7 Thankful Takes

In the spirit of the now over Thanksgiving, and in an attempt to stem the tide of Christmas insanity just one more day, I bring you seven "quickish" takes of thanks.

1.

First I have to start with my husband. 

On any given day, I'm pretty darn thankful for this guy. He keeps me sane, provides for us, gets up approximately 80 times at night with the kids, and is all-around not too shabby. Sure... we have our fights, but usually he'll just concede that I'm right and we move on. ;-) But on Thanksgiving, this man single-handedly prepared two turkeys, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, brussels sprouts, mac n' cheese, and a pumpkin cheesecake. And it was all delicious. #keeper

2.

Next would have to be the kids. There are many days I'm not sure what I'm doing. I lose my temper so often. And sometimes I just down right stink at being a mom. But you know what, they love me and forgive me constantly. They've taught me so much. I'm also very grateful for their health. Damian is doing so well right now, and Clare is full of energy and spunk. They will inevitably send me to my grave, but I love them for it all the same!

3.

Keeping it in the family, I would have to say that having such a supportive extended family is at the top of my Thankful List. My family provided our lovely new table first used for Thanksgiving. Nate's family generously drove to Charleston to celebrate Thanksgiving with us because Nate had so little time off of work. Combined they've never turned down our request for help--from looking after the kids to offering advice to moving us in and out of homes. They've also been known to provide us with meals at foreign places commonly known as "restaurants." I believe Nate and I used to travel there much more often in our pre-kid days, but that's such a distant memory now... I know we probably don't say it enough, but we are very grateful to be surrounded by such love.

4.

Leaving the family, but not far from it, I'm thankful for my friends--both new and old. My old friends have seen me at my best and worst and yet still call me their friend. They're loyal, loving, and brilliant. And as for the new friends, they've made the move to a new city a little bit easier and a lot less scary. I don't know how I have all these wonderful people around me, but I'm not going to ask questions ;-)

5.

On a lighter note, it's no secret that I love my city. Walking around downtown, driving over one of the bridges, enjoying the warm weather, the beach... all these things are a blessing to me.

6. 

An understatement, but I'm thankful that all my necessities are met. Never do I go without food, running water, clothing, warmth. I have a bed to sleep in, a shower to bathe in, and a stove to cook my food. Hell, I can grow a garden for "fun." It's hard in America to not take those things for granted, but in comparison to most of the world, I live like a queen. If only I would remember that more often and not always want more...

7. 

Last, and certainly not least, I'm thankful for God's faithfulness. I'm not deserving, but I guess that's the point. He is the reason for all the things listed above and I try to live my life as a thank you to Him, although I fail so often. 

Hope you all had a wonderful and yummy Thanksgiving!!

A few months later....

Well hello there! Nope, we aren't dead... It's been awhile hasn't it? Why not catch up with a few quick takes from the past few months. Perhaps this will start me blogging again... perhaps... (But let's not get ahead of ourselves.)

1.

 Since we last talked, Clare turned one! How is my baby not a baby anymore?! We had a "sweets" themed party for our "Sweet Cheeks," and I think it turned out really well. However, in typical second child-ness, I never took pictures of any of the decorations or food until after it was all said and done. Oh well... It was fun, and she had a BLAST opening presents. Once she got the hang of it, she was tearing through them. Makes me excited for Christmas!

2. 

Nate and I celebrated our 5th anniversary.  Two cities, two kids, and one house later-- I still love that guy more and more. *awww* I know, I know. How sweet. We celebrated by having a weekend to ourselves (and all our college friends) at our 5th college reunion. Not necessarily romantic, but a whole lot of fun! I must say I felt naked not having a kid touching me 24/7, but... I got used to it ;-)

3.

We then had Halloween. You may have seen on Instagram that the kids dressed up as a pumpkin (Clare) and a ghost (Damian.) Both costumes were chosen by Damian. I told him that next year Clare was going to have an opinion so not to get used to this level of control. The night before Halloween, Nate's office hosted a huge trick or treat party (Candy Land themed--so cute) so the kids were prepped and trained for the official Night of Candy. They clearly aren't related to me because the candy has very rarely been asked about or thought of... meaning I *have to* eat all of it.

 4.

Clare is walking and destroying everything she can touch. She climbs on everything and gets into everything. She loves to "help." Slowly, slowly I know my hair will be gray by the time we are out of this phase.
 As far as having two kids go, I love it. But it's busy.

Thankfully these two love each other 90% of the time. The other 10%? Well.... we just don't need to go there.

5.
We've been doing stuff around the house. Mostly painting and boring things like cleaning/fixing windows. My few fall decorations have my heart so ready to decorate for Christmas. Is it Advent yet?

