Five On Friday/ Shopping Finds & More

Best part about a 3 day weekend is the short week that follows it! So happy that it is already Friday again! After a very busy week I am super excited to hopefully have some down time this weekend to relax!
Here are my 5 for the week!
{ONE}

These sandals

Embarrassingly enough I have not owned an actual pair of sandals in years. I have just settled on a vast array of flip flops. I bought these a couple weeks ago and I have been oh so happy I did!
{TWO}
Breaking Bad

 Okay so I know we are a few years late getting on the breaking bad train. But, better late than never right?! We are currently wrapping up season four and I am completely convinced it has to be one of the best, most intense shows ever. 
{THREE}
Road Trip.



I saw this on Pinterest earlier this week and my heart soared. The fastest route to travel to both coasts and all 48 states. Definitely on my bucket list of things to do with the hubby someday. 
{FOUR}
Book Sale



I am lucky enough to live close to a Scholastic Distributor and yesterday I got to go to one of their buddy sales. It was AMAZING. I scored all of this for 28.36! I just hope that I get to go back again in a few months. They are pretty restricted on who can get in, you need to know the name of a current employee who will vouch for being your buddy. 
{FIVE}
This C.D. 

I literally drove all over town on Wednesday trying to locate a copy for the hubby. I guess nobody actually buys c.d.'s anymore and the stores are carrying a VERY limited selection.

I finally turned to the interwebs and ordered a copy online. Teaches me to try to get out of paying shipping.

How has your week been, any exciting plans for the weekend?

Have a great one!

Cute Cut-Offs {Tutorial}

Let's talk about kids clothes, particularly jeans.
As a mom of two girls I am fortunate enough to be able to pass things down from big sister to little sister. But every once in a while something just doesn't make it. At our house my first thought is can this be up-cycled?
Recently I came across these.

Obviously these were not going to be saved for little sis so I decided to look into make them into cut offs. But, lets be honest. When I think of cut offs I think of....

Surely I am not the only one, right?!
Believe it or not they don't have to look this way! Cut off shorts can look super cute and it only takes a few minutes and is easy enough for any amateur sewer to pull off!

Do I have you convinced? 
Lets get started. 

First off you need to mark your shorts. The best way to do this is to fold them in half. Make sure everything matches up like this.

Then you can take a WASHABLE marker and make a line where you want to cut. If in doubt on length try them on to double check and/or mark them on the longer side you can always cut more off. I found it helpful to fold the leg up to help give me a straight line. A straight line will not appear to be straight. 
Next I laid them out to check and see how they looked.

Cut one leg at a time through both side of the fabric.

After cutting you can try them on to double check length and make sure they are straight when you put them on. 

The last step is to set up your sewing machine with a stretch stitch or a very loose stitch. I chose to use a yellow/gold thread to match the rest of the stitching on the jeans however a dark blue or the color of your denim could work to. On the 3/8 line sew all the way around each leg.

Now you can wash them to remove any leftover marker trim up the edges and you are left with some super cut cut offs that won't fray to your tooshie.

Saving money is the best!

It's The Little Things/ Nature Walk

Monday felt like the only real "day off" we had on our four day weekend. We wanted to get out of the house. But more than that we needed to get out of the house!
We are finally reaping the benefits of having two kids that don't take naps any more. I know some of you are thinking how could there be benefits to that?! But trust me there are. For starters we left the house at 1:00, typically what I associate to be the start of most kids nap time. Secondly, they didn't get all grumpy and cranky on us because they weren't sleeping like they are used to. I see those as two major perks it really feels like our little family is more "mobile" now and I am loving it. We ended up taking a drive out to an old bridge that is now a scenic area with several trails around it. 

Our amateur photographer daughter snapped this one, not to bad really!

After our time on the bridge we decided to go for a walk on a trail. Which turned into us being super paranoid about poison ivy and the girls touching any 3 or 5 leaf plants.

I really need to educate myself in the poison ivy identifying department.

It was a great time and nobody got poison (added perk)! 
We got home just in time to relax, watching the rain from our porch and a movie.

I love days like this. Definitely the highlight of our weekend.

Memorial Day Weekend Project Wrap-up

Hello again! 
Taking a 3 day blogging break felt a little strange. So it feels good to get back to it this morning. I hope that you had a great, long weekend. We spent most of ours finishing up on some projects and things around the house.

Let's take a look

So, my awesome husband and his friend built this at my in-laws house.

Isn't it GORGEOUS?!


