Train Them Up

Recently I was an onlooker to an interesting situation. A child desperately wanted to play with their parent, but the parent would not put done their technology to play. The pleas to play went on for quite sometime before the parent finally "caved." They played for a short time, then the parent went back to their technology. It was awful and heartbreaking. Not just for that child, but because I have been that parent. The worst.

It's so easy to justify time on my phone or the computer, but there is always time for that after the kids' bedtime- and even then a little bit should go a long way. When they want to play, I should put down my phone and play. My husband and I created these kids and God entrusted them to us. Are we doing our best job?

I want our kids to feel valued and loved. I want them to know that people and kindness matters. They have to see my husband and I acting this out with them each day.

Proverbs 22:6 says "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." What Hannah and Grant see from us, is what they will do. We are not just raising a boy and a girl, we are raising a future spouse and parent. What we do today matters.

I know I mentioned putting my phone down last week, but it's ringing true (no pun intended) even more so now. If I spend the little time I have with them scrolling through my phone, I'm telling them my phone matters more then they do. God calls us to be better than that, so it's a conscious choice we need to make each day.

The Magnolia Story

Recently, The Magnolia Story was at my Little Free Library. I actually knew nothing about Chip or Joannna. I'd also never watched "Fixer Upper." I had only heard of Magnolia Market as a friend mentioned going there. That being said, I really enjoyed the book. Both Chip and Joanna wrote sections of each chapter, feeding on each other's thoughts, like a conversation.

I ended up watching an episode of "Fixer Upper" and really enjoyed it, and getting to know them through the book made the show even cooler. I think it's really neat how they really are each other's "better half" and how well Joanna handles all of Chip's crazy ideas and how Chip obviously loves and honors Joanna.

One of the parts of the book that really struck out to me was when Joanna realized a lot of her designing within the arch of sir homes was what she wanted and not "kid friendly," then she'd spend half the day picking up after them go make it pretty and unhappy the whole time. It was when she saw their were black finger prints on her couch that she realized she'd been doing it backwards. It was then she started to think about designing her home so it was a place the kids loved and felt was their own. I love this and the mid shift she went though.

I also loved how Chip and Joanna showed how God was important to them and part of the journey all the time. So often we don't hear people in the limelight talk about God, so it was refreshing.

I think it's safe o say "Fixer Upper" is not on the list of shows I want to watch and I really enjoyed reading their story.

Life Lately

Here's a little look at life lately. : )

I haven't been shopping, like at all, but I was recently at Target with Hannah and saw this vest on clearance for $17! I've already worn it twice. : ) It had been on my wishlist for this fall, but I never saw any in stores and worried about buying online, as I wasn't sure of quality or fit. This fits true to size and the quality is great! I also recently got these earrings.  I saw them first on Jane.com and ordered a few pair as they were so inexpensive and since then have gotten a few more. I love them and they are only $12!

Winging It

Tell me I'm not the only one who feels like this sometimes? There are days that I feel like I have it all together and the stars align. The kids sleep until 7:00, they play nicely, I get the house cleaned up, meals made, and we have quality family time in the evening. It's on days like this that I feel like I've got this "mom thing" down as I high five....myself.

I Now Have a Toddler!

A weird thing happened last week: I realized Hannah was no longer a baby. I'll admit, I'm still adjusting to the idea. I think it's the fact that we've switched from bottles to sippy cups and that crawling is a thing of the past that really solidified it for me.

We also had a friend stop by with her six week old and Hannah looked like a giant in comparison! I feel like I need I'm mourning the loss of my baby a bit. The crazy thing is, so often as moms we are always looking forward to the next stage our kids will enter, that we can sometimes forget to enjoy the stage we are in now.  Blink and it's over.

A month ago it was bottles and some table food, and now my girl is eating pizza and drinking milk from a sippy cup. She's working on five teeth and now that her ears are better she's very rarely fussing or crying. This little person is changing and growing each day and I don't want to blink and miss a thing.

She may be having a snack and milk before bed, but I'm not ready to stop rocking my little girl, and I plan to keep that up for as long as she'll let me. : )

FOMO or Boredom?

Last week my husband sent me this video about millennials, if you have a few minutes, you should check it out. I'm not a millennial, as I was born in 1979, but Simon Sinek spends part of the time talking about Social Media and technology and he had some pretty interesting and eye-opening things to say.

Things I Learned When I Stopped Fashion Blogging

1. Getting dressed doesn't need to be a production. It's ok to just grab clothes and go. For a number of years I spent time planning outfits each week-that no longer happens. I also used to make myself wear outfits because they'd be on the blog-even if I didn't feel like it. Ridiculous. If I don't want to wear something, I don't. Since August I've given away or sold probably close to a hundred things and I'm not exaggerating.

2. There is nothing wrong with repeating outfits. Somehow I got in my head that I needed to wear new mixes of my clothes all the time and that repeating outfits was boring. Dumb. If I feel good in something and like the outfit, I'll wear it the same way over and over again.

3. "Free" came with a price tag. Over the years I got a lot of things for "free" many of them I have loved and worn or used like crazy, but time was spent in creating the posts and sharing them on social media They weren't really free. I also had a company that let me pick out new things pretty much every week. I loved getting new "free" things in the mail each week, but many of the pieces were only worn once, didn't fit well, etc. If I don't love something, I'm not wearing it and you better believe a lot of these pieces have been given away.

4. Quality over quantity. Just like I said above, if I don't love it, it's not worth keeping or buying. I would rather buy fewer nice clothes to wear often, than have more less expensive clothes that are worn rarely.

5.  Getting dressed shouldn't be the highlight of your day-clothes are simply what you wear when the highlights happen.  I'll admit, there were times I went on random errands with Grant so I could wear some me cute outfit I'd planned. So silly. Now, I happily wear my #momiform most weekends: tee, cardigans, leggings and boots.

Maybe I'll decide to share an outfit or two again down the road, but I'm pretty glad to not be doing it now. :)