Is there anything that peaks your anticipation more than seeing party tents going up?
The big ones. Colorful ones. White ones. Ones with fringe. Ones with curtains or even tassels.
I love to see a party tent…it means that a celebration is getting ready to happen, or is in the midst. I just love to celebrate. Whenever I see one of those big tents….I always want to stop in and find out what is being celebrated. I love the octagon ones that are covered in brightly-colored elaborate fabric, and have tassels hanging around the edges. I also love the big, snow-white ones. They are incredible with lights strung underneath. Just magical.
Well, yesterday a big, white tent went up in our yard. It pretty much covers the whole backyard. And, of course, has white lights zig-zagging down the entire length.
This weekend we are celebrating No. 1 Son’s graduation. Twelve years of hard work….graduating with highest honors, and my utmost respect. He’s one of the coolest teens I know.
It was so much fun seeing the big tent go up…..even though I’m the one that has planned and orchestrated the upcoming celebration it was almost like I was on the outside…looking in…anticipating. I love to anticipate a celebration.
I wonder if God feels the same way. All the lovely things he is preparing for us….anticipating a most wonderful celebration. Even though He is the party planner……I feel assured that His anticipation is incredible.
What is something that when you see it, it fills you with wonderful anticipation of a coming celebration?
{If you have a spare second….I’d love your prayers for wonderful weather on Saturday. =) We have some special things planned that will need nice weather. Thanks, y’all!}
Small or great….I hope you have a wonderful celebration this weekend~
It’s hard to believe that summer is almost here! I’m not quite sure who is more ready….me or our three kids! {We homeschool….and I think it’s me!} heehee
Over the years we have given our kids this simple questionnaire each May…..it’s always been fun to see what they would like to do with us; as well as, something new that they would like to learn how to do. Summer is a great time to learn something new, or have a new experience…….
When they were young…..they would get so excited to get the Summer Questionnaire! I think one our daughters started planning her answers months in advance. ha!
In case you have children….or grandchildren….here it is…….
Just click on the title for the pdf that you can print.
Over the years it has been so neat to get insight into what each child wanted to do with each one of us…and hear why. I think we looked forward to getting them as much as they looked forward to filling them out. It’s just three simple questions…..but opened the window to so many special times.
Is there something fun that your family does each year to plan some summer fun…other than vacations and cookouts? {Boy! I love vacations and cookouts! They’re my favorite!}
1. You can make chores more fun by pretending to be Cinderella.
2. Dads catch baseballs, Moms catch vomit.
3. There is no sleep in sleepover.
4. If you want to get carried….fall asleep in the back of the car.
5. When you hear the smoke detector….breakfast is probably not too far behind.
6. All projects are due on the same day: TOMORROW.
7. Check for dog poop before you roll down the hill.
8. Hell hath no fury like a teenager on a bad hair day.
9. One day when your kids are getting ready to graduate you will find a petrified french fry under the car seat…..and get teary-eyed.
10. In-laws teach kids stuff. Weird stuff. Bad stuff.
11. It’s not a good idea to jump off the shed with cardboard wings.
12. If the flowers you draw don’t look like anyone else’s…..that’s good.
13. No one will ever put you in time-out, no matter how badly you want to go.
14. Your definition of clean changes dramatically after having children.
15. Your capacity to love will astound you.
16. Once you have a child, time passes 400x faster. True story.
17. You will teach the basics of logic: ”Because I said so, that’s why!”
18. You will become great at teaching endurance: “We will sit here until you eat all the broccoli.”
19. Only in motherhood will you experience the strange sensation of wanting to strangle someone that you’re willing to die for.
20. You are responsible for making sure your child knows their origin: “You were not born in a barn!”
21. When you lay your head on their little chest and hear their heartbeat…you’ll swear to do everything possible to protect them.
22. Motherhood is discovering a you that you didn’t know existed.
23. When you are worried you will do better research than the FBI.
24. There will come a day when you will miss getting homemade Mother’s Day presents.
25. Labor is the easy part.
To all you wonderful mothers out there……..may you have a wonderful Mother’s Day! I hope your weekend is full of blessings and fun times with the ones you mother……..
Your comments, e-mails, etc. telling me how much you like the new design and look of the blog.
Yaw.
Are. So. Cute.
The new design hasn’t been installed yet. It’s still being worked on…it will probably be a few weeks or so before anyone actually gets to see it. Including me! What you see right now is a generic template..and is a little wonky. But it’s only temporary.
Thank you for your sweet notes…..they warm my heart. =) And make me giggle.
AND…..thank you to Fox News! Yesterday they featured my Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs on the news! How cool is that!? That was a fun afternoon surprise. Made my day!
There’s been lots of loveliness this week……
1. Filling many holes as we prepare for the youngest teen daughter’s room redo! {I have never patched so many holes in my life! She has always been a little designer..and super creative. She has decorated and rearranged this room..hanging many things! Whew! This will be the first real complete redo that she’s done!} There were so many holes in these walls I’m shocked they were still standing…..
