Good Morning Wednesday

Early alarm, turned off for a few more minutes in dreamland.

White mug, hot coffee, Bible study, good morning Wednesday.

Pancakes and pink lemonade since we ran out of orange juice.

Spoon for the yogurt and applesauce in her lunch box, check.

Off to school kisses for the pony tail girl.

Snuggle time with the boy in the Buzz Lightyear pajamas.

Youth group plans and have a great day as he heads off to church.

Doorbell rings, time to teach.

Piano lesson.  Vocal lesson.

Sidewalk chalk, hopscotch, and Star wars figures on the front stoop.

Bright sky, warm sun, fresh breeze.

Sounds of chirping birds, whirring lawnmowers, little feet hopping down the sidewalk.

Back inside for coloring books, crayons, and the momentary sound of quiet.

Wednesday morning was bright and beautiful in its ordinary way.

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things...

Besides brown paper packages tied up with strings, these are a few of my favorite things these days!!

This shirt.  My friend Natalie kept telling me about this accessory store called Charming Charlie.  When I was in Maryland, my friend Laurie and I stumbled across one and I was instantly smitten by this magical world of affordable accessories, all displayed beautifully on color coordinated tables.  As I was making my way through this enchanted place, Laurie told me she was buying me a shirt she saw because she knew I would love it.  It was embellished with strings of pearls and lace.  And she was right.

Maryland blooms.  I so enjoyed seeing them a few weeks ago.

Wasabi Sauce.  My love affair with wasabi and soy almonds continues, but now I fancy this sauce as well.  One of my favorite sandwiches of late is turkey on a sandwich flat with this spicy sauce, provolone, and dill pickle stackers.  Ahhh, the burn.  (And no I'm not pregnant, I just perpetually eat like I am.  My husband thinks I have deficient taste buds that require extremely strong flavors to be satisfied!! I just tell him he doesn't know what he's missing!)

Cream cheese and olive sandwiches.  (Speaking of strong flavors, I suppose!) Don't knock it until you've tried it.  Yum.

This water bottle.  It was given to me by an employee at a Vera Bradley store as I browsed for my mom's Mother's Day gift.  Now that's customer service, served in style!  

My little red shelf.  Found it a couple months ago for $5.99 at Marshall's.  What a happy addition to my kitchen!

This granola.  Available in the organic section of Publix.  Good by itself, with milk, or in yogurt.

My Wavelength nail polish.  Goes on so smoothly, dries very quickly, and truly is one of the best spring/summer shades I've found!  When on it is a perfect blend of pink and coral.  A cheap find at Target.

Buckets from the $1 section of Target.  They are used for all sorts of things around here.

My morning mugs.  Nothing like the first whiff and first sip of fresh brewed coffee, especially in a colorful mug that makes you smile.

The Paul: 90 Days on His Journey of Faith study I've been doing.  I'm on lesson 52 and it has been great.  Paul is so real, so raw.  He was completely sold out to Christ, but he struggled with his humanity just as we do. It has been good to follow him on his missionary journeys and the ups and downs he faced along the way.  He definitely had both his moments of victory and moments of discouragement, just like all of us involved in kingdom work, but he was faithful to the end.  I can't wait to see what else I learn during the rest of this journey of faith.

What are your favorite things these days?!

For The Love Of Students

One of the joys of my life is the time spent with students in the youth group where my husband serves as pastor.  Honestly, the chance to mentor students and invest in their lives is just the biggest blessing.  It is a responsibility we take very seriously, but it is also so much fun!

Moments like these make your heart feel like it is going to burst...

There is nothing like seeing teenagers grow to love Jesus and choose to serve God with their lives!

And then there are all those crazy activities you find yourself doing with people half your age, many of which involve wearing helmets...

This past Sunday after church we traded the helmets for life vests when we took a whole group of students to a camp for some fun in the sun.  My cute husband was pretty excited about the chance to go wakeboarding...

Considering I lack athletic skills (not to mention that pesky struggle with basic coordination) I decided not to even attempt the wakeboarding thing!  However I did agree to go tubing with one of the girls since all I had to do was hang on for dear life.

I even managed to stay on and not fall into the water.  Until I was trying to get off the raft that is....

Which gave us all a pretty good laugh.

It's funny what you will do for the love of students!

