snow dayzzzzz

we have had *so much snow* this winter.
craziest thing ever.
i guess the groundhog and the persimmon seed were right.
this is a very wintery winter.
especially for the south.
i don't think we've had a good snow in 3 years.
i guess we needed to make up for that.

this current round o' snow.....winter storm maximus, i'm told..... has been so. pretty.
it started while we were in church yesterday and was pretty much a winter wonderland by the time we made our 5 mile trek home.
it's that super powdery, big flakes, with sunny skies...perfect kind of snow.

although a bunch of our fun plans for yesterday were cancelled, it did turn out to be a perfectly lovely day of staying at home and cozying up with my faveys.

today was a sunny day and not too cold so the kids and i decided to take a trek back behind our house for some snowy adventure.

there are woods and a creek behind our house.
the boys kept saying, "it's narnia!"

one of our favorite things is outdoor exploring so this was just bliss.
ruby is happiest outside so she was pumped to be out in the snow.

we tasted a little bit of that perfect looking snow, but not too much since the last big snow we had this winter, finley ate so much of it that he got a stomach ache.
#lessonlearned

we were so excited to make it to the creek.
sawyer really wanted to get in it.
i took that as a teaching moment on why we don't get in creeks in the winter. :)

we spent a good while down there throwing snowballs into the creek.
i had a death grip on the back of ruby's coat but she did still manage to face plant it in the snow once.
luckily, she was so happy out there that it didn't phase her much. :)

this was the best snow day.
the only thing that would have made it better was to have AJ home.
but i cannot complain...it was a really great day.
plus my sweet neighbor took the boys sledding for an hour in the afternoon so they got sledding fun and i got some sweet quiet time.
i'm sure the extra vitamin D today didn't hurt either. :)

and just to give you a smile on this cold winter's night....i am going to humble myself and show you my hot mama snow outfit.

oh yes. hot-tay.
AJ's ginormo pants {no, my legs are not that big} stuffed into my winter boots.
80's-tastic coat.
scarf hanging out.
men's gloves.
not pictured here: my giant bug-eye sunglasses.
i was a sight to behold.
thankfully, only my kids, neighbor kandice & the birds got to see this special look.
......and now the internets. you're welcome. your night is now complete. :)
sweet dreams.....


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yay it's instaFRIDAY! :)

well let's talk about the elephant in the room.
let's talk about this poor, lonely blog and how i've neglected it lately.
i am sorry, i really am.
i love writing and i so appreciate you hanging in there with me.
i miss the days when i posted five days a week and had time to read other blogs as well.

i am in a stage in life right now that is hard.
it's so, so good but also really hard.
i told AJ last night that i'll probably look back on this time in my life as the sweetest and also the hardest.
i wake up around 5:30, pour coffee down my throat and try to get my brain going to spend time with the Lord {currently going through a chronological reading plan, fyi}, i quickly get ready and then head to the kitchen by 7 at the latest to get breakfast going and start our day.
i work hard and long days and hit the pillow hard at night.
i was remembering last night how i used to have a break time every afternoon when avery and finley were little.
they would nap and i would eat a snack and recharge.
i would read blogs and work on my blog.
these days, there is just not time.
i am moving all the day long.
homeschool is intense because i'm managing all four at once.
in the afternoons when the littles are in bed we try to do some of the homeschool that requires my help or is more hands-on.
when we're done with that or on tuesdays and thursdays when the bigs are gone, i am usually cleaning, laundering or some other task.
so it seems lately, i've been able to sit down and write out my thoughts about once a week.
anyhow, all that to say, i'm still here.
i am not going anywhere.
i have tons of blog post ideas milling around in my head, it's just taking me longer than it used to......
so thank you for continuing to check in and read. :)

okay onto instafriday.... a.k.a., a smattering of cell phone pics from the last month or so. :

1. sawyer's first day of preschool. tear.
2. sissy's first day of mother's day out. i die of cuteness.
3. labor day bike ride.  we loved this and made such a sweet memory with our little family.
4. three handsome boys heading to church. we love our church!
5. avery and ruby. he is delighted by her & she's pretty happy about the attention. :)
6. silver dollar city day with friends!
7. it takes a village, people. :) {this is how we convince people to come to our moms of providence meetings....somehow it worked}.
8. oh girl.
9. homeschool. some days are longer than others.....

