It’s What I Do

It’s kind of been a few days since I totally went on a random tangent.  You missed my completely unrelated random rants didn’t you?!??!  Well be disappointed no more.

I am so flippin’ tired.  I have been hitting the bed in the wee hours of the morning all for the sake of orders.  I sent a sweet customer an email 6 nights ago and told her it may be about 3 weeks before I have her order completed…I finished it last night.  Yeah, super late nights people, but way productive.  Courtney got this picture yesterday morning titled “Well, I’m tired.”  I’m determined to get this order list dwindled down.  #cantstopwontstop

4th of July is one of my favorite holidays.  Not quite up there with Halloween and the birth of Jesus, but close.  It’s the sparklers and the tradition of going out on canoes to watch fireworks.  Gets me every time.

photo cred to my FIL for that little canoe beauty^

2-year-olds + old school life jackets = totes adorbs.  (I’ve learned this lingo from my nephew…totes=totally…adorbs=adorable…you’re welcome)

We’re swimaholics.  Addicted.  It’s bad.  I don’t even want to think about school starting.  How will we survive.  We’re pool/water feans.  Over the top.  And I love it.  Every part of it.  Except when Amon poops in a swim diaper…holy crap…literally.  #cantstopwontstop…again

Hudson and Solomon got haircuts.  Hudson got a free cut at the Nashville Sounds game behind the right field wall.  That’s normal right?!?!  I took Sol in for a fresh short summer cut from Mr. Jesse at the barber shop.  I think shorter haircuts allows for an even longer time frame between baths.  No?!?!

I’m taking a 2 week break from running.  I haven’t taken that long off in over 2 years, but it feels good to give my legs and knees a bit of a break.  I’ve subbed in some at home workouts which draw quite the crowd every single time.

More legos.  All.The.Time.  All.Day.Long.

Hudson is straight up Emmet from The LEgo Movie.  His little personality, his kind heart, how he says awesome all the time about everything, super excitable and he’s totally a master builder.  The kid is crazy.  He just sits down, dreams something up and then voila…he creates it.  Love his little mind.

And baseball.  Another all day, every day activity.  We’re immersed and I am totally okay with it.  We finally had our first big “indoor baseball” casualty.  I’m actually surprised we went as long as we did, but finally my big photo of Amon hanging in our living room got beaned by a line drive and fell crashing to the ground.  It was a sad day, but we pressed on and I shockingly did not ban indoor baseball…it’s just too much fun to do that.

Random posts…completely unrelated and in no way flows together.  It’s what I do!

Happy Thursday!

Happy Wednesday!

*Let’s talk sonic slushes or drinks briefly…anyone have any really good combinations?  Right now I am totally diggin’ the super peach ring and regular peach slush.  If I had to choose one for my last slush…similar to last supper… I would be forced to go with regular peach.  It is just so yummy.  Anyone got any good combos that involve peach?  Unfortunately I am not a tea drinker.  I know, that makes me practically not southern.

*We wrapped up our first baseball season Monday night.  This was a highlight in my world of parenting boys so far.  I loved it.  They loved it.  We all loved it.  They had the sweetest team and it was so much fun cheering them all on.  Solomon had two jerseys and on both his name was spelled wrong…this is a goal for next season…get the printers to spell his name right.  I can’t wait for the next season.  And seriously, I mean, Hudson in full on catcher gear…I die.

*Target has the most amazing new candles right now.  Amon and I spent a good 5 minutes today smelling all of them.  I’m not a big smelly candle person, but fun Josh Kelley fact:  He loves good smelling candles.  My mom knew this about him and would randomly bring him smelly candles.  I still love that.  Anyways, the ones at Target are crazy yummy smelling…bubble gum, cotton candy, lemon drop, watermelon something…every single one smells awesome.  And I found the cutest napkins in the history of cute napkins.

*Harper has been gone most of the week with Josh’s family…they’re on vacation.  We had too much therapy and other appointments and Josh has been working out of town so we couldn’t make it.  I miss her.  The boys and I have been living it up though.  Happy hour everyday…the park…VBS…movie nights…swimming.  Still miss her.  Can’t wait to have her back home.

