Welcome to my weekly post I share a peek into our lives, talk about things I'm loving, share links to interesting articles or helpful ideas I've collected throughout the past week, and just talk about whatever is on my heart! 🙂
Kaitlynn has been hard at work perfecting her macaron recipe. This week, she made multiple batches and had one batch that was a WINNER! She’s excited at the progress she’s making here — and we are, too!
These two couples have been such a gift to Jesse and me. Our husbands went through Men’s Discipleship together and we women went through Discipleship Group together and were in the same small group.
Over the past year, our friendships have slowly developed and blossomed and has grown into something incredibly beautiful. They are the answer to many, many prayers we have prayed for close couple friends and we are so grateful. We have a standing couples’ night out every Tuesday night and we look forward to it all week long!
Of course this week was also full of lots of family games! Because that has become our thing this summer! 🙂
And I went back to Sprouts for the first time in a long time and was super impressed with the deals after being unimpressed when I checked them out a year ago. I think it’s safe to say that this store is going to be part of my weekly rotation!
Amazing strawberries for $0.98 per tub? Yes, please!
My parents came into town for one day and we enjoyed getting to have them here. My mom and I stole out for an hour to get pedis together.
The kids got to play games with Grandpa and we all enjoyed having dinner together and swimming at their hotel pool.
This girl turned 11 this past week!
It's hard for me to believe she's *only* 11 as her creativity and ability and the maturity of our conversations together make me feel like she is well beyond her years.
She brings so much to our lives… beauty, artistry, sarcasm, sass, fashion, great cooking/baking, an endless supply of creativity, and a confident, can-do attitude.
She constantly pushes herself to do more than I might believe she is capable of — and she usually manages to pull it off with ease and success. I've learned that when she's made her mind up that she is capable of something, it's best for me to step out of her way and cheer her from the sidelines.
She's a whirlwind of wit and spunk and fresh ideas. She's always working on learning something new — whether it's a new skill, a new baking technique, a new recipe, a new hairstyle, a new craft idea… she never lacks for new ideas she wants to experiment with.
And after years of so.many.messes and me having to learn to love and embrace that as part of what makes her heart sing, I am thrilled to report that she is learning to clean up after herself! I'm so grateful I didn't hold her back — because now it means that I have an in-house hairstylist, manicurist, makeup artist, go-to fashion expert, macaron maker, bread baker, home decorator, and organizer.
She got hurt and rejected in some big ways a little over a year ago. It about wrecked her. And we walked through a dark season with her that we didn't know if she would recover from. But changing her environment, showering her with love, and finding a great counselor and a few true friends who have loved her well, has changed her life.
We love you, amazing girl! We are so proud of you for being so courageous and such a fighter… and for coming through a dark time so much stronger and healthier. You inspire us daily! ❤️
She and I went on our mother-daughter birthday date to a local ceramic studio (my first time!) to paint ceramics.
I was all, “Why don’t you just create one and I’ll watch you?” And she was all, “Oh no, Mom, you are totally painting one, too!”
She constantly pushes me to be more creative and to challenge myself to do things I don’t feel like I can do or am good at. And I’m so grateful she does, because it’s good for me to not hold myself back saying, “I’m not creative and artistic.”
We had so much fun together on our date — and I even think I’d like to go back and do it again sometime!
I can’t wait to see what these look like after they are glazed and fired and we get to pick them up at the end of this week.
We went to the pool with friends again this week and then invited them over for Breakfast for Dinner. All the kids came back and took showers and put on their jammies and we parents whipped up the pancakes, eggs, and bacon.
This is such an easy idea for hospitality that requires almost zero prep. Plus, who doesn’t love Breakfast for Dinner?
Kaitlynn invited her best friend for a fun birthday outing — including shopping at the mall!
They are both fashionistas and I had fun watching them find so much joy in shopping!
I spontaneously took the girls to Goodwill on Sunday after church.
They had all orange tags for $0.99 so we dug through racks and racks of dresses and found four dresses with orange tags that fit us — two for Kathrynne, one for me, and one for Kaitlynn. Our total was less than $4 for 4 dresses!!!
It was kind of like a treasure hunt and I loved getting to hang out with the girls and have so much fun shopping and laughing and trying on things together! I think we’ll likely do it again soon!
2018 Goals Update
Personal Goals
1. Read 100 non-self-help books that will build me up/encourage me/inspire me/recharge me. (Fiction/story-driven/biographies/inspirational living books/devotionals.) See the list of 44 books I plan to read this year.
**Progress: 26 books read so far this year
2. Read through the entire Bible.
**Progress: I'm using the Robert Murray M'Cheyne plan and am all caught up— yay!
3. Write one handwritten note to someone every week.
**Progress: 28 notes written so far this year
4. Run 500 miles.
**Progress: 236 miles run so far
Marriage Goal
5. Go on an overnight trip with Jesse without the kids.Jesse and I went to NYC together in January.
Family Goals
6. Read 10 books aloud with the kids.
**Progress: I've finished one book so far and we’re halfway through another book. (I have a plan for how we’re going to incorporate more reading into our schedule once school starts and we’re all driving in the car to school dropoffs every morning. For now, I’m just happy that we’re fitting in a little family reading a few times per week when we’re all in the car together driving to the pool or somewhere else. Something is better than nothing, right??)
7. Take the kids to South Africa.
**Progress: I can’t believe this trip is almost here! We’ll be gone July 7-17.
8. Go on a family road trip.
**Progress: We've been researching some options for this. Stay tuned!
Financial Goals
9. Save up to pay cash to finish off an office for me and workout room for Jesse and me in the basement in our new house.
**Progress: The workout room is almost done and we’re starting on the office!
10. Replenish our Emergency Fund (we dipped into it to replace my car when it got totaled because of the carpet beetle infestation.)
Business Goals
11. Increase our gross income from the business by 8%.
12. Launch 5 new courses.
**Progress: We launched 4 Weeks to a More Productive Life launched in January, Content Creation 101 in February, 4-Week Blog Coaching Program in March, Email List Setup 101 in March, Make Over Your Mornings LIVE in April, the Facebook Live Masterclass in May, and we’re launching Build Your List 101 this week!
Aldi
Harris Teeter
