Lately

I made yummy bread with my boos. I found the recipe in Mitten Strings for God by Katrina Kennison. I highly, highly recommend this book to all you mamas out there. Bread was easy and tasty.



We had my precious, hilarious, lovable niece over to play. I had her and the twins do a few "exercises" in order to create a few moments of calm.



My handsome and very handy man made me a foot stool to make giving our baby boy his bottles much more comfortable and easy on my granny knees. Love this man!!

I took my bigs to the Green Corner Store to get kombucha and ice cream sammies from Loblolly Creamery. Deeeelirsh!! (V on left) I also bought myself some of my new favorite make up...made locally here in Little Rock. Etniq is the brand and it is amazing and great for sensitive skinned, chemically conscious peops.

I am loving being able to take my girls on a date about once a week or every other week. Their favorite place: Black Angus. Such sweet times with my girls over chicken strips and fries.

I discovered this book on hubby's side of the bookshelf. I am in love. Head over heals in love, I tell ya!! So so good.

Crazy Crazy Christmas

 Christmas started off with a bang this year. Gramm decided to make and sell ornaments in order to raise money for Gospel for Asia. He did odd jobs around the house and for his grandparents and raised over $100. I was so proud of this dude. He and his bud down the street combined their hard earned cizash and purchased several needed gifts for people in Asia.

 The month of December was very full with homeschooling the big boy, the twins at preschool and adjusting to life with a sweet little babe around (sorry no pics can be posted at this time).  We had about six different Christmas celebrations planned with family, the first one being at our house. This was our first time to host something in the new house. It was so much fun!! We had my mom and our crew over for our annual Christmas cookie bake off. Lots of cookies, appetizers and great convo.

B is a serious decorator...

Vivs is intent on eating sprinkles

The Grammster. Ate every cookie as he decorated :) 

 Our second Christmas event was at my man's parent's house. I cannot share details because our little boy is a foster child, but he became visibly ill after we returned from the in-law's. We spent two days in Children's Hospital. He is doing great now and we are thankful. I spent Christmas morning alone with our babe in the hospital. It was a sweet time but I missed my big kids like crazy. As soon as babe and I were released, we opened presents at home! Yay!! Lest you think we are perfect, sweet B had a meltdown before presents were opened. And, me with my greasy,
hospital hair got to give her some Mama lovins.

 

Reading the Christmas story

Vivs opening her much desired "pup-cake legos!!" 

B lurves all food, even fake food

My girly girl, B, loved her dress!

Ninjago for the boy, oh yes we did. 

All ready for snow, B on left. 

Tomato soup on a snowy day

My boos watching a Christmas flick and eating a yummy lunch.

About 2 hours after we got home from the hospital, the power in our house went out. It was out for 3 days. I did not enjoy that time at all. I was so ready to have Christmas at home with all four of my kiddos and I was just a big baby about the power outage. Either way, we survived and I've been cherishing my days at home with our healthy crew. Love to all.

He Gives and Takes Away

Hello friends! I apologize for my absence from the blogosphere. Moving in August, unpacking in September and homeschooling the big boy (and sometimes the girls) through all of it has been busy. I will update with pics of the kitchen soon, but for now I'll catch you all up on our life.

In mid October, my dad called me to let me know that his mom, my Mimi, had fallen and hit her head. The fall was severe enough that the doctor did not think my Mimi would ever regain consciousness. She had not been in the best health for quite some time. She was taken in to hospice care at a local hospital and I was able to spend time with her in her last few days on this earth. I also got to spend some sweet, sweet time with my precious (and hilarious) aunts and cousins. My Mimi was a kind and loving woman. My parents divorced during my freshman year of college. She wrote me letters several times throughout that year, which was definitely a really rough time for me. I saved all of them and have reread them recently. I am blessed to be her granddaughter. Many smells remind me of her...sweet potatoes baking, greens in the frying pan, and moth balls (random, but true). I have three quilts that she made for me, one for Gramm and one precious baby bag. She was an amazing homemaker and I hope I can one day sew and cook like her.


(my Mimi's hand in mine during her hospital stay)

The same day that my Mimi left this earth, we received a call from our adoption specialist at DHS. She was wondering if we would be interested in taking a tiny baby boy. We slept on it and said yes the following day. Within 10 days of that call, we brought home our new foster son. Life with this little dude has been a whirlwind, but so good. We are busy, our hearts are full and the big kids are thrilled to have a baby in the house. I cannot post pics of the babe, but believe me when I say he is dang cute. :) I'll leave you all w) a pic of the big kids and my niece.