2. Her new furrilicious couch for the new room she designed…..it arrived in the mail this week!
3. Waking up each morning to feeders filled with Goldfinches! Spring has arrived.
4. Finding my great aunt’s lovely sequined top that she wore to the Academy Awards when she was nominated in the 70′s. It was also the top I had on the night that Handsome proposed.
5. Buds on the lilac bushes!
6. Green bagels for St. Patrick’s Day!
7. Bunnies filled with candy…
8. An evening bike ride with my girls….
9. Words…”Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.” He’s in the darkness, yaw!
10. The car my Lovely Middle wants when she turns 16 in a few months.
11. Light shining through the clover.
12. A lovely afternoon read…one of my favorites…
13. This card cracked. me. up! It says: “Do you ever wonder if you’re a big weirdo and nobody’s telling you?” and on the inside: “No reason.” bwahahahahahahaaaaa…… I think I will buy it in bulk.
14. A beautiful bed that my Lovely Little One made up and prepared to give to a family that has no furniture…and the little girl has never had her own bed. Isn’t it lovely? I hope this little girl feels absolutely lovely in it…..and feels enveloped with love each time she climbs in….and hears God whisper, “I’m here. And I know. And I haven’t forgotten you. The plans I have for you are bigger than you can even imagine…….”
15. Lovely morning light in the dining room…..
16. No. 1 Son performing Mozart…..this guy is the coolest.
We live at break-neck speed these days…even those of us that slow down and try to live simply…just to survive these days you almost involuntarily get caught up in it. It’s easy to get to the point that you don’t get to spend very much couple time with your spouse..unless you are discussing budgets, major family decisions, or how to handle the latest ‘fire’.
Handsome and I have always had a date night once a week. We’ve worked hard to make it a priority. There have been times we get to go all out…no holes barred. And there have been times we have had to be creative and come up with free or almost free date ideas. Regardless we have always had fun.
There have also been hard date nights. Nights that we had a date planned….but really didn’t want to go. Maybe one of us hurt the other’s feelings. Or we had a disagreement. Or, we were just mad or irritated or disappointed. We’ve still gone. It might have been a quiet date….but we made it happen. And, usually, by the end of the date wounds had begun to heal.
If you’re married do you make it a priority to spend couple time with your spouse? It takes intention and planning….especially if you have little ones. But it is a very important investment with big payoffs. We look forward to our date night each week. It is highly anticipated…..something to look forward to…we all need that, especially during hard weeks.
I thought I’d share some of the fun, simple things that we have done over the years. We have fun being creative and coming up with neat things to do. Fun is the optimum word here….it’s important that the two of you have fun together. People these days are so hung up on being efficient and wearing their ‘busy buttons’ so proudly…..fun has completely been pushed aside.
Be creative. Go have some fun. {Warning: people that don’t have fun end up looking like prunes.}
This year we will celebrate our 20th anniversary…..that’s a lot of weekly dates. We have done all kinds of crazy things; but I thought I would share a few of the simple, fun things we’ve done. Most of these are free or very inexpensive. Some can be done at home…..sometimes a necessity when you have little ones, or a sitter is sick, etc. It’s best to get away…but sometimes you just can’t, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun.
1. Have a carpet picnic. {If you have little ones..put them to bed early.} Spread a blanket on the floor and have a fun picnic.
2. Go to your favorite coffeehouse and over coffee write down fun date ideas on napkins. Tuck them away in a safe place so you can remember all your fun brainstorming.
3. Go to your favorite coffeehouse with some graph paper and design your dream house or dream garden together. {This is your DREAM house and garden….money is no object. =)}
4. Then…..on another date look over your dream garden/house and see how you could begin it. What would be the first step? Then….go do it. Simple starts: for your dream garden maybe it would be buying 3 of your favorite plants and adding it to your current yard/garden. For your dream home simple start maybe you could rearrange a room or paint some furniture to begin…..
5. Get your favorite coffee/tea/smoothie, etc. and go for a drive while pretend house hunting. {Or real house hunting if you are in the market to move.} The fun part: you can pick out any house you find….money is no object on this date.
[Handsome & I used to do this when we were engaged....and we ended up moving into the house we picked out on a date one night. Yep, it's Oak Cottage. It was empty when we found it....we actually parked and came up and sat on the porch swing and talked for over an hour. I picked a few of the blue hydrangeas that were blooming and dried them to remember that night. Those hydrangeas are in our living room....over 20 years later. =)] We were just having fun on a date…we never thought it would actually happen.
6. Take a long drive….with your favorite warm beverage and music in the winter; or with the windows down in the spring/summer. Talk about all kinds of things.
7. Need a cheap restaurant date? Go out for chips and salsa.
8. Take a trip to your favorite coffeehouse and ask your husband/wife to describe you in coffee terms….robust? sweet? spicy? delicate? smooth? nutty? mellow? fresh? strong? mild? unique? balanced? wild? This always brings lots of laughs and other fun conversation.