1. amazing fall sky. our Creator God showing off for us. :)
2. long live the slip n' slide! fall in the south still gives us some warm days here and there.
3. sissy "washes" bubba's hair.
4. how we get through target
5. ninjas! {with our neighbor-friend hudson}
6. last saturday was a rain boots and cabella's kind of day.
7. this boy. so much passion in one little body.  love sweet alone time with him.
8. girls night OUT. so thankful for these homeschool mama friends.
9. greek olympics day for fin's class.  toilet plunger javelin throwing, tricycle chariot races & more. fun!

sweet night celebrating grandmother's birthday.
i love hearing her stories and we all love spending time with her. :)

potter's house sundays.
blessed to serve.
learning to be more servant-like....such a process.

this is how i make dinner most days.
it's insane.
that little boy better be a chef for how many meals he's "helped" me make.

fall = boots and that makes me happy.
{i'm trying not to think about what comes after fall.}
we are loving the cool mornings and evenings.
i love having my windows open and a candle burning.
the days are still sun-shiny and warm so that is just perfect to me! :)

have a happy weekend, y'all!




p.s. i update very regularly on instagram. if you're on insta, i'm itsgoodtobequeen, if you want to 
follow along. :)
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good thing she's cute.

okay, so miss ruby has a bad habit.
my makeup.
she wants to dig in it constantly. :/

on one hand, i think it's cute and girly that she even cares about makeup....but seriously, it's getting out of hand.
and i have never let her play in my makeup, she just sneaks into my bathroom or my purse when i'm not looking.
all. the. time.

so this is our morning....fun craft time at the kitchen table....

crayons. glue. playdough. markers. the works.
i love my children being creative but then when we're done, i want it all cleaned up.

so we get it all cleaned up, wiped down & swept up and i'm feeling really good about the state of affairs.

then i had that sinking feeling that i hadn't seen ruby in a while.....

no.

she used the. entire. jar.
and of course, not on a wipeable surface.

yes. she wiped it all over avery's shorts and he didn't even notice!!
what in the sam hill?!!

she coated the charger. like in every crevice.

why not throw a little bronzer in there too?

and here's the truth.
i cried so much.
like seriously, couldn't stop.
kind of ridiculous actually.
but i just did not want to spend my day cleaning all this up.
and had no idea how to even deal with it.
and i was ready for us to walk out the door to run errands so we couldn't do that what with ruby being covered in makeup and all.

and bless my sweet boys' hearts, they didn't know what to do with me.
sawyer went and spread a quilt on my bed to make it pretty for me and finley went up to the attic to try to find another blanket for my bed.
so so sweet.
they are going to make great husbands, by the way.
they've had to deal with all of my emotions, they'll be able to handle anything. ha! ;)

anyhow, i just put my comforter in the car and we took it to the dry cleaners to see what they could do with it.
i'm hoping that i got it there fast enough that it hadn't set in yet.

ruby and avery's clothes are currently soaking in hot soapy, oxicleany water.
i worked on the carpet for quite a while and now it's soaking with spot shot.

i know it's just a comforter, and so silly to cry over, but i love it and it's pretty. :)
so that's my shallow post for the day.
me crying over "stuff" that doesn't even matter.
oh sigh.

p.s. AJ met us for lunch and to give me a big hug and all was right in the world. :)




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oh, good grief.

well today started off with a bang.
literally.

i was so looking forward to a calmer week after our crazy week of toting kids to and fro during basketball camp.
also, we had a very full day yesterday.
like fall in bed in complete exhaustion at 9:30, full.
good.......just, full. 

anyhow....so if you follow me on instagram, you saw this amazing marble topped side table that i posted last week......

