Treasure Hunting with Kinetic Sand

For Easter we gave the kids Kinetic Sand in their baskets.  

Oh, excuse me.  The Easter Bunny gave the kids Kinetic Sand in their baskets.  

I have multiple personalities or something as  I keep referring to myself as The Easter Bunny for no apparent reason...silly me. 

Anywho, have you played with this stuff?  It's so cool! It's squeezable sand you can't put down... It's fun for kids and it is a wonderful quiet time activity when the world gets too loud for our Cal.  It would be great for old people too.  So if you know of any old people you should buy them this stuff too.  Just sayin'. 

The kids got out the playdough tools that they have not played with in FOREVER! and had fun mooshing it and trying to create things.  

The thing that made our Kinetic sand awesome is that it is normally $12.99!!!!  for a container of it and I scored it at Target for $6.48!  Unless you are my sister in law reading this who's daughter also received Kinetic Sand in her basket and then I totally paid retail. Only the best.  Full on retail all the way :)  

I'm not one who buys things because they're a steal, am I? 

I can't even say that last sentence without bursting out laughing at the sarcasm...of course I am!  There needs to be a saying like short-hair-don't-care except for about bargain people not caring if others know they scored a deal...if you think of that you just let me know.  

After all, when you spend so much time asking for God's favor and doing the hallelujah, Jesus provides dance in the aisles of Target, you have to own up to the deals He has blessed you with, right? 

Anyway, so excuse my tangent but the bottom line is that I don't think we would have splurged on the sand if it hadn't been for the clearance so be sure to check it out at your Target too!  

I had to show this photo and as you can see above there are crutches photo bombing in the background.  Emma came home from ballet saying she hurt her leg so she immediately came home and got my full size adult crutches out from when I broke my ankle.  

Totally not a drama girl.  Not.at.all. 

Sigh. 

The Kinetic Sand is moist and you have to keep it in a sealed container.  I recommend the plastic tubs that wonton soup comes in from a Chinese restaurant.  So, if you don't have any you can have an excuse to order some chinese food to get the containers.  

Or ziploc should work if you want to be lame and not order the food of the Chinese :)

I figured this would be one of yet again, many toys that gets played with once and then completely forgotten but they have played with it multiple times this week and are loving all of the things they can do with it!  Including one of their fave things: 

Treasure Hunt!  I hid 10 of these beads in each of their kinetic sands (they each have a different color so we're keeping them separated) and then they have fun digging them out like Archaeologists.  :) 

So whether you find the sand on sale or not I think the Kinetic Sand is definitely worth the money...we're loving it!  

Do you have Kinetic Sand for your littles?  I'd love to know your uses for it...post away with any ideas you may have, thanks!

Depression...

Let's talk a little about depression.  

Photo Courtesy of Annie Murphy Paul

This is the image I think we all have in our heads.  But for the past few months I'm pretty sure the image has been this around here: 

Yep. That's me.  

Not really wanting to go anywhere.  

Not finding joy in anything. 

Shirking away from responsibilities including housework, teaching, being a good wife, cooking, laundry, etc., etc. 

When I was in college, my Junior year to be precise, I became severely depressed.  Nick and I were engaged and it was so bad he almost broke off the engagement.  True story.  I know all of the symptoms but somehow not until I'm waist deep in it do I think "huh, I think I'm depressed."  I'm either really dumb or that's just the way it goes with depression.

So anyway, Yep, that's been me.  It's been a dark hole over here.  I am sure the people that have been around me are surprised.  I've been happy, joking, same old, same old.  

Calvin, who as you know is Autistic, has this characteristic where he is perfect outside of the house and then crumbles when he is back home.

I wonder where on earth he could have gotten that from?  :)

I know it's all dependent on the weather and as we climb out of the bottomless abyss known as winter in Indiana I can feel myself waking up and coming around again.  

I'll climb out and make it but I really felt like I should explain this to you all.  Because first of all if you try to read this blog regularly then you have probably been wondering where the heck I have been.  A few months ago my husband made kind of an off-the-cuff, joking comment about a blog I had written saying "it probably didn't need to be written" which I kind of took maybe, sort of a little too personally and so that coupled with my depressed funk of not wanting to do anything has made me AWOL from the site.  