6.
This past weekend, we went to Atlanta (and froze.)  Damian needed to have some procedures done to check on his liver's status. Thankfully, everything came back stable, and the doctors are remaining hopeful that he will have at least a few more years with his liver. Being in a children's hospital is always such a draining experience. We were there almost all day and the little man couldn't eat the entire time, but he was such a champ. I was cranky after an hour of not eating so I don't know how he does it. He makes me so proud with how brave he can be even when I know he's scared. #gushing

7.
And one last picture....

So how have y'all been?! Good? Ready for Thanksgiving??

7QT - The 7 Steps of Home Improvement

In this house, DIY home improvement always goes a little something like this...

1. 

The Dream-- We find something on Houzz or Pinterest and are like YES WE CouLD TOTallLYYY dO THAT!!!!!

Contemporary Bathroom by Denver Architects & Building Designers Ashley Campbell Interior Design

2. 

Then we look at our hall bath and realize... okkkk maybe that's a bit ambitious considering we have approximately a 5ft x 5ft to work with. Anndddd 8 foot ceilings. Sighhhhh We then scale back the dream and think...

3. 

We could start by replacing the light fixture.
Yea. Let's do that!

4. 

We go light hunting and end up at World Market where we find this beauty. 

It has some minor damage (see upper right corner) and so we ask if they have another in the back. They say no but that they will give it to us for 75% off. An $18 light? Yes. Please.

5. 

We come home feeling all rich and ready to do this.

But then the kids are hungry. We are hungry. Pause this project to end the starvation we are all experiencing.

6. 

A two whole weeks go by before we attempt the light project. Most of the delay is because we bought the wrong light kit for it and getting to Lowe's twice in one weekend is harder than running an ultramarathon, blindfolded, and drunk.
ANYWAY, so now we are really ready.
Nate takes down the old light only to realize the bracket to the old light is barely big enough for the new light. And the ceiling is all broken around it. And the bracket keeps moving every time Nate tries to screw the new light in. And all the frustrations are happening. And the kids are falling apart because once again someone is hungry.

7. 

And so the the light sits and waits for another day when maybe it will get hung. Maybe next weekend. Maybe next month. And until then, we have this... and no light.

Happy Friday y'all!!

Linking up with Jen

7 Quick Takes

Normally when I do these post I go through my phone and look at all the pictures from the week to remember what seven things I should quickly tell you about. This week the pictures have been nothing short of random... 

1.

Two nights ago, a family member drove by our old house in Atlanta and sent us a picture of our once pink house. It is now a very TEAL teal. This caused me a large amount of sadness as that was OUR HOUSE! It's supposed to be PINK! I'll never see it PINK again! EtcEtc. And so of course we all took a trip down memory lane and google street viewed it. And then realized that I AM STANDING OUTSIDE THE HOUSE ON GOOGLE STREET VIEW!!!!???!!!?! Creepy.

2.

Sorry for all the yelling of the last take, I'll try to take it down a notch with Clare sleeping in her crib. Oh her hair!

3.

I hate cleaning our shower, which if you look at it, is very apparent. However, I saw this in Target the other day. I want it. Anyone have it? Is it as wonderful as it seems?

4.

I checked a bunch of books out from the library, one of which was about homesteading. At the end, it had this gem... Anyone want to start an Intentional Community with me? I will provide the bandannas.

5.

Nate wanted me to take a hipster foodie pic of Damian's 5-star dinner the other night because it looked so...spectacular... I never got around to editting it. If you are wondering, he ate approximately -1 bites of it.

6.

We made more laundry soap, and surprisingly no one got a shot of Borax to the eye--even with Damian whisking.

7.

I have nothing else for this last one here, other than to say thanks for coming by the blog. I really appreciate all of you readers and followers. Thanks to all the sweet comments, texts, and emails from my last post. Those really meant a lot to me! If you haven't left a comment before, I would love to know you read and introduce yourself--especially if you have a blog. Thanks to the Bloglovin' app, and Clare's love of snuggling, I'm back on the old blog reading horse!

Linking up with Jen

7 Quick Takes--Our trip to Philadelphia

1.

We left Saturday for Philadelphia. It was Clare's first plane ride, and I was hoping she would do as well as her brother did on flights. The trip was for my brother-in-law's graduation from Penn. We decided since it would be a lot of walking and a lot of sitting at ceremonies, dinners, and such it would be best for Damian to stay with my parents. I don't think he minded one bit considering all I heard was on their agenda for the few days we would be gone.

2.

Clare did great on the flight there. She acted a little loopy at first, but I finally got her to settle down and sleep. Everyone said she was the quietest baby they had ever experienced on a flight, so I guess she didn't bother anyone.

3.

I had never been to Philadelphia so I was excited to see a new city.

Clare loved the fact that we got to have a king sized bed "all for her."

4.

Before we left I wasn't sure which carrier for Clare to bring... I know... I don't know how I handle all my problems either. Anyway, I have a Maya Wrap ring sling and a Boba. The Boba would have been easier to carry her around walking-wise, and she's starting to like back carries. However, I really hate using it to nurse and since I knew the chances of having quiet places to nurse would be limited, I went with the Maya. I'm glad I did because she really likes sitting on my hip so she can see as we walk, and I was right, I was often feeding her on the go. 

