Nostalgic

I know I've been absent from the blogging scene for a while, but that's because my camera is broken. So all of my crafty things have only been shared on fb or instagram lately. That's ok... today's post is of a different sort all together. 

Growing up holidays with my extended family was always a must. We didn't live close to most of them so my parents always made sure that holidays were celebrated together. I posted a song to my brother's fb page today called Granddaddy's Gun by Aaron Lewis and it made me really miss my grandparents. Only one of my grandparents is still living (and I'm pretty sure she'll outlive me!). I started thinking about how fun it was to see all of my cousins and aunts and uncles over those fun filled, house packed weekends. We didn't care that there wasn't enough room for everyone to have a bed to sleep in, or that the kids table had to be on the back porch because the kitchen was too full. We only cared that there was enough laughter to fill 10 houses and plenty of food to go around. We enjoyed each others company and talked about the "good ole days". We spent a lot of time playing cards and creating mischief. We ate too much and fought over the last yeast roll. We thanked God for all of his many blessings and we loved one another. In the Hukill/Burke family we "hazed" the new family members by quizzing them on who belonged to who.  In the Harrison family we fought over who was sleeping with Margie's leg. Each side of my family was the same though. No matter which side we were spending the holiday with we knew we were loved and that no matter how long it'd been since you'd seen someone, family is family. And you love your family. Each year I remember my Grandmother (whoever's house we happened to be at) smiling and saying something like "My cup runneth over". Now that I'm an adult, I know exactly what they all meant. Being together and having the love of your family makes all of the difficult things worth while. My heart is so full with all of the blessings that I have. 

I feel extremely blessed to have grown up in a family where being together was important. As we've all grown up and started our own families, it hasn't always been as easy to get together. But to all of my family near and far, this year (as every year) I want you to know how thankful I am for all of you. And how much I love you. May God's blessings pour out on you this year and may you know His love and peace always!

Happy Thanksgiving,

Shar

A few things I learned the summer my husband had surgery...

As most of you know John had surgery at the beginning of the summer. I don't think I fully prepared myself for what that would mean for us as a family. I think in my head I thought we'd have a couple of weeks of down time and then he would bounce right back and we'd have a month of summer vacation to enjoy. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. He was literally on the couch for the first month and half he was home and was only able to get up and around a lot right at the end. So my grand idea of having a leisurely summer went out the window. Instead I somehow managed to keep up with most of the house work and take the kids to and from the pool and vbs (which they did 4 of).  Early on in our marriage John and I made an agreement that he would keep up the outside of the house and I would do the inside. Well as you can imagine that idea went out the window pretty quickly because as the number of people in our home grew, so too did the tasks that it takes to maintain it. Thus creating a situation where we realized that the only way we could accomplish anything was if we did it all together. So John took on more of the inside work and I still managed to wrangle my way out of most of the outside work. That is until this summer...

Thankfully the Lord took pity on me and sent 3 of our friends to mow our grass for the first 3 weeks John was home. The rest of the time, I've been on my own. Let me share a little something with you all... I'm pretty spoiled. Ok there it's out there, don't hate. I've never had to work outside in the heat, unless I wanted to. My dad always took care of our home growing up and John loves working outside so I've always happily let him have those tasks. My dad did try somewhere along the way to teach me a few outside skills, but I think I somehow blocked it all out. 

So below find a list of things that I've learned about cutting grass and taking care of the outside of your home. If you've never had to work out in your yard, hopefully if you ever have to you'll save yourself some time and energy.

