my ways.  More than anything I wanted that crying baby with Santa picture.

Aaaaaand, I feel like we accomplished just that.

I puffy heart babies who are terrified of Santa.

Happy Tuesday!

PS:  Don’t forget to enter to win this canvas over on my friend Jamie’s blog.  CLICK HERE to enter.

December 8 & 9 + Giveaway

Yesterday for our kindness advent we did a really easy and fun task.  We simply painted rocks with lots of bright fun colors and once it finally quits raining here, we’ll leave them at the playground and park near our house.  Crossing my fingers, the rain will cease when Harper gets home from school today.  The kids are crazy anxious to leave their happy rocks for unsuspecting people to find.

Today we were suppose to be decorating someone’s mailbox who could use a little encouragement with some Christmas bunting, but remember said rain from above?  I didn’t like the thought of fun, colorful, soggy Christmas bunting greeting someone when they got home.  So we decided to wrap the bunting up and mail it off to the person instead.

Tomorrow we will be gifting a single mom with a gift card.  I don’t know how they do it and I have all the respect in the world for single moms…and dads.

And I mentioned last week I was going to be a guest giveaway this week on my friend Jamie’s blog.  Well today the giveaway began.  Head over HERE and check out how you can enter to win this canvas.

Hope you had a fantastic weekend.  As always, thanks for stopping by and reading.  I totally appreciate it!

Happy Monday!

December 6 & 7

Yesterday was crazytown, so here I am on a Saturday night.  I’m sitting here in my ugly Christmas sweater…we’ll discuss that in a moment…blogging on our couch.  It’s a hot Saturday night.

Yesterday for our kindness advent we were paying for someone’s gas.  It is seriously one of my most favorites because I am always so intrigued by the recipients reaction.  People can be skeptics so it’s always interesting to see how this kindness act plays out.

The boys and I pulled up to a pump and began our wait for the random person who was going to pull up next to us.  We waited and waited and waited.  Finally a woman pulled up and the boys all started yelling, “Get out Mom.”  “Go get her.”  I jumped out, told the lady what our family was doing and she gave me the big “No thanks”.  I assured her I was not creepy and there were no strings attached, but she stuck with her very firm “No thanks.”  I was bummed, so I got back in the car and we began waiting again.  Then from the back seat a small Kelley boy informed me he had to go #2 like…now.  Like really, really, really bad.  I weighed my options.  Remember when I said I was going to try and be more relaxed and just roll with this whole kindness thing this year?  Yeah, me too.  We ended up snagging a gas card and a piece of tape from the gas station attendant and heading out to take care of that looming #2.

  Today we were going to give out free Redbox codes to people waiting in line.  Last year I simply purchased a Redbox gift card online and had it emailed to myself.  I discovered today that Redbox no longer lets you use emailed gift card codes in person at the actual boxes…only for online reservations.  If this is one of your advent days go ahead and purchase the gift card online and have it mailed to you…those are the ones you can use in person.  Things just aren’t going exactly as we planned this year.  We all talked about what we should do.  Sol suggested giving out chocolate.  We told him it was a great idea, but people these days frown upon taking candy from strangers 🙂  Josh suggested us buying a small Walgreens gift card so whoever could purchase some treats to go with their movie and taping it to the Redbox outside the Walgreens.  Done and done.

Tomorrow we are painting rocks and leaving them on the playground.  Who wouldn’t want to find a fun rock…especially if you’re a kid.

So let’s get back to that ugly Christmas sweater.  My friend Marcie had the wonderful idea for us to run the Ugly Sweater 5k.  This was all well and good at the time, but today it was in the 30s come start time.  It was frigidly cold.  Like we discussed on more than one occassion just going back to the car and hitting up the closest Starbucks.  It was miserable.

But we decided to stick it out.  And we were really glad we did.  Ugly Christmas sweaters every where and giant Christmas inflatables and Toys for Tots and hot chocolate stations.

