August 15, 2014 By 2 Comments

Friday’s Ramble

Amon and I just got home from dropping the big kids off at school.  So far we are loving our new school home.  God keeps confirming in our hearts this is in fact the place for us at this time.  We did have one minor set back in a not so kind worded lady in the lunchroom, but that’s life, so we’re all working through the drama.  A firm reminder to all of us how important our words are…once they have left our mouths we cannot take them back so will we choose to build people up or tear people down?!?!  A good reminder for all of us…children and parents alike.

With the absence of the big kids during our days the house is so quiet.  And honestly Amon is a little lonely.  He spends the first 10 minutes of our return home just wandering around asking where Harper, Hudson and Solomon are.  It’s adorable and pitiful all smashed together.

This morning I get to blog like this:

He misses them.

On the blog agenda for today is simply instagram pictures.  My mind is a little all over the place with a million and one thoughts, so I’m going mindless and simple for today.  Do you have instagram?  Want to follow along?  You can find me at pitterpatterart.

Side Note:   In the time I wrote the above paragraph Amon asked 10 times over, “Dat?” pointing to his own picture.  I replied answering each time the same, “That’s Amon.”  To which he replied with, “Ohhhhhhhh.”  Shocker.  End Side Note.

Okay, back to the task at hand.  Have you guys heard of ACuppaKim‘s mug swap?  If not, you’re missing out.  I didn’t sign up in time last year, so this year I was on it and made it in.  So excited.  I got my mug purchased along with some fun goodies to go with it, packaged and all mailed off this week.  Crossing all fingers and toes my mug makes it in one piece.  I bubble wrapped and added crinkle paper and wrote “fragile” 8 times around the box.  I’m a bit hopeful.

We’re a game family.  Our top games currently are Jenga, Uno, Mancala and Mr. Mouth.  Josh Kelley and myself may be accidentally passing on our competitive nature.

Anytime we have the opportunity to get together with our friends to celebrate anything with no children around is kind of a great night.  I love our kids and I love our friends kids, but I love when we get to talk and connect just us adults…even better as couples.  Last weekend we celebrated the soon arrival of baby Olive with a little couples dinner party.  Adults only.  It was straight up divine.  And our friends Jason and Jessica’s house is amazing!

Tall trees.  Comfy oversized quilt.  Ice cream cones.  And school talk.  Perfection of an afternoon.

These two are killing my heart lately with all their grown-upness.  They are my two most favorite 5-year-olds in all the world.

Have you seen the new Noonday fall line?  Wowzers.  Love it.  I now have a long list of purchases I will be needing to make.  If you want to order something head over to my best friend Ashley’s page and check out the new collection.  She is one rockin’ Noonday ambassador.

Also I’m having a Noonday party in September.  More details to come, but it’s going to be awesome.  Ashley’s driving in from Florida to host my party and is also hosting some more parties for other ladies while she’s in town.  If you’re a local Nashvillian and want to host a party where woman can purchase amazing goods to help empower woman around the world Ashley will be here the 2nd week in September.  Ashley is your girl.  The sweetest.  The nicest.  The most fun and sincere.  The best.  Or if you are a Floridian and want to host a party (depending on where you live in Florida) Ashley is your girl too.  The sweetest.  The nicest.  The most fun and sincere.  The best.  Do you feel the love I have for this lady?!?!?  Do you feel the love I have for this company?!?!?  They are both the real deal, super legit, total world changers.  Shoot her an email at ashleymills.noonday at gmail dot com if you are interested.

And oh the home changes and prep we have been doing around the Kelley casa.  We’re sitting tight, loving on our house and being open to whatever God has planned for us…all 6 of us.  I have had the greatest peace and assurance and have been frequenting Home Depot.  It’s my current home prep jam and the Kelley kids dig it too.

Hope everyone has a crazy good Friday and a wonderful weekend.  Enjoy it.  Peace out!

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August 13, 2014 By Leave a Comment

7 Things

Let’s discuss:

1.  Last night I saw this shirt pinned on Pinterest and laughed so hard I cried.  I think it’s because I can relate.  Totally.