1. It's very important to make sure you are well hydrated and wear sunscreen while out in the sun. (Sorry the nurse part of me took over for a sec.) It's also really important to wear proper clothing while cutting the grass. You'll need eye wear, and shoes that cover all of your feet. Long pants aren't a bad idea either as flying debris can really sting when it shoots you in the leg.
2. Make sure to completely check and clean all parts of your mower before attempting to mow. It only takes a few seconds to turn that bad boy over and scrape all of the old grass off. It's also not a bad idea to take it into a shop and have them professionally tune it for you. This will make your job SO MUCH EASIER! Trust me!
3. Make sure you check the oil and gas before starting. Sounds simple but I learned the hard way that you don't just dump in oil and call it a day. You have to pour a little, check the level, then pour some more.
4. If you're using a weed eater make sure you know what kind of fuel it takes. Ours is a two-cycle and doesn't take just gasoline, it takes gas and oil mixed. Ok who knew that those even existed? I surely didn't and almost ruined our weed eater in the process. It's also important to know if your weed eater can also be used as an edger or if your hubby has a separate one of those. 
5. Take the time to sweep off the sidewalk after your done. I never fully appreciated John taking the time to do this until the one time I didn't do it and then the kids came home... you guessed it... grass tracked all through the house. It's worth the few extra minutes it takes to do it.
6. Don't put the lawn mower back in the shed while it's hot. You have to wait for it to cool down or it could cause a fire. Thankfully I didn't learn this one the hard way. Just got some wise advice from my father in law. (see # 7).
7. And if all else fails and you can't figure something out, make sure you have a back up person who you can ask. My father in law was a God send to me this summer. I'm sure I drove him crazy asking for help all the time. But he patiently helped me figure things out when John wasn't available.  
8. Not to mention that you burn somewhere between 700-900 calories just while cutting the grass... now that's what I call a work out!

What I learned this summer has changed my mind about working outside. There's honestly no better feeling than pulling up in your driveway and your grass is nice and neat. It makes me feel so good! I just LOVE it! Thankfully summer is winding down and soon I won't have to worry about finding the time to do it again... until next summer. And by then John might have to fight me to let him cut our grass... if you're reading this honey you know I'm totally joking! (I wouldn't want him to get any ideas after all...) :o)

PS if anyone has any really great tips about working in the yard to share with me I'd love to hear them!

~Shar

Burden

This is the view that I had for most of the day yesterday. My hubby had to have what we thought was a minor procedure, but in actuality turned out to be pretty extensive surgery. We had to be up at 4 am and at the hospital at 5. Thankfully my mother in law kept the two big girls so all we had to do was get SG up and get ourselves ready and out the door. Once at the hospital he got checked in and taken back to the OR by 730. I spent the next 4 hours on pins and needles worrying. They told us that the surgery would only take an hour, but because of what they found it actually took closer to 4. They told me to expect him to have to stay overnight but because he felt like he could handle the pain they let him come home. He was only able to sleep for about 1 and a half hours at a stretch and was pretty miserable all night. I felt so bad for him. Now I know how he felt when I had each of my c-sections. It's a pretty helpless feeling watching the one you love hurt. 


After having two nights in a row with very little sleep I was having a particularly low morning. My baby got sick yesterday also so I had two patients last night. I was feeling exhausted both emotionally and physically. Then this morning while checking my email I got this post from Beth Moore. I literally started crying because truly I've got zero reasons to feel sorry for myself. My children, aside from a small stomach virus, are healthy. My husband gets his entire time off from work paid for, and we have insurance that will cover all of his medical bills. His surgery was successful and without life threatening complications. Our ac works great on these hot days and a sweet friend is bringing us dinner.


As I started reading through some of the replies to Beth's post I was so struck by some of the situations that I read about. Very quickly my attitude changed from poor me to an attitude of prayer for the situations that I was reading about. Matthew 11:28-30 came to mind. I love how the Message phrases it. "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me- watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly". I love that anytime we feel overwhelmed or exhausted we do have a friend we can lean on. We have a place to rest and recharge. 


My prayer is that as my husband recovers at home over the next six weeks we would find it to be the best summer of our lives. Time to recharge as a family and time to rest and relax. Time to draw closer together and closer to Christ. My prayer for you is the same. That whatever challenges you're facing you'll take the time to reach out to Christ and let him be your safe place to fall. And if you need a sister in Christ to share your burden with, feel free to call me. I will offer you love, an ear of understanding, prayer, a direction in the Word and even a cup of coffee if you need it. 


Blessings to you all,
Love




Shar

End of the year Teacher gift

Bekah's last day of pre-school was May 18 and I wanted to do something really special for her two teachers. They also taught Hannah last year so we've gotten to know them really well. I've seen lots of ideas for tote bags with beach supplies for teachers and decided to do my own version. I also wanted to do a personalized bag. The amazing hubby got me a brand spanking new sewing machine for mother's day (EEK! :o) ). So I knew I needed to take that baby for a test spin. I got some canvas bags from Michaels and went to town. 