*We got Peter Pan at the library and I’ve never heard Hudson laugh so hard…full on uncontrollable, no volume control cackling.  All the while, Solomon sat there straight faced staring at the screen, not even cracking a smile…as if he was thinking, “This is so unrealistic.  A crocodile with a ticking clock in his stomach would never chase a pirate across the water nipping at his bottom.”  They have been this way since they were teeny tiny…Hudson just dies with laughter over movies, Solomon the total realist.  It always cracks me up.

*And we went to our local public pool for our first time ever.  Not sure if we’ll ever venture back.  It was full on crazy town.  Kids every where.  I got ran over by multiple children…splashed in the face…jumped on top of…someone snatched up Sol’s paddle board and I had to fight the little girl to get it back…I won.  It was hilariously awful.  There were so many kids the boys spent the majority of their time on the sidelines.  We did thoroughly enjoy this one adult dude who put on a full on diving board show for all the kids during adult swim…cannonballs, flips, jackknifes and so many, many more.  Kudos to him.  We loved it.

Amon=total goob.

Solomon too!

That wraps it up.  I think I’m still recovering from my Craft Weekend hangover.  It’s a real thing 🙂

Hope you all are having a great week.

Happy Wednesday!

Doing What I Do Best

Rambling.  It’s what I’m good at.  I should probably become a more focussed blogger.  Really hone in on something deep and enlightening.  Gosh.  I’m entirely too scatter brained to do something like that.  And throw in a good long weekend with extra Josh Kelley around and I’m all kinds of thrown off…in the best kind of way.  I heart extra long weekends.

So when your mind is in disarray…when all else fails to make much sense in your brain…when you’re recovering from a long weekend…the infamous instgram post will have to do.  Are you on instagram?  You can find me at pitterpatterart.

Crafting on our patio is one of my most favorite things…especially when I don’t have to drag out a lot of supplies and there is baseball practice going on in the background.

We’ve decided to change their names to Beavis and Butthead.  Aaaaaand I just totally cracked myself up.  #teepeeformybunghole  (You didn’t realize you were going to be getting so much profanity today did you?!?!?!)

Tea time is totally legit with this guy.  Tea is no joke with him.  Until he dumps the entire pot of water out all over himself.

Running is still going good.  I’ve been doing lots of interval training to increase my speed.  April was a big 70+ mile month which was great to hit.  And May has been cray so I’ll be glad to hit 50.  Anyone else do interval training and want to share their plan?  I’d love to see what you’re up to.

This is so grainy, but it’s an Amon sleeping picture, so of course, I love it.  He was sitting in my lap while I was cutting fabric and then bam!  Just like that.  Out.

This girl is in full summer break swing.  Sleeping late.  Soaking it up.  Just enjoying herself.  I do think the boys are already grating on her nerves a bit though 🙂

And we’ve been frequenting the park.  Bikes.  Hikes. Running.  Picnics.  Playgrounds.  Basketball goals.  Water fountains.  Unafraid squirrels.  Honeysuckle slurping.  Summer is the best.

So maybe tomorrow I’ll do better…a little more focussed.  Maybe not 🙂

Hope your weekend was long and good too.  Happy Tuesday!

It’s Finally Here

Summer.  Sweet, sweet summer.  I need to write a complete ode to you.  I want to kiss your face off.  Show you public displays of affection.  Put my hand in your back pocket  while we stroll through the mall.  It’s true.  I adore you and I want the world to know.  Let’s make it official and get airbrushed t-shirts.

Today is our first legit, official day of summer.  Harper finished yesterday and this morning we’re doing crazy fun things like…oh, well, nothing.  Nothing I tell you.  Nothing.  And it’s glorious.  We’re taking it easy.  I didn’t have to get up at 4:30-redonkulous-a.m. to run.  There was no packing of any lunches.  No rush.  No hurry.  Just full on chillaxedness.  And A) I actually did my devotional this morning and B) with Harper laying in my arm pit.  It was nice.

We’ve got nothing serious on our agenda.  We may go ride bikes at the park.  Or just play at the playground.  Who knows.  The world is at our finger tips.  We just may get super crazy and do both.

I’ve got grilled hamburgers, homemade fries and spinach salsa salad on the menu for dinner.  And we may even enjoy a dessert at the ball park while we watch our favorite Full Count guys play some ball.

It’s here.  It’s really here.  My heart already feels a little lighter.  Although our summer is going to be full and big and fun, we just have a more weightless feel to us when we’re in the easy swing of summer.  Late nights and late mornings.  Swimming and park playing and movie watching and wave pool rocking.  Ice cream and cereal for dinner and momentarily cookie making.  Tans and pruney toes.  Wet hair and flip flops or straight up bare feet.  Nothing really too pressing because it feels like we’ve got all the time in the world.  Longer, slower days.

