Lucky 13

For a lot of people 13 is considered an unlucky number. I'm not really sure who decides these things but it's what I've heard. Let me tell you "13" made me feel pretty lucky this week. We were a couple weeks late but that's okay. The hubs and I spent 2 days celebrating 13 years of us. A lot has changed in those 13 years. Most of the time "us" means 7 now instead of 2. Some days we are so tired and busy and grumpy that we almost loose sight of those star-y eyed kids on our wedding pictures and some days we wonder how it can just keep getting better.

 I've learned to refill the ice cube trays and he's learned to make the bed. I've learned that it's important for the truck to be shiny more than once a month and he's learned that laundry day only comes once a week, not on demand. (Somebody's Mama spoiled him that way! :) I've learned to cook things that don't come out of a box and he's learned that rice, fish, soup, broccoli.....(the list keeps growing) are all  eatable, quite tasty actually! We've made big and small decisions together. We've made big and little memories together. We know better what makes the other one feel special and we know better which things really tick 'em off. We've faced tough stuff together and both come out stronger. Some things we both learned the hard way and sometimes we gave each other perspective and saved ourselves some trouble. It's the up and the down, the give and the take, it's real life together!

 

  It's the way we like it!

If we have it all figured out? Nope. If someday we'll look back and think "what did we know then?" Probably.  If we're in this for another 13 plus? For sure!

Our actual anniversary was a little on the 'unlucky' side since we happened to be several states apart. But this pretty package showed up at my door and helped to save the day.

But first, a great way to make a girl feel lucky is to have a birthday (the hubs, not mine) and an anniversary to celebrate only days apart. That way we get not one but t.w.o. dates in the span of a week or so.

Yup, that's lucky!

I got a babysitter for the afternoon and evening but all my grand ideas fell flat so we just gallivanted around the town. We enjoyed a tasty steak dinner thanks to a gift card and then severely over-tipped the waiter. I don't know what I was thinking. I'm better at math than that. Must have been those stars in my eyes! :)

We did a little shopping and then strolled the streets of this sweet little town. I love these pictures they make it look like we traveled to a quaint, little, far-a-way place. The truth.....we were 15 minutes from home. It is a neat town though. One where you can purchase a delicious cup of Cafe Mocha that tastes more like a rich dessert than a mere beverage.

And then if you walk across town you can watch the sunset in the park.

And just feel lucky to be together!

 And since I'm super lucky to have a sister who will take on the troops, all 5 of them, we enjoyed a...

beach getaway

just a few days later.

We left early Sunday morning, (you can do that if you don't have to pack up the kids) and headed for our favorite beach. We found a charming little coffee and pastry shop and got coffee and breakfast from the a-little-over-the-top-excited-giving-out-free-advice barista. It was a great little shop with it's own coffee roaster taking up almost half the dining space, so many tasty looking treats, and a dozen different brews of coffee to choose from. It was all so charming and captivating that I forgot to take a picture. How is that even possible?? I have no idea!

The beach was probably fuller than I've ever seen it that day but since we got there early and there were no kids in tow we headed way out away from the crowd. I hardly new what to do with myself. No one needed my help. No one put sand on my blanket. No one begged for drinks and snacks. My husband laughed at me and started speaking of things like ADHD. Who Me? No! My body was just a little confused about how to handle that much relaxing and besides, I had to move around to keep the tan lines even ya know! ;) Books, magazines, sand, waves, sun, breeze, junk food and good company. It was blissful indeed!

I told my hubby that I wanted to try out some local places to eat. We typically just stick with what we know when we go away like this, because it's just easier, but for some reason I was in the mood to scout out something new this time. The morning coffee shop was the first one and it was most definitely a success so we took a second shot for dinner. The guy at our motel recommended a place just a block or two from our room so we took his advice. Well, let's just say it wasn't exactly what we were looking for. It was a little on the pricier side so we decided to split a dinner. I've been trying for years to convince my husband that this is the perfect option because it saves us $$ and room for dessert. I almost had him convinced, we've done it a few times with great success, but I may have shot myself in the foot with that little bowl of rice with a strange sauce and few lonely shrimp that was delivered to our table. Oh well, we experienced the local, that was our goal. We left there looking for somewhere to fill our still hungry selves. Cold Stone Creamery.....Out of Business. The Fractured Prune Donut Shoppe....Closed. Panera Bread.....not where the GPS said it was. One, Two, Three strikes, You're Out! We were almost ready to get coffee at Wawa or something equally as romantic when we finally found the missing Panera Bread. We ordered coffee and pastries. Still Hungry! Shoot, why don't we just have us a chicken sandwich for a bedtime snack? Yeah, that should do it! Oh the memories!

Wow, that was exhausting! Six fluffy pillows....Yes Please!!!

