Mumford and Sons

I saw a headline come across a few months ago: Mumford and Sons to play at Oak Mountain Amphitheater. I immediately put out an SOS that I would need a babysitter for Septemeber 9th and lucky for me, my best friend in California accepted! (Click here to be amazed by her blog!) The distance was a bit much though, so darling Lala offered her assistance so I could have a night out acting like a grown up! 

So, the best date in the world, Hannah Banana and I were on our way! We're both huge fans so we were pretty pumped up! I might have watched the show countdown on their website all day long….

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We ran into a ton of our friends, which made the night even better! One of my best friends are her darling hubbs sat 2 rows in front off us so we made them do the 'kiss cam'! :) 

(This is Lauren, my running partner that you've read tons about over the years. She's gorgeous and fantastic!) 

Mumford did NOT disappoint. You never know what you are going to get in a live show but I think they sounded better live than they do on the album. So much talent. They are from England tho so they were all about to DIE from the heat. The lead singer kept saying... "Birmingham, it's bloody f-ing HOT here!" (but he used the potty mouth word!) I love British people!

He also talked for a bit while they were changing out instruments and he shared how they had gotten the chance to ride around Oak Mountain (which is right next door) and he said, "It truly is lovely, really." Good grief. That accent. I'm such a sucker for it! 

Labor Day 2013

Labor Day. Ahh. Always a favorite. I think Labor Day is such an unexpected treat because I never realize how badly we need an extra day of rest until we are here…. in this exact spot. My soul drinks this view in deep and I'm thankful for this always fun, always restorative weekend away! 

There's something about sunsets for me. They are just so simply spectacular. I don't remember seeing sunsets in my 20's and being all that phased by them. Is this one of those weird things that happen as you get older? Wrinkles, talking bones before bad weather, and hightened appreciate for the loveliness of nature?! Im glad for the appreciation. Not for the other items listed, if we're being honest. 

London loves a  good sunset. She either always says, "ohh. Look how lovely it is, momma!" or "the sky is all pinkerish." :) I grabbed the whole crew because sunset watching' is just flat out good for you!

We had a little cuddle time with Red. The last of the horses. Red always had a wild spirit, which I loved about him. Clarification- I've loved that about him while sitting safely on the ground. I was always too scared to ride him! I think Mom would agree that Red was one of the more social horses we've ever had. He'd walk over for a visit every time and would have a full on conversation with you if he was in the mood! If you spoke to him, he'd neigh and whinny and you could carry on this cute back and forth with him for quite a while! Red passed away a few weeks after this picture was taken. He was a good old horse. It's been strange watching this field go from full of horses to barren over the past 2 decades. 

This is the good life. 4-wheeler. Wide open roaming room. And best friend cousins all arm linked together. 

I came up from the field after finding my peace and found my brother in the backyard in his own peace!  Uninterrupted man time.  

Peaceful parent and uncle time can only last so long! 

Mom picked the girls up a few little dress up outfits at the Columbus consignment sale… check.these.out. Aren't they so fantastic?! They wore them the entire time we were there! Cutie pies!

The annual labor day hunt didn't take place because of some weirdness with the date/time of hunt, so we just had friends over for lunch. It was great but was missing the electricity of a morning full of gun shots and kids running everywhere- excited from the hunt and covered in sticky bird feathers!! 

This is Jill, my best friend from college. We've known and adored each other for ages! We lived in Jackson together for a few years but she and her husband still haven't taken the bait and moved to B'ham yet. It's not for lack of begging on my part! However, as luck would have it, Jill's awesome big brother moved in right next door to my folks! Hooray! So now we plan trips so she can come visit her family and we all hang out the whole time! It's fantastic!

Did I mention they have an awesome pool/pool house? 

And that Jill's husband is the kindest, strongest guy you've ever met? He pulled 5 kids around this pool for hours and hours and hours. He would never, ever complain about it either. I love him so dearly!

This is Tux. Mom and Dad love him, but Dad has this weird thing where Tux is only allowed to be inside if he stays right by the back door. He generally stays right where he's placed… however, in the spirit of driving my Dad nuts, I've started the 'FREE TUX' movement to liberate Tux from this cruel form of imprisonment. I coax him out into the nice, open space of the living room and lavish him with love. Dad looses his stuff when he sees Tux all spread eagle in the middle of his room! He gets so mad at me for ruining his training and it's great! Fighting with Dad is always fun! ;)

Sunday post-hunt cookout at my Dad's partners house. Not a bad view. Not bad at all. 

