Showing posts with label I Love My Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label I Love My Family. Show all posts

Friday, May 15, 2009

Beautiful Life Friday and 6 Unimportant Faves


Melissa at The Inspired Room is hosting Beautiful Life Friday, where we share a post about how we found beauty where we are this week. "Whether we simply noticed beauty or created it, it is a good reminder each week to focus on what we are blessed with. A beautiful life is the one we have right in front of us!" Stop by her blog to see everyone's link.

This afternoon, I just grabbed my camera and shot off a few photos of things that I am blessed with here at my home.

Well, the first one doesn't have a photo to go with it. I have been really sick this week, especially yesterday, and today I don't feel deathly ill. It's a wonderful thing. Kinda like when you have a newborn and you get 4 hours of sleep in a row and you are thrilled. I'm thrilled to not be as sick today. Being sick was a blessing in a way, though, because I had to stop all the busyness and just sit on the couch, watch tv and play with Photoshop. That's a blessing.
I love Friday afternoons, because we don't have anywhere to go or anything to do. We just kick back and do what we want. That means the kids get a little extra "electronic" time. I'm blessed to have these afternoons with my little people. They will be over soon enough.
Mr. Jones replaced two of my outside lights. Bye bye ugly, cheap, dirty builder brass! Hello gorgeous, clearance aisle lanterns. Oh, yeah, my honey is good. He picked a beautiful light and got a good deal. That's a beautiful thing.

Here is the most beautiful thing ... my little man got off the bus today with a bouquet of hand-made flowers just for me. A mom should be so lucky.

My bouquet looked just right in my "perfect" blue mason jar that I got at the thrift store the other day. A blue jar and an old metal lid. These little things make me so happy.
And that Mr. Jones is always trying to make me happy. Always. This is what he surprised me with on Mother's Day. I am too blessed. Not just because of the computer, but because I have a husband who loves me so much. I don't deserve him.

This is the view through the back window of my Momtruck. Princess wants to revamp her closet with a dressing table. I've been looking for a 2nd hand desk acceptable for this project for a long, long time. The desk made its appearance at the thrift store this week. $10. Score.
My garden has reappeared after a long, cold winter. After growing up in California, where annuals are like perennials, I am so excited every year to see my garden come alive all at once.
My beautiful friend, Laura, pulled these lambs ears out of her garden just for me.

I love them. They are so soft and fuzzy. They're growing all over my flower bed.

And best of all, they remind me of what a good friend Laura is.

I was walking through the kitchen, and this is what I saw on the counters. It's a good thing I see the world through a viewfinder sometimes, because the next picture is a more accurate depiction of the state of my entire kitchen ...
Just keepin' it real. My house is not perfect, clean or staged. But I do see beauty in this photo. My whole house could look like this. I could tell my husband that I sat on my butt all day while he worked. And he would genuinely say "I'm glad you got to rest."
This is my mailbox post. Somewhere in there. Superplant had completely 100% died back for the winter, and 4 weeks after Spring started, he looked like this. In another four weeks, he may eat the mailman.

Here is a little drawer thingy I found at the thrift store this week that holds the mail and cell phone chargers, and the silver fleur-de-lis compote (a thrift store find from a while back) for my keys. I love it when the everyday things you use are beautiful. They don't have to be expensive, though.

I was also tagged recently by Katie's Nesting Spot to list my Unimportant Favorite Things. Thanks, Katie! She has an adorable blog and is one crafty little mama. Check her out.

Here are the three simple rules: Mention the person who tagged you, list six unimportant things that make you happy, and tag six more blogs! So here goes ...

6 Unimportant Things that Make Me Happy:

1. Newly vacuumed carpet. Even better ... new carpet.

2. Putting my clothes on right out of the dryer. Soooo warm.

3. Peach fuzz baby heads that smell like Baby Magic, and little clothes that smell like Dreft.

4. Sleeping with the ceiling fan on high and big down comforter.

5. Summer rain storms with the windows open.

6. Sitting on a newly mowed lawn at dusk with the neighbors.

Since I'm feeling lazy because I'm sick, I'm just going to tag anyone who wants to join in.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Happy Holidays

A while back, this wonderful friend sent me a gorgeous "Believe" garland, and I have been wanting to take a picture to show you all. But I suspect my camera's battery charger is stuck in the wall at the Nickelodeon hotel in Orlando.

Well, Mr. Jones and I had a deal that we wouldn't buy any gifts for each other this Christmas, but being the wonderful, sweet husband that he is, he bought me a new Nikon SLR camera. Yup, I was so shocked I actually gasped out loud. My husband is amazing that way ... it makes him completely happy to make sure everyone else gets what they want and he doesn't ask for a thing.

