Our big 5yo niece

Celebrating Cora Beth's 5th Birthday!

Farmer's Market Downtown

Reading Rally at the Library

Love this time together just the 2 of us

Listening to all the readers. So thankful for her love of reading!

Love this sweet girl, she is getting SO big SO fast!

She had so many questions as we walked around the Farmer's Market. She asked where the food came from, why they sold it there instead of the store, etc. She's a thinker. Keeping EmEm on her toes with all of her questions!

We had a great time at the reading rally. We started it off on a good foot when we filled our bag full of books - 12 to be exact - that CB and I both picked out. Then you got the bag for $1! I couldn't believe it. CB got some good books, too. We picked out each one together. Some for now, some for later, we got 'em all! She even let EmEm have some for her house. So thoughtful.

I was hoping to do some activities that I knew would be good memory makers. You never really know what kids at her age will take away from a day with bouncies, face painting, snow cones, popcorn, the farmer's market. So I tried to give her the option of everything - asking her at least once if she would want to do this, try that, etc. At the reading rally Clifford and some other characters were walking around and so I asked her if she wanted to meet any of them or have her picture taken with them and she quickly said,"no!" and acted like she had no interest in them whatsoever. Well, wouldn't you know that the first thing she said when I dropped her off with her mom after a day of so many fun and different activities was - "Mom, I saw Clifford!"

Go figure ;)

Practically Perfect

Friends : I would like to warn you. If you have a creative bone in your body and are itching for a project stay away from this blog post. This one is so easy and cheap that you will be buying items you have no use for just to transform something ugly into something fabulous!

If you know me at all you know that I.love.spray.paint. Anything I can find cheap and spray paint consider it done. Well, when I saw this lovely post at http://www.younghouselove.com/page/2/ I knew I had a project waiting for me. So, after work I headed over to Goodwill and All Things Possible. I found some cute candlesticks at Goodwill, but convinced myself that they were not what I was looking for so I headed on over to All Things Possible. Jackpot! I found the way cute candle pictured for $3. While there, I also grabbed 2 baskets for $1 - Score! We have been needing one for our bathroom and then I snagged a really cute red one that can be used just about anywhere(and why would I leave it for .50?). Later on at dinner that night Chris asked me,"So you really only spent $4 and got 2 baskets and that candle?" He is so easily impressed with my shopping skills. Let's hope the eye for something ugly that has potential and the bargain shopping brain both are genes I pass on to our kids :)

Anywho, here is the finished product. Not bad for about 5 minutes worth of work and 1 hour of drying. I also find that while waiting on one project to be finished I typically start another. So, while waiting for this to dry I did a load of laundry and decorated for fall. You can just call me wonder woman...ha!

The pros of lazy days

I am going to let you in on a little secret - the title of this blog is misleading. There is nothing lazy about this Day family. WHEW! We have been going nonstop for a long time now and I am beginning to wonder if there will ever be an end in sight. So, this afternoon while Chris was showing houses I decided to take some time out to maybe have some lazy hours(?) . I can't say lazy day because we spent the morning teaching our fun 1st and 2nd grade kiddos at CLC during both services. Anyone who has spent any time with kids that age knows you can't be lazy when trying to get them to listen to stories, do activities, etc. So my "lazy hours" started this afternoon - you know, the kind where you don't have to answer to anyone, you could lay down and take a nap, you could do nothing, you could do everything, it's up to you {nowhere to be, no schedule, no agenda}. These afternoons are always few and far between, but I think that is what makes you most thankful for them. So, I got caught up on my blogs, found some new ones, checked facebook, and just kinda wasted time doing nothing. And it felt GREAT!

This afternoon proved itself to be the perfect time to look around for cool and different gift ideas. I can proudly say that I have already started the Christmas shopping thanks to Marshall's wonderful end of season clearance sales and am looking forward to seeing what other great deals we can find. It's crazy how much fun I have with any opportunity I have to give gifts. After all, I adore giving gifts. I turn a simple task into an over analyzed job most of the time, but it's because that is one opportunity to show someone how much you care. I want to find a gift that makes shows them I took time to listen to something they may have said they liked or wanted. To find something that matches a friend's home decor

or personality to a "t"

. Or like the gift I recently purchased - a 'just because' gift that perfectly illustrated an inside joke. But one of my favorite gifts is finding something that gift that gives past the recipient. And all of the below do just that.