Monday morning we tried another local coffee shop. This time I remembered the picture. But the first one wins, hands down! Tastier, cheaper and so much more charm.

Coffee and breakfast on the beach, it's our little tradition. This is not my favorite picture, my eyes are open a little bit, I think. There's just something about the beach early in the morning, coffee in hand, before the crowds show up, that we love! It was cloudy and cooler the second day, but what did we care. We could relax and do nothing just as well!

Wait, did I say "good company?" Someone may have been a little bit absorbed in his book series...just a little bit!

But I'm pretty sure he still has his eye on me.....

I think I'm the luckiest girl  e.v.e.r!

Paint Project - Part 1

Today I  declared the boy's rooms finished.  F.i.n.a.l.l.y. after 6 weeks of mess and stress which included 10 cans of paint, way too many trips to Home Depot, brushes, rollers, sheets of plastic, rolls of tape and a couple more brushes, 2 major paint spills (did I mention that we weren't replacing the carpet?) a couple of living room sleepovers, plenty of sweat and sore shoulder muscles, and a bit of nagging sweetly reminding my husband that I needed his help for a few things and one grand trip to Hobby Lobby! (my first)

Of course we have to start with the before(s).......

This is Tyler's room. It was probably the nicest  bedroom when we moved in. Actually I probably wouldn't have bothered to paint it except for one thing. You see those stripes on the orange wall? They look nice from a distance but apparently they used cheap tape to do those. Ugh!

Wow, when I look at these now the walls all look a little naked. I didn't even attempt to do any decorating because I was hoping this whole project would be done a long time ago.

He wanted his room to be orange. He's all about the Flyers right now and everything in his world should be black, orange and white. I told him he could have orange but I would not buy orange paint. I figured it's a lot easier to change curtains and sheets when he gets tired of it (or changes teams!) than to repaint. That's not happening till he moves to college! So, (drum roll, please!) This is what we came up with.

We're both happy. I caved on my "no orange paint" promise when I remembered the lamp stuffed up in the attic. Yup, the orange one in the corner there, thanks to my trusty friend the spray bomb for making me "the best mom ever" for at least a few minutes. For a few bucks I think it adds a fun look to the room. Still not much decorating going on on these walls. I'm having a little trouble finding cool boy stuff. All my "look isn't this a pretty flowered picture?" suggestions, whether orange or not, have been turned down. There are a couple of Flyers posters ordered and beyond that we'll just keep looking and working on it I guess. We also on the lookout for an orange chair of some kind for the corner. Anyone have any more great ideas??

I found this fabric online and made these curtains in about 20 minutes. Fold and hem, that's it! The gray in the back  is actually single energy efficient curtain panels. They make it much darker than regular blinds and they seem to help a lot when the sun is beating in there in the mornings. Hopefully they'll work just as well when the winter winds start blowing!


And the little boy's room, these 2 rooms used to be one big room. Someone installed a flimsy, kind of make shift, wall in the middle to make it 2. It works okay but you have to go through the one to get to the other. That means that we really have no choice but to put 3 little boys in the smallest of all the bedrooms. I'm not sure how that is going to work in 10 years but I guess we'll fix it then. Anyway, I was trying to decide how to paint them so they sort of coordinate. I ended up painting the walls the same color in both of them and then using different accent colors. If I were doing it over I would go a shade lighter on the gray but it didn't bother me enough to waste a gallon of paint or run back to the store and try to change it. It makes the rooms a tad bit dark but most of the time when they're in there they are sleeping anyway so it's all good.

So, before....

Hand painted clouds anyone? Don't be jealous! :)

And After.....

I had a little too much fun decorating this one! I've been scheming the truck/mechanic/road theme for a long time. I picked up the wooden license plate boxes a couple of years ago. They are finally in their happy place.

Yard-Sale-Free-Pile-Shelf plus (you guessed it!) a couple cans of spray paint = 1. a perfect splash of yellow fun and 2. a place for little boys to keep their many Lego creations. Score!

Old frames laying around the house plus a few pages from a free calender. Easy, Peasy!

Super fun and cheery, chevron curtains. Those took a whole hour since I decided to get all fancy and add the ribbon on the bottom. And, my perfect Hobby Lobby find, an old metal truck and road sign.

It's just so perfect! I nearly danced out of the store. And did I mention it was half price?

And someone thinks he's pretty big stuff, moving into a big boy bed. I thought I had 4 little boys, he tells me I have none!

It was short.....

.....but we packed it full and made it Sweet!

We started, as every good vacation should, early in the morning, with individual boxes of sugar cereal for the road.    (don't worry we balanced it out with Dunkin Donuts later. :)

.....we spent time with old friends

.....we relaxed

.....we rode all sorts of fun vehicles

 

.....we made new friends

...... we got a little silly

.....we pretended to be real farmers who aren't afraid of a little poop

 .....but we were really pretty fascinated with it all.

