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Every month in 2019, I’ll be sharing a photographic peek into the previous month. I thought this would be fun to give you a behind-the-scenes look at our month and recap some of the highs and lows and special memories of the month.
August started out with a fun lunch at The Dotted Lime in Columbia, TN to celebrate my friend Lauren’s birthday. I was so impressed with the restaurant and would highly recommend it — especially if you have food allergies.
This note on their water cracked me up and I had to share it! 🙂
We always take a second trip with my entire extended family (thanks to my dad’s generosity to pay for it!) and we have always gone to Bull Shoals Lake in Arkansas. However, the place we usually stay at had gone out of business and my dad couldn’t find a good alternative at Bull Shoals Lake.
So instead, he found this really unique place on Table Rock Lake called Caboose Junction. It was a place that had 6 caboose + a main house. While the caboose were a little on the rustic side, the area was beautiful and it worked at really well for all of us to stay there!
See what I said about beautiful? We had a private dock and swimming area and the kids couldn’t get enough of the water!
As usual when we’re all together, we divvied up the cooking and clean-up. I shared our large group menu plan.
And of course, we did lots of eating! I think one of our favorite new large group meal ideas was the Baked Potato Bar.
Guess what I finished while on this trip?? The 21-Day Squat Challenge. As I’ve written about, I used to truly detest squats. But this challenge changed my mind and I felt so accomplished to not miss one single day!
These three loved soaking up the sun and every last bit of summer!
One of their favorite things on the trip? Jumping off the high dock! (Jesse and I even did it a few times — evidence is here.)
On the trip, every afternoon, my mom read to the kids and did different activities and then the older girl cousins were in charge of games, crafts, and snacks.
We played lots of different fun games on the trip, including Apples to Apples.
One of the highlights of the trip: Kathrynne became proficient in slaloming (water-skiing on one ski).
Here’s a little look at two of the caboose.
On our way home from the lake, we stopped at Lambert’s.
Silas would just sit and catch rolls all day at Lambert’s if I let him! (I told him I thought he had enough after 4!)
We also stopped by Christian County Discount Freight & Grocery. (I did a full post on our experience there.)
I loved this photo I took on the way home from our trip.
As soon as we got home, it was time to jump back into school for the year. I posted this caption on Instagram with this first day of school photo:
“How are you?” She asked as I opened the door to welcome her into our home.
“Well, I just had an argument with my husband and my day didn’t go at all like I had planned.” I sighed.
(Please note the irony that this was the very same day — Monday — I had posted about communicating well with your spouse. Yup.)
She was there to do our foster care interviews and inspect some things in our home as part of our licensing process.
I had a neat little plan at the beginning of the day as to how everything was going to get done. I pictured greeting her at the door with Jesse, both of us genuinely beaming, maybe with soft music and candles in the background.
Instead, Jesse wasn’t home yet and I was frustrated with him and my neat little plans had gone out the window. (I hadn’t accounted for having a sick child, a doctor’s appointment that went way long, a car that wouldn’t start, and having to change plans at the last minute to try to get people multiple places at the same time with only one car.)
As she inspected the things in our house, I wanted to apologize for the unmade beds, the unwashed dishes, and the items we had to skirt around to get downstairs, but I didn’t.
This is real life. I want her to know who we are.
Yes, I try to have a clean and neat house. Yes, I try to stay on top of the dishes. And yes, I do believe in making beds (well, at least in theory! 😉)
But oftentimes, my best intentions don’t happen — and that’s okay!
By the way, we passed the interviews and inspection, the car got fixed, the child got well, and Jesse and I worked through our differences. See? Like I said, it was okay!
If you’re looking for perfection, you won’t find it at our house. But I hope you do find a family who is sometimes behind and sometimes messy, but who loves Jesus and loves other people — and who are committed to keep showing up for one another and working through their misunderstandings. And who at least occasionally make the bed. 😉
P.S. This photo was taken on the first day of school. Kaitlynn was sick, but she still wanted to be in the picture, so she cane up with the idea to pose with a thermometer in her mouth.🤣
Kaitlynn and I flew to Maine for me to speak at Fab Blog Con.
The food blogger conferences have the BEST gift bags — this one was full of Enjoy Life products!
We got to go and see one of the light houses. I posted this picture on Instagram with this caption:
She came into my room a little while ago and said, “Mom, do you want to come out and eat breakfast with me?”
The last 20 minutes, the two of us just sat at the table together and talked while the rest of the family was still asleep. (We’re both the early risers!)
Recently, my nights have been pretty short because of staying up talking to my night owl child and getting up early talking with my early riser. But I wouldn’t trade any amount of sleep for this. For the opportunity for my kids to share their hearts, tell me what they are thinking and feeling, and *want* to hang out with me.
Two nights ago, I met a father who had just dropped his youngest child off at college. He looked me square in the eye and said, “Cherish every moment. Take advantage of every opportunity to be with your kids.”
It might sound cliche, but it wasn’t. And I want to want take his words to heart.
With me working full-time, extracurricular activities and ministry we’re involved in, plus the kids’ homework load, many days I only get to spend 15-30 minutes one-on-one with each of the kids on week days. But instead of lamenting that or wishing for a different life (because I know clearly that we are right where God has us), I’m learning to look for pockets of time each day and make myself available to them.
That might mean late at night, early in the morning, or inviting them to ride with me when I go run an errand. And then I try to give my all to them during those small windows of time.
We can’t do everything, but we can do something. Let’s stop focusing on trying to do it perfectly and instead focus on just showing up — even if it’s a simple 20-minute impromptu breakfast together.
Kaitlynn took this photo on the plane!
We spent one Sunday afternoon hiking at Evins Mill.
We had the entire waterfall to ourselves.
It was SO beautiful!