Side note:  We discovered that cold hot chocolate is pretty bad.  Like makes my stomach hurt.  End side note.

And afterwards we rewarded ourselves with Mellow Mushroom where I discovered the Caesar Pizza which could possibly be the best pizza ever.  It was amazing.

So how was your Saturday?  Hope you’re staying warm.  Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Happy Saturday!

December 5

Today for our kindness advent we over payed for a Contributor newspaper.  The Contributor is a local non profit whose venders and a lot of their writers too are currently or formally homeless.  Each vendor keeps whatever profit they make from the newspapers they sell.  I’m personally a huge fan.  This is coming along side people and helping them by providing work.  And it’s not easy work.  I can only imagine what it feels like to walk a day in their shoes.

As we drove towards Target there was Mr Rob out in the rain selling his newspapers.  He always smiles, he always chats, our kids know him by name and he is always so sweet to them and he works hard.  This rainy day was the perfect day to pay a little extra for our paper.

Tomorrow is one of my most favorites.  I don’t think I’ll ever take it off our list because it is always so interesting to see how the person whose gas we pump reacts.  I get all nervous and excited.  Tomorrow will be a good day.

Happy Thursday!

December 4

Today for our kindness advent we are shopping for a family for Christmas.  We’re actually doing this later today so Josh Kelley can join us.  So all 6 of us will hitting up Target along with it’s unsuspecting shoppers.  God speed Target.

Tomorrow we are over paying for a Contributor newspaper.  I’m a huge fan of what the Contributor stands for and is doing.  Our go-to distributors are Ms Eileen and Mr Rob.  We smile and wave and chat…even when I don’t have cash to buy a paper.  They’re just nice people.

Let me insert some random stuff for you here:

*I ordered my Erin Condren life planner recently.  2014 is lurking.  I’m a write stuff down type of person and this will be my third year rockin’ this planner.  It’s superb and perfectly perfect.  Easy on the eyes too.  It also helps when your friends give you gift cards so the moola doesn’t actually come out of your pocket.  But it is totally worth the money too.

*I’ve decided, along with Susan, that Hudson needs a Buddy the Elf costume.  He would totally make the best Buddy.  Yesterday while we were on the hospital elevator, as the door closed he went running up to it from the back of the elevator and said, “Oh, I forgot to give you a hug.”  Sol and I totally cracked up.

*Amon is still randomly falling asleep.  I just don’t understand, but it’s hilarious.  The first picture below he is literally in the middle of our kitchen floor.  #crazyness  He now reminds me of those fainting goats.  If you’ve never seen them, please go you tube it right now.  You won’t be disappointed.

*I’ve got an art giveway coming up next week on a blogger friend’s site.  I’ll let you in all the details when it starts.  I kind of love it.

I also finished up this 24×24 canvas for a customer.  This was my last custom order of 2013.  I think it was a good one to end on.

And I made this piece for Amon’s nook in the boys’ room.  I will never be ashamed to say I dig Katy Perry.  Ever.

*Christmas is suppose to be this wonderful, loving Jesus & others time of year and yet, every year I feel like we get more judgmental.  Santa or no Santa, lots of gifts, just a few or no gifts at all, participate in elf on the shelf or don’t, advent or no advent…ummm, the list could go on and on.  Can’t we just accept that everyone is different…no two alike…and that families are all very different.  Who needs more judgement and feelings of inadequecy, I know I certainly don’t.  What works for one is not going to work for all.  Different strokes, for different folks.

*I just heard Huddy say to Sol “Oh stinkin’ jack balls.”  I just couldn’t not share this little tid bit.

*And lastly, I have a 4×12 Mumford and Sons canvas ready to ship.  $115 plus shipping.  Send me a message HERE if you are interested.  **CANVAS SOLD**

 

That’s it.  Hope your day has been grand.  Peace out.

Happy Wednesday.