Today

Today I had to wake up early, because Daniel had worship practice. Usually Sundays are the days he spends time with Sawyer, I get to sleep in, and we all eat chocolate chip pancakes together. Not so much today.

Today a neighbor walked a block down to introduce himself, give us a bag of sweet corn, and tell us how thankful he was for our home improvement and our "keeping the place real nice."

Today I got some good deals at CVS, and the worker at Royal Donut was a teenager I knew, and she gave Sawyer an extra cookie for later (that he doesn't know about yet!). It made the 15 minute wait in the drive-through line worth it. 

Today I couldn't concentrate in church, and I kept feeling like I wanted to go home and take a nap despite the Mountain Dew I already had.

Today Sawyer got woken up from his nap to attend a church picnic on a beautiful 75 degree day, but he didn't see the beauty in being woken up and was VERY obstinate, so we left early.

Today Sawyer wouldn't eat anything healthy, but he ended up eating the icing off of TWO cupcakes, because the first tragically got dropped on the ground.

Today Sawyer never went back to sleep, and I managed a twenty minute nap on the couch until I rescued him from his prison er, crib. And there is no Mountain Dew in the house to contradict that woke-up-too-soon feeling.

Today Daniel is still sleeping, because he can sleep through anything, and I can sleep through nothing.

Today Sawyer and I played cars on his new rug that has roads on it from the garage sale donations.

Today Sawyer dragged our neighbor Debbie across the street and into our home to play catch with him in the living room... our dirty living room that still had this morning's dirty diaper on the coffee table because we left in a hurry. Thankfully, she's awesome, and doesn't care. :)

Today I am tired. I'm overwhelmed with the amount of garage sale donations in every corner of our home. I'm sad that I only have 2.5 weeks left of summer. I'm so happy to hear Sawyer playing Legos and Maggie meowing and rubbing my feet and the neighbor mowing his lawn with our windows open.

Yesterday, some friends of a friend died in a bus accident- I'm sure you've heard of it by now. A married couple (the wife pregnant with her second child) died, and their little boy lost his entire family.

Today is my gift with Sawyer and Daniel- tiredness,good, bad, and all. So thankful for it.

Around the House

We are finally landscaping the sides/back of the house :) Like Daniel's nifty little fence he built to cover the a/c unit?

 I have had some trouble decorating my living room. It looks all right, but I don't walk in and *love* it like I do my kitchen or the rest of the house. So I started re-doing everything, but on a super low budget (<$100). I found this rug (and it came with two others) for $38 clearance at Home Depot online. I am selling the two others to pay for it :) I LOVE it! It has the colors of our house already, but it adds the turquoise color that is in our bathroom. Part of the reason I didn't love the living room was because all of the colors were warm- there were no cool colors to accent with. Problem fixed. I have been feeling inspired every since I got this!

So I made this with a $0 budget using things I already had, and I LOVE it as well.

My sister found these at Hobby Lobby for around $5 each after a coupon, so I bought two, and I liked them, but I decided to add some of the fabric rosettes I had made for the frame above (by the way, they are made out of t-shirt fabric :)). I even SEWED them on, which is my second least favorite and frustrating activity (the first is running).

And only I could get a needle so stuck that Daniel had to use pliers to pull it out. I also had multiple cuts/pokes on my fingers from this simple sewing project.

But I loved the way it turned out :)

:)

Starting to see the love!

My theory is if I keep adding little things I *love*, hopefully I will LOVE the entire room at its completion! :)

Summer is My Favorite Because:

Being outside is entertainment enough!

Going to tractor shows with my honey!

Babies in nothing but a diaper are the cutest.

Playing with the hose is super-fun.

Mama can read while the baby plays in the pool/sprinkler.

Eating homemade ice cream on the deck is tasty fun!

Morning walks are sweet.

My boys look cute while mowing...

My kitty and baby play together!

My baby walks around outside being cute!

I get to be with this little boy 24/7. :)

Visit with Uncle Aaron and FCA Camp

For the second year in a row, we headed to Jacksonville, IL at Illinois College for FCA Camp. It. Is. Awesome. It is hands down one of my favorite weeks of the year! It allows me to see what Daniel does for a living, and it involves Sawyer and me in that! Plus, cute-face teenagers running around everywhere and no grading? Dream week. While Daniel is working on coaching and teaching, the state director's wife heads up a Spouses Program for the coaches' wives and FCA Staff wives. She does a phenomenal job, and most of the ladies return each year so relationships are built throughout. There are a few Grandmas there to watch the babies, and there is also a kids program for the families who come. Everything FCA does is with excellence- at a sports camp focused on a few hundred teenagers, they still have the commitment to focus on 15 or so families who come along for the ride. I love going! Those particular friends spoke into our lives about my struggles with being a lonely working mom and our adoption plans. Plus, we got to be with Daniel most of the week. All of that equals a great week!

Sawyer was particularly interested in this fountain that included tons of rocks...

Big Boy eating college food all week :)

We slept all together, and it made my heart want to explode- those boys are sooooooo cute!

Maybe he'll be a college kid walking around here in 16+ years (if I ever let him go)!

In this video, you can see the start of a chapel service. Cute teenagers. <3 them. Daniel was the emcee the entire time, and so you hear him at the end starting everything off. I should've kept recording because he had them all laughing that night! My husband has an awesome job!

To make it even better, my brother lives about 30 minutes away, so both years Sawyer and I have made some extra time to spend the day with him while Daniel is at meetings and such. We don't get to see him often, so I was a little concerned about Sawyer being shy around him. I shouldn't have worried- Aaron had a basket of baseballs and footballs and basketballs, so they became extra best friends. We ate hot dogs and watched ridiculous kids shows and walked to the park to play- a VERY different day from Aaron's usual 30-year-old bachelor life (minus the hot dogs- I think he likes those anyways)!