I'm so sorry. I'm really hoping to get back into a good rhythm.  

I also wanted to write about this to encourage others.  

You may be friends with someone who is suffering with depression and just doesn't open up about it.  Maybe they are ashamed or confused or in denial.  So many things can be going on in other people's lives and we don't even know, you know?  

So with all of that said, hopefully I'll not be lame and will write on here more, and hopefully this encourages you to show extra love and compassion to those around you...we never know what others are dealing with and sometimes they just need a little more compassion and love!  

Happy Weekending guys, <3

What I Learned When I Didn't Go "Monthly Shopping"

I am usually the person blogging about how I go grocery shopping on a monthly basis and plan my meals.  You can read about some of it here in this post.  

There was never a giant "Dear Diary" post I wrote on the date I started monthly grocery shopping but if I had to guesstimate it would be about two years ago...I think.  

Anyway, this past month things got crazy!  and we just couldn't make it work into our schedule to get away to our normal haunts and get it done.  So we decided to skip it this month.

Dumbest idea ever!

In an effort to try to go grocery shopping semi-smartly I started the month with a big (for us) trip to Costco.  

I left with enough rice to feed Cambodia and the feeling that I had already spent half of my grocery budget for the month.  It was the second of March and my husband doesn't even like rice. Win. 

On the plus side (because I am always trying to find that so-called silver lining of an overall sucky situation) I did manage to come up with some things I have learned by shopping on a weekly rather than monthly basis.  Here are some of them:

-When you shop on a weekly basis you really only have a small frame of time you are planning for.  While it does seem to make it easier when you've have only 7 meal slots scratched out on your church bulletin it makes it a little more daunting because practically everything for those meals has to be purchased because you don't have anything waiting in the wings to use for dinner. 

-I eat horribly when I shop weekly.  Because March 20th I have the mental  reminder that there are still 10 days left in the month and I only have $15.62 left to spend on groceries.  So when it comes to feeding my family am I going to spend the $4.99 on the long grain organic rice at Whole Foods or am I going to go to Aldi and spend $.67 on a rice pack full of flavors and yellow dye 5?  It stinks but I'm pretty sure you know the answer of what I'm going to say I chose.  Shopping in bulk at the beginning of the month means that I may have bought the rice at the beginning of the month but I knew I had to make my rice supply last for the month so I'm planning my meals to make it last. 

-By not meal planning and shopping ahead I feel really behind in my game.  This past weekend was our resale.  It consumed my mind for the entire week leading up to it and when it was over I came home to a house of hungry family and virtually no food to make.  So Taco Bell was had, we all agreed we felt like crap, and spent the remainder of our grocery budget we had on one meal.  If I had gone monthly grocery shopping I would have at least had something in the freezer or pantry that I could have made or Nick could have gotten out and planned on having.  

The lesson our family has decided is the best is that from now on we are going grocery shopping and doing on our meal planning on a monthly basis from now on. With homeschool and running around these two wonderful children, it just makes more sense for our family.  I guess the price of going over budget this month was worth it to learn the invaluability of monthly shopping for us.  

How We School...Classically Cool

Update 08/16/2018: 

We're back to homeschooling with Classical Conversations.  Our classroom has changed a bit as you'll be able to see but this is a really great article at explaining how we homeschool down to the core and again why we shouldn't compare ourselves to one another!  XO 

We homeschool. 

And not only do we homeschool but we homeschool using the Classical method!  

For shame! 

If you are interested in reading about Classical Education I highly, HIGHLY recommend the book The Well Trained Mind.  It is phenomenal.  If you aren't so interested in grabbing a book and reading, in a nutshell I can try to explain the classical model to you: the Classical method began in, like, Ancient Greece or something, but when I think Classical I first think Laura Ingalls.  The way they taught school in one room schoolhouses...lots of memorization and learning things in a method that they stick.  Learning things in a methodical order, from Creation to the Present.  The three levels of school include grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric.  It is God-centered and encourages life long learning skills rather than just learning to get through school.  