Little Lizzy swinging in a huge tree.

I love this so much!

I feel like I'm throwing Dad under the bus a tad, but ribbing each other has always kind of been our 'thing'! Here's Dad belly aching because we ate all the breakfast and he "didn't know how to make a bagel." So, with the most sarcasm I could muster, I gave him a lesson on taking bread from a drawer and placing it in the oven. He was not happy with me, but now he knows how to not starve for breakfast! "Teach a man to fish…" Am I right?! 

JOY

I've been thinking a lot about these past few years. How the joy in my heart feels unquenchable even though I've just exited one of the hardest seasons I've ever lived. How the first half of that sentence doesn't match up with the ladder part of that sentence….

In many things I've observed lately, the right answer often times seems terribly backwards. The full out opposite of what seems would happen if circumstances played out naturally as they should. It makes me smile to watch God put the puzzle together with the back side up. From the looks of it, you can't see anything but hundreds of unconnected, bland, card board pieces, but eventually you smarten up and realize there's something perfect being created so you learn to wait patiently for the completion...

My heart has been stripped. Fatigued. Toughened Up. My life doesn't even bear resemblance to the old life I once lived. My family is different. My friends are different. My home is different. Due to decisions that we've made, most all that was has, over time, been shed.

The truth and weight of thinking of that seems heavy and sad to me. But as I watch this ever faithful, backwards God, my reality feels very different. God pruned me in a painful way but as pieces of my life were removed, I realize God allowed new growth to blossom and fruit where the old had been severed. One branch gone. A bud of joy to grow in its place. Another branch sawed off. Edges jagged. Peace like sap covers the incision.  Another lonely branch lopped off, the company of the Most Holy comes, always there… always to comfort and satisfy.

I don't know that ill always be able to thank God so truthfully for the times that hurt, but thus far in my life, his answers, as backwards as they may seem in the moment, leave me with joy overflowed. He righteously prunes to make room for the blessings that he intends to pour out. He tends to me, cutting, trimming, displacing, so that I will have space for the new fruit that only He can bring to life…. the things that this world could never afford me. Perplexing joy. Inexplicable peace. Courage that stands not of its own merit but on the Cornerstone Himself. Unconquerable strength- the kind you gain by being face down in full submission to Him.

It's Backwards. 

It's Bewildering. 

But it's Beautiful.

Jerry Springer

WATCH OUT NOW! Two updates in two days! Whoot!! 

(don't expect this dedication on a normal basis!)

Just a random rainy day/after school wrestling session with the most gorgeous smile I've ever seen. 

Belly zerberts are the best!

Reverse camera + non-stop-motion= terrible (but fun) pictures!

It was very Jerry Springer-ish with all the screaming, biting, kicking, and hair pulling! :)

Kick to the chin (and perfectly timed photo capture). Round 1 goes to London. 

Extreme Babysitting and Londonisms

Let's start this next batch of posts with a collective, 'Grace to you, Taylor.' I'm awful at blogging lately and I have SO MUCH material!! So let's take a deep breath in and.... selah..... Great. Thanks for that!

I think London is hilarious! I know I've posted a lot of London posts, but were at the stage where she can put pretty much everything together the right way and her perspective is so fresh and funny to me! Here are a few highlights as of late:

Driving to school one morning:
"I love you, momma."
"I love you too baby."
"I wasn't talking to you, mom."
"Well, who were you talking to? Im the only person in the car named momma."
"I was leaving you a megges. You'll get it on your phone."
"A megges? Oh okay!"
(Then I realized that she was using Siri (the voice dictation feature on my phone) to send me a text message because that's how I write texts when Im driving! Ha Ha!!)
Lu: "I love you, Booper. I hope you have a fun day with Andaddy. Okay, i love you! Bye!"

She's THE BEST.

Related: Tonight on our way home from the gym, she was playing a game on my phone that has a play texting app. She was tapping away and, when finished,  asked me to look at it. I turned around and asked who she was texting with and she said, "I'm sending meggeges to the Lord."

She woke up this morning, so foggy eyed, held out her hands and said, 'Momma. My fingers are prinkling.' Meaning, of course, that her fingers were dead. I love it when she says this one! She also calls pine straw prinkly pricks.