  Yes, Summer you are my new jam.  I think we will get along quite nicely.

Happy Thursday!

Wrestling

Lately my mind has been overwhelmed with wrestling different thoughts and ideas.  Don’t you wish God wrote out His desires clean and clear in the sky…that there was no questioning or trying to figure out…that you just knew exactly what He wanted.  My heart is stewing big time and I’m having a hard time putting it to sleep at night.  Sometimes I feel like you can look at a subject from a million different directions and still not know what to do…or the right or the wrong…or maybe there is some gray areas every now and then.

We want our kids to know about injustice and I want them to be world changers and not entitled and I want them to care for others and love God passionately.  How do we go about teaching them and training them in this way?  What are God’s deep desires in this area for His children?  I want to enable them when ideas pour into their little minds.  Harper recently decided she wanted to help with a project we’re going to start soon to help raise money to purchase tables and chairs for Ngungwane…our care point in Swaziland.  I laid in bed and listened as she emptied her thoughts out onto my listening ears.  I really liked what I heard and I encouraged her to think about her talents and how God could use her.  She decided she would make art 🙂 Of course she did.  So we’re working on that.  We want our kids to know without any doubt that God can use them…at any age…in any place…however He wants.

I’m wrestling hard with Proverbs 30:7-9.  So many big swirling thoughts.

“Two things I ask of you, Lord;
    do not refuse me before I die:
Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
    give me neither poverty nor riches,
    but give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
    and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
    and so dishonor the name of my God.”

Desires are growing deeper and deeper that we must “go”.  I am hopeful I will make it back to Africa this year and maybe even a few other places.  How put out would you be if I called you up and asked you to watch 4 small children for an entire week?  What if I brought snacks?  And maybe a Kroger gift card?  Would you prefer cash instead?  What about cookies?  And maybe an entire gated area to put Amon in?  Would that make it easier for you to even consider our request 🙂

I have craft classes Friday and Saturday this week and as I prepare I find my heart stirring about what could come of these.  What could God do with a small group of random women crafting for a few hours each week?  What could He do with me…if I were completely willing and ready to give on so many different levels?  What could He do?  And the anticipation rises fast and hard and my heart swells just a little bit more.

And I’m reading this book and and holy crap.  Talk about wrestling thoughts…this book in insanely good and I just started it.  It has one of the best descriptions of grief I’ve ever heard…that when you lose someone who so deeply impacted your every single day life, it’s like you’ve been crippled.  You will learn to walk again, but you will always have a limp.  It also talks about so many other challenging things…things that make you want to change and move and act and that simply make you think…and hard.  So far…I highly recommend it.  I may have just purchased more copies to give away.

I know God is always working and moving.  I know He’s always leading us and stirring our hearts to love Him and others.  I know sometimes He just wants us to make a choice and act…to take a chance on Him and faith.

Happy Wednesday.

InstaBoys

My boys have been filling my Instagram feed lately.  I’m around them pretty much all the time, so it’s so easy to do.  And throw in how hilariously nutso and cute they are and yeah, Kelley boys for days.  You can find me at pitterpatterart.

Amon is still randomly sleeping.  I’m kind of wondering when he’s going to move on or grow out of this.  I’ll be a little sad when he does.  It’s just so funny.

After Mom died my Aunt Linda sent us these giant Mom/Grammy buttons.  Solomon and Hudson actually still wear theres pretty regularly.  Nothing like some Grammy flair to adorn your outfit for the day.

I’m currently working on a 24×36 custom canvas order and Amon was the best co-supply shopper around when preparing for the task.  Josh and I jokingly ask each other pretty often, “You think he’s happy?”

We’re doing better at this whole bathing your kid thing.  And Harper is always keeping us in check which is very helpful.  Sometimes I get a day behind, but we’re getting good at Wednesday/Saturday baths.  I know you guys are always on the look out for bath updates 🙂

The other day I heard a very calm “Ow.” over and over and over again coming from our bathroom.  And this is what I found.  And, voila, we have a new word.  #Amonspeaks

My kids draw all the time.  And I truly love it.  Hudson has been on a knight kick lately.  When I saw this, so many, many things came flooding into my mind.  A) Wow, that guy didn’t have a chance.  B) Look at the gushing blood.  C) I’ve never seen knights shaped like that before.  D)  Do my boys need an anatomy lesson?  and E)  Should we be worried?!?!