First i painted a stenciled B using the freezer paper method onto each bag. Luckily Han's teacher's last name starts with the same letter as Bekah's two teachers first names. So I only needed one letter. 

Next I added some fabric ruffles from some really sweet fabric scraps I picked up in the clearance bin at JoAnns (1.00/ fat quarter bundle... score!). There are a million and one ways to make ruffles, but I love this tutorial from Positively Splendid. The tricky part was that i had to open up the seam of the bag, sew the ruffles on and then resew the seam closed. It wasn't difficult, but definitely took longer than I'd anticipated.

Then I filled the bags with lots of goodies for a fun time in the sun and added a little sunshine tag. 

Making the ruffles was the most time consuming part of this project, but i loved how they turned out! The lighting is terrible in these pics, but I really wish you could see how cute that fabric is! Oh well... maybe for my bday the amazing hubby will get me a new camera... A girl can dream right? :o)

Ballet Recital/ Preschool Graduation

As usual things have been super busy around the Mitchell house and we wouldn't want it any other way! The girls participated in their 2nd ballet recital and while it was a crazy week and pretty stressful, we had a great time! Here are some pics: 

Wonder which one is doing the right move?

Some of their class

One of our good friend's daughter is in our girls class.
The girls had a blast knowing they would see their friend every week.

Hannah modeling ballet

With their most favorite dancer of all time, Amaris.
My girls think she hung the moon!

With their teacher Mrs. Robin

Nana even came to visit! What a treat!

All ready for the last dance, tap.

Next up some pics of Bekah's pre-school graduation. I shed a few tears thinking about my girl growing up. Having the girls go to a Christian pre-school is probably one of my favorite things we've done. They've loved it, and I've loved knowing their foundation in school started in a loving, christian environment.

with Mrs Bonnie- who Bekah says gives the best hugs!

with Mrs Brenda. Her love for her students is just amazing!

How in the world are my girls going to kindergarten and first grade already? Time flies! 

Teacher Appreciation Week

The first week of May was teacher appreciation week. I have really loved my girls teachers this year so of course I had to make some special things for them. Bekah is finishing up her last year of pre-school and I've gotten to know the teachers there really well over the last couple of years so I wanted to make their gifts extra special.


Hannah's school sent home a list of what to bring each day so we followed along with that. 


Monday was candy so I printed out these adorable little boxes designed by Toni  of MBC and filled them with chocolates. They were a big hit! 

Tuesday was fruit so I made my own version of a fruit basket and used this super cute printable from Eighteen 25. Everything in it was fruit flavored. 

Wednesday the girls had to bring in a hand made card. I loved this idea! So of course thank you to Pinterest I found this awesome printable from... I feel horrible bc I can't find the site that I got this from. But there is a watermark so hopefully you can see who it's from. My girls really had fun with this and were the most excited to take these to their teachers.

Thursday was school supplies day so we went the easy route and made a very simple pencil bouquet. The girls made some tissue paper flowers with their grandmother a few weeks ago and it was the perfect way to use these. 

Friday was my favorite day. We got to send in flowers. I didn't want to just send in real flowers though. So I got a little creative. MBC had previously posted this idea. So I combined the printable idea from Monday with the flower idea to make these: 

Then I made a little note that said "Thank you for helping me grow" I loved how they turned out! 


The girls teachers certainly appreciated all of my hard work and I had a blast putting it all together. Next time I'll show you what I did for end of the year gifts. :o)

Projects and pics... that's all I've got!

Long time no post... I know I know! Between all of the holidays we've celebrated recently and spring break, there just seemed to be no time for blogging. So this post is going to be packed with pics of all that's been going on around here. 


First up remember the st patricks days shirts I made for the kids? Well here is a pic of them wearing them. 

SG is impossible to photograph with her sisters these days so that's why she's all by herself.


Next up Easter. Thanks as usual to pinterest i found this tutorial for ruffled easter egg shirts. And here's how they turned out. (Warning you must tilt your head to see these... sorry in advance)

 (Ok seriously does anyone know how to rotate an image once it's on blogger? its driving me nuts that I can't figure that out!)


