When Life Hands You Balloons

Last Saturday we went to a park to have our pictures taken by my brother-in-law. I wanted to get some photos of the three of us as a family (since we haven't done that yet, *ahem*) and some of Avery. The day before, I had planned to go get a single helium balloon for Avery's pictures. The only place I know of to get helium balloons (the regular kind, not the foil kind) is on the other side of town and well, it didn't work out for me to go get one. Then that evening Josh was going to go get one and that didn't work out either as he had to worry about getting his hair cut and there just wasn't time. Oh, and did I mention that during this time we're juggling one car because our other vehicle decided to have issues again? Yeeeeah. We decided that if we had time in the morning, we'd go buy a balloon before getting our pictures taken.

Needless to say, we did not have time in the morning. After leaving later than intended, Josh asked if we still wanted to stop and get a balloon. "Uhhh, no." I said. "We're already running late!" I had been feeling frustrated that we didn't have time to get a balloon for Avery's pictures. And normally when I feel that way about something that is out of my control, I look around for someone else to blame to alleviate my frustration. I stew. I sulk. But in that moment, I decided not to let my normal reaction take over. I didn't want to make my family miserable right before family pictures! So I said laughingly, "Maybe there will be a man selling balloons at the park!" Josh laughed with me at the ridiculousness of that thought. But it made me feel better and, hey! It could happen, right?

We met my brother-in-law in the parking lot of the park and as we're walking away from our cars, we pass a young family with a baby getting ready to leave. And with them they are carrying a big bunch of...you guessed it...balloons! I think as they passed by, I said to my brother-in-law, "Ohhh! I meant to go get a balloon for Avery's pictures and I didn't have a chance!" I looked wistfully after them and thought, "Do I dare go beg them for one of their balloons?" Josh was on the same wavelength as I was and said, "Why don't you just go ask them for a balloon?" I looked towards them, trying to work up the nerve to go ask, and I see that they're looking back at us. So we started walking towards each other and the young woman said, "Would you like our balloons? I overheard you say you wanted some." My hand flew to my heart and I said, "Yes, thank you! I meant to get some yesterday and didn't have time! Thank you so much!" I walked back to my family with the balloons in hand. I couldn't believe it! Avery loved the balloons and I think we'll have some good pictures of her with them...not to mention a good story to tell when we look back years from now.

So to the dear, sweet family in the park that gave us your balloons: Thank you! This mama was feeling bad that she didn't have a chance to get a single balloon for her daughter's photos. You helped make our pictures and our day! And thank you, God...I'm sure you had a part in that, too!

The Tree Swing

I've been feeling a little off lately. Sometimes life doesn't go according to plan and instead you trip over a toy in the floor and break the two smallest toes on one foot, forcing you to stay off of it for several days. Then maybe you get a one inch long gash on the top of your head from an open medicine cabinet door and have to cover it up with your bangs so as not to gross everyone out or draw unwanted attention to yourself. And yes, I am very accident prone. Its amazing that I haven't broken anything else on my body yet. Add to that a sick daughter and everything that comes with that (high fever, melt downs, clinginess and feeling miserable), and well...it's easy to feel a little off.

Yesterday Avery started feeling better again, and since it was so nice outside we went out to the backyard after dinner. I mean seriously--who could ask for better weather at the end of July in Missouri??? I found a toddler swing for Avery a few weeks ago and Josh installed it on a tree branch that I knew would be the perfect spot for a swing. After playing in the yard awhile, Avery wanted to swing so I put her in. She was content to swing for a good long time and I was happy to keep pushing her. Something about the repetitive motion of the swing swaying back and forth, the perfect temperature outside, the creak of the gate as Josh went to water the garden...it was soothing. We listened to the birds chirping and the dogs barking and the leaves swishing in the wind. I looked up through the tree branches with all their green leaves and could see the blue sky. I knew that would be a perfect spot for a swing. What I didn't know is how much good it would do for me, too. Thanks God, for answering my prayer for a swing for Avery...and for me.

My To-Do List

I like to make myself a to-do list every week and keep it visible on the kitchen counter. I have to smile in amusement when I make my lists these days thinking of how different my tasks are now from what they used to be as a full-time office employee. As a stay-at-home mom, my lists now include things like, "Do Avery's laundry" and "Change out carseat buckle". My to-do lists help me remember the things I tend to forget about until right before bed when I think, "Oh yeah, I forgot to do ____."

