31 Friday Dec 2010
Posted in being grateful, love, taido
I’m so thankful for this guy!
We are celebrating our anniversary with a little time away in the woods, my favorite place to be!
ps Photos are from our very fun styled photo shoot with Whitney last spring!
30 Thursday Dec 2010
Posted in being grateful, books, faith, family
My dad got a Kindle this fall and when I told him that there was a book I was wanting to read that was only available electronically, he immediately bought it for me on to read on his Kindle.
When the Christmas crazy became overwhelming I would sneak away and devour a few pages of One Thousand Gifts.
Reading this book is confirming what I already know in my heart to be true,
Gratitude is the antidote to discontentment.
I make a sporadic discipline of making lists of those things for which I can be thankful.
I have reminders on my wall to be grateful, today.
Some days it is easy to be thankful.
Some days I have to look a little harder.
But finding something today that I can thank God for shifts my perspective.
In One Thousand Gifts, Ann tells the story of her decision to number all the way to 1000 in listing her gratitude.
It is a beautiful story. Her life is marked with the kinds of suffering I cannot bear to even imagine.
But the way out of a darkness that threatens to consume her is through these daily, humble offerings of thanksgiving.
Newly inspired to make these lists of my own, I found a gifted journal that I am beginning to fill.
Right now, after the lavish outpouring of blessing that is Christmas, it is easy to mark the gifts.
As the year closes though and the days of January stretch out ahead, I want to take the time to relish each gift.
To ponder in my heart, like Mary, all the treasures of this season.
A few things from my list:
The three youngest cousins playing together, and a sweet aunt who knows how to calm them down.
My parents’ fireplace, always warm.
Nine cups with names marked in masking tape, to use and use and use again.
Buying all the gifts on my kids World Vision list with Cupcake Money.
Hearing my Grandmother share her heart about her friend, Grace.
The kids delighting in some Star Wars pancakes, from molds gifted to us by sweet friends.
What gifts will you remember from this holiday season?
25 Saturday Dec 2010
24 Friday Dec 2010
Posted in christmas, links, raising chinos
I have a little Merry Christmas Eve gift for ya!
We participated in the Joy Project again this year, which made us laugh a lot throughout December.
For me, the laughing and dancing together as a family is the value of getting out and bringing the joy!
We surprised people with our joyful flash mob dance in many different places around Little Rock, but Taido caught us on video at the mall.
I say us, but mostly he caught Simon and Campbell.
I promise you I will never get tired of watching these guys do this dance!
Hope you enjoy it too!
20 Monday Dec 2010
Cupcake Sale
for World Vision
Wednesday, December 22nd!
3-5 pm
at my parents’ house,
5913 Eagle Creek
North Little Rock
Flavors:
Chocolate with Very Dark Chocolate Frosting
Vanilla with Vanilla Bean Frosting
Chocolate with Peppermint Frosting
20 Monday Dec 2010
I’ll be knee deep in cupcake batter this week,
but this is what my kitchen looked like for the better part of last week!
A little love boxed up for neighbors!
Squares are Chocolate Espresso Shortbread!
My favorite chocolate chip cookies!
There’s a good reason I own so many half sheet pans!
What’s baking at your house this week??
18 Saturday Dec 2010
Posted in being grateful, children's books, christmas, raising chinos
Mary Polly and I crafted this advent calendar from a kit I bought last year from Red Velvet Art,
but we didn’t finish it until this year.
In fact, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t done until December 4th so we had a few days to make up.
Each day has a pocket and each pocket has a slip of paper with an activity written on it for that day.
In the mornings, we’ve been lighting our advent candle, moving our little donkey closer to Bethlehem and reading the Christmas story.
After we finish our little ceremony, we pull out the paper and see what’s going to happen today.
Some nights Taido and I are figuring out what the activity is going to be before we’re going to bed.
Some have been great fun.
But honestly, some have been kind of lame.
Do you know how difficult it is to come up with and commit to doing 24 days of family activities?
We’ve had to work around a few things.
Some nights, we’ve had to neglect other important things (laundry, dinner) in order to get our activity done.
I didn’t really think about all that before I put the calendar up.
We just knew that we wanted to do something to mark advent every day in December.
We’re marking the waiting.
The last two days of activities didn’t go over so great, so last night I really wanted us to come up with something that they would be excited about today.
Taido was all, just write that they can play all the video games they want.
Then they’ll be excited.
That wasn’t really what I was looking for.
So we came up with this:
Everyone gets to buy a new book of their choice. Then we’ll go to Starbucks and read them.
