Wild & Crazy Friday Nights

I think you can tell a lot about someone's life by how they spend their Friday nights. I would even go as far as to say that how you choose to spend your night correlates pretty closely with your priorities.

The things you do on a Friday night evolves throughout your lifetime.  For example, in college, I could paint a very clear picture of what my Friday nights looked like and what Dan's looked like. Not always the same picture, which is why I always say that I hope our children take after me during our college years. Don't get me wrong, our nights sometimes did look the same and those are the nights that I literally don't remember. 

After graduating, our Friday nights started to look very different as we had full-time careers and our relationship became more serious. Again, they changed once we purchased our home and got married. And now that we have Jackson they have changed yet again. 

Here is our Friday night last night. There is not one element of what I'm about to show you that I would have included if I were telling you how we spent our Friday nights just a few years ago at Purdue... and I wouldn't change that for the world!

After I finished working, JP and I headed up to play on his swing. 

 Meanwhile, if you look closely you can see that Dan was climbing onto our roof (upper right hand corner). We had an architect come this week to look at our house for our upcoming renovations. She came back last night and took measurements of all angles of our home so that she can model our house and we can have our plans made official. So, Dan was on the roof helping her...

 JP got bored with the swing so we played with toys on the dock since it was so nice out.

 This too didn't last long since he got hot pretty quickly.

 Apparently Bing too was hot so he jumped in and took a little swim.

 Later Dan brought into the house his newest masterpiece. He made this plant pot. It is huge. But, I thought he did a pretty good job! The best part about this pot is that the wood was made from trees that were cut down from his mom and dad's house. 

 The newest JP development is that he is now mobile. He is army crawling! This is believed to be his motivation- getting to Sammy so he can pull the poor guy's hair. 

 Don't let this innocent face fool you.

 Yep, after poor Sammy again. Sammy is not a fan of JP's new-found freedom.

 We find this little guy everywhere now. This time he was under the dining room table. 

 Look what arrived! My sewing machine! It came earlier this week but I didn't have time until last night to play with it. Luckily, Nancy (my mother-in-law) stopped by when I was reading through the manual so she showed me how to thread it and get started. 

My first sewing product- a t-shirt for JP! He looks thrilled- 'thank you, mama' he is saying. 

Then he realized it didn't even fit over his head. Sorry, love, Mama is a VERY beginner at this...

No problem, he can still chew on it which is just as much fun.

My second creation made him depressed, frankly. I was just practicing my stiching and made this little "hat" out of an old t-shirt sleeve... my normally-very-happy-baby immediately looked very sad when I placed it on his head. This is what I will call a sewing failure.

Dad to the rescue. Dan sort of thinks he is a sewing expert even though he has as much experience as I do. So, it was his turn to play. I'll admit, I think he's going to be better at this than me. He has natural sewing genes from his Mom and Grandma Sue. Those are genes that just don't exist in my blood line. 

Now we're off to an even crazier Saturday afternoon. Trips to the library and fabric store are ahead of us as soon as the little man wakes up from his nap... 

Thankfully Friday

It is Friday! When I woke up this morning- and if I'm really being honest even when I was going to bed last night- I was thinking about how thankful I am that Friday was here. The weekend. A break from work. A chance to breathe. But, then I stopped myself and thought of how much I hate it when I wish away time, when I wish a week away just because it was a hard, stressful week. Maybe the problem isn't that this week was so stressful for me, maybe the problem is that I was allowing all of that stress to cloud all of the great things that happened... and there were many great things!

I have talked many times about how time is going by too quickly. About how I wish I could slow it down. So, I am making a promise to myself to quit wishing away time when I get stressed out. I need to just stop, take a deep breath and count my blessings. Just slow down. Anything urgent is seldom important and anything important is seldom urgent. 

here are a few quotes, bible verses & thoughts that I referred to this week when I was feeling overwhelmed:

Phil 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me"

The road to success is not straight. There is a curve called failure, a loop called confusion, speed bumps called friends, red lights called enemies, caution lights called family. You will have flats called jobs. But, if you have a spare called determination, an engine called faith and a driver called Jesus you will make it to a place called success.

Hebrews 11:1 "Now Faith is the assurance of things hoped for- the conviction of things not seen."