Sawyer climbed up this ladder by himself for time and time again!

He LOVED this slide!

This was his last week with his pacifier- no more paci-face pictures

!

One of these days they will be able to even out the teeter-totter, but let's hope by then they will be doing something a little more manly together!

Sword-fighting started early in our house...

Growing Up WAY Too Fast

In the past few weeks, Sawyer has gone from a baby to a big kid:

• He now only has a pacifier at nap time and bedtime, which I am completely fine with him having that in bed for as long as it takes. I am NOT wanting to get up in the middle of the night again for quite some time. As long as we don't have to have it during the day, I am happy! 
  

  

  Excuse the no make-up face- we had just woken up :)

• He is very interested in toilet training (random fact- I HATE HATE HATE the word potty, so we never say it in our house), especially farting on the toilet and flushing the toilet. We'll see if he is interested in actually doing something in the toilet as time goes on
• We traded out the old, baby-ish diaper bag for a new, cool, big kid "pack-pack" (Thank you, Kohl's Cares for Kids!). 
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  • We acquired a teenager "look" when he doesn't get his way. 
     

    
    • He got a tattoo... (just kidding, not 'til he's at least 18, and hopefully Lightning McQueen wouldn't be his first choice) :)
    
    
    

Monthly Meals: How I Do It

I only grocery shop once a month. Yes, you read correctly, once a month. I don't love grocery shopping, I do love being on a budget, and my time is too important for me to spend an hour each week at the grocery store. I'm a working mama, and that's three-ish hours I would lose of Sawyer time each month.

So I make a schedule of meals for one month on our calendar. I don't stick exactly to the days, but it's a good way for me to plan which nights we'll be gone/on a date/needing a meal. I usually end up with about 15-18 meals, about 5 days of leftovers, and a couple nights out with family or friends.

Then I make a list of everything needed for that month. I usually go grocery shopping alone on the first or second day of the month (Daniel gets paid the last business day of the month). Because I'm only going once, I am only spending money one time, and impulse buys/snacks are kept to a one-time limit. I love that. We are not a snack-y family, because most snacks just aren't that healthy to have around all the time. I am much better at keeping to a limited budget for one month with only one trip of "Hmmm... I really feel like Oreos right now", or "doesn't this cereal look yummy?" I go to Aldi for the majority, and then I go to County Market for whatever we don't find at Aldi. Our budget is between $150- $200 for a month, and we usually stick to that.

Then I basically have a list of meals to choose from for that night's meal. I can pick based on time, appetite, etc., all the while knowing we have all of the ingredients for that meal. I also usually plan two desserts for the month when Daniel and I get a craving for sweetness. I also LOVE the fact that we are free to have anyone over at any time, knowing I can make a food choice and have enough to feed them easily without going to the store.

Now, obviously, produce doesn't last an entire month. When we do need something fresh here and there, it's usually something Daniel picks up on his way home from work. So he runs to IGA occasionally. :)

I have taken to planning the monthly meals and the shopping list on the computer. Once I get six months' worth, I will hopefully just rotate out the months and have even the planning/list-making step cut out. Some meals we love so much we eat it almost every month!

 Here are the first two months I have:

Monthly Meal Plans

Enjoy!

Chalkboard Re-Do

For months, I have been stalking Goodwill for a cheap, ugly, large picture frame. The space above our kitchen cabinets is really large with the vaulted ceilings, so I wanted to put a chalkboard up there that I could write verses on, holiday wishes, etc. I finally found one for a whole 8 dollars. :)

Lovely, isn't it?

I painted the frame white, the inside with chalkboard paint, and here it is!

Daddy and Sawyer working on the back so I could hang it. 

 Here is the final product: Just what I wanted!

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Fourth of July

I love Fourth of July. It is bittersweet, because I know that means the end of summer and school are just around the corner. But no matter- I just love it. I love the fireworks, I love the memories, I love the smells, and I love the meaning behind it. I am NOT a history lover by any means, but I am rather patriotic when it comes to hearing stories about people fighting for what they believe in.

As I said before, everything is a new adventure to Sawyer at this age. July 4th was no exception. Daddy went fishing, so Sawyer and I headed to the parade by ourselves. I was lying on the couch, not really having any interest in going, and about fifteen minutes before it started I realized that Sawyer would enjoy it, and I will have hundreds of times to lie on the couch in my lifetime, and hundreds of opportunities to intentionally choose experiences for my son over comfort or ease. So we got up, got ready super-fast, and went to the parade. 

Thankfully, we sat right near a gravel spot in the pavement... rocks were our distractions while waiting for the parade to start. Isn't he so cute with his hat on backwards? We wear a hat everywhere.

He got the hang of picking up candy ASAP. Although, he could only have the tootsie rolls, which are now his treats for trying to go to the bathroom like a big kid.

Obviously we have tractors in our parade... it's the Midwest.

Trying to capture a picture with this wiggly boy was almost pointless. That is why you get a close-up of my palm.

Cute little baby! I wish he'd pick up his toys this fast!

 That night, we went to Rossville to watch fireworks with our friends Ethan and Bethany. We wanted a small-town experience for Sawyer's first time, and since our town doesn't do them, we headed North. Sawyer was SUPER STILL the entire time. He was confused, I think, not scared. He didn't cry, but he also didn't point or get excited either. He had every right to be confused- we got him a bath, got him ready for bed, then put him in the car instead, to drive twenty minutes to sit in a park and watch the sky explode. Loudly. I'm sure next year will be even more fun!

 <3 my family! (and my country for that matter)