*Harper isn’t feeling her best today.  My head is swirling with thoughts of strep or mono.  Hmmm.  We shall see this afternoon.  But for now were posted up on the couch…I’m working on my computer and she’s playing iPad games and watching movies.  The two littles are asleep.  This makes me want to say “Praise Jesus” because whew, an 18-month-old with a slight attitude is no joke.  But I digress.

*I have decided I’m going to start giving away flowers in all the pickle jars which are accumulating.  I feel like this is a pretty innovative idea.

*Amon pulled out an entire draw of silverware onto the floor in our kitchen today.  Let’s just say I’m afraid the drawer…which on first type I seriously spelled it droor 🙂 I need a nap…is unsalvageable.  This will make reason #13 as to why we need new kitchen cabinets.  Oy.

*I’m still putting along through Philippians which I LOVE!!!!  Today I got a little sidetracked and ended up back in Matthew for a bit, but so glad I did.  We talk A LOT in our house about the power in our words.  We need reminders.

*I’ve been thinking about dreads.  And ones wrapped in colorful yarn.  I feel like it’s inevitable once I get my brain really stuck on something.  Now who wants to learn how to dread.

*Our bed is still unmade for the day and it’s calling my name.  It’s all cold and shuffled like.  Perfect for a nap.

Josh & Laura Kelley Fun Fact #67:  We make our bed almost every single morning.  It makes me feel like our house is cleaner than it really is.  It also provides space to throw all the laundry.

*After picking everyone up at school the other day, we ran into Joanns.  I never let the kids get treats at check out because with 5 kids that adds up fast and even though I’m madly in love with sugar we really try to limit treats during the week and save them for the weekend, but this was their lucky day.  Joanns had tons of clearance checkout candy anywhere between .25-.50.  I told everyone they could choose one thing and you guys, they went crazy!  Hudson picked Wonka Randoms.  They’re these gummies and after he shared one with me and I heard all the kids reactions to them as they traded their candy with one another “I got a foot and an alarm clock” “I got a bicycle and trash can” I soooo wish I had bought them out.  They are the funniest shaped gummies ever.  Teapots, unicorns, palm trees, badminton birdies, a monkey’s face…so many hilarious things.  Wonka does it again.

*We’re at 22% of our playground goal.  This is exciting because that’s almost a 1/4 of the way there.  $16,250 is a lot of money, so every bit counts.  I’m going to continue to tell you about this sweet playground because it’s easy to lose the passion and fervor when you come home from a trip like this one…it’s easy to become distracted with life around us…but I’m determined to keep this fire stoked…to remember these awesome kids and these amazing people…this community which we have made a commitment to.  I just keep praying and asking God to do what only He can do.  Please consider making a tax deductible donation HERE towards the playground and consider sponsoring a kiddo or joining us on a trip.

*I’m going to make THESE really soon.  I’ve been thinking about them a lot lately.  I just re-read that last sentence and it made me a little sad…and embarrassed feeling.  #ivegotprobs

 *And I’ve been thinking about getting some workout tanks since some of my tees are full of holes.  I think these would do nicely.

Now I’m off to continue hanging on the couch!

Happy Thursday.

A little this and a little that today.  I try to prep some food ahead of time each Sunday.  Easy things like tuna, boiled eggs, pre washed veggies and fruits, baked chicken…just things to make day-to-dayness a little easier on everyone for lunches and dinners.  My new favorite protein punch are these crazy easy fish cakes.  They are sooooooo good!!!  I make a batch ahead of time just to have on hand for lunches or whatever.  And I never use lemon because I just never have a lemon.  Make them asap!

picture source

I’m going to attempt my first ever pot/crockpot of beans.  Ever.  I bought pinto and white beans.  I hear it’s crazy easy.  My mom use to tell me this and my MIL still tells me.  I’m going to finally act all adult like and make beans.  Grandeur is my life.

Lots of orders still coming up.  Thank you!!!  You keep my hands busy and my heart full.  More and more key fobs.

  So our Kroger is getting better.  On Friday I was feeling extra brave and let Amon push around one of those tiny shopping carts.  These are new to us and you would have thought he won the candy lottery or something.  And it might have been the cutest thing ever watching him push it up and down the aisles and load my groceries for me.  I died.

When we got home I ran to the restroom while he insisted he would put the groceries away for me.  Lately I feel like I can’t remember anything and it completely slipped my mind about Amon and the groceries…until I opened the refrigerator a few hours later.  Doesn’t everyone keep their cake mixes, vanilla and powdered sugar chilled?!?!?!  He’s a good one.

