The Early Bird Gets... a 1967 Chevy Corvette?

At 6:30 this morning, I found myself playing matchbox cars with Wyatt.  

I had awoken to a hungry Ella-bean at 5:45 and I guess mister heard her.  Because I snuck back to our room, laid down, and as soon as my head hit the pillow I hear, 

"MOMMY! ....  MOMMY! .... MOMMA!!"

This is his new greeting to us every morning.  He figured out that if he hollers for us as soon as his little eyes open, somebody rushes in to hush him before he wakes up his sister.  We're working on it. 

So there I was, laying half asleep on the rug pushing a Chevy Corvette (making the best engine noises this girl could muster) and thinking that I couldn't have imagined what incredible joy my children would bring me.  More than that, I was marveling over God's perfect timing and his perfect will.  I could have told you it would be all princesses and painted toes when it came time for me to have kids.  But God knew I needed dirt, mud and rocks in my life.  I needed a fiery tempered son who loves speed, heights and motors!  I needed Wyatt.  

And there is something therapeutic about putting matchbox cars into a slotted organizer or building evil kin-evil jumps out of bright orange car tracks.  

The rest of the (early) morning was spent like this:

Daddy brought a big box home filled with a very expensive something.  But all we needed was the cardboard box, thankyouverymuch.  We needed it to color on and then push our eighteen-wheeler through- a true tunnel.  

Lost & Found

If you can't find the toddlers at play group, look in the shower, of course!

They'll have snuck away, traipsed in a line down the hallway, opened the handle-less master bedroom door, found the bathroom, somehow avoided the toilet and climbed into the shower to play.  Of course. Why didn't we look here first?

When these kids get together it's nothing but mischief but I love it!  

The Rich Man

When Rob shut his car door this evening and Wyatt and I realized he was home, the first words out of my mouth were, 'Thank God!'.  And I never say that.  

Usually the speaker does not actually mean to give thanks to the Creator, Jehovah, God.  Just a phrase to toss around.  And I don't want Wyatt and Ella to mimic my words carelessly without realizing that I  indeed was thanking our Lord for sending Daddy home at the exact moment when my sanity was perched on the edge of a very large precipice about to dive off!

Anyway.  I was tense because my meal plan called for a certain meal that required ground beef.  We used it all up making hamburgers for some friends the other night when we hung out on our cul-de-sac. So I went to the next day.  Chicken and Rice.  Chicken, check.  Rice, check.  Recipe?  Recipe?  Beuller?  

--Half an hour of searching tastykitchen.com, recipe box, written recipes from Rob's mom--

Nothing.  

All while Wyatt has gone with zero nap all. day. long.

WAIT.  I'm stressed because my meal plan is off track?  Because I have so many options for food?  Because we hosted an impromptu get together with friends?  

Reality check Mere.  Most people go to bed hungry.  Most people in the world go to bed hungry.  

I am that rich man in Matthew 19:24.  I have a roof over my head and food on my table.  Choices of food!  

²¹ Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
 ²² When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
 ²³ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. 
²⁴ Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
 ²⁵ When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”

 ²⁶ Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”



Thank you God for your grace.  For your mercy.






P.S. Francis Chan opened my eyes to the fact that I am a 'rich man' in his book Crazy Love.

Best Buds

Wyatt and Abby Kate are best buds.  They get excited to talk to each other on the phone, squeal when presented with a picture of the other, generally live in a euphoric state while in the presence of one another.  They love each other.  I pray that this friendship and mutual admiration continues throughout their lives because it is so very precious.  I'm tearing up.

Maybe they became familiar with one another while Kat and I were pregnant.  We saw each other all the time throughout those pregnancies and they were born three weeks apart.  I like to think Wyatt didn't want to be status quo so he came into this world two weeks early.  Abby is punctual like her mother and very precise with things and joined her buddy the very day of her due date.  Their births alone echo the colorful personalities we see today.  

Best buddy cousins. 

Chalkboard in the Kitchen (Before & After)

We have this awkward space above our sink with a tiny little awkward shelf connected to it.  

I haven't really known what to do with it until the other day when an idea struck.  Chalkboard!

I am a part of what my 300 level marketing class calls a 'late majority' based on Everett Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations.  Maybe even a 'laggard' though I hate to see myself in that kind of light...