Anyway, when I think of Classical Education I think of a lot of things it isn't...even though we use the method!  I know, I'm a weirdo!  I think togas and laurel leaf wreaths around mens heads, perfect children writing in their perfect handwriting in silence, students able to quote me in perfect English the correct answer to any question I may ask.

But that is WRONG!

This is real life and in real life we like to be cool, cool in school!  And so when I am asked how we homeschool, I have a hard time answering them.  

We homeschool Classically but it is Classically cool. 

What does that mean you may ask?

*Well in our house we have a cute little classroom set up.  For us it really works to keep our schoolwork separate.  That doesn't mean that some days we aren't sprawled out all over the house doing God knows what, but at the end of the day I like being able to chuck everything up there, shut the door, and call it quits when needed.

*We get dressed.  Some days yes, we do homeschool in our pjs.  But we aren't the people who leave the house in pjs (well except for last week when Cal had Chicken Pox and everywhere we went was to drop off Emma and I forbid him from getting out of the car.  THEN he wore the jammies) and you'll never hear me say "well he wanted to wear the <fill in the blank of whatever horrid fashion statetment you can think of> out".  We've tried to make it clear in our home that there are rules for purposes, and it seems, especially with the autism, that if we bend then we fall off the cliff into never being able to bend the rules again.  If you wear jammies nothing but love for y'all. Serious!  We get dressed as a way to signal that we are starting our day and are setting out to get something accomplished. I know when I stay in my jammies all day I tend to have a jammie state of mind.  :)  

* This year we have followed Classical Conversations.  Next year we will not.  Up until this year we have followed The Well Trained Mind which means our history has driven our homeschooling. We've used The Story of the World books and we will be going back to those.  Super excited!!!  But in a Classical education we go in order.  This year we studies American history.  So, to put it shortly and finally make this bullet point, we traveled.  A lot.  Washington D.C., Williamsburg, Indianapolis to see the Emancipation Proclamation on display, etc, etc. I believe that seeing things in person, seeing the White House, Looking at the Signatures on the Declaration of Independence up close and personal really helps it stick in their little minds.  Going to the house where Abraham Lincoln laid and breathed his final breaths help put in their mind what happened a lot more than just reading it.

*We watch a lot of programs.  Netflix is our best friend.  Classical education has a lot of saying with real texts...don't read about the Declaration of Independence, read the actual document.  Don't read a story book about Moses, read Exodus, etc, etc. And I get that, really I do.  We do a lot of that.  But I also supplement the crap out of things.  Yes you are reading the Gettysburg address but let's read little kid books about it too.  Let's watch History Channel programs about state shapes, tycoons, the civil war and more.  Let's try to make this fun!

*I don't push too hard.  I am the first one that would tell you that I have a bad, bad problem with comparing myself, my teaching style, my cleaning skills, whatever, to others.  So when I see moms with their kids dressed as union soldiers reenacting the war between the states or with their playmobil pyramid having a parting of the red sea with King Tut and Moses I tend to wonder what the heck wrong exit I got off on.  But the truth is that might just be how some children learn and relate to their schoolwork.  I know my children are learning, I know they are getting school and are growing and achieving life long learning skills. And so with that knowledge I can relax and not try too hard.  

So I hope that helps to explain a little how we homeschool like cool kids and why we do what we do.  :)  

Joy and sometimes dread come in the morning...

I've been a little quiet lately.  

Things happen around here and things are thought in my mind and it's often I find myself shutting down.  

The other day I shot this photo.  It's not much content, I know, but the sun is gently rising behind the fir in our yard. And I am reminded that there is beauty out there just waiting to be had.

Never mind that there's an autistic orangutan just trying to rip your face off living in your house. 

Beautiful sunrises still occur.

And so I keep pushing on.

Can I just say how much I hate Autism and this road I'm on with Cal? 

Because seriously, there are days, when I don't know how much I can take. 

I know people say that and then people trying to be supporting say things like "God never gives us more than we can handle" or "God gives special kids to special parents".