Amon and our littlest have been hiding in one of our kitchen cabinets.  It makes me laugh/annoys the fire out of me.  We don’t have a pantry so there’s food in that cabinet…including crushable food…like chips, popcorn, etc.  As I walked by I heard Amon whisper, “let’s eat popcorn.”

Solomon has always loved spicy food.  The spicier the better in his mind.  He loves peppers and jalapeños, but this weekend we discovered he’ll even eat them like an apple…which kind of grosses me out.  Geez I love this kid!

The other day Hudson and Solomon were totally twinning for school.  They dress themselves so I didn’t even notice until they got home that afternoon.  And then there was Solomon’s socks, necklace and Hudson’s hand around Sol’s shoulder which made this a keeper.

And I feel like I need to report Alissa and I did not get the treadmills this morning.  Outwitted by our worthy opponent again.  We win some, we lose some.  We did however do THIS workout instead with some Lorde blaring and a disco ball spinning and loved it!!!!  We used the squat rack for some added weight to squats and kettle bells with the lunges.  Kind of can’t wait to feel the pain tomorrow.

 Hope you guys have an amazing Monday! Here’s to a great week.

The big kids have been at school all day long.  The littles just haven’t known what to do with themselves.  It’s been wildly quiet, but still full of toddler drama.  Big praises to Jesus for working out my little Mother’s Day Out debacle…all is right in the world again and come next Wednesday I’m going to be like Mel Gibson from Braveheart “Freeeeedom”.

I would like to report I have eaten another cucumber.  This brings my cucumber consumption to 2.

Amon and I are still hammering pickles.  No pickle is safe.  We’re going through jar after jar.  Can someone really eat too many pickles anyways?!?!?!  I think not.

This Thursday, the 13th is our Timbali Crafts party.  I cannot even tell you how excited I am about this. Crazy, crazy excited.  All the goodness is too much to handle and behold.  Please come.  Please join us.  Please eat, drink and shop Timbali.  Message me HERE if you want more details.

Next Saturday, the 15th is August’s Bible Journaling class.  Again, the excitement is too much.  Seriously a favorite of each month.  I still have plenty of spots available so message me HERE if you are interested in grabbing one or two or eleven 🙂

I’ve been purging our house again.  It just happens out of no where and it feels like something is strangling me and the only cure is to throw out expired medicine, every McDonald’s toy in sight and go through every single drawer in our house.  Normal right?!?!?!

I’ve been looking for inexpensive ways to update our bathroom and by update I mean our bathtub doesn’t hold water and our vanity is literally shedding it’s weird plastic outside like a snake sheds it’s skin due to all the tiny feet which climb all over it and almost snap handles off.  Yikes.  Any suggestions?

My new favorite thing Amon says is “Can I have a egg hatch?”  We were like what is an egg hatch to which he revealed a boiled egg.  And now I will forever and always refer to boiled eggs as egg hatches!  I puffy heart him!

And it’s Friday so pretty sure we’re making a stop at Sonic.  Happy hour on Fridays…it’s school year tradition.

Happy Friday people!  Enjoy your weekend!!

Well I’m headed to Africa in just 2 short days.  Crazy, crazy, insanely excited.  I wish I could list out the supplies we are taking…it’s the wildest thing I’ve ever seen.   The list ranges from an essential oil diffuser to boxes of coco pebbles & fruit loops to bubble wands to first aid kits to indestructible soccer balls.  I’ve alerted everyone I will need a picture of all of us and all our bags.  You have been warned.

So as you can image things are wild around these parts.  And when things get wild, I tend to get weird…like weirder than normal.  It never fails when preparing for a trip with a list a mile long of things to accomplish, I always decide I need to start and finish some meaningless project.  Thank you Pinterest for my new DIY passport wallet obsession.  It’s a real thing people.  And I feel like this is when I should tell you I bought the leather from a discount bin from a shady chap with quite an impressive mustache.  Good stories contain details.

I did finish up my last custom order…and I kind of don’t want to let this 15×30 go.

I also snuck in another Gifter Project canvas.  I’m going to try and knock one more out before I hit the airways too, but we’ll see how that goes.

On Tuesday I did the best thing ever and paid the sweetest college girl in all the land to come to our house for like 5 whole hours while I ran the most ludicrous amount of errands ever.  You guys it was a long, long list.  I new I had made the greatest choice in young ladies when she sent me this picture:

I wish I could keep her forever!

In other sad news, it’s been raining for 2 days here and this means there has been no swimming in 2 days.  We’re all going through withdrawals.  Games, games, movies, iPad time, crafts, more games, more movies…it’s a vicious cycle.  And does anyone else loathe Monopoly?!?!?!