We went to CVS Monday and she wandered off while I was reading the back of something. I found her with the whole lower half of her face covered in neon pink lipstick. So--- we now own a tube of pink lipstick.... and matching glitter gloss because I couldn't stop laughing at how funny she looked and I wanted this awesomeness to continue at home!  She put her new gloss on yesterday morning (read: SO MUCH gloss that she walks around with her lips poked out so it wont run off her face) and after breakfast she asked, "are my lips still sparkerish?"

Yesterdays compliment of the day: "Mom, you look adorbs." DAY MADE.

There's a boy in her class named Cash. Their teacher calls him Cash Money. London came home last Friday and said, "Cash Money brought monoculars for show and tell."

Her teacher recently went on a trip to New York, so to celebrate her return, London wore her I Love New York tshirt. But she keeps calling it 'Yew Nork' which is the greatest thing ever. She keeps telling me all these cool stories about Ms. Taylor's trip to Yew Nork. :)

She likes to practice her 'stand hands'. Yep. You read that read that right.

The way you tell the difference between boys and girls is that boys have eyebrows and girls have eyelashes.

She wants to be a long haired teacher when she grows up.

"Momma, when we get out of the car, I'm going to try a new dance move with my fingers in my ears." :) It was as great as you're imagining it to be!

Sky gazing at a sky full of choppy clouds one afternoon.... "Mom, why did God cutter up the clouds like that?"

I told her about Booper letting a friend keep some horses and ponies at her house for a while and how we were going to see if one day we could ride the ponies. She was fascinated and when I was finished talking she said, 'Booper's going to have horses? And ponies? And a unicorn?'

Last one, I promise!! Booper came to babysit a few weekends ago so I took advantage of the extra hands and went for a run. I live in a semi rural area of town, so I passed some goats, horses, bulls, and donkeys while I was out. Also,  it was the first time I've ever gotten run of the road by a vicious dog. Not cool. I drove London by all the animals on our way home and we stopped to make 'bahhhhh' noises at the goats. London stuck her head out of the window and said in such a serious voice, 'Hi there, Mr. billy goat. Thank you for being nice to my mommy and not mean to her.' .... then everything inside of me melted from the sweetness!

Can I get an AMEN from any of the other moms out there? I bought London some gum balls and apparently she secretly got in to them and didn't close the bag all the way. I pulled on to a high traffic road and started hearing this clinking noise. I looked down and this little rainbow of treats was rolling all over the passenger floor board. But seriously, who has time to pick up 50 gum balls? So I left them there for 3 full days. Most annoying sound ever! I just did NOT have the energy to pick all those suckers up! Eventually the gum ball's won and I put them back in their rightful place.
Being a mom is not at all hard, but it's funny how it's sometimes the smallest of things that you fully resign to and just say, 'Nope. I can't deal with this right now'. Then we can ignore the mess out of that thing until we have the mental capacity to tackle the task! :)

Here we start the week of Extreme Babysitting. Jill is a high school teacher, which demands a lot of after school time. Her husband travels a good bit for work.They have no family near by..... except for US!! I got recruited for after school pick up one day and was WAY EXCITED about it! I grabbed these wild things and took them immediately for ice cream! It is so hilarious to listen to them talk with each other! London and Knox argue about everything! Lucas stays pretty quiet but he'll pipe in with some grumpy interjection from time to time! He is the greatest kid! He is this super strange combination of grumpy and totally adorable and sweet at the same time. I think it's impossible to define. You just have to be around him! I've never met a funnier combination of characteristics!

A few days later, we were off to the Rhea's to babysit the kids while Barry was in Columbus having foot surgery. London was pumped. She sat in Lizzy's car seat on the front porch, singing songs, waiting on them to get off the school bus. Happy as a lark!

FULL SPRINT.

After school snacks with my 4 heartbeats....

The next morning I let all the kids make their own breakfast! They made some stellar boy/girl pancakes!

Just before lunch, I traded off the Rhea kids for the Thomas kids because Jill and Kurt were moving to a new (fabulous) house. I picked up Jill's swagger wagon and off we went to Chik-Fil-A! Three thumbs up!

The next day, we discovered a beautiful lake behind an office park in Hoover (Thanks, Kristine, for sharing your knowledge!!) There is a great trail around it and it took up a good hour or two of time to mosey our way around! The kids were thrilled with all of the green acorns and massive golden leaves. Lucas completely bit the dust at least 6 times and never once cried. Toughest kid ever. 

Lovely, right?

And one totally random pic because I'm too sleepy to move this to the correct post! London at school getting her learn on! Love this kid!