But if you have ever felt like I have felt than you know you want to get in your car and run those people over...slowly, intentionally...with a stolen cement truck with the spinny thing still going in the back.

Cal has been difficult.  To say difficult would be a vast understatement.  Those monkeys on planet of the apes taking over....that was difficult.  This is way over that. To the point I was in the doctor's office today crying, crying to the doctor about him. If you've ever cried to someone who listens to your seven year old's heart beat, there might be something wrong with you.  Just sayin'. 

But the lady did have some good advice.  She was able to get through to me enough to cut myself some slack.  

And she gave me permission to mourn.  This has been something I've been doing for the past four years...mourning. 

Mourning over the normalcy of child hood being gone.

Mourning over not being able to do normal kid things with him.

Mourning over not really knowing what normal is anymore.  

But she told me it's okay to do that and today I felt like this is what I've needed to hear.  She also gave me some wonderful advice. Here it is "kids with autism are not on the normal spectrum of what kids can do.  Some things they can do much better.  Some things much worse.  But life must be adapted for them and not them trying to fit into a normal life.  As you can't expect a blind child to know his colors so you also can't expect him to do things as a normal child.  You must give him boundaries and then expect him to do his own thing within those boundaries."

Wow.  That speech seemed life changing to me today.  

In homeschooling Cal has completely refused to do work.  Ugh, it's been like pulling hair out to get him to do anything.  In stepping back from the whole situation I am sure that he isn't learning in that kind of environment and it is such an emotional struggle for Emma and I to get him to cooperate that at the end of the day the whole family just feels drained and exhausted. 

So this afternoon I did what the doctor in more detail suggested I do...I insisted Cal stay in the homeschool area of the house and then I did school with Emma.  She and I got ALL of her work done in record time and he played with educational toys nearby.  He would often chime in if he knew an answer or recite memorization things that he was overhearing.  Overall it was very successful and seemed to do the trick in giving him a break but keeping him in the school setting.  

Hopefully in a week or so I can start gradually adding some school work in for him or to have him work with some more educationally based things that he can learn from.  

So that is where I've been in a nutshell.  I know probably several of you get where I'm coming from and those that don't I hope can empathize with me.  Still here alive and kicking and pushing on with the "dream" of Autism.  I know eventually this cloud of doom-feeling will pass and I will be able to enjoy the sunrises God puts out there for me to enjoy. 

Moving Right Along...

Head on over to my new website!  

Enjoying the Christmas Memories!

Christmas morning we awoke to found that Santa Claus had visited our house!  How exciting is that?  And I love our Cookies for Santa plate.  It was a gift from my Mother-In-Law and I just adore it.  

Every year I have this huge fear that there won't be enough presents.  Crickets will be chirping as we look at the tree.  I know it is dumb and petty but it is just some weird, irrational fear I have.   As you can see, we've never had that problem.  And there could be two presents under the tree and it will work out.  

I love looking at the tree.  It makes me feel so blessed.  The gifts that God has blessed us with, the ornaments that all mean unique things to us, the gumdrop garland Wit and I fashioned for our first Christmas and have used ever since.  I just love it all!  So exciting and such a joyous occasion! God's love pouring out with a sweet baby and through our tree.  

Our Christmas morning was full of lots of fun!  The kids loved their gifts, Nick got some nice Ralph Lauren glasses for the bar area, and we had lots of giggles and memories.  After we open gifts we are blessed that my family comes to our house to open gifts with them.  Then we have breakfast and just relax.  This year my Aunt Jan and Uncle Bill were in town from Maryland so we were so blessed to have them join us for breakfast as well.  All in all it was a wonderful Christmas.  

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well.  As the piles of things to put away are starting to loom over us I thought I would take some time to write this and soak in the memories rather than look at it as a burden that now needs taken care of.  

Besides, now it's onto New Year's Eve and that will be loads of more fun!  

Merry Christmas!

We hope you have had a very Merry Christmas!  So glad I get to share my life with you all and hopefully bring some inspiration or camaraderie to someone out there.   We're all doing this thing called life together!  

Back of our Christmas card!  