And last but not least here are some sweet ruffled skirts that i upcycled from jeans. While I was in NY visiting the bestie for spring break we ran across some premade ruffles that we thought would work perfectly for turning blue jeans into skirts. Here is her blog post about it. Because her daughter is smaller than mine she was able to just cut the legs off and sew the ruffles on, but mine required a little more work. I didn't take pics of the process but I'm sure there are a million and one tutorials about how to turn blue jeans into a skirt. But here is the finished product. 

Ok that's all for today! Hope you enjoyed the pics! More to come later! Have a blessed day! :o)

Happy St Patty's day!

Of course a new holiday brings new crafts! Don't y'all  just LOVE pinterest? I've never had such an addiction love of finding things on the internet before. Seriously, am I the only one  with the problem? ;) 


But here's what we've been working on around here. First up a little St Patty's day decor. A wreath inspired by the fabulous Toni of MakeBakeCelebrate. 

Then some free printables I found from Tai Dye Orginial. We don't believe in luck so this was the perfect addition to our little table.

I couldn't get a good picture of the other one, but you can see it in the back ground of the leprechaun trap. Hannah's teacher  asked us to make a leprechaun trap and I've always wanted to do that with the girls, but never have. Here was the inspiration:  Love Sweet Love's Tricky Leprechaun Hat

Next up of course the girls had to have shirts to wear for the green day: Skip to my Lou (if you're not following her blog, you should be... soo great!) turned me onto the freezer paper stencil idea. I love how these turned out! The big girls got these and SG got the sweet little shamrock on the bottom. 

 And of course no outfit is complete without a matching hairbow... :o) Those are just store bought shamrocks hot glued to hair clips. 

So that's how we're celebrating St Patty's day around here... of course there will be green snacks to give out to their friends at school for their class parties too. Thank you pinterest for once again making all of my crafting dreams become a reality! ;)

U is for Unique

For the most part I LOVE being a Momma. I love having 3 little girls who look to me for all of the answers to life's questions. I love that they love me unconditionally even on my bad days. I love that I get to see the world for the first time through their eyes. I love that they are each unique and bring their own perspective to each day. 


Then every now and again we will have a day like yesterday where everything seems just off. I'll be honest, if anyone actually witnessed my mothering skills yesterday, I certainly wouldn't have won any "best mom ever" awards. My baby is 16 mos old and gets into everything. And i do mean EVERYTHING! As i type this she just dumped out a whole bag of pretzels. Yesterday I spent all day following behind her cleaning up messes, including one yucky diaper that required a bath to be cleaned up. By the time the hubby came home I was grumbling like no other. "How was your day?" he asked. "Terrible!" was my reply. Then today started off just about the same. We went to a friend's house in which she insisted on playing on the stairs for the whole visit. And basically just keeping me from enjoying the time we were there. I came home feeling really defeated and frustrated that I couldn't keep her entertained long enough to get anything done. 


So as soon as we got home I fed her and Bekah lunch and took a few minutes for myself in the bathroom. If you're a mom you know how precious even 5 minutes alone in the bathroom can be. While I was in the library, as we call it, I ran across a really interesting article from magazine that I didn't subscribe too, but somehow started receiving. God must have known that I would need what the author of this one article wrote.   It was so good I'm going to quote it bc I don't think paraphrasing it would do it justice so here goes...


The article is called: Reality Check, when we're tempted to get discouraged  because of our shortcomings- or because of someone else's perfection- it's time to take a closer look. By Derri Smith


"Check #3 
Different children are made for different purposes, all equally valuable. God certainly put the right children into the right families.  The future God planned for one child requires an easy grasp of higher math; the future of another does not.  One child needs skill and knowledge for cooking with the most basic ingredients, perhaps bc his or her future will be far from an American style grocery store.  Another may become an ambassador, rarely cooking at all but needing to know how to relate sensitively and graciously to many types of people and perhaps in many languages.  The truth is God knows our children's futures.  He made them with all the gifts and interests they will need, and he will provide them with the experiences needed to fulfill His purposes. our charge is to stay in tune with Him and with each child, rather than trying to conform Sally to the image of Sue."


This spoke to me so strongly. Here I'd been comparing my baby to my other girls and complaining about how "difficult" she is to care for instead of viewing her as the one who God created her to be and nurturing her into that person. I was reminded that my sweet little curious girl who always wants to try on everyone's shoes, and wants to dump out every container, and empty every cabinet all while standing on top of a kitchen counter... is a special unique creation of a loving Father who must have known that she would need that curiosity to accomplish what he'd designed for her life. 