5.

Graduation was much different from ours at Furman. Definitely much bigger, and the commencement speaker was John Legend. Afterwards Nate and I thought and thought about who spoke at ours and we could never remember. I guess that's what happens when our entire school was smaller than Penn's graduating class.

After the ceremony, we went to lunch that turned into dinner after hours of eating and celebrating. SO much yummy food! Clare slept in my arms for a good majority of it, so I got to enjoy most of my meal without fighting little hands for all my food.

6.

The flight home was also good. She slept and ate mum mums. I think we were all exhausted from all the walking and fun we had had in Philly. 

7.

We then came home to Damian who is our high energy little man. It was fun having a chance to get to know Clare without Damian constantly "telling her how it is" but I was so glad to have our little family back together. It's not quite the same without D... It's too quiet... and perhaps too easy ;-)

Linking up with Jen

7 Quick Takes

Just some good ol' day in the life type stuff...

1. 

If I had to pick one food to live on/take with me to that famous deserted island everyone always references, it would be Greek Food. I LOVE Greek food "soooo much" as D would say. So when I found out Charleston has a Greek Fest both in the Fall AND last weekend, you know we hit that up! 

We tried to get there in time to take a tour of the church because the Greek Orthodox sure do know how to do a church, but they got all tricky and change the times on us so no dice there.  A little baklava sundae and all was forgiven.

2.

Parenting has been going great recently.

Ha!

As seen here when Clare apparently found the recycling bag and decided a beer can was THE MOST FUN TOY EVER. (And no, my kids do not wear clothes.)

3.

Damian has been ever more helpful around the house, minus all those times he's not. We recently started our eBay business back up so the boxes are appearing once more. We're going to have to break this FedEx man in because he hasn't learned the ropes quite like our ATL guy.

Damian told me he would move all the boxes into the house for me since they were delivered behind my car and not to our doorstep.

4.

Before I spill more secrets of my survival mode parenting, let's stop for a moment to look at these pretties.

 I never thought of myself as a "garden person" before, but now that we have a house, I can't stop. Between all the veggies and the 48235879 potted plants I keep getting... It's becoming a sickness.

5.

So back to parenting wins... Lesson learned--when two kids are mobile they team up and you will never win. 

Damian started this little cabinet emptying project and Clare came in as relief pitcher to finish the game. All day, every day. 

6.

I'm realizing that I have approximately 3984345 versions of this picture on my phone. I hope that as he gets older, he will still go on the occasional coffee date with his mom.

7.

Speaking of getting older, I started filling out his application for preschool the other night. 

After looking over tuition costs, I immediately began researching home schooling. When did he grow up?! Why is catholic school so expensive?! all the whines, all the whines.

Linking up with Jen!

7 Quick Takes

1.

 Is anyone else a little depressed the Olympics are about to be over? I have no clue what I'm going to watch now. I guess I might have to actually get something done now in the evening. Orrrr just watch more Doctor Who again.

Source

2.

 The past few days have been so sunny and warm and I'm finally melting. Yesterday the kiddos and I had a picnic in our backyard, and dare I say it, but there was a moment I was actually hot.

In February.

 Remember last week when there was ice..... 

Also, the rain/humidity did a number on the kids' hair today. Damian's 5 inch fro shrank instantly after our jog (no. I don't want to talk about it.)

And Clare's "undecided" hair had distinctive curls. 

3. 

Have I ever mentioned my love of succulents?? If not, then let me start here... I love them. Mostly because they are filed under the "Plants of STEEEEEEL" (as D would say) section of Home Depot (nope still can't go back to Lowe's yet. The shame lives on.) and that makes them very hard to kill. And yet I want to plant a vegetable garden. Thank God for grocery stores....

4. 

This is the price I pay for 30 minutes of silence. 

He seems to be in his Blue Period right now. Picasso would be proud. 

(Anyone want to tell me how he figured out how to add filters to his pictures...)

5. 

The house is starting to feel a bit more like a house and a little less like a storage unit. I had to clean our bathroom today, meaning the counter was actually visible so I found that to be promising. There are still a ton of boxes in the dining room, FROG, and garage. However, we Nate did find this gem in the attic. 

#IDontEvenKnow

6. 

Got my driver's license yesterday. So I'm officially a citizen of the great S.C. again. 

7. 

I dunno... I don't really have a seventh thing to talk about. I'm getting my hair cut on Tuesday for the first time in a year? See... that's the best I could come up with. When I start talking about my hair I know it's time to just sign off. Say good bye. Cut my loses. "And all those good bye things." 10 points to the person who knows the Disney movie reference. (Thanks Damian...)  Also. I'll leave you with this. 

I found it hilarious. No? Just me? 

Le sigh.

Have a fab weekend everyone!