So enjoy your family!  Scarf down some snacks and nog as this is the only acceptable time of the year it is seen as socially acceptable to drink a substance that should in clear terms, kill you by means of blocked arteries.  And above all, be safe and happy.  I'll see ya all on the flip side!  

Letting It Go: Re-prioritizing to Enjoy the Gift of Christmas

Way back in say, September, when I start to go a little crazy and just can't wait for Christmas, I started envisioning sugar plums and everything fabulous I would do to decorate our house for Christmas.  

It involved something like

this

...

 I found it on Pinterest.  By the way you can check out my pinterest boards

here.

  Vastly exciting, I know.  Anyway, so I purchased giant Christmas ornaments, mesh, springing glittered things, festive picks, you name it.  I was a regular shopping Ninja, watching for the 50% off at Hobby Lobby to occur...able to get in and get out to check it out and then when it happened, out of nowhere I pounced :)

So as I was saying back in September I decided on this and in October I bought all of the supplies.  I was ready.

 But here the ornaments sit today...on a bench in our foyer.  Ready to be hung, already.  Hello?

And here is only ONE of the bags of mesh and supplies from Hobby Lobby, still just waiting to be dragged out of the closet and hung up.  Still waiting...

And so here it is the 15th of December and I've made a decision.  There are only 10 days left until Christmas, folks.  And with gifts to wrap, a guest room to ready, menus to plan, and children to love on by the light of the tree, I am saying enough already.

Because whether I've realized it or not the stress of a to-do list still needing to be to-done is hanging over  my head like an albatross.  So no more.  Tonight I am returning all of the materials.  I could keep them, yes, but I am really trying to minimize the amount of crap I have laying around for projects I may one day get around to. And so, quite frankly, I just don't need it hanging around or over my head for another year.

I encourage you to do the same.  Maybe you don't have all of the Christmas decorations up yet.  Maybe you have this and that and that and this to do before the big day.

Let. it. go.

Go snuggle with your children.

Pour yourself a glass of milk chocolate coconut milk (available at Whole Foods and AMAZING!!) and address some cards to loved ones.

But cut yourself some slack, remember the true meaning of Christmas and try to simply enjoy the moments while you can.

You have my permission to blow it off.  Until next year :)

Stay tuned :)

Exciting things are happening with my blog, yo.

Can't wait for you to see them!

So stay tuned...and dressed.  It's the law :)

Oh, Christmas Tree!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and kickoff to the Christmas season.  I hope you did too!  As has been our tradition for the past 10 years, we met Nick's mom and dad the day after Thanksgiving to pick out our tree.  I can't believe it's been 10 years that we have been doing this!  So much fun!!!

 We go to a lovely Christmas tree farm called Hensler's.  It's been featured in Midwest Living and other publications and is just spectacular.  They have a Santa and for the past two-ish years Cal has wanted the first thing he does upon arrival to be visiting Santa.  Three years ago he was a little shy, and last year and this year he had no problem.  Here he is standing in line.

 He always whispers to Santa which is just adorable in my book.  Top secret stuff, right there ;)

 And we got a great photo of him and Santa.  Love this little boy's spirit so much.  He told Emma he told Santa what she wanted too since she was too much of a "scare-dy cat to tell him".  Sweet boy.

 Once outside the workshop we went to see how the reindeer were doing...

 They seem to be just fine :)

 Then it was off to wait for the tram to take us to the Christmas tree fields.

 It's all fun and games until people start getting nuggied...(and how do you even spell that word?)

 Here are our boys ready to go!

 She melts my little heart.  She is just so silly when you give her a saw.

 Gotta make sure that blade is straight.

 Here's my hottie standng next to our tree...to the left of him.  Yep, Griswold and his tree :) Do you see how tall that tree is?  My husband is 6 feet 4 inches tall, ladies and gents :)

Here are my boys next to our tree.  Seriously, doesn't it make Nick look super short?  I love them so much!  I wish Emma could have been in this picture but alas, she was chopping down the tree with her grandparents.  Every year her and Cal switch off and they love helping them. So cute!  