This week I had an unusual "task" on my to-do list...to write a letter to a friend. This is the only way I have of communicating with her right now in her current situation. So last night instead of getting on Facebook or Pintrest like I usually do after my daughter is in bed, I decided to sit down and write to her. I dug out my stationery box (yes, I actually do still have one), but I had to dig down to the bottom under blank cards and unused stickers until I finally found some stationery paper. It's pink and I've probably had it since I was 12! After writing for awhile, I thought about how rare it is for me to write anymore. Occasionally I'll force myself to sit down and write in my journal, but even then its usually about what new things Avery is doing or saying and not really about my thoughts or what's been going on in my life. Even emailing someone seldom happens anymore. Why email when you can just send short texts while you're busy doing something else? Who has time to sit down and write? Not me. Oh yeah, but I do have time for Facebook and Pintrest. Hmmmm...

So this evening of writing to my friend instead of getting on social media made me think...I don't have to always check Facebook. That should not be something on my mental to-do list. And speaking of to-do lists, I don't always have to have one. Sure, they are nice to help me remember things and it feels so good when I get to cross something off. But life isn't about just crossing things off my list. Playing with my daughter and giving her my attention isn't something I can just do and say, "Check! That's done for today." Spending time reading my Bible and praying isn't something I can do and then say, "Check! I've been a good Christian for today...now I'm done." And I have to keep reminding myself of that. I don't want to let my to-do lists, whether mental or actual, control me. So if I made an actual to-do list inspired by this blog post, I think it should look something like this:

-Spend time being present, whether its an actual place or in someone's company
-Pray without ceasing
-Spend less time on social media and more time writing and drawing! :o)

What's on your to-do list right now?

When Pies Go Bad

I made two strawberry meringue pies with lemon curd for Mother's Day and things didn't exactly go as planned. When I baked the crusts, they shrunk down into the pie plates and bubbled up really big in the middle. Nice. But after I assembled them, I thought they looked good enough to snap a picture of, so I did:

What I didn't snap a picture of was the next morning when I took them out of the refrigerator and the juice from the strawberries had soaked into the crust! They were a mess. One of them even leaked onto the backseat of our car on the way over to my parents' house. But despite all this, they still tasted pretty good. And my husband (who is not a big fan of pie crust) said that it was the best pie crust he had ever had! Note to self...strawberry juice-soaked pie crust is good!

Sketchbook Peek Saturday

I've been thinking about doing a feature here where I share something from my sketchbook every other week or so. I think it will be fun and hopefully it will also keep me motivated to draw on a more regular basis! Ok, so this isn't exactly from my sketchbook, but here's just a little something I worked on last night:

It's pretty simple and it really didn't take me that long to do. It's for a little project I'm working on. Hope you enjoyed this little "peek", and happy weekend!

The season for growing

Our lettuce is growing! We planted spinach, red leaf, and just some regular stuff about a week and a half ago. The last time we planted spinach from seed, none of it came up, so we were pretty excited to see those green sprouts popping up this week. Hopefully we will be eating some yummy salads in a few weeks!

I'm thinking we need to plant some tomatoes, too. Aren't they so much better home grown than store bought??

Weekend Project

This weekend I finally worked up the motivation to start a project. I've had so many ideas rolling around in my head that I think it's been hard for me to decide which one to actually start with!

We've had this media shelf for probably about 4 or 5 years; I think we got it at Big Lots. It was super packed with dvds until we weeded some out and my husband went through and recorded some digitally to our computer. There ended up being some empty shelves, but I couldn't get to them because of the spot in our living room we had it in.



See how it's really crowded with that end table there? By the way, I took this after I had cleared off about 3 shelves and then realized I would probably want to have a "before" picture. I never liked how the lower shelves weren't that accessible, and the black backing with its black hole-ish, sucking-the-rest-of-the-living-room-in quality was really starting to bother me. After seeing some ideas on Pintrest, I decided I would scrapbook the back of our media shelf!



I used Mod Podge to glue the paper to the back and then brushed another layer of it on top to seal it a little. I also moved the shelf to a different spot so it would be more accessible. And with the dvds more spread out, I was able to put some other little things in amongst the dvds to make it look more home-y.



Ta da! I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. My husband didn't like how "frilly" the paper was that I chose, but he did approve of the way I arranged everything. :o)



Yay for weekend projects! What projects are you hoping to get done soon?