January 22, 2016 By Leave a Comment

Whoa Nelly!

Well we’re rocking another snow day, but this is no ordinary snow day for us.  We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland and it’s seriously snowed all day long.  I just took our most recent measurement.  Whoa Nelly!  That’s a lot of snow for Tennesseans.

I can’t remember ever getting this much snow.  Ever.  We have been living it up.  Josh Kelley is home and we’ve bounced between outside and inside to let our clothes dry all day long.

This snow is the good stuff.  Super easy to pack.  Great for snowballs and snow forts.  Sticks to your gloves.  Sticks to everything.  Easy to munch.  Super thick.  The kind of snow kids dreams of.

Josh and Hudson attempted building the Hoth rebel base.  Then our nephew Coop and his friends came over and these turned into the BEST giant snowballs for a fight.  We don’t kid around!!!!

Cookies have been made and consumed.  Popcorn snacking.  Shows going most of the day for warming up inside.  Lego playing.  Crosswords, word searches and mazes.  The dryer has been working over time…non-stop…all day long.  Tent building.  IPad time.  The whole 9 yards.

We took our current littlest out and almost lost her 🙂  Pink pants and pink boots for the win.  She loved it for a grand total of 15 minutes.

Mountain bikes we brought out.  Crazy high, thick snow meant Josh Kelley was the only successful biker.  Solomon gave it his best though.

I’m still working on my hot drink relationship.  Another tea.  This time black cherry and I was pleasantly surprised.

And this!!!  I read this passage and just cried like a baby.  We are chosen and then called out of our darkness and into not just any light, but His marvelous light.  Then mercy, boat loads of mercy.  Totally kills me.

1 Peter 2:9-10 ESV  “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

What a week.  I didn’t give it my best.  I had a piss pour attitude the majority of it, but I felt His mercy today.  I felt the love big time today and basked in His light.  It was a crazy good day.  Here’s to a snowed in kind of weekend.

Happy Friday!

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March 5, 2015 By 4 Comments

Important Things

Today is our one millionth snow day.  Tomorrow will make one million and one.  Sigh.  I feel like I’ve been pretty inconsistent around these parts lately, but honestly I just don’t really know what to type.  I feel like I don’t have much to offer you sweet people.  All my feelings are wild and crazy and swirly and sometimes I feel like I just can’t put my thoughts into words.  So on those days I’ve chosen just to sit tight and let the day slip by without typing.  I wish I had the words.  I like blogging.  I like you kind people.

I will tell you my tooth saga still has not ended.  I braved the snowmageddon weather here in Tennessee just to put a final end to my crazy tooth journey only to get there and find out yet again, this dang crown does not fit.  To make myself feel better I ventured into the super Target I never get to go to and knocked out all kinds of snowpacalypse grocery shopping which needed to be done.

Too Many Snow Days Fact #3:  When our kids have all these dang snow days our grocery budget is blown for the month.  They eat breakfast and several lunches during the week at school…for free.  Soooooo, no school means give them all the food of the world.  Budget shot.

The other day I made something super glorious.  Double THIS recipe, but instead of all chocolate chips put in a mixture of chocolate chips, white chocolate chips and peanut butter chips.  Press the whole concoction into a greased 9×13 pan and bake at 350 for 30 minutes or so.  I was pretty crazy smitten.  Especially when we warmed one up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  Hold the phone.

The March Bible Journaling class is just right around the corner.  I am probably embarrassingly excited about it.  The class was full, but then people backed out.  I now have 5 spots available.  If you’d like to join us shoot me an email at pitterpatterart at gmail dot com

Pretty pumped too because I’ve got some Timbali zip pouches ordered for the class as well.  These will be available to purchase.  I use mine to hold all my Bible journaling supplies.  It’s the perfect size and the ladies who make them are incredible.  Empowering woman with every purchase.

I’m a big lover of mail.  Every week I mail something to someone…it’s one of my quirky commitments for 2015.  Long live snail mail.  My mom did this.  She was always mailing encouragement.  She lived about 10 minutes from us and still mailed us and the kiddos cards for every single occasion.  Reading through Acts showed me yet again how important it is to be an encouragement to others.  Paul was constantly encouraging because of Jesus in him.

“Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.”

“…strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in their faith…”

“…encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words.”

“…they rejoiced because of its (a letter) encouragement.”

“..after encouraging them…”

“…and had given them much encouragement.”

God is constantly reminding me how important it is to encourage one another.

And I’m officially in the groove of grocery shopping with 5 kiddos.  It’s not always pretty, but it gets done.  At first I just lamented in the car and dreaded it, but then I got courageous and was all like “Let’s do this.  There are people in the world with 10 kids who grocery shop with all them.  I can swing 5.”  Now it’s old hat.  Plus, at Target there’s the glorious concession stand and on good days we celebrate our grocery trip survival with popcorn and icees.

There you have it.  All the important things I just had to relay to you on this snowy Tennessee Thursday.  It’s bath night, so I’m off to tag team all the baths with Josh Kelley.  Then a movie and some fun snacks.  We shall survive.

Happy Thursday.