2.  While on the subject of Pinterest, my friend Miranda sent me this recipe she found and come on now…chocolate chip cookies and salty potato chips…hold up.  I had to try them.  They were decent, but not my fave.  I mean, there’s not many chocolate chip cookies I’d pass up anyways and I wouldn’t pass these up either, but I had super high hopes, so in the end they were a little disappointing.

3.  Sticking with the theme…I found these Greek Yogurt Zucchini Pancakes last night as well and now I must try them.  Seriously.  Zucchini in our pancakes…we shall see.  I really hope they are deliciously wonderful.

(picture source)

4.  A little bit of work completed.  12×24 Olive canvas and a 4×12 Isaiah 46:4 canvas.  I have some name pillows and buntings to complete this week…if only I could get my back to stop hurting.  Dang you hurt back!  I’m still taking orders, so shoot me a message HERE if you are interested.

5.  You guys this devotional is rocking my world.  LOVE IT…like BIG TIME.  Thanks Meg!

6.  When Harper asks me to craft with her I hate to tell her no, so we usually end up looking around via the internet for easy ideas.  This was one we found and voila…easy craftiness for my crafty, artistic loving child.  So easy.  So cute.  She made a gazillion pictures.

And 7.  Amon had a cardiologist appointment this week and there is nothing quite better than a good report, especially when your cardiologist momentarily scares the crap out of you and they have to do some extra testing only to reveal everything is a-okay after all.  Yah for thorough doctors and good appointments and 5 Guys to celebrate afterwards.  #wordup

7 things.  Boom.

Happy Wednesday!

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August 1, 2014 By 3 Comments

Hi!

Ca-ra-zy week!  Happiest of Friday nights.

We are currently sitting on our couch…our new couch…which I still want to make out with.

It’s so dreamy.  And Josh Kelley’s old man black socks, what can I say.

Speaking of our couch, currently we are a two couch family.  It’s driving us crazy, but the kids think it’s Uhh-mazing.  It’s not.  My OCD self was not meant for two couches…ever.  Unfortunately no one wants our dirty couch…even when it’s free…even when I say things like, “…but it has good bones.”

Let’s see.  Bunk bed assembly is 2 for 3…only one left to get put up.  Hudson and Solomon decided they would both sleep together on the top bunk their first night.  Harper has been rotating between her top and bottom bunk…giving them both a shot.

We got school uniforms this week and I just cannot even stand how crazy profesh my kids look.  I mean seriously, they were made for uniforms.  The boys are like small little men.  They own no collared shirts and they both really liked them and asked to wear them the rest of the day.

And Sol’s faces…I can’t even.

This week I found Amon under our kitchen table licking dried rainbow sherbet off the floor.  Sadly I did not stop him.  I took plenty of pictures, enjoyed a good laugh and called the big kids to come and see.  They laughed hysterically too.

The big kids are rockin’ their chores.  Today they worked together and filled the back of Josh’s truck full of Ikea cardboard.  It was a lot.  And it was pretty dang cute watching them work.

These pictures of Solomon and his Big Daddy are just too sweet.  They were both in the peanut cracking zone…working hard and so focussed.

Side Note:  Solomon has been wearing his Ethiopian wrist bands non-stop…and I love it.

And today Amon got a hair cut.  It was a hellish hair cut.  It involved me holding him down in a very tight death grip and him screaming like a crazy person for a solid 15 minutes, but my friend Brooke worked her magic and got us in and out in no time.  And I looooove his sweet little cut.

So I know, a pretty crazy Friday night around the Kelley house.  Excited for the weekend.  Hope you guys have a good weekend.

Happy Friday!

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July 28, 2014 By 4 Comments

This Monday Is Our Jam

Well we are officially done with whatever sickness funk we had.  Today we spent almost the entire day out running errands…going to speech therapy, getting our last random school supplies, going to the library and a gazillion other things.  Harper’s exact words about our millions of errands, “Ahhhh, it’s good to be out of the house again.”  Amen little lady.  Amen.