If You Need A Good Laugh...

Break out your kid's easel and play a game of Pictionary with a bunch of adults!

We had a houseful of friends over last night for a Sunday School class date night.  After a few hours of eating and talking, we broke out the dry erase markers and the Pictionary board and let me tell you, we all laughed so hard that I literally had sore, aching muscles from laughing when I woke up this morning!

Which is an obvious sign of a great time.  :)

Speaking Of London...

Check out this fabulous find my mom came across at a Marshall's a few weeks ago.  She got a steal on this dress for my daughter, knowing it was right up her international alley!

It is hanging in Madi's closet just waiting to be worn on a date to our local tea room!  Don't you just love discount stores?  You never know what treasure you will find.  I do lots of my personal and gift shopping at stores like these because you can find unique, special things for terrific prices.

So, any local girlfriends up for a trip to Ross, Marshall's, or Steinmart?!
Just say the word, girls.

:)

In A Quiet Corner Of London

I may be the only person in America who hasn't watched the Royal Wedding yet.  Because I kind of live under a rock.  Jimmy and I have never had cable so we rarely turn the TV on except to watch movies.

I will eventually catch up with modern times and watch it, perhaps with tea and scones! But I saw some of the pictures and like everyone else, thought Kate's dress was absolutely stunning.  Thanks to my six year old with international flair, I've added quite a few Paris accents around here.  But with my need for change and all the festivities surrounding the Royal Wedding celebrations, I decided to create a little London vignette in my green chair corner.

Remember that little canvas I found at Michael's and used to make this simple, pretty Parisian accent?  I used another one to make a London accent.  And I must admit, I love it too.

Like most little girls of the 80's, I drooled over Princess Diana.  I had Princess Diana paper dolls and would often look through a coffee table book of her Royal Wedding.  She was so beautiful, and it breaks my heart that she much of the life she lived was filled with so much sadness.  I had just started college when she died and when I came home for Christmas between semesters, one of my gifts was a new Diana coffee table book, this one chronicling her life in remembrance of her.  So I pulled out that book to set in my little London corner.  I also set out an old English Lit textbook my husband found for me at a book sale in college (knowing his English major girlfriend would love it), my dad's old copy of Mere Christianity by  British author C.S. Lewis, a teacup made in England my sister-in-law gave me for a birthday present years ago, and an old silver tea piece given to me by a friend in the little church plant we served in as newlyweds.

It's sort of fun to go "shopping" in your own house!  You never know what you may come up with.

This is my new view when I sit in my green chair.  These days I drink my coffee, read, study, and write in a quiet corner of London.

Something Old, Something New

So lately everyone has been asking me about my "new" couches.  Which cracks me up because they are hand-me-downs from my parents that were purchased in my college years, probably sometime around 1999/2000!   When we moved here and built our house, we decided not to fill the dining room area of our great room with dining furniture, but to use it for more functional seating and living space.  So we kept our old couches we bought in 2001 before we got married, and my parents gave use their old set.  We put our old ones in the main living area, their old love seat in the dining area, and their old pull out couch in our music room.

However, that comfortable over-stuffed furniture that we purchased before our wedding was starting to literally fall apart after a decade of being extremely well used.  When we moved here I bought some blankets to cover up some of the worst parts, but they were getting to be in pretty bad shape. And my husband decided to move his full drum kit  into the music room because he is helping a friend work on a recording project.  So it was time to move some things around.

It's funny how moving things around can make things feel new and fresh - even if everything is over 10 years old!  We moved my parents hand-me-down furniture into the main living area, got rid of our large couch which was in the worst shape, and kept the tattered-but-still-hanging-in-there love seat for now, moving it into the dining area.  (One day I would absolutely love to get rid of it and buy two small leather recliners for this seating area.  But that's one day....and definitely not today!)

To freshen up the look further I moved a pillow from the playroom onto our old love seat, and the other day found some extremely reasonable and adorable spring pillows.  My mom and dear friend Marti who was in town (and is like family to us) were with me, fell in love with them too, and offered to contribute to helping me get a whole set. I had some Mother's Day money and combined with their sweet help was able to get four new pillows for my parents' old couches and a small one for my green chair.

And now, everyone who walks in asks me about my "new" furniture!  Love it!

Something old, something new.