i love it.
it is the perfect little table that i had been looking for to put beside my chair in our bedroom.
nice and small and vintage and just dang pretty.
well, i received two of them, so the other one was sitting in our dining room {that's the first place it landed} waiting to go to the booth.
i have gone to my booth twice since i got that table and forgot to grab it both times.
ugh.
it was in the worst possible spot...right by where you walk.

several times i have walked by it and thought, "that's a terrible spot for that, one of the kids could pull that over on their foot."
note: the marble top is not connected, it just rests on the base.
and of course, i left it there because i was probably thinking about ten other things at that moment.
seriously, i'm sure God was nudging me to move the dang thing and i didn't listen.

so on to this morning, we're all getting ready to head out the door and i hear AJ yelling for me.
he's saying "Sara! come right now!"

you know what happened.
sawyer tripped and fell into the table and the marble top {weighing at least 5 pounds} falls onto his foot.
ugh....that makes my stomach hurt just typing that.
his toe looked terrible. 

i tend to panic when one of my children gets hurt but i knew i had to get it together and take care of the situation.
somehow i washed his pitiful little toe.
i was shaking so much.....there was so much blood and it just looked awful.
i wrapped it up the best i could, AJ worked out a way for him to ride in the car with his foot elevated and we were off to the ER.

thankfully we were seen really quickly and we hardly had to wait any time for x-rays.
sawyer is such a tough little guy.
once we got to the ER he stopped crying and didn't cry again.
he has a little taggie blankie that he sleeps with.
he kept wringing it with his hands or gnawing on it, but he never cried.
i knew it hurt but he was so, so brave.

they had to wash his toe and move his foot all around on the x-ray table and he did so great with everything....never made a peep.
i would have been crying if it were me.

so there may be a little fracture in his toe...they couldn't tell for sure, but they wouldn't treat it anyway, so they didn't re-do the x-rays.
he will lose the toe nail and i am praying that it grows back properly.

seriously this kid is amazing.
they said he did better than most adults.
i believe that.

so he spent the day watching movies.
i changed his bandages every time he bled through them....i will spare you a picture of his toe.
you're welcome.
i'm praying that his little toe heals amazingly fast.
it still looks really awful and i want him to be able to enjoy summer time and run and play again soon.

i have felt so horrible that i let that happen to my baby and could have prevented it.
it makes my mama heart so sad.
i hate to see my boy in pain.
but i'm just going to have to let it go....because it did happen and i can't change that now.
i'm praying that i will listen when i hear God's voice...
and be obedient.


things i am thankful for:

he didn't lose his toe {seriously. i was nervous}.
i was with him and could be the one to take care of him.
this didn't happen yesterday {father's day/swim party/slipnslide w/ neighbors}.
tyelnol with coedine.

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thrift store thursday {kind of} and real thoughts on summer

okay, so summers are crazy, right?
i lovelovelovelovelove summer time.
love the weather...the hotter, the better.
love the laid back days, the grilling out, eating dinner outside, swimming.....i could go on and on.

the hard part is. . .
i do not have a moment to myself.
i feel like someone needs me or is talking to me every moment of the day.
i feel conflicted because i love having my kids around and i love doing activities with them....seriously it is my joy in life.....but....
i also need some alone time.
i have realized over my years of mothering that i need some consistent alone time to keep my sanity.
and honestly, i'm not getting much of that lately.
on one hand, i feel as happy as i've ever been and i love my life.
truly... i told AJ the other day, i think i'll look back on this time {with my kids at home} as the happiest time of my life.
on the other hand, i really really really need 5 seconds to take a breath. :)

also, i love writing and i love blogging.
writing has always been so therapeutic for me and i am struggling to find time to sit down and blog.

so there you go. those are my honest thoughts right now.
my goal is to just be in the moment this summer.
enjoy each and every day and make the most of them.
i'm praying that what is most important for that day, rises to the surface and that i will let the other stuff go.

on that note...haven't been able to do much thrifting lately either.
my mom did bring me another load of vintage goodies this week for the booth.

i love this vintage teal candy dish.

fun vintage nut choppers.
love those red lids

a whole stack of vintage cookbooks.
they have such neat covers and i love reading through old cookbooks.

