Coffee date!

{okay, so, wrote this LAST Monday morning, and it sat in my drafts folder for a week.

here ya go, anyway. }

--

Happy Monday morning, all.

I sit drinking a homemade latte...

wanna join me for a coffee date?

this is what I'd tell you.

---

It's a bit cool 

{well, cool at least for the hottest-july-ever-stuff we had}

and rainy this morning.

kinda making me eager for fall, here, folks -

pumpkin bread and coffee and sweaters and boots and crisp mornings -

{will try to remain content with summer for now.}

 --

some friends loaned us some puppets, and the kids have loved playing with them.

 grace, our animal-loving-3-year-old, has kinda fallen in love with them.

--

everyone's FB statuses and photos of first-day-of-school pictuers are killing me.

seriously -

we have one more week of not-Kindergarten-yet and I'm enjoying it.

a little bit ago I was texting a friend about her daughter's first-day-of-Kindergarten 

and was crying happy and sad tears for her over the text of "dropped her off".

{Kindergarten, people!}

seriously, when did my babies get big? 

--

{i'm on my second latte. 

what are you drinking this morning? I'll get you another cup.}

organization makes me really happy.

and yet, somehow, i'm okay with laundry unfolded. weird.

found this idea on Pinterest for ribbon organization out of a slacks hanger.
fab-u-lous.

--

I just started this new bible study called 

{Lord, Change my Attitude}.

4 days in and totally challenged.

I'll be leading a small group of ladies from church through it this fall and I'm way excited about it.

somehow getting together with sweet friends, sharing how the Bible is changing our lives -

it's really special, and I've missed our Bible study over the summer.

what have you been reading?

--

alright, friends.

my latte is almost gone and it's getting cold anyway.

hope your Monday is smooth, blessed, and you stay in step with the Spirit's leading today.

May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our heart be pleasing in His sight,

our Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer. 

psalms 19:14

Love y'all!

Sparkle On

Our Mondays are usually pretty mellow.

because our Sundays pretty much wear us out.

{wear us out in the best way possible}

So, today we glittered and glued and sparkled and shined.

I let Grace squeeze and shake and paint and smear 

all by herself, 

as much as she wanted to,

even though there was serious Operation Clean Up afterwards.

because sometimes,

a girl's just gotta have some sparkle.

right?

{hope your Monday was sparkly, too.}

right now

Just about now,

we are celebrating the snow with warmed chocolate milk and left-over birthday party hats.

{celebrating the snow i love with the ones i love}

2012

it's {unintentionally} been awhile since I've written.

i miss it.

i feel as though the words are welling up inside, waiting to come out.

but, tonight, they'll have to wait a bit longer.

you see, last night, I went to one of my favorite stores

{The Container Store}

all by myself.

so, I gathered my stuff.

drove the 23 minutes.

and when I pull in the parking lot, I realized.

{no purse.}

{no wallet.}

tonight, i need more sleep.

I leave you with my favorite only-4-more-sleeps-until-he's-5-year-old.

apparently, he thinks Charlie Brown is hilarious.

ah.

i needed that tonight.

i hope your 2012 has started off calmly.

peacefully.

reflectively.

if not, at least it's the weekend, right?

Today

today, my kitchen island looks like this

because my favorite four year old and I ...

 were busy making a red paper lightening-fast race track.

 

 and today, every single time this sweet girl

said {mommy hold you}...

...I stopped what I was doing

{like making potato soup for my last Bible study of the semester tonight}

 

...and I held her very, very close.

Today, I played monster trucks.

shot dart guns.

read princess books.

played tag.

got beat in tag.

rocked a baby girl to sleep.

played scientist with a preschooler.

Today, my kitchen island looks like this

and I am very, very okay with that.

Change of Plans.

oh, my.

as I just tucked my littlest in bed, I breathe a sigh of relief and sit down with this.

grande nonfat latte.  even better in a pretty red holiday cup, right?

I had big plans for today.

like maybe the children's museum, Monkey Joe's, or a host of other play options.

they all went out the window at about 10 a.m. when Grant started seeming really, really sick.

we've been battling that cough-and-cold nastiness for the past couple of weeks.

As Grant burst into tears over something seemingly small early this morning, I hugged him and right then threw my mental to-do list out the window.