  

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February 18, 2015 By Leave a Comment

10pm…Snow Day Edition

We’re on snow day tres.  And school is out for the remaining week.  Crazy day and not going to lie tensions were running pretty dang high.  We have been cooped up for far too long.  3 days is a long time for us.  There was gnashing of teeth…oh the angst of it all.  I finally risked my life on the roads to spare others 🙂  Target, Joanns, the post office and a good run never felt so good.  Give me all those frozen roads…I don’t even care…this momma had to escape.

Josh Kelley and I have played 1,203 games of Manacala and Bananagram.  He’s been working from home during the day.  I think he’s ready to go back to the office 🙂

Hudson has made 3,637 Lego creations.  It’s true.  They are everywhere.  Anything his little mind can imagine he makes, so just give him 5 straight days of being home and oh wow, just oh wow.  Lego creations everywhere.  Lego spy gear = no problem.

I don’t think our TV has even been turned off.  Josh Kelley has had mad antenna skillz lately which means PBS is coming in loud and awesome.  Snow days = TV and movie binge.

Side note:  Please notice Hudson testing out his new spy gear in the background (bad haircut still in full force).  Also, Sol’s pillow TV watching fortress = amazing.  And another Lego creation in the bottom right hand corner.  THEY ARE EVERYWHERE.

I have successfully dodged going out in the winter ice land which is our backyard.  I am not a cold weather person.  But I will happily watch from the window and yell out the door at our kids.  That I am good at.

Side note: Let’s quickly dissect the pictures below.  We do not have appropriate snow gear.  Harper is in fact wearing her pajama pants.  Hudson and Sol rocked their converse all day in the snow because obviously canvas shoes are the greatest for cold, wet weather.  Hudson and Sol’s holy jeans…again equal perfect attire for cold, wet weather.  Harper is wearing my gloves and Amon is wearing her gloves because the Kelley house is under a severe glove shortage.  And Sol’s face, well, enough said.

 They came and went all day as they pleased.  Each one dressing and un-dressing over and over again in our laundry room.  All I did was load and re-load the exact same clothes into our dryer.  They took care of the rest.  And they collected a giant bowl of cleanish snow for snow cream.

1 cup milk, pinch of salt, 1/3 c sugar and 1 tsp vanilla.  Whisk all together first.  Then add a ton of snow.  It’s super delicious.

So my game plan tomorrow so everyone survives: make more cookies, create something new, more Mancala and more movies.  We will survive.

Happy Wednesday.

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January 22, 2014 By 4 Comments

When Things Go Awry

I’ll be honest.  Last night when I was thinking about my post for today I had a very simple post planned that would contain a cute picture of all the Kelley kids all snuggled up together and just a few words like, “No time for a post today.  We’re enjoying a snow day.” or “Hey.  We have no snow, but we got a snow day.  Word up and peace out.  See you tomorrow.” or “Undeserved snow days are the best.  We’re enjoying this one to the max.”  That’s what I had planned in my head.  And then I woke up.

And things went terribly awry.  Snow days are suppose to be fun and full of movies and kind words and siblings who are all nice and kind to each other and mommas who don’t yell at their kids.  Yep.  That’s what a snow day is suppose to look like.  Ours resembled nothing of that and by 11:45 when we were leaving to enjoy lunch with friends, pretty sure I said something along the lines of, “I wouldn’t even take you guys to Chickfila if I didn’t need to get out of this house.  Nobody has earned a fun lunch.”  Yep.  #momoftheyear  There had been fights and whining and complaining and yelling and Amon broke my mom’s beloved red bird which made me cry and get angry and nobody, not nobody including myself, was treating each other like we wanted to be treated.  There was no love in our words.  And there was certainly no love in our actions.  Everyone was mad and ill and annoyed with one another.  I was yelling at the kids to stop yelling at each other.  It was all quite redonkulous.  So with an angry heart and selfish motives we loaded up the car and I gave out strict instructions of no talking and that behavior better get better because clearly I myself was modeling the best behavior for them to all imitate.

As we drove in silence, God started digging into my angry, selfish and sinful heart.  By the time we got to Chickfila I felt awful.  And I could tell I needed to do damage control asap by the looks on their little faces.  I pulled into a parking spot and there we sat.  Then I got busy asking for forgiveness.  I apologized for a million specific things I had done wrong so far that day to the kids.  I had totally set the tone for the day and it had not been a good one.  As always, I was offered forgiveness by three wee Kelleys who I adore.  And you know what, then they started apologizing and forgiving too.  And we had a whole little gush fest right there in the van.  We agreed to wipe the slate clean and start new.  We then practiced our Bible verse before heading in for chicken.

Just like that, our day changed.  I admitted my mistakes and started letting Jesus in and thinking more of Him.  We ate with friends and the kids played while I got to chat with two of my most favorite ladies.  I listened as one of them talked about having older children and I found myself soaking in her words.  And there was laughter and my heart got a little lighter.  Jesus, friends, kind words and chicken do a heart good…my new motto.  Amon even did his sleeping thing right there in the booth.  The guy behind us was all like, “Daaang girl, your kid will sleep anywhere.”