for whatever reason, my booth has super slow lately.
this past month was my slowest month yet...pretty discouraging.
from the time i started {november} through march, it had steadily increased and done better and better....then spring hit and it has slowed way down.
i still love having a booth....but it sure was more fun when stuff was steadily being sold! ;)

i did pop into the thrift store quickly today....with 5 kids {i had meliyah}....i was quickly looking for some water shoes for ruby...did not find them.

also, good news/bad news.
bad news, the store is stuffed to the gills full of stuff....seriously more full than i've seen it in a long time.
that is bad news because i don't get to shop there on thursday mornings! ;)
good news....for my kids....they found a cool marble run set for 99 cents.
sold.
:)

okay friends...have a great thursday....happy summer! :)


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my thoughts on craig's list.

so....craig's list and i are bff's lately.
this move has made us super tight.

i have been buying and selling like a mad woman lately.
i sell stuff so that i have money to buy stuff.
it is awesome.

 every night when aj and i are sitting in bed doing super spiritual stuff like watching parks and rec on the laptop, i am at the same time scrolling craig's list on my phone.
i am stalking my own items to make sure they sell and also scrolling through to see what awesomeness i can buy for our new house.

is it just me or has the spam gotten outta control lately??
good gravy. give it a rest.

i've gotten some amazing gems like this one:

"wat size are dresses n skirts" yep. that was the entire email. not sure if that was spam or just the downfall of the education system in america. i usually get 2 or 3 phishing for my email with really clever emails like:  "Cry me a river if u are fake and if u are not a fake I am sorry just reply back to my real email"

ummm...yeah right. 

sometimes they have rude expletives just to try to get a response and usually at least one word spelled wrong. 

pass.

also sometimes you find some amazing posts like this one:

"i have a awesome shirt it is yellow ans has no stains brand new and it say on the back on the top "rebel spirit" and it has alot more things done to it to make it look awesome you will have to see it to understand me!! so if you call i will send pictures it is a medium and the brand is "rebel spirit"

yep. and they are asking $25. 

sounds about right.

i am more than willing to put up with these shenanigans to find great pieces and make some money to buy said pieces. 

in fact last week, i found this awesome antique, chippy bookshelf with original casters from a girl in our same neighborhood.

so the moral of my story is this: 

get the craig's list app.

wander around your house or garage and take pics with your phone of stuff you're tired of or don't need.

list it in about 3 minutes flat.

make some dollas.  

find some gems.

steer clear of the spammers....i.e. any email that doesn't say the item in the email or just generally sounds weird. 

reap the rewards.

the end. 

God speed.

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wanna hear something funny?

yesterday i was standing at the kitchen sink watching finley and sawyer play on the trampoline together.
they were playing so sweet and happily.
i was feeling so thankful that they get to have each other.
i was stopping and taking notice of the precious moment.
i went over to my 1000 gifts log and added to the list,
*boys happily playing together and *i get the joy of watching them from the window.

no sooner had i put my pen down, then finley is coming inside screaming at the top of his lungs that  sawyer had bit him on the face {!!!} because he wouldn't play silver dollar city with him and instead wanted to swing.
are you kidding me?
seriously. i couldn't make this stuff up.


and now i will give you a laugh at my expense because that's how nice i am.

today the littles and i were at hobby lobby.
sawyer and i have to go to the bathroom {of course, because it's hobby lobby and hobby lobby makes you have to go to the bathroom. this is a proven fact.}
we go in and it's totally empty.
i help sawyer get situated.
then i go to the bathroom and ruby is happily running around the bathroom.
i decide to go ahead and leave the stall door open because no one is in there and i can keep an eye on the kids better.
not sure why i felt like i was at home or something?
i'm such a weirdo.
anyhow...i figure, if i hear the bathroom door swing open, i'll just quickly shut my stall door and all will be fine.
again, this was assuming that i'm not a total goober.
which we have now established, is not true.
anyhoo...doing my bidness, i realize there's wifi.
because of course i have my phone handy.
so i just start scrolling through my instagram.
{i can't believe i'm telling this to the world.}
all of a sudden it dawns on me that it's not just me and the kids in the bathroom and the feet i hear are not my kids!
i quickly shut the stall door and realize there are two more people in the bathroom!
one lady already in the stall beside me . . . so she had to walk past me . . . sitting on the potty, looking at my phone. . . and one lady standing right in front of me!!!!
yeah.
seriously, why do i do these things?
and yeah, i just gathered up the kids and got our hands washed like it was no big deal.
geesh.

bet they didn't expect that when they came to the restroom!
ha.



