yesterday.

 we met the hubbs at the galleria for a lunch date yesterday.

unfortunately, the campaign puts him home after the littles go 'night night' mostly. so it was nice to meet up with him for some 'play time'. {and french fries, of course.}

lil' miss squealed when she saw daddy walk up. 

it made my heart happy. i'm sure it made daddy's heart happy too.

her hair is a mess. i do not know what to do with it. there's this chunk in the back that gets ratty FAST. as in, as soon as she gets up it looks like there's something sticky in it. 

ugh.

i still think she's precious though. don't you?

the bug is our little 'jumper' right now. he jumps on and off everything. 

there's no doubt we'll end up with a broken bone this year. despite my best efforts.

happy weekend!!!

fresh air.

please tell me i am not the only one who experiences a little bit of SAD. 

{did you watch the office last night? i love when andy said, "it's like we aren't all experiencing the same winter!?"

SAD {seasonal affective disorder} is a REAL thing y'all. seriously. i studied it in school. so it's got to be real. 

the lack of daylight tears me to pieces some days. and the cold days that could be cozy are usually spent trying to figure out something physical for b to do to get all of his boyhood energy out. 

and the last few weeks have been tough over here. just long days and long nights with a whole bunch of stuff going on. 

so i headed to the lake for some fresh air. to get out of the 'city' and all.

ahhhhhh - the lake. 

the drive there can be a beating. it's not always. in fact, most of the time it's not. but in this case the bug couldn't wait to be there so it was a constant "are we there yet?" coming from the back seat.

but the hour and a half drive is worth it the moment you drive up. the moment you see the water, get out of the car and hear.... well.... nothing. 

it was beautiful. just warm enough to play outside with a jacket. 

my mom's favorite part of the day is sunset. {pictured below}.

it's beautiful for sure. 

and my very very favorite part of being at the lake is the morning. 

when the lake is smooth as glass and you can hear the woodpecker. when the wind is still and there isn't anyone or anything in sight.

and in the summer i rarely got up early enough to experience the morning to its fullness.

but since it happens later right now, i got to sit outside under a blanket with my warm coffee and bask in the glory of a new day.

and let me tell you - i needed a new day. don't we all sometimes? this campaign thing can run us all ragged. it's a dark, dark world in politics and although we know that we know that we know we made the right decision to respond affirmatively when the Lord was calling us, it does NOT make it any easier. 

to see my husband getting attacked. lies being spread about him and his character. people getting offended that my husband will not play two sides to get elected. that he cares more about standing up for his convictions - for what he believes is best - than just getting elected to an office. and sometimes it's a little too much for this weary wife's heart to take. 

we just continue to cling to psalm 37. and are so incredibly thankful for those who continue to pray for us day in and day out. we are forever grateful for every single utterance on our behalf.

a representative's sweet wife came up to me on saturday night and asked me how i was doing. she's a very strong believer and has been a huge encouragement to me throughout this process. her husband had obviously kept her up to date on what's been going on in our race and she looked at me and said, "becky. you have to remember that the Truth is the 

truth. and that's all that you have to answer for."

wow. so simple. so profound. 

the hubbs and i have a larger authority to answer to. on the other side of heaven. and we want to be proud when we answer. for all the words. the actions. the thoughts {wow, that's a scary one} during this campaign. we want to please Him. 

that's our goal. 

judgement.

as a momma, i hate judgement.

don't you?

i hate those looks from strangers when you're in the grocery store letting your kids snack and sip on caprisuns. that's right. it's caprisun. not organic.

or while your son is making a tower of your canned goods in the back of the cart. while your daughter screams {with delight} as he knocks it over.

oh judgement.

but don't you judge?

i for sure did prior to having kids.

'why can't you control your children?' i would surely think to myself while eating at the food court and watching children get in and out of their seats.

'what are you doing having your children at walmart way past their bedtime?'