And nothing like a Star Wars Captain Rex diaper-only toddler child at 7am.  The force has always been very strong with this one.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and an awesome Friday.  See you Monday!

Run On Sentence

Today is one for skipping my run for extra sleep and watercoloring Valentines and Thursday Sonic happy hour and candy birthday treat bags and accepting closed doors and a long toddler nap and extra snuggles and starting new orders and Muffins with Mom and catching up on Parenthood and a long much needed call with Ashley and replying to emails and building card towers and a cancelled date night due to dang germs and $1.29 Lunchable dinners for kids and take out dinner for the adults and pillow & blanket forts and early bed times and fun birthday mail and pretty fabric buying and blogging at 5pm due to the craziness of the day.  And now the sun is setting and I’m looking forward to hitting my pillow.  It was a good, full day.

Happy Thursday!

This, That & That.

The internet is a funny thing to me.  It can be used for so many bad and hurtful things and yet it can also be used for so much good.  It can build relationships and bridge gaps and make strangers feel like long time friends.  I am so thankful for your kindness yesterday.  I’m so thankful for the sweet and thoughtful emails.  I am so thankful for the sincere and thoughtful words.  I wrote yesterday’s post because I knew someone out there could relate.  You could relate to the actual situation with your own child or a friend’s child or you could relate to the deep unwanted feeling of defeat and doubt.  I just new someone would be able to read my words and realize they are not alone in whatever struggle they face.  I needed to remind myself of God’s goodness.  I love the community the internet can build.  Thank you for being such a genuine and loving community.  It’s really something quite amazing to watch.

In other random news that is not so gushy…Remember the Shake That Does NOT Taste Like A Wendy’s Frosty recipe I shared with you?  Remember how I bet my kids would still eat it because it resembled chocolate ice-cream?  Yeah, well, I was totally wrong.  First, I totally forgot it had peanut butter in it and right before serving it to Hudson…my highly allergic to peanut butter kid…I remembered.  Harper and Sol gave it a good attempt, but they both bailed really quickly.  It was too bad even for my kids.  Geesh.

Lots of you shared recipes in the comments and through email and I am thrilled to give them all a shot.  I’ll let you know when we have a home run in the meal department.  Thank you for sharing.  My cousin Amy gave me a recipe for no-bake protein balls and then I found this recipe on Pinterest.  I ended up taking Amy’s recipe and the one I found and intermingling them.  Here’s what I went with:  1/2 c peanut butter, 1/3 cup honey and 1/2 tsp vanilla mixed together.  Then I added 1 cup oats, 1/2 cup chocolate chips and 1/3 cup ground flaxseeds.  I also did a batch where I used sun butter instead of peanut butter and used whole flax seeds instead of ground.  Everyone devoured both minus Huddy, who was a little freaked out by the overwhelming peanut butter smell.  He was convinced I was giving him peanut butter.  Amon was a protein ball fein…he was jonesen bad after he had a few bites and was ticked when I cut him off.

Josh Kelley claimed they tasted very similar to a Reeces cup.  I do think they get even better after they are balled up and sit out for a bit.  They are truly yummy.  I was completely pleasantly surprised.

I’m also still working on orders and still open for new orders.  I’m excited to start some new orders today and some canvases for a sale.  These camera straps are completed and headed to their new owners here in Tennessee and Alabama.  Thank you so much Kristy and Casey.  So appreciative for all you crazy kind people who are ordering.

 

 

And lastly, we got some new pictures of the kids from the amazingly talented Cheyenne from Shots by Cheyenne.  She never ceases to amaze me by the beautiful way she captures the ‘us’ in our family.  It’s lovely and I’m so thankful for the images she captured.  I could barely narrow down the selection to just these, so excuse the excess of Kelley kid photos.  I clearly cannot help myself.

Cheyenne is crazy good right?  Totally.  Thank you again Cheyenne.  As always I am completely over the moon.

And that’s that.  I’ve got a busy day with a certain small ace of hearts and lots of work which needs to be started and completed.  And I’ve got a hot date tonight.  I think it’s going to be a pretty grand day.

Happy Thursday!