"Laggards have an aversion to change-agents and tend to be advanced in age. Laggards typically tend to be focused on “traditions”, likely to have lowest social status, lowest financial fluidity, be oldest of all other adopters, in contact with only family and close friends, very little to no opinion leadership." WIKIPEDIA

Umm.  Ouch.

Basically it takes me forever to hop on a trend bandwagon.  I just started wearing those tights/leggings under tunics last summer.  Got an iphone way after the majority.  I had a straightener once but I roll my hair in hot rollers regularly.  You get the picture.  So when the chalkboard trend started, I admired it from afar, thinking how creative some folks are.  Not really even considering trying it myself.  

BEFORE:

AFTER:

So long awkward space!  Now you have purpose!

So It's True.

The bad news is, it's true.

Jerry Glover Photography

The good news is, I finished 8th in my age group!  

Now that I've done a 5K and 10K, i think it's time for a half marathon!

Decorating A Large Space (On the Cheap)

I was recently blessed to be able to coordinate the decorations of our church's women's retreat along with two other girls.  We had so much fun transforming the giant lodge into something warm and welcoming.  Let me show you how it turned out...

Here's the lodge meeting room.  Yup, that whole building is one long, large lodge.  

Say that ten times fast.

This proved to be the biggest challenge- how to make an impact in such a vast space.

The outside is built like a log cabin- very rustic and warm.

We made burlap wreaths and borrowed the giant lanterns off of my front porch to welcome the ladies as they arrived.

There was a small entry way that housed a storage closet and the restrooms before opening up into the behemoth.

 

There she is. 

The fireplace was fabulous.  The palm tree sprouting tulips and sunflowers was not.

So we hung a couple of bunting banners and warmed it up with Christmas lights, along with some yarn balls and twiggy arrangements.  We wanted something that made a statement on the mantle.  I realized while perusing the Dollar Store one day that a foam core poster board would make a perfect canvas!  A Google search of 'tree silhouette' brought me this image which I sketched in pencil and then went over in sharpie.

To keep warmin' it up, we swagged Christmas lights in each window flanking the fireplace and lined all 8 window sills in the lodge with votives and saint candles.  You know, the tall skinny candles at Wally World or the Dollar Store that are meant for praying to saints?  Well they're cheap. 

More swagging.  The picture doesn't do the vibey-ness justice.  It was cozy in there!

For the speaker's podium, we did a large twiggy arrangement in a tall cylindrical glass vase with multi-sized candles pooled around it.  I wish I'd gotten pictures while the candles were lit but I was in a rush to get any pictures at all before guests arrived. 

That same Dollar Store trip I stumbled upon these and saw through the pastel paint to their true potential!

Moss covered trees!

To keep centerpieces low enough to look over and keep the 'Seasons of Life' retreat theme, we staggered two trees and three mason jar votives along each table.  The mason jars were wrapped in our retreat verses, Ecclesiastes chapter 3:1-8

A Time for Everything

1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

² a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
³ a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
⁴ a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
⁵ a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
⁶ a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
⁷ a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
⁸ a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

I filled each jar 1/3 of the way up with sand and nestled a tea light down in there.

And this cardboard and twine bunting hung in the window over our snack table!

All of the materials used in this space were uber cheap.  Burlap sourced from a local nursery, cardboard from boxes in our garage, twine, candles, Christmas lights the church already had, posters, mason jars, yarn balls, and Dollar Store trees!  By using Christmas lights and candles in mass, we achieved a moody-cozy feel for very little investment.  All in all we spent less than $200!

I took it as personal attacks from the enemy that the week leading up to retreat was one of the craziest yet for our family.

Our water heater flooded almost every room of the house, requiring ServPro to make an emergency house call and install 12 giant fans and 6 giant de-humidifiers.  It felt and sounded precisely like a hurricane for three days.  Imagine a two year old trying to play around all these cords and scary-sounding fans.  Or me attempting to listen for the baby crying in the next room over when you can't even hear the thoughts in your own head! So a very sweet friend let us hang out pretty much the entire time our house was in upheaval. 

Other smaller things kept happening- like this.  What you are looking at is a bird's eye view of the explosive diaper Ella had while I nursed her in the front seat of the car.  It got all over her, my pants, and the car upholstery.  The kicker is, this happened twice within a few days!

But in the end, I pumped a whopping 42 ounces for little miss (a world record, I'm sure) and took off for a refreshing weekend in the woods.  I am so thankful I did!  The Lord brought so many women of all different stages of life together for a wonderful time of fellowship and fun!