A month or so ago, I posted about how much we loved going to a baseball game at the new Baron's stadium. I had been reading along on the internet about this art installment that they made just across the street from the stadium. One Saturday while London was with her dad, I decided to drive uptown and check it out. It is a building wall painted in chalkboard paint and titled 'Before I Die'. It has hundreds of blank lines and chalk laid out on the wall. General passerbyers have the freedom to walk up and write in whatever they want to do before they die. It took a while to read through them all, but I was so moved by observing this freedom of expression. I was most taken by how positive, faith based, and hopeful people's entries were. There we're a number that were silly and a few that were incredibly sad. They wash the board once a week, I believe, and it's another fresh start for people to anonymously write what's in their heart. It was an emotional, interesting experience and I'm glad I went to check it out. I added my entry and loved standing back and reading my words, my wish, amidst my peers. We all have a dream. I so hope every single wish becomes a reality for the beloved people in my place.
"....be all i was created for!"
"..... tell people how awesome Alabama is!" (we should meet!)
"..... be thought of as a good man, father & husband (and run a sub 5 marathon)."
School is officially back in session! Lauren sent me these cute kids from all the kids first day of school! Caden immediately got sick and missed pretty much the whole first week. :( He was sick again this week so he's missed something like 5 days of school in his first 5 weeks! Poor kid! Stick all these kids back together and it's like a GERM PARTY. They all start dropping like flies! He sure looked handsome on his first day though!
Wow. So I loaded about 7 posts in here as drafts thinking I'd be able to just knock them out and I'd be deemed the best blogger ever..... then, you know, life happens and I don't even maybe have a second to jump in here and update anything! I'm going to really try to work on it this week because we had a fabulous weekend and I want to share all of our cute pictures! Here's another daily adventure post for you!
About 6 months ago, I big tree limb fell on my roof. My BFF, Hannah and I decided we could tackle that job by ourselves. We looked so butch and ridiculous, but Hannah is smart, determined, and capable of anything. She tied some sort of boy scout knot on a big rope and together we heaved that thing off my roof! While we were doing that, we pulled up a section of wire mesh that covered my gutters. However, I didn't have a tall enough ladder to get up to the roof to fix it. MY GOSH HOUSES ARE THE WORST!!!! A few months later, Barry dropped his ladder off for me and I climbed on up and fixed the gutter then trimmed all the low hanging branches from around my house. I felt like Clark Griswold up there, but man, did the house look better after we put in a little hard work. I don't mean to brag, but my house looks adorable. I have it on the market so I've cleaned it out to the bare minimum, kept it semi spick-n-span, and bought some cheap accessories to make it look put together. I've worked my tail off this year to keep the yard and outside of the house in good order (with the help of a whole community of amazing people) and I am frankly so proud of it! It looks darling and I'm hopeful someone will come along, appreciate the love that's been poured into this house over the past 2 years, and relieve me of the duty of loving this old house any longer! :) (Prayers appreciated, please!)
Target trips with a kid this cute are just a thousand times better. What a fun little nugget.
Lizzy has started dance classes, so I offered to come grab this little toothless tiger one day and take him for snow cones so he wouldn't be bored to death watching all those girls dance! He is seriously the sweetest kid ever! I love being around him and that smile-that-never-leaves-his-face!
Cheap, enormous, snow cones and lots of room to run. Perfect.
God showing off in my front yard one day!
Brother Barry got hurt one morning at his boxing gym which led to him wobbling around for a good week, then Dad and his partners deciding he needed to have surgery. Barry has a nice little incision on his ankle where they moved a tendon from one place to another and he will be on crutches and in a cast for the next few months. Please be praying for him. It is super hard to get around on crutches and he is still feeling a bit uncomfortable from the surgery. Poor guy, but he looked pretty stinking cute before he went under the knife..... :)
More to come, I promise! I'll do my best to make the most of my time this week! Love you all!
Today has been such an interesting day. I've been silently praying over a situation for some time now. Nothing big, but big enough for me to bring to the attention of the One in Charge of Everything. Today unfolded as I knew it would. All. Day. Long. on the phone with vague, uncommitted, non-answers. Even though some of the day was frustrating, I learned a lot and was given some much desired clarity.
Then, at the end of the day, I got a return call saying, 'Hey there, we've decided to just help you out a bit.' I walked immediately to my 'prayer spot' (read: the one place I can go in an office full of boys and not be bothered!) and I opened my hands wide in thanks. He has heard my prayers. Every. Single. One. and he alwaysanswers. Always protects. Always sustains me. This month has been spent quiet so far. I like my life loud and big and fun, but there is something appropriate about being small and quiet when you feel the Greatness of God present. It's our only fitting place, right? Lowered small in awe of this God Most High?
One of my favorite bloggers wrote in a recent post, "God sees it all ---- and He will see to all of it." These past two years have been a truly remarkable stage of life for me. God has spoken so clearly and conclusively in my life that it honestly just blows my mind. Why me? Why has he chosen to make himself so known to me? Why do I deserve the honor of knowing without a shadow of a doubt that when I ask of him, then wait patiently, He won't hold his tongue or his guidance from me?