I hope you will take the time today to see each of your children for exactly who God created them to be and take a moment to appreciate just how unique they are! 

Happy V-day!

Happy Valentines day! We don't really celebrate Valentines day as a couple, but my Mom always made sure to have a little something for us while we were growing up, so I am continuing the tradition by making sure my girls have a little celebration too. After all, what's wrong with telling those we love how much we love them! Since I took the month of January off from crafting I'm officially back in full swing! In the last 48 hours I've made 4 headbands, 2 shirts, and decorated for my girls to have a little party with a couple of friends. Makes for a tired mama but Happy girls so that's what really matters! I saw the idea for these headbands and shirts on pinterest somewhere, but for the life of me I can't find it. So to whomever inspired theses... Thank you! They were so easy and my girls LOVED them! 


Here are a few pics...

Bekah not happy about picture taking... And I have no idea how to turn this picture around... oops!

The headband

So that's how we're celebrating today. Are you doing anything fun? I hope that you're getting to spend time with the ones you love! :)

Sponges

Yesterday on our way home from church my 4 yr old noticed an Enterprise car rental place. Immediately after her saying "There's an Enterprise!" My 6 yr old said "We'll pick you up." I was so shocked that Bek knew what Enterprise was and even more that Han knew the slogan for this company! I don't think we've rented a car in several years and I don't even think it was from enterprise then. This got me really thinking... We don't usually let them watch tv with commercials. They typically watch either PBS or Netflix. So I don't think they regularly hear the commercial for Enterprise. But obviously only hearing that slogan a few times stuck with them. It was a great reminder that our kids are sponges. And that everything we say and do affects them. That they really are watching us.


It made me wonder what they think my "slogan" is? What do they typically associate with hearing my name? What do they think their mom most frequently says to them? I pray that it's not "Go away" or "Stop bothering me". I'm not saying I never say those things, but I don't feel like I frequently use those phrases with them.  I hope it's "I love you!" I pray that its "Jesus loves you, and I love Jesus!" 


I'm thankful for those little reminders that our job as a parent isn't just about their needs right now, but really shaping them to be who they will be in the future. As for me... I'm going to be working up the courage to ask my kids what they think my slogan is! 

Mom- I forgot...

Have you ever had your kid tell you the night before that they need something for school the next morning? Well this isn't the first time this has happened, but bc my girls are still little it hasn't happened that often. Thurs night Bekah informed me that she needed a Snowman shirt for Friday morning for pre-school. So after a quick trip to Target and Old Navy left me empty handed I thought "I can make one!" I promise you that that thought has NEVER entered my head before bc "crafty" certainly isn't an adjective that I would use to describe myself. But thanks to some really special friends and my bestie the last couple of months I've discovered a love of crafting. In fact at one point we did a sewing project for our Mom group and I had someone else sew mine. I had zero interest in sewing. It's amazing how our interests change! I love the challenge that these little projects present and I love how my girls look when they tell someone with pride "My mom made it!" I love that in some small way I get to show my girls how much I love them by making them something as simple as a shirt. 

So here is her snowman shirt:

So what has your kid asked you to do the day before it was due? <3

New Year New You Blog Resolutions

Ok maybe I'm not the only one who hates the thought of New Years resolutions. I hate the thought of starting something knowing that I'm probably going to give up on in a few weeks. Every year I say 'This year will be different..." knowing full well that it won't be. For the last 9 months I've been on a fitness/weight loss journey. I've been successful at times, and struggled at other times. I've lost a little over 50 pounds, knowing that I still have a long way to go on  my journey.  


The entire time I've said that I didn't want it to be just a physical journey, but a mental/spiritual one as well. So for the last week I've made it a point to get up before the kids get up and do a work out, take a shower and have my devotions. I was already doing all of those thing, just not in that order, or before the kids got up. I can't even begin to tell you how making this small change in my routine has made me feel. I feel so different, but I'm not really doing anything different. It's amazing how such a small change can make you feel. 


So my new years resolution is simple, to continue my journey towards physical and spiritual fitness. I pray that if you have a new years resolution you'll have success! Just remember it takes 30 days to make a habit... :o)