While looking around I found these cool items:

http://store.showhope.org/shop/featured/branch-tee-scarves-multicolor

http://store.coolpeoplecare.org/products/new-day-poster

I recently got my second pair of Toms for my birthday. Chris even got a pair when we were on vacation, which means 3 kids have gotten shoes because of us - how cool is that?

http://www.toms.com/

Another favorite of mine - the St. Jude website

http://shop.stjude.org/GiftCatalog/index.do

*What better than to do something for someone while also helping someone in need? The gift that gives - what an awesome way to celebrate any special occasion(especially the birth of our Savior)!

Mama said...

As I get older I realize just how amazing my mom is and how good of a job she did raising twin girls and a son on her own. She had great resources for sure - my brother who is 7 years older than us, his wife, our aunt and uncle, and our entire church family - but she could have made other decisions(like decisions to be prideful and refuse help, or to be selfish) that would have made a big difference. She could have decided not to take the help offered to her, not to come up with creative ways of pawning us off in the summer to folks while helping their family, too(Brewer's, Bettis', etc.), and how to teach us to work at a young age so we could have things we {wanted}. So, on that note, I am thankful to my mom for a million things. That's right, a million. So here are a few that have really made an impact on me lately.

Mom had strict restrictions on tv watching. For expense reasons we didn't have cable for quite some time. Then, when we got it she blocked alot of the channels that we didn't need to be watching such as Mtv, BET, etc. I know many people who will think that's a bit much, and to us it was the end of our teenage world as we knew it, but we managed :) But, the principal was -what they had to show was not welcome in our home(where we were quite often). On top of the restrictions there was a lack of television watching that we did growing up. For a single mom, I think that's very impressive. She could have used the tv as a babysitter since she had to do so much on her own. But instead we spent our time reading, playing outside, and spending 30 minutes or so at the dinner table each night talking about our day, life in general, doing homework, etc. Our time together was just that - together. It makes me sad to know how many children are glued to the tv before they even hit their first birthday. They are missing out on so much time to develop their little brains & personality and have precious mommy and daddy time that you can't get back!

I am also thankful that she showed us the importance of saying thank you with a quick response from any gift by writing a thank you card. I can not tell you how often I write cards now - some not even for gifts but for just saying hi - something that we all don't do often enough. I mean, who doesn't love getting mail? Not only mail, but mail that makes you feel good about something you did or catching up with someone you haven't talked to recently. I always feel good after writing a thank you, after all - that person took the time to think of you and get you a gift, the least you can do is take a couple minutes to sincerely say "thank you". My friends and I had this conversation the other day. It's not that you gave the gift expecting anything - it's the fact that the receiver took the time to acknowledge and thank the giver. Plain and simple. And even if you can't get me one right away I will still take one a few months late. After all, better late than never, right?

And last, but certainly not least, she always encouraged us to deal with conflict head on. Sometimes that meant taking a step back to analyze if you were being hypersensitive, or making sure you have the right words and attitude, but no matter how or when - if there was a problem it needed to be discussed and resolved. I know many families where this is not practiced & I can't help but wonder how healthy it is to keep something inside for so long and never address it. Especially when the idea you have about the situation could be completely and totally "messed up" - after all, there are always 2 sides to every story. In our family if you have a problem, you bring it up to that person, talk it out, solve it, and move on. Growing up it was mainly the 3 of us -mom, Rachel and myself. Tell me in a house full of women we didn't practice this often :) Yet I am so thankful for it now because it has helped me in conflict with Chris, any issues that ever come up at work, etc. I will definitely pass this on to my children to promote a healthy family that discusses and works out issues. There is even biblical backing to this idea:

Matthew 18:15-17 (The Message)
"If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him—work it out between the two of you. If he listens, you've made a friend. If he won't listen, take one or two others along so that the presence of witnesses will keep things honest, and try again. If he still won't listen, tell the church. If he won't listen to the church, you'll have to start over from scratch, confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God's forgiving love."

Happy Anniversary To Us!

We celebrate 4 years of marriage today - WOW, time flies!

We look forward to what the Lord has in store for us for this next year & are so thankful for all He has done for us this past year(which was quite a bit - we had a very FULL year!). He truly never ceases to amaze us with what He can do in us and through us. Chris & I are blessed to be on this journey together & are both so very thankful for all that He has done!

A wedding anniversary is the celebration of love, trust, partnership, tolerance and tenacity. The order varies for any given year.

~Paul Sweeney