We all spent the day in our jammies. 

I had Diet Coke delivered to my door. 

Jimmy Johns, i love you.

I took deep breaths, kept both sickish kids as happy as possible

{the almost 5-year-old even napped!}

and realized that nothing on my to-do list was more important than these two small sweet things.

even when Grant told me to stop smiling at him.

ya know little man, when I don't feel well, I kinda don't want people smiling at me, either.

We survived the day.  even pretty well, all things considered.

and a pretty red holiday cup makes a lot of things better.

right now?

thankful His Mercies are new every morning.

and really, really thankful for early-to-bed kiddos.

--------

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
   his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23

Wednesday.

Tonight was roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, and steamed broccoli for supper.

super, super good.

{roasted chicken for the rest of the family. 

my mostly vegetarian self just cannot eat chicken}

the day didn't start off as smoothly.

we spent 40 minutes {forty minutes!} looking for Grant's shoes this morning.

he was about to go barefoot to preschool.

seriously, folks. FORTY minutes to find shoes.

they will now religiously go where they're supposed to. 

at least until the 2-year-old shoe thief walks off with them again.

the kiddos are now sleeping. my wonderful husband that spent the forty minutes shoe-searching with me this morning is at an evening meeting.  i squeezed in a quick run and am about to make some dunkin' donuts decaf coffee, add lots of half and half, and sit down. i'll browse some recipes from magazines piled up {clean eating and fine cooking are a couple of my favorites!}, look at some road race calendars and try to convince myself to register for an upcoming 10K, and keep reading in Colossians.

{a good way to end a day that didn't start so smoothly!}

oh, about the roasted chicken?

so good even the animals liked it.

Thursday Morning

it's Thursday morning.

Since our schedule is a bit different than most, with my husband working on Sundays,

Thursdays are usually family days.  But, his schedule is a bit different this week since he hasn't felt well.

so, the kiddos and I are hanging out this morning.  I'm playing trains and legos and superstructs! and basically keeping Grace from climbing everything. it's great. we needed a down day! where I should be doing laundry, but somehow get caught up in, well, life.
and trains are so much more important anyway, right?

so, if we had a coffee playdate together this morning,

{grande nonfat latte for me}

what would you share with me?

I'd tell you how much this sweet girl

thinks all of her stuffed animals are hungry.

Moo eat!

I'd tell you how thankful I am that it's fall and how much I am loving this weather. how I really need to go to the grocery store. how silly excited I am for the premiere of Grey's Anatomy tonight.

I'd tell you how I'm loving our new church's Bible study on Colossians, and how the Lord is seriously teaching me about how Christ is the head of the body {the church} 

and how that makes us His hands and His feet.

and how challenged I am to make sure I'm living out His purpose for me. 

not the purpose I think I need to be doing. 

His purpose may look different than what I thought it would, 

{like my friend who's in Ug*nda right now bringing her 2 older boys home!},

but that's okay.  His plan and purpose are best. always.

 So, as I play trains and rock to sleep and try to get some laundry folded, I remind myself that I'm truly the hands and feet of Jesus. 

And I'd tell you that I hope that I'm doing that with all my heart. 

And by that point, I'd need another cup of coffee.

Glimpses.

Glimpses from our week. 

Preschool, playdates, Bible Studies.

A very good, very normal week.

{and around here these days, we appreciate normal. 

No more worse-tonsillectomies-ever or crazy-JRA-flares for us, please!}

-----

snacktime.

tights on my {forever baby} girl. 

chocolate brown paint it is for the sunroom. 

{my exceedingly-patient-husband loves me enough to deal with

about a half a dozen paint swatches on our walls right now!}

What do you think?

my sink kinda looked like this for a few days...

because of the Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon rolls that took.over.my.kitchen.

Note to self = use a bigger pot next time!

And the local fire station...

where we took a special delivery on Sunday, 9-11.

Grant painted a thank-you picture that we took the firefighters.

along with a couple dozen donuts.

My father-in-law was a fireman, my husband has been a volunteer firefighter.

i will forever get teary-eyed at these men who are the first responders in crises.

they do it willingly. eagerly. 

for us.

and 10 years ago, they went running in

when every one else was running out.

