| I usually post this on Saturday night, but we were traveling back from Kansas on Saturday, so I didn't get this posted then. But I figured you wouldn't mind if I shared it on a Tuesday night instead.  
1. Fun Selfies With My Kids We had so much fun taking the above picture and laughed so hard doing it. I mean, it's a shame we have no personality at our house. None whatsoever. {The short story behind the photo: Jesse encouraged me to start tracking my nutrition since I've been kind of dragging recently. By doing so, I realize I need to be eating more good carbs and protein, so I'm working on that. Jesse suggested I try one of his shakes since "it's loaded with good carbs," he told me. It looked good when he gave it to me in the shaker bottle, I thought it was a chocolate shake, and I promptly took a big swig… And quickly discovered it tasted and smelled nothing like I expected. Blech! It smelled like garden veggies and tasted plain wrong! He came into the room and saw me plugging my nose and trying to down it and just laughed. And then I about gagged when he told me it was a sweet potato shake. Excuse me? Sweet potatoes are what you eat with steak, they do NOT belong in a shake. Trust me on this.} 
2. Josh Groban's Album: Stages It's no secret that I'm a huge Groban fan. In fact, I may reach Groupie levels. Yes, I'm the kind of fan that my husband knew even frugal me wouldn't object to paying for VIP tickets to his concert… and then I felt all excited over the fact that when he came out into the audience, I was just about ten seats away from being able to shake his hand. TEN SEATS, people. That's basically like he and I are best buds. I mean, really, what are a few chairs between us and the fact that he doesn't know me from Adam and the fact that he'd be completely scared off by my inability to act like a normal non-stalker fan if I actually did, indeed, get close enough to say hello sometime?? Yes, we're practically close friends. So, of course, I have to support my friends and spend my Swagbucks-earned credit on their albums. Because I don't want my friends to be starving artists or anything. Sarcasm aside, I adored almost every song on this album. And it's been on repeat while I've been working online recently. You can listen to clips of all of the songs here. 
3. Creativity I love how Kaitlynn always sees possibility and potential everywhere she looks. She's always creating. Whether it's cards for other people, paintings to hang on the wall, loom band creations for a friend, or some kind of needlework, her hands are never still. With her skillful eye for beauty, scraps of paper, bits of yarn, or broken crayons are not things to be discarded, but things to transform into art. She sees all of life as her "studio" for expressing new artistic ideas, experimenting with new art forms, and combining various YouTube tutorials into her own variations on a pattern. This week, one of her creations was this baby hat complete with pompom side decor. Her fierce independence and strong personality has kept me on my knees many a time as a mom and there have been many days when I wanted to throw up my hands in despair, but more and more, I see how her tenacity is going to be one of her greatest gifts to the world. I'm excited to see what God has in store for her future! She's taught me so much about being brave and bold, about being true to yourself, and about always looking for the beauty in the middle of the brokenness. Because you might not see it at first, but it is there, just waiting for someone to notice and nurture it. 
4. Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock App I feel as if I'm finally transitioning into the 21st century this past year because I've actually started using my phone for something other than talking on the phone, texting, and checking email. Yes, I've discovered this new-fangled thing they call "apps"! And while I'm still only using a few of them, the few I use are actually really impacting my life in positive ways. My recent new favorite app is the Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock App. This app tracks your sleep and wakes you at the most optimal time in your sleep pattern to be woken up. Not only am I waking up feeling more rested, but I'm finding that the statistics on how well you slept and how long you slept are really enlightening - and they are encouraging me to figure out different things that really improve my quality of sleep. 
5. Cute New Shirts from Cents of Style Squee!! Our new t-shirt line with Cents of Style is finally here! I walked down the stairs yesterday afternoon and asked Jesse if he could snap a few pictures of me modeling the shirts because I wanted to use the pics in a blog post. Only problem was, I yelled into the kitchen as I was walking down the stairs: "Honey, can you take a picture of me since I have my shirt on!" And then I turned and saw that one of the older neighbor boys was standing right there off to the side of the bottom of the stairs. I pretended like it was no big deal, but inside I was dying from embarrassment and laughter thinking what that request must have sounded like to him!! And then of course, I didn't know Jesse was actually taking pictures when I was trying to tell him to take a few shots just getting the text section of the shirt. This photo looked so ridiculous that I had to share. {The shirts have some of my favorite phrases on them that have served to transform my perspective on life: Choose Love, Choose Gratitude, Choose Joy, and Choose Courage! You can get one for yourself for just $14.95 shipped this week only when you use coupon code CHOOSE at checkout. See all the designs here.} What have you been loving recently? Tell us in the comments! | 