Side Note: Both Hudson and Solomon needed 8, yes 8, boxes of 24 count crayons.  Holy cow.  Apparently they are going to be doing some legit coloring this year in kindergarten.  End side note.

Our weekend was spent hanging around…zero commitments…and getting well.  Lots of resting and taking it easy.  It was genuinely nice.  Playing games and taking naps.  Sunday came and I was feeling so much better and Hudson, who was the last to get sick, was going on 48 hours of no fever.  So what does any normal human adult being decide to do…paint a room.

We have bunk bed assembly starting this week and I have been wanting to paint Harper’s room for a while now.  Josh Kelley obliged and started patching a thousand tiny holes in her walls…and a few rather large ones.  I’m really good and putting holes in walls.  Thanks to some friends who took on 4 small Kelleys for a few hours, we almost knocked the whole paint job out and I finished the last bit today.

I’m excited for this week.  It’s going to be far better than last week, that’s for sure.  It’s our last full week before school starts and Friday we’re meeting teachers.  I have made lofty plans for this to be a dang good week.  Really really exciting.  Today we rocked errands, but slipped in a library trip and a chickfila picnic.

Our house is currently a wreck…full on tornado disaster mode.  Cleanup commences very soon.  It has to.  My OCD mind is going nutso every time I pass by a pile of something that belongs somewhere else.  And you cannot see our kitchen counter.

Unfortunately I just cannot pry myself off the couch with these three just yet.  Amon is napping and were eating Peppermint Patties out of the fridge and watching Swiss Family Robinson.  It’s pretty swoony…disaster house and all.

I hope you each had a wonderful weekend and have an encouraging week.  Mondays can be bummers some weeks, but not this Monday.  This Monday is our jam!

Happy Day!

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July 10, 2014 By 2 Comments

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!

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June 25, 2014 By 6 Comments

Currently…

Listening:  Birds of Tokyo.  I am digging their recent EP album Lanterns.  So good.  So much to sing along with.

Eating:  Apple and almond butter because life is so much better with any kind of nut butter.  Although I do wish I was eating these Chocolate Chip Cookies again.  Harper made them for a party we went to this past weekend and honestly, I’m just not sure there’s anything better than a really good homemade chocolate chip cookie.

Drinking:  Water.  All the time.  I have a giant Bubba cup my SIL Becky gave me and it’s become an extension of my body.  It goes just about everywhere with me.  I shoot for a gallon of water a day.  I also totally dig Spark.  Right now orange is my favorite and fruit punch in Josh Kelley’s favorite.  Around 3 o’clock everyday you can find me mixing one up and pouring it over ice in my ginormous cup.  These are survival tips people 🙂

Wearing:  Sweats.  With an unshowered body and 3-days-since-it’s-been-washed hair.  #noshame

Feeling:  Overwhelmed.  We are in the strangest season of life right now and I feel like we’re on the verge of crazy good stuff, but then nothing happens.  Nothing seems clear.  Everything is cloudy and we’re unsure of every step we think we’re taking forward.  And I may or may not have had an intense conversation with God where I begged and pleaded and demanded He just do something…just something to let me know He was still there.  And I still feel confident in our relationship…His love for me…because one thing I love about Jesus is He is big enough to handle and love my entire self…the bad, the doubts, the mistakes…me and all my crap.

Wanting:  To feel settled and confident in where God is leading our family.

Needing:  To work.  I have orders which need to be completed and started.  Thank you notes to write.  Key fobs to make up.  Emails to send and reply to.  My house = a hot mess.  There will always be a list a mile long won’t there?!?!?!  But instead we swim…almost every day.  We are legit pool hoppers.  Going from one pool to the other to the other and soon I’ll be sending off a 2nd grader and 2 kindergarteners.  Time is flying.

Thinking:  I recently finished reading Tattoos On The Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion.  Please read this.  There is some swearing in the book, but it is filled to the brim with love and Jesus and compassion and will challenge you…at least it did me.  It pushed my thoughts to the very edge and made my heart stir and my mind think and I cannot kick it out of my thoughts just yet.  I think it’s taken up residence for a bit.