The garland looks just right on the white tree with the star fish. Appropriate since Lisa is so amazingly lucky that she lives right by the ocean. I have ocean envy. Anyway, thanks Lisa!

And here's a photo of the kiddos surveying their loot. Notice the Corgi butt in the middle of it all. Hope you all had a great Christmas!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

1st Day of School, and I Loves Me Some Wal-Mart

Here are some pictures of the kiddos' first day of school. I miss them when they are gone, but I do love to get back to our routine.
Do you see the look of pain on the little one's face? That is my-mom-is-torturing-me-with-her-camera-idous.
And I thought you would like a closeup of the most special shirt we bought for the first day of school. Have you heard that one before? Do children think it is a birthright to finish a level before they can do anything else? Will they be struck by lightning and die right on the spot if, *GASP*, they don't finish THE LEVEL? Is it the 11th Commandment ... Thou shalt finish thy level?

Sometimes I drop a tiny little gift off in the teachers' boxes just to say thanks for all the work they have already done, and get the year started off right. I found these notepads at Walmart. Cute, cute, cute.


How is your week?

Thursday, August 28, 2008

What's a mom to do ...

when she has to teach this mumbo jumbo
to this Cutest Football Player in the World?
That paper means about as much to me as a sewing pattern means to Mr. Jones. I'm thinking the 6 year old was probably feeling about the same. So I looked and looked to find a game or something that might have some football guys that I could use to teach him the positions. Then I stopped by our neighborhood toy store, hoping they would have something, but thinking there was really no chance that they would. I went in, and I turned the corner on aisle 2, and there it was. Football Guys.
Just what we needed.

My kitchen table was transformed.
Football was played.
Positions learned.
Touchdown. (Sorry, I couldn't resist)

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

The kids and I just got back from our trip to San Diego.
We had a blast.
Especially here.

I got down on my stomach to take some of the pictures.
I think it was worth the sandy front-side I got.

And when I got back, I finally discovered Bloglines. Yes, I'm that slow. It's amazing I even know what a blog is. But Annie left a sweet comment that she was subscribing to my blog (thanks girlfriend). What? Subscribing? I had to Google that, and I found Bloglines. Seriously, I'm such a dork. You all have probably been using Bloglines since day one. But I'm with the program now. No more checking each blog one at a time to see if it is updated. Bloglines tells me what's new. What other wonderful things am I missing?

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

I Did a Double-Take

"To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world."

~Author Unknown

One of the nicest things about having a teenager is that I can leave the kids at home! So I went out the other day to do an errand. I came back in less than an hour, walked into the house, through the dining room and into the kitchen.

Then I stopped in my tracks and backed up. Something caught my eye.

It was this:


I knew right away ... my youngest child had pulled the chair out and was watching out the window, waiting for me to get home. That may not be a big deal to some people, but it was HUGE to me. Sometimes I underestimate my importance in their lives.

Sometimes I get so caught up in the things I want to do (decorating, reading, talking to my friends, blogging, and the list goes on), that I forget my most important job in the world. Sometimes I get tired at the end of the day, tired of managing people, tired of hearing them bicker, that I lose sight of the big picture. Sometimes I sign up for too many things because I feel obligated to help the teachers, the PTO, the church, that I forget about the biggest job I volunteered for. Is my fear of letting everyone else down causing me to let these guys down?

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." ~Proverbs 22:6

God loaned these beautiful creatures to me and gave me the job of raising them to be Christians, to be good people, to be his light in the world.

My window to do this is closing fast. They are growing so fast my head spins. They were just babies yesterday, and now one of them will be driving in a few years. And when they are ready to go out on their own, will I be able to look back and say that I made the most of the time I had?

I think I need to print this picture of the chair and hang it in my kitchen so I can remember that most important goal every day.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

I don't know about you all, but

I'm just a little sick of this . . .

and this . . .

Didn't get NEARLY enough of this . . .

or this . . .

ooooor this . . .

And I CAN'T WAIT for a little of this . . .

this . . .

and this . . .

But best of all, this week I get some much needed THIS . . .

So I'm sorry I haven't been good about visiting you all, but having 3 kids, a week vacation takes 5 weeks:

Getting ready, 1 week
Vacation, 1 week
Recovering from vacation, 3 weeks

Sunday, March 2, 2008

"The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,he leads me beside quiet waters,

he restores my soul.

He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;

your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever."

~Psalms 23
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