I wish I had the photos of Cal helping his Daddy cut our tree down but this Mom forgot to check the battery situation and my battery pack died right after this picture.  I've never had the huge Canon die before, it has a HUGE battery life so it must have been dead.  Dead, dead.  I was trying to remember but I think I had charged it last before our vacation, you know a month and a half ago.  I know you were just on the edge of your seat for that little tidbit of knowledge.  ;)

And then we went home and decorated it.  Or rather, we decided we would decorate it, none of our old school vintage lights would work so Nick went and bought a kajillion dollars worth of new LED lights but they had harvest gold colored bulbs and no "gumdrop" colors so we all schlepped to the store so Nick and I could bicker on the east side of lowes for the better part of an hour about lights and how many lights we need, and how the vast benefits of LED versus traditional will benefit the world for decades to come, only to buy lights EXACTLY like the ones my husband had purchased while braving Black Friday crowds with two children, except for the fact that they had purple bulbs instead of the dastardly harvest gold. And they were twice as much. So now kajillion x2.

 And breathe.  

Oh, I got an outdoor rug too.  So it was worth it.  :)

But we got home, decorated the tree with kitten safe ornaments and have gone on our merry way.  But we have this beautiful beast of a tree in the corner and it makes me happy.  We don't have much of a theme but I love it.  It's a reflection of our life and all of the memories we've shared.  I remember my friend Lisa giving me an "Our First Christmas" ornament before we eloped to Hawaii and I hang that and say a prayer of thanks for such an amazing marriage.

I hang the ornaments my Aunt Jan gives every year and I thank God for her and our family and our memories.  And then I remember I must buy more sprinkles!

I hang all of the precious ornaments my mom and Nick's mom have bought the children every year and I say more prayers of thanks...for healthy babies and safety for them.  For the naivety of childhood we've been able to afford them.  For the warmth our home and snuggly clothing envelopes them in.  For God always providing for their every need.

So for us our tree on Thanksgiving weekend makes perfect sense because we are whispering into the boughs plenty of prayers of thanks for His giving.  It all comes together for a gorgeous tree I just adore.  And that hopefully won't set our house on fire.  Fingers crossed folks!  :)

Hope you are enjoying your Christmas tree too and I hope you had a great holiday!

My love to you all!

What I Wore Mondays: Church Potluck Edition

Sunday we had an all church Thanksgiving Dinner.  It was such a fun time and we met some really great people :)

 So here's me with my lovely outfit!  It was actually just a super quick throw together.  When I need to get ready fast, if the kiddos are having a hard time waking up or what not, throwing all black together with some different shoes always seems to do the trick.  And when going to a potluck and bringing two sides one must always wear flats as it is hard to carry pumpkin roll and potatoes in heels.  Not a rule :)  Plus the fact I had to use my quick ninja moves to keep Cal away from the lemonade stand at the church made it a good thing I wore black :)  Have to be sneaky with that kiddo!
Okay, here's what I wore and as always if it's still available I've provided a link:
Black Pants (Hilfiger)   
Black Turtleneck Sweater (GAP)
Animal Print Flats (Payless)...the print is not available anymore but you can buy the same shoes here.  I also must tell you that I love these shoes!  I have them in multiple colors and patterns!  I can wear them all day chasing kiddos and teaching and they are so cushioney!  If you are in doubt be sure to read all of the reviews.  They are amazing!  This is actually the only shoe I buy from payless but they are made by Dexter shoes and are super wonderful! Okay, PSA on the shoes, done!  

Last but not last let's talk about my purse, or should I say diaper bag because that's what this puppy is.  This is made by Skip Hop.  When are babies were actually babies we bought so much stuff from here.  So fun and vivid!  

But this bag is amazing!  Now that I am homeschooling it still has a place for everything!  And I can shove a binder or a planner and books in there for learning on the road with no problem!  The side pockets which were for bottles not accommodate water bottles with ease.  In D.C. I took a water bottle and a bottle of hand sanitizer around with me in these pockets and it was perfect!!!  I just love this bag!  The solid black and leather is no longer available that I could find.  But you can still buy the same style bag in a different print.  It is the Skip Hop Studio bag if you want to google it to purchase.  I found them for sale on the Layla Grayce website here.  