I couldn't be more proud of those two guys.
Now this WAS NOT a weekend project. It took up several weekend and several late nights. Russ got the final touches done on Friday. We are all glad to have this project complete and since then I have "grounded" Russ from biting off any big projects. Unless he wants to build me a pergola for our patio. That, that would be completely fine :)!

With the deck complete we spent Saturday and Sunday putting up some additional privacy fencing in our own yard. This project has been in the works for weeks now and we wanted to get it done. So, I put on some gloves and decided to help. Russ even let me use the nail gun, woo hoo! I absolutely love using power tools (especially saws and nail guns).

While we worked the kids played and played and played. 

 It was a very productive weekend and we were glad to get several projects wrapped up, clean up the house some and kick back our feet and relax.

How was your weekend?

Five On Friday/ What A Week

It's Friday, It's Friday, I am dancing over here folks. So, so happy
And not only is it Friday, it is the start of a 4 day weekend with the hubby home. We rarely ever plan trips to go far away so he takes several long weekends through the year to use up all of those vacation days. We are SO excited!

Here we go!

{ONE} This Song

I can't get it out of my head this week. I don't think that is by accident either. It has been speaking truth and life to me through a rough week.

{TWO} My hand

So I was on a run Wednesday. It was cool, beautiful weather and the smell of honeysuckle filled the trail. Then all of a sudden I tripped. Don't worry a rock broke my fall. Resulting in a large deep gash in my hand. It was terrible.

Just be glad this is the PG picture guys, seriously GROSS!

I ended up at urgent care, on antibiotics and now I have to keep it all wrapped up. It is definitely going to be a challenge to be super careful for a few weeks until it heals up

{THREE} My next half marathon

It's officially in the plans!

I am SO excited

{FOUR} My Garden

Check out the growth over the past two weeks

Two Weeks ago

Today

Getting so excited for harvest time to start!

{FIVE} I have been sewing!

I have managed to make a few dresses so far and I have even put together a little tutorial on how to make some cute cut offs that won't fray to pieces. Watch for that one to be posted next week!

Happy Friday!

Have a GREAT weekend!!!

May 22nd 3 Years Later, Oh How He Loves Us

Today marks the 3rd anniversary of a date that I will never forget. It is a date that will always be spoke or said, wrote down or seen on a calendar and I will always be flooded with memories.

At first glance those memories would appear to be of loss and devastation. But, if you look further you begin to see the beauty that was in the midst of the mess the whole time.

May 22nd

2011

5:41

In a matter of minutes everything would change. We would shut the windows and go into our tiny bathroom without shoes, wallets, phones or a diaper bag never expecting what was about to happen.

We would hear noises we never imagined hearing, see the sky through the bathroom vent and walk back out to what was left of our home and a city that we could hardly recognize.

All in a matter of minutes.

I have never felt so lost, helpless or scared.

But, I never felt alone.

Over the upcoming days and weeks I saw the church rise up and really be THE church. We experienced love in ways that most people never will. Friends, family and complete strangers giving of themselves sacrificially. Their time, their stuff, their money and their prayers.

It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

And it didn't stop.

 It went on for days that turned to weeks. Weeks that turned to months and months that added up to a year and beyond. Just when we would think God couldn't bless us anymore, He did. In the midst of a terrible situation God was glorified. 

His enormous love completely engulfed us and swallowed us whole.

And that is what I think of when I remember May 22nd. 

I may still cringe a bit when I think of the tornado. Wounds were deep, rainy nights have been long and emotions sometimes still feel a bit raw.

But my mourning turns into joy as I remember and worship a loving God who on that very day held and forever will continue to hold all things together. He knows and loves us in ways that we can not comprehend. In and through Him all wounds are healed and comfort is found

Beauty from ashes, blessings through storms. 

Our mourning has truly turned into dancing.

And all of this was just a small glimpse of how much He loves us.

So we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love and whoever abides in love, abides in God and God abides in him. ~ 1 John 4:16.

It's The Little Things/ Summer Fun!

I think this is the first week that it really feels like we are on summer vacation even though we have been out of school for almost 2 weeks now. Partly because the weather is once again warm and sunny the other part is I have finally got everything from last year all wrapped up, put away and organized. I even started and completed next years lesson plans (patting myself on the back for that one)!
Yesterday we enjoyed a fun summer day, I can't wait for more days like this to follow.
First up was Pizza with Mimi and Papa!

After lunch we came home had our "quiet time" It is what used to be nap time. Sadly they don't ever sleep anymore so we have our own down time so we (I) get a chance to de-stress. 
Next we headed outside for some sprinkler fun.

Yup, I can't wait for more summer days.

I could definitely get used to this!