Psalm 121; 2-3 "My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip- he who watches over you will not slumber."

We must not, in trying to make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee. -Marian Edelman

'The difference between those who succeed and those who allow fear to immobilize them is the choice to courageously keep moving forward when things get tough." - Monday Morning Choices

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. - Thomas Edison

Eppesians 5:15-16: We must use our time wisely or it will be wasted forever

Mark 9:23 "Everything is possible for him who believes"

Love Like Crazy

"...be a best friend, tell the truth

 and overuse 'I Love You'

go to work, do your best

don't outsmart your common sense

never let your prayin' knees get lazy

and love like crazy..."

Counting Blessings

Yesterday was one of those days that flew by in one big rush. One of those days when I was running around so quickly from one thing to the other that I didn't have one moment to really stop and take a breath. One of those days that I have been trying to hard to avoid because in reality, none of those things that I was running around trying to balance really matter in the scheme of life. They matter for my job- which is important, but they don't matter enough to sacrifice my sanity. So, today, I'm starting fresh and counting my blessings. Because I'm finding that when I make myself count my blessings all of my stresses seem to disappear or at least get put into perspective.... 

Today was just... PEACHY!

Another perfect Saturday. 

It started out on a great foot- Jackson was such a good boy last night and slept in his own bed the entire night. I finally brought him into bed with us at 7:30 to feed him before getting up for the day. I can't believe how much he improves week after week. 

We then spent the morning visiting with Grandpa Joe, Aunt Beth and Cousins Mya and Mason before heading to the Orchard to get fresh PEACHES! 

We had big plans for those peaches so we bought a lot along with other goodies such as honey, applesauce and cider.

Jackson went down for a nap when we got home and Dan and I got to work on making homemade peach baby food and preparing the remainder of the peaches for freezing. 

We were efficient- quite the team we are and finished up right as Jackson was waking up. Then we headed to Bright for the annual parade. It was too hot for Jackson to be outside so long, but we wanted to visit with the family- they were all preparing the Tedesco floats. 

Mason & Beth

Daddy & JP on the restored John Deere tractor & cart

Uncle Jordan would have been proud. 

Here come the cheerleaders!

BFFs

I think Mya better stick to playing basketball, not cheering for it. 

JP & Great Aunt Chris

Samuel on the back of the float.

My beautiful Grace- almost 2 years old!

It was near 100 degrees- these girls were hot before the parade even started

Grandpa Joe, Great Aunt Tina, Mason, Grace, Mya & Beth... I left them with "good luck" parting words. 3 kids, 100 degrees, a long parade, a tiny float. 

This baby was hot. It was time for us to split. On to Chipotle for a late lunch!

More {design} Ideas

It is Friday night. Jackson is in bed. Dan is having some wine by the pond with a few friends. I have already cleaned the house, made gluten-free granola bars and read through my favorite blogs. So, now I'm searching for more design ideas for our home renovation! What a wonderful, relaxing night!

LOVE claw-foot tubs. 

Again, the claw-foot tub.. would really like one in our new master bath. 

Dan wants to put a gate at the end of our driveway eventually for security purposes. I really like this one- the brick would match the new brick that we'll be putting on our house and we could etch "Cottage Hill" into one of the columns. Oh, and the dog is adorable too, but we already have enough of those :)

I really like outdoor spaces that feel cozy enough to be indoors. I chose this one for the ceiling fan and the fireplace. The rest of the elements are really not my style (i.e. the ducks  on the mantle and the wicker)

I chose this one for the built in book-case. Dan and I are both obsessed with books. I want bookshelves built all throughout the house. 

Really love the neutral colors, the chandelier, the photo collage...

Cute outdoor area!

I like all the natural colors and natural light... the furniture is a little too formal for my taste, but still like the overall idea. 

I saved this one for the large flower boxes. I feel like I could make those... maybe? Or maybe Dan could do that for me!

Love this outdoor space. Love the long table and the arched window. Love, love, love. 

This is a photo that Dan found this week and put into our "design file"- he wants to mimic these arches/columns/brick/concrete somehow on our new patio that will be along the backside of the house. Notice also the concrete frames that surround all of the windows, he also wants to do that throughout the house. Good luck with that, babe!