It was just what we all needed.  We hit up Kroger afterwards for baking goods and I even snagged a bag of Rolos…I know, I know, but some days require chocolate even if it is a Wednesday.  Now we’re all piled on the couch watching Dispicable Me 2 and we just slurped down Marshmallow Lover’s Hot Chocolate…which should be the only hot chocolate in the world.

Breakfast for dinner is on the menu and who doesn’t love some brinner.  Harper has some preparation for 100s day and the boys have lego assembling planned for after dinner.  I’m working on cookies after everyone goes to bed…the sugar kind…the pretty decorated kind.  I’ll also be answering emails I haven’t gotten too yet.  The world is right again.  And forgiveness won our day back.  When will I learn.  Glad God is still in the business of renewing and restoring.  Glad He hands out ample amounts of grace and forgiveness and mercy every single day.

Happy Wednesday!

PS:  If you are interested this canvas is still available for sale HERE.

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January 8, 2014 By 7 Comments

Feeling Grateful

I know it might seem detached or not so legit when a blogger person says “thank you” to internet readers, but I hope you know I’m totally legit and all types of for realz when I say “Thank you”.  My little piece of the internet is so tiny and small and rambly and unorganized compared to lots of other amazing bloggers out there who are crazy awesome and have ginormous numbers that would blow mine out of the water, so I’m always so humbled when something is so well received or when you guys share such kind and thoughtful things with me or when you choose to share a piece of your story.  It’s a total honor.  Thank you for all the sweetness which came flooding my way yesterday with the announcement of the craft nights I am starting.  I just could never say thank you enough.  God uses each of us to encourage and uplift one another and yesterday you totally made me feel encouraged and uplifted.  Thank you!

The class is filled, but I do have a wait list going, so if you are interested in getting on the wait list just shoot me a message HERE.  The “plan” is once I get February’s class under my belt, I will have 1-2 classes each month.  That is the “plan”, but I choose to use quotations around the word plan because life happens.  Can I get a word up?!?!  But that is my goal.

In other unrelated news, we are on our third snow day.  It’s warming up a bit, but still way too cold for my liking.  We may be getting a little stir crazy.

Clearly we’ve been inside for far too long.  But we’re passing the time with movies and rotating iPad time and crafts and drawing and baths (yes, you read that correctly) and trying to get along and playing and reading.  It’s been fun and intense.

I’m happy to report that our new years resolution for bathing our kids more often is going quite well.  Like today, they all got baths and it’s a Wednesday.  That never happens.  I’m feeling quite proud and accomplished.  We may have made a plan on our chalkboard that mapped out what days are bath days.  No, we are not bathing them every day yet…baby steps folks, baby steps.  Harper reminded me this morning:

H:  “Don’t forget it’s a bath day Mom.”

M:  “Thanks Harper.  I almost forgot.”

H:  “The boys should probably go first since they never got their bath on our last bath day.”

M:  “Oh yeah, you’re totally right.  I completely forgot.  Good thinking.”

Do you see what I’m working with?  Our 6-year-old keeps us in line.  I can’t keep up.  I am clearly not one of those moms who can swing more than 5 children when I’m barely making it with 4 🙂  They would for sure be destined for smellyness.  Oddly enough, we do brush our teeth.  They have a grand total of 0 cavities between the 4 of them. #winning

Now if you will excuse me, we are drawing and cutting out new guns and hot chocolate is on our radar.

Happy Wednesday!

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January 6, 2014 By 1 Comment

Snowdayness

Tennessee received our winter blizzard of the year last night.  The one where every carton of milk and eggs and every loaf of bread is missing from every single grocery store within a 100 mile radius.  It’s for reals.  We Tennesseans do not play around with wintery mix…nope…no way…no how.  Josh was late going to work because his car doors were frozen shut.  And the big kids are snowed in at a friends house.  Yes, a sleepover during a cold, icey snow blizzard.  It was things dreams are made of.

Amon, Susan and I hung around until late just because we were having a little too much fun with Marcie.  Then I busted in her slippery drive way and my car doors were frozen shut and then Susan, Amon and I made our way moving a fast 25 miles per hour towards home.  It was intense.  By the way, Amon is a blast at a sleepover.  Nailed it!

So before I venture out onto the messy roads to pick up the remaining 3 Kelley children, it’s just me and him.  He currently has pushed our swivel chair over to the counter so he could get to the last of his Cheerios and an almost empty bottle of Gatorade.  Exhibit A.

I did get him down immediately following the picture because this is in fact how he broke his arm.

Until we head out I am working on custom orders which I’m just giddy to be working on again.  I even went crazy and changed my work status over to the right hand side.  OPEN.  It’s so fun.  If you would like to place an order make sure you check out my Pricing & Info tab at the top and then shoot me a message.

Oh I’m also staring at my new curtains dreaming of spring…which are really a shower curtain because A) I loved the print, B) one shower curtain cut in half and hemmed is way cheaper than 2 curtain panels and C) It makes me feel slightly accomplished.  The end.

Enjoy your day.  May the snow force be with you.

Happy Monday!

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