A Picnic

 

I've had the weirdest viral infection ever. It's called hand, foot, and mouth disease. It's a virus that affects mainly infants and children but adults can get it too. I think Noah had a little spout of it last week. Our friends had it first so I'm guessing we picked it up from them. Some of the symptoms are cold sores in your mouth and blisters on your hands and feet {more info here}. I had 7 tiny blisters on the palms of my hands and two blisters on the side of my pinky toe and the toe next to it. I haven't really felt sick my mouth just hurts SO BAD. I can't even smile without it hurting. Needless to say, I've been a little bit cranky and short-tempered. I've also tried to avoid talking as much as possible.

So I was sitting outside feeling sorry for myself while Noah was playing and I started feeling sorry for him instead because I realized I haven't been the nicest person the past few days. Just then it occurred to me how I could make it up to him...a nice relaxing picnic! The weather is so nice out right now...a breezy 75 degrees. We made our way inside, I grabbed our picnic quilt, and prepared our lunch. For Noah I made popcorn chicken, string cheese, pita bread with peanut butter, and blueberries for dessert. I had chicken salad in a pita pocket and shared some of Noah's blueberries. We had a healthy lunch all around. I was so proud of him, he ate EVERYTHING I gave him except a couple bites of his pita & peanut butter {because I stole some}.

Yeah, we picnic'd in our front yard. Is that hillbilly?

Thanks orajel for helping me muster up this smile. ;-)

 

pretty old quilt that my mom's mom made...i think.

Stupid cold sores, you're not going to ruin my day! We're going to have fun anyway! And we did. Now Noah is taking his nap and all is quiet and peaceful in the house. I'm so thankful for this nice weather and that I'm able to be at home with the most important little person in my life. I wouldn't have it any other way. I love watching him grow and learn. I love raising him all day everyday. We're so BLESSED!

 

Insta Friday & New Item in the Shop!

Wednesday we went to the library with my friend Samantha and her two little girls for Story Time! Noah's first trip to the library! I learned that we need to work on sharing. He kept showing other parents and kids puzzle pieces he was playing with and would scream if they tried to take it out of his hand. To them it looked like he was trying to give it to them. Um, I was embarrassed by his behavior. :) But kids are kids right? And I'm sure my senses were just magnifying it because my brain feels the need to be super aware of what my kid is doing at any given moment. Of course that's because I'm a mom.

Yesterday, Thursday, we picked Daddy up for lunch and went to Granny's after we dropped him off. We went to the little park in her neighborhood and played. Of course Noah brought his golf club, golf ball, and sock (golf glove) along for the trip. Because why would you go anywhere without them?????

Today we played in the shade of our walkway. I thought it would be fun to let Noah play with a bowl of water. I bet you can guess what ended up in it, dirt, leaves, wood chips, balls... We made dirt soup and it was good.

Sweet little chubby fingers...Noah and Mommy.

One last thing, I made a new clutch this week and finally added to the shop. Stop by and check it out!

Use DAYTRIP for 10% off your purchase! Just enter it into the coupon code at checkout.

Hope y'all had a wonderful week!! Have a great weekend!!

Mandy

Welcome to Toddlerhood

I'm sitting on the couch uploading photos for tomorrow's Tipsy Tuesday while my little man who is almost 19 months old sleeps away in his new toddler bed. I have to admit I thought transitioning him from the crib to big boy bed would have been a difficult process, much like I expect potty-training to be. It's weird to me that we potty train toddlers and puppies. Seems like there should be a different term for the two. Oh well, if it works why change it? Anyway, I thought for sure Noah would have gotten out of bed a gazillion times and I would have to put him back in bed a gazillion times before finally winning the battle; or losing, and putting him in the pack & play. But to my surprise he cooperated and stayed put while I read 5 or so books to him. Then I told him it was nap time started his music box, slipped out of the room, and ran to look at the monitor. After a minute he did sit up and begin to fidget so I cracked his door open and told him to lay down. He eventually nodded off to sleep. :) I am one happy momma!! It's nice when they make it easy on you.