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i'm laying it out here.

brace yourself.
i need to get my words out.

so i've been trying to write a post on sawyer's birthday and/or thanksgiving for the last week and i just can't seem to get it done.

y'all, i am tired.
like seriously, so. worn. out.

my friend called me today to see if i was okay.
i told her that my plate is so full.
way too full.
like one paper plate that you loaded up with thanksgiving dinner and it's too heavy and is spilling all over the sides.
but it's all so good that you don't want to take any of it off.

everything on my plate are good things.
i have no idea what to take off.

i'm not sure if something actually needs to be taken off, or this is just a really busy, harder season and i need to deal.

i do know this: 

God is for me.
He is good and He allows things for my good.
life is just sometimes hard and not always supposed to be easy...although i long for easy.
this is just a season.
the next season will be different.
i have it really good.
God's grace is sufficient for me.
His strength is made perfect in my weakness.


okay other complainy thoughts that i need to get out and then i'll be done.......

i feel like i look so tired and old right now.
i also just feel tired and old right now.
i do not stop from sun up until sun down.
i never stop moving.
my list seems never ending so i don't know how to not be constantly doing something. 
this is wearing on me.
but the laundry {for six people} must be done.
six people need to be fed and loved on and cared for and taught and i feel like i pour out, everyday, all day long and i don't feel like i'm getting much refreshing.
not anyone's fault, it just is what it is.

but you know what, the Bible says, those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.
so, i'm counting on that.

also, i hate complaining and i'm tempted to erase this whole thing.
but i'm not going to because maybe you feel overwhelmed, overtired and overworked as well.

and maybe i sound like a spoiled brat who needs to just be thankful for what she has...which i really, really am, by the way.

but honestly, this is the real deal.

thanks for listening.
i'll try to be sunshiny and happy tomorrow.  :)




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hello, monday.

we had a lovely weekend.
didn't want it to end.

we had hardly anything on our calendar which was so wonderful.
our week days are so full right now that we feel like we're spinning.
at least i do.
it was such a relief to have some down time this weekend.
we lived it up.

we did mountains of laundry and switched out all of the winter and summer clothes.
this entire basket is full of boy jammies.

i think it's time to pare down.
i rarely buy pajamas....but they seem to multiply because whenever the boys get tshirts from activities, they go in the jammie drawer.

i also got started on getting clothes ready for rhea lana's consignment sale.

i love getting rid of stuff.  :)

on saturday morning we went out to farmland adventures again. 

i love that place.

if you click the link you'll see fin's pic on the front page of the website. :)

as is pretty much standard lately i forgot my big camera. 

that was a bummer because it is so stinkin' gorgeous out there.

{check our pics from last year. }

i did manage to snap a few with my phone.

we weren't sure about going since ruby has been sick for a week now and she's just pitiful.

we were so glad we went though because she is so happy when she's outside. 

and it was perfect weather.

i want my own corn box. 

that thing is awesome. 

it's so pretty out there. 

it's in the middle of land and hills and trees as far as you can see.

every time we go out there we are reminded of how much we dream of living out in the country. 

i come alive when i'm in the country. 

someday. . . 

the only sadness was that they didn't have fried twinkies on a stick this year.

break my heart.

i am so grateful that we had a relaxing family weekend.

monday's are always hard after having a weekend all together. 

back to reality and i miss my husband already. ;)

okay, time to put on my big girl pants and gitterdone. :)

happy monday, friends....let's make this week a great one!

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