The least I can do is drop some donuts of to our local guys, who serve our town daily.

that was our week. very normal. very good. 

very blessed.

{Insta} Friday

Our week, in cell phone photos.

it's fun getting a quick glimpse into others' lives, isn't it?

Especially other mommy friends.

Kinda makes me feel a bit more normal about my worn-the-same-running-shorts-for-3-days situation.

-------------------------

Happy 13.1 mile gift left on the front porch of my new neighbor and friend, 

who's tackling a half marathon tomorrow.

{Gatorade and new ponytail holders.}

Because, we can all run faster with cute hair ties, right?

 And, I'm loving my new Mizunos.  

Cranking out the miles on them the past few weeks!  

With Grant's crazy tonsillectomy recovery, Grace being super duper sick last week, we haven't gotten out of the house much...so, at least I can throw these shoes on and hit the road.  

And, as I find my stride, I pray for our family, our friends, our church.

 My friend, Love, has been brought before our Savior lots this week, as she's in Uganda right now trying to bring her boys home.  Praying that they'll come home sooner than later.

And Gracie's new sparklies.

Meant to be hair ties, but worn as bracelets.

because all girls want sparkly accessories, right?

It's the Small Things, right?

Small things

{that are totally the big things}

that are making me happy today.

fun snack. pretty piggies.

fresh zinnias.  organized towels.

Happy Tuesday!

Blueberry Lemon Streusel Bars

I spent Gracie's naptime today baking.

Move into our neighborhood, and you'll get these.

 New Neighbors. New Friends.

{who happens to like to run and has kids our kids' ages}.

And that was my Tuesday. 

A quick grocery run. Making blueberry bars. 

Meeting new neighbors.

Playing with kids. 

Folding a few {dozen loads of} laundry.

Laughing over orange popsicles.
Racing on our bikes.

It was a very, very good Tuesday.

Happy Weekend

We started ours off with homemade guacamole, roasted veggies, and marinated flank steak.

Fajitas!

Today I'm cleaning around the house, enjoying family time, 

and hoping a feverish Gracie gets better.

soon.

 

Hope your weekend started off well, too!

Pancakes

Summer is in full-swing in our household.

Lots of playdates, parks, water, bike-riding, sand...

loving every minute of it.

Although I love to cook,

{seriously, love it!}

summertime is just made for easy meals, isn't it? 

That we can be playing outside and come in and eat quickly?

So, pancakes it was for dinner last night.

{It's kind of our favorite-four-year-old's favorite.}

And the two year old?  She just loves to eat whatever anyone else is eating.

{See how she's not in her chair? Other people's food is always better, apparently}

 

When we were first married, I couldn't make pancakes.

{Well, honestly, I couldn't make a lot of things!  On our honeymoon I took an hour and a half to make breakfast for us once. It may have been the first time ever I fried bacon}.

I learned a lot of cooking quickly, but pancakes, well, I almost always burned them.

Almost 10 years and one four-year-old pancake-lover later,

 I have a killer pancake recipe.  

{ya know, if I do say so myself!}.

I'll post the recipe for you tomorrow

{after I, the momma of a crazed-teething-2-year-old, sleep!}.

For now, here's one of my favorite pictures of late.  

{even with Gracie in all of her straggly, end-of-the-day-hair-in-eye glory}.

Grace climbed up onto Grant's chair to eat with him, and Grant started to give her a zerbert.

{where he blows on her cheek really fast and makes a weird noise}

Grace was completely cracking up,

and then she picked up one of Grant's pancakes to try to do the same to it.

They seriously were cracking up, and thankfully I had my camera close.

{and the battery charged. which like, never happens.}

Love these 2!

{see how Gracie's right eye is all crinkled up?  She's smiling behind that pancake!}

It's 2 o'clock Tuesday afternoon...

And I am tired.

We've been busy errand-ing and cleaning and playing and 

in general doing life with small kids this morning.

I love it all.

and wouldn't change it for the world.

but I really am tired today. 

{yawn}. 

 So since this girl is down for a nap...

 and I'm off to play legos and SuperStructs! with Grant, 

these...

M&M's. Diet Coke. Seriously a good combo.

...were oh-so-worth the 105 calories this afternoon.

{wake up, Anna!}