I'm convinced he's the cutest kid in the world especially when grandmothers that we're not related to tell me he's cuter than their own grandkids. We're talking serious cuteness here people.

Father's Day Photo Shoot

yesterday i shared a couple diy fathers day gift ideas i found on pinterest. i finished the iphone card without any problems but the awesome dad photographs still have a few kinks to work out.

we had our photo shoot today at granny's house because her yard is super cute.

 well, i was hoping for better cooperation but i must say i'm delighted with the rather humorous shots little squirt gave me.

here are the three the made the cut. :)

he didn't want to hold the letters the way mommy wanted him to and that is just fine

because we can still make out what they are

and they still spell dad no matter how you look at it.

so there! ha! i win!

oh and we wanted to show some love to grandpa and papa but he won the battle on that front.

this is as close as we got.

maybe we'll try again next year.

and lastly, here's squirtles posing with his t-ball gear.

so. cute.

and now i have another problem.

the frame i bought is for 3x5 photos. and walmart doesn't print that size.

what to do what to do?! i'll figure something out.

i'd love to hear/see what you're doing for the dad's in your life. if you have a post about it leave a link in the comment section below! hope to hear from you!

xoxo

-mandy

Women's Fellowship, A Read Along with Beth Moore

I go to a women's fellowship on Thursday nights. I haven't been able to go faithfully but I have gotten to go 4 times out the 12 or so times they've met but Thursday's fellowship was awesome! We're doing a read along with Beth Moore's book "So Long Insecurities". And she said something sort of profound in the chapter we listened to.

"Where in the world did we conclude that we have to subtract value from ourselves in order to give credit to someone else?"-Beth Moore

Let that sink in for just a moment. As women we have all compared ourselves to one another at some point. We do it so often we've grown numb to it and don't even realize we're doing it. And there is a million different ways we do it. We're not just talking about looks, although isn't this one of the most obvious ways we compare ourselves? If you're a mom you could be comparing yourself to other moms and all of the things they accomplish alongside raising their children (yep, you caught me there, this is one is talking to me), or a co-worker who has been promoted while you're still waiting for your big chance leaves you wondering what she has that you don't, maybe you're a stay at home mom and you feel guilty because all of your friends who are moms work eight hours a day to help provide for their family, or maybe it's the other way around (sorry so many mom examples, I can't help it!).

I believe it is healthy, and even needed to recognize the good in others but by no means does it make any sense to take something good about someone else and subtract it from my value as a person just because I don't possess the same specific quality as them. We can't be all things at all times. We are all unique, we possess different traits, characteristics, interests, etc. The list goes on. Find freedom in embracing your uniqueness and allow yourself to be blessed by the uniqueness of others instead of feeling condemned for not being more like them.

There is a difference in being inspired by other women and comparing ourselves. One is positive and uplifting, the other is bondage.

Another thing Beth pointed out in this chapter was while we're comparing ourselves with other women we're turning them into rivals. To consider someone a rival we have to depersonalize that person. Woah.

My friend Brittany who was also at the girls' night said something along the lines of "We need to take down the magnifying glass and view other women as people just like us. They have hearts just like we do, they have struggles, desires, etc." Brit is really insightful and has a big, wonderful heart, and I always love hearing her perspective.

I think I could go on and on about this issue. I didn't realize how important it was until Thursday. It's huge! This may end up being a continuous topic. I hope this blessed you and gave you a new perspective.

-Mandy

On a completely unrelated note:

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Since making the transition from blogpost to wordpress I've realized I need a better way to keep up with all the blogs I follow. I'm going to start the process of adding all the blogs I followed from there to blog lovin' as well as figure out how to move all of my old posts over to here.

Honestly, I haven't had time to even keep up with any of my usual reads but that's going to change soon once I have this whole thing figured out. :) I'm excited to get back to reading all your wonderful and inspiring blog posts!

Hope everyone has had a great week, enjoy your weekend!