“No daylight to separate us.  Only kinship.  Inching ourselves closer to creating a community of kinship such that God might recognize it.  Soon we imagine, with God, the circle of compassion.  Then we imagine no one standing outside of that circle, moving ourselves closer to the margins so that the margins themselves will be erased.  We stand there with those whose dignity has been denied.  We locate ourselves with the poor and the powerless and the voiceless.  At the edges, we join the easily despised and the readily left out.  We stand with the demonized so that the demonizing will stop.  We situate ourselves right next to the disposable so that the day will come when we stop throwing people away.  The prophet Habakuk writes:  “The vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment and it will not disappoint…and if it delays, wait for it”  Kinship is what God presses us on to, always hopeful that its time has come.” Gregory Boyle Tattoos on the Heart

Enjoying:  This picture of Amon.  He woke up from his nap the other day, walked down stairs and Harper, Sol, Hudson and I just stared at him.  His hair.  What exactly had happened during nap time?!?!  Comments that followed his arrival downstairs: “What’s wrong with his hair?”  “His hair is so…uh…tall.”  “How did his hair do that.”  I personally felt he looked exactly like Kramer from Seinfeld.

Enjoy the rest of your day.  Thank you for stopping by and reading.  I totally and completely appreciate you!  See you guys tomorrow.

Happy Wednesday!

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June 4, 2014 By 2 Comments

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!

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May 14, 2014 By 7 Comments

Nine.

1.  This kid right here I’m afraid is going to go into full on depression when school ends.  I know summer will be far too fun for her and all of us, but she really does love Ms. Flowers and all her friends.  Yesterday she cried when I picked her up from school.  The end is sinking in.

2.  Want to thank your teacher for an amazing year?  Here’s my suggestion…collect money from all the parents in your class…any amount they want to give…then washi tape it to some twine and throw in a bunch of fun cards, ribbon, baby pom pom and fabric.  Hang it in their room as a little encouraging thank you.

3.  This guy, oh this little guy right here, although adorable & small, he is fierce.  Aaaaaaand I may have signed him up for summer Mother’s Day Out…and I feel zero remorse or regret or guilt.  Two days a week for 6 weeks this summer, me and the big kids will be living it up.  You may find us at the wave pool or the movies or the bar.  I’m just kidding about the bar part.

4.  I signed Hudson up for his first kids triathlon.  Harper wasn’t game and Solomon wasn’t old enough, but Hudson, well he was all in from the get go.  As I was reading him the details, Me:  “You have to bike 3 miles.”  Hudson:  “Oh I can bike all day long.”  He is all in.  Totally.  And the fact that there is free snacks and ice-cream at the end did not hurt one little bit.  Food may be one of his love languages.

5.  They called it “Catch Ball”.  Protective eye gear was required.

5.  New projects are fun projects.  It’s hard for me to venture out of my comfort zone…to try new mediums and new processes…but I am finding it is usually always very much worth it.  Me and a hand jigsaw have been getting to know one another.

6.  They’re love for each other is ridiculous.  I just can’t even talk about it.  #gettingallverklempt

7.  Potty training is coming along…slowly!  Slowly, but surely.  Very very slowly.  The whole communication thing is hanging us up a bit more than I thought it would.  I thought we’d kick it in the teeth, but it seems to be kicking us in the teeth instead.  Goh.  Any tips on potty training an adorably speech delayed toddler?!?!?

8.  Speaking of speech.  Amon and I have the following conversation Every.Single.Day.

Amon:  Momma, uhhh Daddy?

Me:  Daddy is at work.

Amon:  Momma, uhhh Hapa?

Me:  Harper is at school.

Amon:  Momma, uhhh Uddy?

Me:  Huddy is upstairs playing legos.

Amon:  Momma, uhhh Tol?

Me:  Sol is playing with Huddy.

Amon:  Momma, uhhh Daddy?

Repeat again, again and again.  All day long.  And I totally love it…until I go semi crazy for a short period of time.

And 9.  Why can’t every day be filled with sprinkle pancakes and colorful slushies?  Why can’t it be?!?!?!?!

Hope you guys have a great day.  Happy Wednesday!

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