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All Moved In

We've been in the new house for about a week. We had a lot of work done on the house before we moved in and there are still a few things to be done. I don't have many pics to show at the moment, but I will soon. We have been doing lots and lots of unpacking. One of the first treasures I came across while unpacking is the lovely painting you see above. My long-time bestie, Krystal, painted it when we were in high school. I have taken that painting with me and proudly displayed it every single place I have lived since 1999. This painting says "home" to me and reminds me of the blessing of years of friendship and life lived with Krystal, also known as Aunt Krystal to my children who love her to pieces.

The past week has been full of meals brought by precious friends and neighbors, packing materials piled to the ceiling, a very tired Mama and Daddy and a sometimes very cranky Mama. I've been reminded in this process of my need to just rest in grace. Every day, I start out with the expectation of being the kind, God-honoring, sweet yet consistently firm Mama that I've always dreamed I would be. Every day I fail. Many days, I fail a lot. By lunchtime today, I'd given in. I was thinking to myself, "Failure! Failure!! You are a big fat failure and you will never get this right!! You big dumb idiot!!" Okay, so I added that last sentence to be funny. Seriously though, I give in and believe the lies that 1/ I can will myself to be the best mom ever 2/ If I can't meet my own high expectations, I am doomed and my kids will be screwed up because of me. So, today, I am saying no to the lies. I am telling them to get the heck out and give me a minute's rest. I am choosing to believe that God's grace is so sufficient. Every time I fail, He will forgive me. He gives me chance after chance. He is my ever present help in my time of need. He loves my children more than I do and He will give me wisdom as I try to love them and lead them to Him. I'm going to fail several times daily, but I can't stop going back to God and saying, "Please be with us. Please show me how to parent these kids. Please help me to not grow weary. Give me strength to persevere."

So, all you other Ma's out there reading this, please join me in calling out the lies that the enemy is whispering (or shouting) in your ear. We have an amazing Helper who prepared this good work of parenting in advance just for us. We do not have to live in fear. End sermon.

I have one more house pic to share. It's really terrible, but it's of my pantry (the doors are open in this pic). I lurve this pantry. It is now full of yummy food just waiting to be eaten. I promise to post more house pics soon. Over and out.

SOLD!

We signed a contract for the sale of our house several weeks ago, but I am just now comfortable announcing that we sold our hizzy. We are excited about the future and thankful for such a quick sale of our house.  We plan to close on the sale of our current house and the purchase of our new house early next week. (CRAZY!!! I can't believe this is actually happening!!) I promise to post pics of the new house as soon as it's ours. It's a fixer-upper, at least 40 years old and generally fabulous. 

In other news, we are having a wonderful Summer. I've had many a hot dates with this hunk of burning love:

 We basically live at the pool during the week. Both the girls are swimming pretty well sans life jackets and my boy is a FISH! Gramm is on swim team and loves it. (Brook sitting poolside just chillin'.)

 In between super fun pool days, we've been packing and packing and packing. My little lovies are not really entertained by watching us pack, so they all three have been watching lots of movies. (Vivi on left, Brook on right)

 I have enjoyed seeing how much the girls are growing up...it seems like they are changing and maturing right before my eyes. Their voices, their smiles, their funny conversations are so precious to me. I just can't get enough of my kids. I am very thankful to have so much time to just BE with them. Our only real commitment has been swim team for Gramm and swim lessons for the girls, which both happen on the same days. This slower pace has been sanity saving during all the house selling and buying. And, here's my Vivian. I'm out!

Big Move Ahead

You know you want to buy our phat crib. 

 If you follow me on Facebook, you will very likely have seen that our house is for sale. The great house payoff has become the great house selling/buying/renovating adventure. Long story short, my gal pal Julie convinced my man and I to look at a house in her neighborhood back in March. We were in no way interested in this house and we looked at it just to humor Julie. After looking at the house and speaking with the seller, we felt like this might actually be the house for us. The house is a little old and dated, but we fell in love. It's quirky and needs a lot of work, but we are so excited and see this as an adventure. The Lord has opened door after door in order for us to buy this house. We will close on the new house later this Summer, renovate for around a month and then move in sometime in August or early September. If you are interested in buying our current house or if you just want to look,go here to check it out. And, if you have sold a house by owner, please share anything and everything you learned from the process. I will post pictures of our new house once we close and it is officially ours.

