Lately....

Lately, we've been keeping ourselves really busy. Here are a few of the things that we've been doing.

1. Expecting and accepting multiple packages from Amazon that contain books. Lots and lots of books. Someone in our house is going back to school this semester, as well as working full-time, being a full-time husband, and daddy. We have no idea what we are getting into, but all of his classes are online, with the exception of spending one week every summer in Lubbock. After 3 years of classes, he'll be working on his dissertation. When he is finished, he'll graduate with his Ed.D (Doctor of Education). We're prayerful that this is a great next step for him, and this wife is proud.

2. Making these.


Cupcake toppers for Micayla's upcoming birthday party. I could have ordered them through Etsy, but decided my somewhat crafty self surely could pull off something similar, though not as fancy.

3. Swimming, swimming, swimming.

4. Making recipes from this book Southern Living Big Book of Cupcakes.

I've decided that most of them are too dry (the cupcake part) for my liking. I'm still on the search for a great moist cupcake. The way that the book puts together cupcakes and pairs them with icings and decorates them though, is really cool. I've gotten several ideas already.

5. Ordering this for a project. I'm prayerful and hopeful that we'll have a little one join our family soon, so I thought I had better get started on their Christmas stocking. It took me 2 years to make Hudson's, and about a year to make Micayla's, so I figure this one should take me three years to finish.

6. Enjoying this: Casbah Warmer. My new favorite scent is Citrus Sun Tea (and it is being discontinued this month, boo!) and I've got my warmers going all the time when we're at home. I love that my house smells great, but I don't have to worry about a candle burning. If it would get a little cooler here, I could possibly think about enjoying some fall scents, but since we've had three digit days (temp wise) for the entire month of August, summer scents will continue to be smelled.

7. Working on this. I saw the idea from several homeschooling blogs I follow (no, I don't know if we'll homeschool or not yet), and I've seen some fancy versions made out of felt, etc. I figured that we could learn the basics with my 2.00 posterboard and 99 cent markers from Target. She memorizes things so easily, so hopefully this will be one more way to encourage her little brain to learn more. --Updated to say that for some reason I can't get the picture to upload, but it is a calendar with the months, days, weather, memory verse, letter of the week, etc. She has to change them out each day with me.

8. Purchasing a few small gifts for our birthday girl....she's 9 days away from turning 3 years old and I'm not sure where the time went. She's so interactive, imaginative, and growing out of most of her toys that she's had since she turned one. I'm cleaning out her toybox this week to make way for a few more appropriately-aged toys for her....saving the "baby" toys for the next one. It's been neat to see how she finally "gets" what a birthday is this year. I asked her if she wanted anything for her birthday, and she said, "for my friends to sing to me, and for Daddy to be invited to my party." She makes me chuckle often.

9. Working hard. After talking about it for several years, we took the plunge, removed all our carpet downstairs and with the help of some great friends, put in wood laminate. It looks sooooo much better than our 14 year old carpet with various stains, and swiffering them every day hasn't been a chore. I'm hopeful that it will help some with allergies too--though we'll have to replace the upstairs carpet to really notice a difference. It was a long week of no furniture, but it was soo worth it.

10. Celebrating 10 years with my man. August 4, 2001 seems like just yesterday, but in reality, it's been ten wonderful years. Hudson and I were able to leave Micayla with our wonderful neighbors and we enjoyed a lovely dinner out at a nice restaurant. Hudson got me the "Happy Anniversary" charm with 2011 engraved on the back for my James Avery charm bracelet...I wasn't expecting a gift so it was a nice surprise. I'm so blessed, so proud, so delighted to be beside him in everything we do together....and I couldn't have picked a better husband or father. God really does know what He's doing. :)