He kills me.  He’s my quirky child and I could not love it more.

I feel like every summer day deserves donuts!  It’s just fitting.

And yesterday I erased our chalkboard and put up a new one.  Josh Kelley is solo parenting while I’m gone.  He’s the dad who has to take off work or work from home while I’m gone, all the while wrangling this wild tribe of children.  I can honestly say we are equal co-parents…equal keeping the house up partners…he does his 1/2 and much more…lunches, dinners, baths, laundry, dishes, cleaning, you name it.  Parenting is hard and lately I keep running the fruits of the spirit through my head daily and I know my Kelleys staying behind, big & small, will need this reminder while I’m away as well…big & colorful.

 So that’s my random for today.  Thank you for stopping by and reading.  I’m grateful for you kind people!  Hope you have a great Thursday!

Tomorrow I’m going to have a bunch of 6×6 canvases posted for sale under my Currently Available tab at the top.  These are the originals…not pre-printed canvases.  Super colorful.  All handwritten lettering.  I’m excited.

I discovered broccoli salad at the store recently.  It’s just thinly sliced broccoli and carrots.  I love crunchy stuff so this has been fun to experiment with.  And by experiment I mean throw leftover and random items together and call it a day.  I did a broccoli salad taco bowl one day for lunch.  Leftover taco meat, broccoli salad, salsa and a few stray black beans.

And then yesterday things got really weird.  They’re like turkey soft tacos.  Anyways…turkey with some mustard, then broccoli salad with tomatoes and a little crumbled cheese on top.  It’s weird I know, but so so good.

If you have any broccoli salad recipes lay them on me.

In non broccoli salad news, I told them to make their strong faces.  Hudson looks like a wannabe wrestler…and Harper and Sol are trying not to smile.  I really like them.

I present to you the cutest soccer and baseball cheerleaders in all the land.  They are hilarious and a bit crazy town when a game kept us out until almost 9!!!  Everyone is typically in the bed by 7/7:30 at our house.  Our littlest lost her mind when I cut her off from the snacks.  We almost perished.

And I’ll end with this.  I posted this one on Instagram last week.  You can find me at pitterpatterart if you want to follow along.  To date it’s my most favorite picture of Amon.  This is totally him.  I wish you could all meet this quirky, wild child.  Instead of Ace, I’m changing his nickname to Captain.  It has to be done.

All the random thoughts for today right?!?!  I can’t keep a thought straight, so I just embrace it.  Thanks for stopping by and reading.  You guys make my day.  Seriously.  Thank you for being awesome and kind!  Here’s to a grand Wednesday!

1.  Crazy virus has been picking our kids off one by one.  No one is safe.

2.  In retaliation I made whoopie pies…and 2 buttermilk pies.  It’s just what I do…a coping mechanism if you will.

3.  The cuteness is TOO MUCH TO HANDLE!!!!!  Thick as thieves.  I can name about 6 Kelleys who are going to have a hard time seeing this little one go.

4.  There are still plenty of spots available for May’s Bible journaling class.  Check out the details and let me know if you want to join us.

5.  I love when I get texts from my kids teachers…especially when they contain pictures like this.  “The chameleon can shoot their tongue really far.”

Let me insert a hoorah for good teachers!  Our kids have the cream of the crop this year.  They are amazing.  I’m thankful they recognize hilarious kid writing when they see it and choose to document it for me.

6.  Lots of key fobs.  Lots of orders.  So close to having this current list wrapped up.  Thank you forever and always for ordering items.  I adore my job.  It’s a privilege.

7.  I’ve been testing out my new No. 41 headband and I love it.  Headbands are serious business for me as a runner.  I’ve got no time for headbands which won’t stay in place or come off easily.  I was skeptical at first, but after weeks of running in this one, I have given it my official thumbs up.  And it’s a giant extra plus when the company is doing their part to help change the world like No. 41 is.  Check them out.  They carry lots of other items besides headbands.

 8.  Meg shared Jen Hatmaker’s recent sermon Disciples Disciple and I’ve listened to it twice already.  It is so so flippin’ good.  Everyone should listen.  Loved every last stitch of this and she just presents it perfectly.  Josh Kelley listened to it as well and has been passing it along too.  So good.

And 9.  I’ll leave you with this gem.  My friend Marcie and I took it upon ourselves to try and reenact all the emoji faces.  Yes you read that right.  Yes it is a gift that only God himself could have given us.  This was my favorite and I did ask her permission to share.  #yourewelcome

I feel like she really nailed it.

Happy Wednesday people!