I chew on that sentence.. "God sees it all.... and He will see to all of it." For me, that statement feels like the gospel truth. I have seen God's faithful hand in the big and dreadful areas of my life but I've also seen him in the down right ridiculous. So I do my best to return His blessings with thanks.... to worship this God of the Constellations who so evidently shows up in the minutia of my little every days. Sleep deprived mom who desperately needs a caffeine fix but is a nickel short in her empty wallet? Ever Faithful God leaves one nickel in the change dispenser for me. He knows my need. Hands open immediately in thanks because he keeps me close and tends to me with such all knowing loyalty.What a wildly, incomprehensible idea for me to understand. This God that was before all things keeps his attention and affection on my little family. So I quiet in awe, because this is the place my heart remembers, this is how I honor this Redeeming God.
I've kept much of my life over these past two years quiet and close to home, but it feels right to share the worship song that has been my 'anthem' during this stage of life. I've listened to this song 10,000 times and hope my heart always cries these words with the reckless abandon that I do now. Blessed Be Your Name by Matt Redman.
Don't think for one second that this scene below didn't end with arms held wide in thanks. Most fun child ever practicing her belly laugh with full enthusiasm on our way to school. Thank you God for this happy.
Just a smattering of everyday of my life. Joy overflowed.
Jill and I took London and Knox to the $1 Movie one night. London wanted to wear her Little Mermaid costume. Fine by me! :)
And Knox proved he's the most romantic guy in all the land. :)
The next day... practicing being the cutest old couple that's ever lived! I saw a video today of them at school talking about their wedding! My gosh. It's all just too much!
I argued with Lu one day about buying this $2 ballon because I thought it wasn't worth it. Watch this video then span this excitement out over 3 full days. Best $2 I've spent in a long time.
And a bit of reality. Sometimes 3 year old fits call for 'turn that frown upside down' time. :)
Sometimes I walk in on things like this....
And I spend all of my days laughing with one of the biggest but sweetest personalities I've ever met.
Thankful for every one of these every days. God couldn't have blessed me with a greater life.
Barry's family snuck in a very last minute beach trip before all the kids headed back to school recently. From what I've been told, the weather was nice and they had a great time, but the highlight of the trip was visiting the USS Alabama Battleship in Mobile, AL.
A few highlights from the USS Alabama's surprisingly unimpressive website (they could use a fun facelift!)...
Displacing more than 44,500 tons, the USS ALABAMA measures 680 feet from stem to stern, half as long as the Empire State Building is tall. Armed with nine, 16-inch guns in three turrets and 20, 5-inch, .38-caliber guns in 10 twin mounts, her main batteries could fire shells as heavy as a small car accurately for a distance of more than 20 miles.
Her steel side armor was a foot thick above the waterline, tapering to one half inch at the bottom. Her four propellers, each weighing more than 18 tons, could drive her through the seas at up to 28 knots, more than 32 miles per hour. Loaded with 7,000 tons of fuel oil, her range was about 15,000 nautical miles. The USS ALABAMA was built to fight. The USS ALABAMA saw 37 months of active duty during World War II, earning nine Battle Stars. The “Mighty A” as she came to be known, safely carried her crew throughout the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean campaigns, and never suffered any casualties or significant damage due to enemy fire.
With the war over, and the military’s transition to a “Peacetime Navy,” the cost of maintaining the wartime fleet became too much of a burden. In May 1962, the Navy announced that the USS ALABAMA and many other war ships would soon be scrapped. In 1964, a campaign was launched to bring the “Mighty A” home to ALABAMA as a memorial to the state’s sons and daughters who had served in the armed forces. Alabama school children raised almost $100,000 in mostly nickels, dimes, and quarters to help bring her home to her final resting place.
Do you hear that sound??? Neither do I. That's the sound of silence while my cutest half plays upstairs joyfully with her cousins and I sit on my parents comfy couch and blog. Ahh. Delightful!
Here are a few of our August Everydays. My favorite type of post!
An afternoon trip to Publix and a cookie treat. She picked the most sprinkley cookie I've ever seen.
Making choco chip cookies one afternoon. She loves cookie dough as much as I do!
...finishing up the brown sugar because she's smart and has good gourmet taste!
My parents very favorite picture. I put this on Instagram with the caption,
"Some days being a princess isn't all it's cracked up to be."
The comments about the royal chicken nuggets owned me! So funny!
London and I were driving down the road one day and I screamed, "London LOOK!!!" It was the first double rainbow I'd ever seen! Can you see it? Look just above the noticeable one and you can just barely see it!
London was excited about the rainbow for about 2 minutes then she became more interested in dancing in an empty parking lot. Here she is dancing with all her might and singing, 'I've got ants in my pants and I need to daaaaaaaaaaaaaaance!!!' It was a straight up fantastic few minutes of life and I hope I remember it forever! She is so stinking fun!
She's got some serious moves!
A little redneck engineering that I thought my dad and brother would be proud of. The metal fasteners on London's car seat get HOT AS THE DICKENS. I needed to return a few cold beers to a friends house because they'd sit for ages in my fridge so I put the frosty brews on top of London's straps prior to school pick up so she wouldn't burn her arms! Perfect solution! Cooled off carseat and a happy kid-o. Fabulous.