As a result of our move and subsequent renovation, there is a very good chance that our little crew will be living in temporary housing during the renovation. By temporary housing, I mean a long-term stay hotel or an apartment that has month-to-month leases. Because our living situation will be up in the air, our foster son, JJ, needed to be moved to a new family. He has been gone two weeks now. His transition has been smooth and we have kept in touch with his new (precious!) foster family. The first couple days after JJ left were very sad. JJ moved into another great situation and we will get to see him again at playdates and hopefully provide respite for his foster family. As far as foster care goes, this situation is ideal. But, I was still weepy and boohooed my eyes out the first night he was gone. We sat down to eat dinner and I felt the full realization that there wasn't a one year old sitting to my left scarfing down his food and alternately grunting, signing for more and reaching out to hug me. My sweet man asked me how my day was and the flood gates opened. My sister, Rachel, was here, too. There was no shortage of hugs and shared tears. I really have a wonderful, wonderful family.

We all have adjusted to our new normal of once again being a family of five. After emerging from six months of foster care, our eyes are still slightly foggy and Justin and I are recovering from the stress of everything that comes with having a foster child. I am not ready to unpack the entire process at this time, but I will eventually share tidbits of our experience here on the blog. We do plan to reopen our home to foster care once we get settled in the new house. We would love to adopt and have an adoption specialist with DHS who is on the lookout for a child that we can keep.

If you're still here after this long post, thank you! I'm going to leave you all with pics of our crew. Enjoy the cuteness!

My big boy showing me one of his treasures on Mother's Day. 

The view from here during our Mother's Day picnic at Lake Maumelle...see that precious boy's feet! Love and miss him! 

Brook (left) and Vivi (right) walking and talking hand in hand at Lake Maumelle. Hilarious cute girls!

Vivi (left), me and Brook (right) at a Mother's Day brunch at the girl's preschool.

My Mom

Me and my Ma, circa 2006

I have the best mom. Truly. I do. I got to pray with my mom tonight. Hearing my mom's voice as she prayed brought back a flood of memories. I remember getting in bed between cool, flowery pink sheets and my mom coming in to pray with me. I remember her striped nightshirt, eye glasses and lots of cold cream. She would gather my little girl self into her arms and cuddle me while she prayed for me. Hearing her pray tonight almost made me sleepy. I wasn't tired, but I remember how her prayers over me helped me to rest and relax. I don't really remember what she prayed, but I remember that she prayed just for me. I have three sisters and this time with just my mom was so sweet. She would kiss me goodnight and I would wipe the cold cream off my face and go to sleep. :) 

I sometimes forget what a treasure it is to have a mother who loves the Lord. She personally walked through many, many dark times during my childhood, yet she still followed Jesus and loved my sisters and I so much. My mom has never given up on me. I was not an easy child or teenager. I did not comply, I talked constantly and I was really loud. Oh, I was disrespectful to boot. But, my mom. She just loved me. She always made me think she wanted me around. She wanted to listen to me. She wanted to hug me. When I lived with her for a short time during college I felt so loved. We would talk until late in the night, cook dinner together, watch movies and have many of my friends over. She made my friends feel loved too. To this day, my mom still loves my friends. 

Thank you, mom, for loving me. For loving my friends, for letting me have 20 girls over for a sleepover at the very last minute, for laughing at my cigar smoking 18 year old self and not freaking out, for laughing at my jokes, for letting me sleep in the floor of your bedroom till I was 16 because I was scared, for praying for the Lord to send me a husband soon (it worked), for praying me through my Algebra final in college, for cheering me on as I finally chose a major and then (gasp!) graduated from college. Thank you for loving my husband, thank you for always hoping for the best in him, thank you for loving Gramm, Vivian and Brooklyn...thank you for sitting and cuddling with them, for laughing at their jokes and for listening to their stories. Thank you for loving our first foster child and never, ever, ever making me feel crazy for wanting more babies even after I had twins. Thank you so much for believing in me. I love you, Mom. I am beyond thankful for you. 

My Ma and her Ma, my Nana, two of my favorite women