 {this picture just cracks me up. he carried that little toy gun around for hours

but it wasn't until i looked at these pictures later that I realized it looks like he's getting 

ready to shoot the pony. i promise, no animals were injured during our visit.}

......we ate junk food

 .....we enjoyed perfect summer evenings (which  turned into late nights) on the deck with cups of coffee and heart to heart conversations (until our husbands thought surely our jaws should be hurting)

if these chairs could talk....

......we made memories

And we topped it all off with another day of fun and memories.

.....we rode around and around

.....and up and down

.....we waited patiently (and had almost as much fun watching as riding)

 .....we made sure it was all well documented

.....kept our handsome smiles busy

.....we didn't sweat the small stuff, who needs a double stroller anyway?

.....we got tired, dirty, rained on, hungry, thirsty, sun-kissed

.....we bought $3 ice cream cones

.....we came home exhausted but refreshed.

....are looking forward to doing it all again a.s.a.p!

One Thing is Needed.....

Really? Only ONE? Because I can think of quite a few.

Right at this very moment, in my house, there are umpteen loads of laundry in various stages of sorting, washing, drying and foldedness. There are dirty dishes waiting in the sink and the drainer is stacked to award winning heights with dishes waiting to be returned to there cozy cupboard homes. I have no idea what the dinner menu might look like (it's 4:43.) Not to mention the toilets that never got cleaned last week and the floors that tell tales of what was served for breakfast. Oh and if that's all finished before nap time is over (Ha!) I could always go finish that painting project that's been dragging on and on for e.v.e.r!

I can't say I'm 'worried and troubled' about any of this. My family might appreciate if I was a little more concerned, at least with what will be filling their growling bellies and when. I doubt they'll notice the bathroom scum anytime soon. That's seems to be solely my department! But it's possible that all this 'stuff' is distracting me from what is needed.

I just finished a book study on this book.

Let me just tell ya, it's been a long time since I read a book that I recommend as highly as this one. (And no, I'm not getting anything from anybody to tell you that.) We all know the story in the Bible. The one where Mary sits calmly listening to Jesus while Martha plays the hostess with the mostest.  I happen to enjoy hosting and entertaining so I've often wondered how to make those verses practical for me. I mean, Hello! wasn't there a house full of hungry people, somebody was gonna have to do something, those fish weren't gonna fry themselves. I loved how the author acknowledged that in this book. Jesus didn't  reprimand Martha for serving, it was her attitude that needed help. I can serve myself silly, cooking for new mama's, cleaning the church, wiping noses and bottoms, volunteering at 74 different wonderful events, hosting friends and neighbors.........the list is never ending. The problem is when I do it with that "why isn't anybody helping me?" attitude. And it sure doesn't take long for that to show up when a Mommy is tired, busy and a wee bit overwhelmed.

So what's a girl to do?  Yes, Jesus tells us clearly to be hospitable. We are supposed to be servants. We are called to love 'hands on.' But my friends, we are not called to do it ALL! (Go ahead let out that big sigh of relief!) The answer is in knowing exactly what it is that God has for me to do right now. And the only way to find that out is to spend time with Him. I've had sweet well meaning friends tell me things like, "God knows your heart, even if you're busy with your little ones and don't have time for devotions." And I do believe that is true, to a point. He is a God of grace, but the bottom line is, If my relationship with Him is important, I'll figure out a way to spend time with Him. I'll crave more of Him. I'll look forward to one on one time with Him and miss it when I don't have it. There is NO way to get to know Him and His will for my life without spending time with Him.  I've got some lots of growing to do here yet but a new seed has been planted, there is a new vision for what could be. It's another balancing act. Service with the wrong attitude is worthless but worship without service is not any better.

Sometimes I am called to serve my family "behind the scenes," cleaning the toilets when no one else even notices, keeping the drawers magically refilled with clean clothes and serving up something to eat again. But sometimes I am called to give up my to do list for the day. To let the dishes sit and the weeds grow so that I can reach out and encourage a struggling friend or show (not just tell) my children that I love them with a story, a game, or a tickle fight. Sometimes I am even asked to step out of my comfort zone and teach a class or organize an event but I am not asked to do every good thing that flutters through my mind.

We live in a culture that says go, go, go. We pack our schedules full and then squeeze in a few more things. Those who aren't running full speed ahead are looked at as lazy. We got that "does not eat the bread of idleness" business down pat. There are countless good causes to support and good deeds to be done. But all of the sudden we find ourselves involved in so many things that we're not doing any of them well and our attitude is soon smellin' like that pile of dirty socks the husband is waiting for someone to wash and "magically" return to his drawer. So today, take time to do the one thing that NEEDS to be done. Sit down and have a cup of coffee with Jesus.  And don't worry, the laundry piles will wait patiently until your finished.