'how on earth do you let your son dress like that?'

but now that i have kids, i'd like to say i don't judge as much.

i realize that while you can teach your kids all you can... they do have a mind of their own. and while they may make great choices one day - in the privacy of your home - they may make horrid choices the very next day. at the food court. or a restaurant. ugh.

i realize that sometimes there are times that you have to leave the house. whether it's for medicine, a late night treat after a potty success, or just for your own sanity. even if it is past their bedtime.

i realize that some children {not my son - for whatever reason} have a very very strong opinion on what they wear. and most of the time sometimes it's not worth a fight. and in all honesty - who is it hurting?? i mean, really.

i feel like judgement has been a common thing lately.

i've read about it here.

and here.

and it made me remember what it felt like to watch this episode of parenthood. one of the first ones when a dad asked adam why he couldn't control his son while they were in the groceyr store. and adam punched him out. i remember being in tears. not that i've ever said that before, but i've surely thought it before. even since i've had children. on those bad days where i'm irritable.

oh - did i mention that adam's son had just been diagnosed with asperger's? yeah.

the fact is that you never ever know what's going on. do you?

so don't be so quick to judge.

you don't know how late that family was up last night - and that just may have contributed to them being in their jammies at 10 am at the grocery store.

you don't know what that mom has been dealing with this morning, so if she wants to let her kids such on lollipop after lollipop while slowly drinking a cup of coffee at the playground - let her be. more power to her! right?

right.

us mommas. we should stick together. we need all the help we can get!

project life: week five.

keeping it super simple around here. i love seeing all the exciting and new project life tricks, tips, techniques, etc. on pinterest. sometimes it gets me discouraged. sometimes it motivates me. but at this point, i just want to have each week done. week by week. 

so, i'm just sticking with what i know right now.

i cut out some artwork b did at home. {on the very far right} to fill in the journal card slots. 

and i tore out my grocery list too. i like keeping little tidbits like that so in a few years i can reminisce over all the goldfish i use to buy.

i'm still figuring out settings on my camera since the big 'break' back in december. i don't feel like i've yet been able to get it back to where i had it. so here's to my yellow-ish pictures..........

a valentine shirt.

last week i was looking for a valentine shirt for lil' miss and i didn't find anything that was what i had in mind. so i decided to make something for her. {trying to get my spunk back and all....}

i started with a plain white hoodie that lil' miss had in her closet. a tad tight on her full belly, but it would work nonetheless.

i folded a piece of cardstock in half and cut a heart out to fit on the hoodie. cut it in half just to make sure it would fit on both sides.

then i cut 2 inch strips of fabric. i think i ended up with five, but i didn't even need that many. 

i just used scrap pieces of fabric that i had in my stash.

no money was spent on this project.

i sewed the strips, one by one, together long ways. right sides together. and then pressed them out straight.

a while back i found a great tutorial on applique. i can't remember where i saw it, but it started with this stuff. "Steam a Steam Lite". I got it at Joann a year ago for 3 dollars and i'm still working my way through the package.

the directions are pretty clear on the front, but basically you trace the design on one side of the applique paper. {that's a technical term by the way - NOT REALLY!}

 

and then you cut around it, stick onto the wrong side of the fabric and cut it out together.

usually it sticks {temporarily} to the wrong side of the fabric pretty good, but in this case, since there were seams, i had to get the back of the fabric strips nice and hot with an iron to get it to stick prior to cutting  the pieces out.

then i ironed the heart pieces onto the hoodie and top stitched it on.

but that wasn't enough.

i cut three more 2" strips of fabric and sewed them together to make one really long strip.

then i zig zag stiched the end. {see my settings above}. there's nothing technical about how i sew. it's trial and error, so this is what worked for me on my machine.

you keep it on the very edge of the fabric and the zig zag sort of pulls in the edge over itself, creating and interesting 'hem'. it wears cool as well. it kind of frays without completely fraying if that makes sense. i like it.

if that's not your style, you could always do a regular hem as well.

then i folded the raw edge in and pressed. this is going to be what i sew to the bottom of the hoodie.

my machine ruffles on it's own very well. i set the tension high and the stitch long and ruffles the fabric up great. no pulling necessary. 

i still had ruffle left after doing the bottom so i did the sleeves too. pinning it right underneat the hem of the original hoodie. i pulled out the basting stitch that was used to make the ruffle after everything was sewn together.

i'm not going to lie, the sleeve wasn't easy to maneuver on the machine.

but it was worth it. maybe one day i'll get lil' miss to hold still enough in daylight to take a pic of her in her new v-day outfit! she sure looks cute in it!

project life: week four.

for some reason, my right page 'close up' was super fuzzy, so you don't get one this week. sorry!

project life: week three.