So that's what I wore.  Again, this isn't about being the prettiest or the skinniest or the best dressed, but rather being an encouragement to dress up and feel fabulous for you and to show your family you love them :)  

*What?  Did you notice our fireplace is different?  There'll be more on that later so stay tuned! 

What I Wore Mondays: Church Potluck Edition

Sunday we had an all church Thanksgiving Dinner.  It was such a fun time and we met some really great people :)

 So here's me with my lovely outfit!  It was actually just a super quick throw together.  When I need to get ready fast, if the kiddos are having a hard time waking up or what not, throwing all black together with some different shoes always seems to do the trick.  And when going to a potluck and bringing two sides one must always wear flats as it is hard to carry pumpkin roll and potatoes in heels.  Not a rule :)  Plus the fact I had to use my quick ninja moves to keep Cal away from the lemonade stand at the church made it a good thing I wore black :)  Have to be sneaky with that kiddo!
Okay, here's what I wore and as always if it's still available I've provided a link:
Black Pants (Hilfiger)   
Black Turtleneck Sweater (GAP)
Animal Print Flats (Payless)...the print is not available anymore but you can buy the same shoes here.  I also must tell you that I love these shoes!  I have them in multiple colors and patterns!  I can wear them all day chasing kiddos and teaching and they are so cushioney!  If you are in doubt be sure to read all of the reviews.  They are amazing!  This is actually the only shoe I buy from payless but they are made by Dexter shoes and are super wonderful! Okay, PSA on the shoes, done!  

Last but not last let's talk about my purse, or should I say diaper bag because that's what this puppy is.  This is made by Skip Hop.  When are babies were actually babies we bought so much stuff from here.  So fun and vivid!  

But this bag is amazing!  Now that I am homeschooling it still has a place for everything!  And I can shove a binder or a planner and books in there for learning on the road with no problem!  The side pockets which were for bottles not accommodate water bottles with ease.  In D.C. I took a water bottle and a bottle of hand sanitizer around with me in these pockets and it was perfect!!!  I just love this bag!  The solid black and leather is no longer available that I could find.  But you can still buy the same style bag in a different print.  It is the Skip Hop Studio bag if you want to google it to purchase.  I found them for sale on the Layla Grayce website here.  

So that's what I wore.  Again, this isn't about being the prettiest or the skinniest or the best dressed, but rather being an encouragement to dress up and feel fabulous for you and to show your family you love them :)  

*What?  Did you notice our fireplace is different?  There'll be more on that later so stay tuned! 

Dear Mama, Babies Don't Keep

I am in the middle of creating my annual photo calendar for my grandmother.  While looking through photos to select I found these and realized I never posted any.  Here are some, just to document that these blessed children of ours are, in fact, growing up entirely too quickly.  

Yowzers! 

This creek turns into a waterfall a little down the way and has a very special place in my heart.  I played here as a little girl during church picnics and later splashed through it as I ran a cross country course.  And now my babies are here, with their long legs and good balance, ready to take on the top of the waterfall.  

Swoon. 

 This girl is getting so big!  I have another picture to illustrate her lanky legs but she always takes the cutest pictures with her Grandma Peg.  They are just adorable together and I love watching their relationship grow.  Plus, Emma is sillier with her Grandma than with most others :)

Cal looks like he's sneezing but really he's just goofing off. And this is Emma's "I'm tolerating my brother because he's my brother and I have to" look.  But look at her.  Why does her face look like she's 17?  Excuse me as I go cry...

Okay I'm back.  I'm okay.  But seriously, she is gorgeous.   

Look at this big girl.  She is so grown up!  I just can't deal.  She does the foot pop thing on her own.  It's like she screams "my cousin's Miss South Carolina y'all". Geesh, ya try the crown on and you turn into a model :)  Thanks Caro for apparently giving this girl staging advice or something!  :)  

Our babies aren't babies anymore.  But I love them.  I think I'll keep them :)  

I'm just trying to savor each and every day a little more.  They will be out the door before we blink.