9. Be a tourist in your town. Take your camera. Go to all the tourist spots. {Or if, like us, you live in a town that doesn’t have any tourist spots [I'm laughing out loud as I write this!], then create your own tourist spots….}
10. Revisit old date spots or hangouts …. recreate some of your first dates. Or just enjoy special spots that you used to enjoy when you were first dating. Handsome and I go to the theatre building, take coffee, walk around and then just sit on the steps of the theatre or studios where we used to rehearse and have fun talking about ‘back then’. Confession: we also love the smell. Ahhhh, the smell of a theatre or dance studio. It makes our eyes sparkle.
11. Go to the farmer’s market or grocery store….buy lots of different fruit that you’ve never had before. Prepare it and have fun eating it. {It’s fun to do this with candy, too.}
12. Cuddle up and have “Remember When” talks…..take turns sharing favorite things that you remember about each other when you first met and began dating.
13. If you don’t have a fireplace…light candles and make s’mores over the candles.
14. Share 5 goals over a late night snack…at home or somewhere else.
15. Go stargazing….in your yard or in a park somewhere. We like to go way out where there is no light pollution.
If you play your cards right…..romance and fun never dies…
I’m getting excited about our new design….what you see is just a ‘holding’ template, NOT the new design….but it will work for now while we get everything designed and in order. I hope it’s worth the wait!
And I hope your weekend is full of loveliness…everywhere you turn.
1. A sink full of delicious berries…ready for the weekend
2. A quick respite….
3. Vintage porcelain colander full of blueberries {we’re a berry kind of family!}
4. A sign of a fun weekend had…..girls’ bags everywhere!
5. A quiet morning reading spot
6. Gorgeous floors in an old train depot turned concert hall
7. She shopped until she dropped…our time together was very lovely….
8. Handsome, Jr./No. 1 Son waiting backstage…his violin concert was most lovely
9. This little handmade goat bowl made me smile..smiling is always lovely.
I posted this project a few months after starting this blog……since I’m having trouble uploading pictures while the blog is being redesigned and updated…thought it would be fun to share this project from the archives.
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We’ve had a family mission statement for quite a while; but we wanted to post it in a prominent location….a place that we would see it each day and be reminded.
For many years we’ve had this great Pottery Barn banner hanging above our front door that said: ”Pick Up Your Toys”. It was fun, colorful, and could be seen from pretty much everywhere in our home. It’s also a part of the living room—and a perfect candidate for a makeover as we have been redoing everything else. {woohoo!}
When I had to take it down to paint the walls—it hit me! With just a little bit of redo we could use it for our family mission statement. So, I painted over the yellow with the same color as the wall paint—-but with the yellow underneath it gave it a bit of a different tint. {perfect!}
Then, with some primer I painted over the old words—-SEVERAL TIMES! Whew! Those words did not want to go away. But, alas, they did.
I left the wonderful little birds and outline just as they were–they looked great with what we were doing in the living room.
Then, on to the fun part—-adding our mission statement, which is:
Be true
Be you
Put love in what you do
We have long explanations for each of those statements—-that we have talked about as a family; but just wanted the main statement on the banner….without all the explanations.
So happy with how it turned out!
Do you have a family mission statement? If so, what is it…..I’d love to hear about it!
If you follow me on Instagram…you got to see some of the fun pics from one of our violin concerts this weekend. Some of these pics aren’t that great..I took them with my phone. I have learned so much from watching our children perform over the years. God has taught me so much as an artist and performer….and now He is also teaching me as I watch my children perform………..
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This past weekend was spent in concerts.
It was a pleasure.
All three of our children are violinists.
We have two that play in a pre-professional orchestra…and one that prefers to play,
but not perform.
It is such a joy to watch your children flourish in different areas as they grow up.
To be affirmed in their hard work and talents….
On Saturday their concerts were here locally…
but on Sunday they performed out of town in a historic train station that has been turned into
a performing venue….so cool!
Afterward there was a reception in the depot to celebrate a weekend of hard work.
Aren’t these floors awesome??!! They remind me of our floors throughout our home..which were taken out of a 200 year-old Civil War home here in the South US.
Relaxing before the concert starts…
Entering in…….
Waiting for the conductor’s baton…..
Pouring out lovely music……
As I watched these performances this weekend…..I was reminded of life.
We have seasons of relaxing….gaining strength for what lies ahead….soaking in.
But then we get the call…the nudge…the leading…and must enter in to what it is we know we need to do.
We need to find our assigned seat and make sure our music is ready.
A new season.
But even after taking our seat, we need to wait for the Conductor’s baton….just the right timing…because the Conductor knows.
Another season.
Then comes the doing, the pouring out….we’ve been given all we need to do it….and we have the Conductor’s baton guiding us through the whole time if we keep our eyes on it.
Another season.
I was reminded of a problem I have.
In life I don’t always wait for the Conductor’s baton.
Sometimes it takes too long….and I wonder if He forgot about the concert.
But He didn’t.
The Conductor’s timing is always impeccable and always to be relied upon.
He knows things, like…when there’s a musician whose instrument isn’t quite in tune and ready to play.
Wait.
Or when there’s a musician that is on the wrong page of music.
Wait.
Or when the audience is ready to receive the gift about to be given to them.
Wait.
Yep, the Conductor knows things that the musicians don’t.