Ben looked at me after he read it and said,
Today is going to be a good one!
It was our good fortune after school to trade a younger brother for an older cousin who would enjoy this activity more.
So we all headed out to the Scholastic Warehouse Sale, which is going on until next Tuesday and is overwhelming in scope, but so worth the trip.
Everyone chose a book. Getting to choose a book without having to have it approved by me was a very big deal.
They all chose things I would not have bought, but they were all silent even in the car on the way to Starbucks reading their selections.
I got to choose books for Simon and Campbell since they weren’t there which was Merry Christmas to me!
They were all super cutie reading their books at Starbucks.
Cole and Mary Polly sat across from one another and they even looked like they might kind of be friends.
Which kind of made me want to cry.
I read Christmas poems and Taido read the paper.
All happy campers.
Here are the books I picked out!
17 Friday Dec 2010
I have alluded to how much we are LOVING this album at our house right now!
It is so. much. fun.
But also it has just enough of sweet little voices singing Christmas classics to make your heart go pitter pat.
If you have a child or a grandchild or even a child at heart in your house, you NEED this album.
Simon can already sing all the words to Happy Birthday Jesus. It’s so clever and fun. And so sweet.
Also, it has possibly the most darling version of Joy to the World ever.
Mary Polly and I can not help yelling out the sounding joy wherever Joy to the World is being sung or played now! It’s such a great addition!!
So go get one today, because today only you can get them for $5 off AND free shipping!
And they will still be here in time for Christmas!
So go order one, and then come back and tell me how much you love it!
15 Wednesday Dec 2010
It’s coming!
Our annual cupcake sale will be next Wednesday, December 22nd!
3-5 pm
at my parents’ house,
5913 Eagle Creek
North Little Rock
Here are a few pictures from last time from my super talented sweetie SIL, Whitney!
Flavors:
Chocolate with Very Dark Chocolate Frosting
Vanilla with Vanilla Bean Frosting
and my favorite,
Chocolate with Peppermint Frosting
Last Valentine’s Day, we sold over 600 cupcakes to send to Haiti!
This year all the money is going to World Vision.
If you know that you want a dozen or more,
I would LOVE to know ahead of time,
so email,
comment,
facebook,
or
text me your order.
Cupcakes are $2 each.
My sister will be here in time to do the icing,
so they will be waaay prettier than these,
but they will taste just as yummy!
14 Tuesday Dec 2010
I’ve been keeping a list of my favorite places to get something original and fun online, so I thought I would share it.
My favorite kind of gifts to buy online are the ones that have a conscience.
There are new spots like this popping up all the time.
Here are a few of my favs!
Nations Outfitters: clothes that are flattering, original and a percentage of sales goes to Habitat for Humanity.
Also, I’m kind of a sucker for their tagline:
I have this dress, and I love it a lot!
I love their gift catalog of animals and other treasures you can buy in honor of a loved one, but I also love to go to the shop at the Heifer Village. They have a selection of goods from all over the world that you know are sustainably made and fairly traded.
It’s a lot like Ten Thousand Villages, another place that is wonderful for gift buying.
I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned once or twice how much I love the jewelry that Lisa Leonard makes.
Taido gave me this loved necklace for our anniversary last year and I LOVE it so much!
Graham Gardens is my new favorite place to get natural beauty products. Love their skin salve!
JustPotters is a division of JustWork, which is an organization that fosters dignified, gainful work opportunities through the development of social enterprises. They provide opportunities for employment to people who face barriers like physical disabilities, mental illness, homelessness and addictions.
They are located in Vancouver, B.C. and while we were there a couple of years ago, I saw some of their beautiful work, which is now also available on etsy.
They also do wedding registries. I think it would be super cool to order dishes through them. What an incredible treasure to start your home on dishes that are made by hands that would otherwise not have the opportunity to work.
And speaking of Etsy shops, they are a great alternative to the Big Box stores.
Shopping on Etsy is such a great way to support artisans to find great ideas.
Here’s a couple more of my current Etsy favs:
volume twenty five is a print shop on etsy.
Her prints are beautiful. They are printed on canvas paper. I bought these two this fall and they encourage me every day. No exaggeration!
Also, I really like this one.
I also think just hatched is about the cutest esty shop ever for toddler toys.
LOVE these little birdies!
and LOVE LOVE LOVE this leaf puzzle.
Goodie Jar: this shop full of flower earrings is great!
What are your favorite holiday finds online this season??
