Give1Save1

It's been SUCH a cold spring......but today and yesterday have been absoutely beautiful! So happy to have a nice day for us to go to Bible Study on! 

We are having a great Study this semester.  I have a sweet friend that I met in a parenting class last year and who I ended up having SOOOOO many friends in common with - her name is Jenny and she has been coming to Bible Study and I've been SO glad.  She is such an amazing person and such a joy to be around.  She has twin boys and they are adopting a little girl from the Congo.  I have loved following her journey to her little girl. 

Back in the fall  - I told you about Pure Charity.   You may have signed up and totally forgot about it or you may have not signed up because you didn't understand.  I want to remind you about them (because it's too good not to keep sharing) and tell you about something else great they are doing!

You sign up with Pure Charity (just click this link) and from now on - when you shop on-line at almost every retailer on line - (after you down load the easy to do plug in) - a button will pop up and a percentage of everything you buy will go to a Giving Fund and then you can sign on to Pure Charity and pick different projects to designate your money too.  You get to help others just by doing the normal on-line shopping you would do anyway.  Personally - I think this is genius!

Pure Charity is also NOW working with Give1Save1 - which is an adoption site that helps fundraise for adoptive families.  You can read more about this on Jenny's blog ........but if you sign up for Pure charity or if you already have an account - you check on how sweet Jenny's family is the featured family this week for this! They even have an $1000 match today if they can raise that money today! We could easily all give $1!!


I love the concept of giving and helping others. This is even a way you can do it without having to stretch your budget if you are already giving in other areas! It's so easy to sign up with Pure Charity - you should do it today!!!

Baby Names, Hair and Vacations

It's Monday - let's have some more Caffeine Chat!!!

I thought we would just answer some fun "fluff" questions today.  There are lots of questions y'all gave me that go way deeper but I'm going to save those for another day! The discussion will be good! 

1.  If you had another girl (or baby) - what would you name them?

OH I love baby names!!! We aren't having any more babies but I still can't stop myself from thinking of baby names.  Luckily Scott doesn't actually have to agree to any of these.  ha! 

If we had another girl - I feel like we have to keep the HBS trend going so my top picks would be:

Holden Brooke (I LOVE the name Holden but Scott hated it)

Hattie Blythe

And my TOP pick for a girl if I could get away from the monogram thing:

Sutton

And if I was completely starting over - I would go with these "M" names:

Merritt

 Monroe 

Mavis

Our boy name was always Hudson Walker.  I haven't put a lot of thought into boy names beyond that. But you probably know by now that I love last names for first names. 

2.  Coloring my own hair

I'm a little stressed about answering this question because I feel like I've kind of made a mess of my hair and I'm trying to figure it out still.  So I don't want to give advice.

I decided a few months ago after I went dark that I would give coloring my own hair a try.  For two reasons.  One - it would save a lot of money.  Also - my hair is completely gray and it honestly needs to be colored about every 3 weeks and that gets tough having time for appointments.  I honestly have just been getting cheap color from Wal-mart.  It's worked pretty well but it's a little darker than I would like.  I'm thinking this summer - I will go back to the salon and get more of a caramel color put in.  But if you have dark color - you can totally do this.  I wouldn't advise coloring blond hair - that seems risky.  

BUT - put your input in - if you color your own hair. 

{And obviously the best advice is to leave it to a professional}

3.  If I could travel anywhere on a girl's trip - where would you go? 

Honestly - I don't need anywhere fancy for a girl's trip - my favorite thing ever is just getting together anywhere and hanging out in pj's and talking and eating.  BUT if we had buckets of money and time {dream a little dream} - I would love to go to NYC with a group of friends. Or a girl's trip to the beach. ANY beach.  Or Europe. I always imagine one day if I'm in my 70's and active - I want to pack up my girlfriends and travel Europe. I didn't do that in my college years - so maybe in my senior years. 

And if I could have a dream trip with Scott - I would love to do Europe or Greece. Or Fiji. 

So these are just my answers..........I want to hear YOURS!!!!!! 

(And if you have any more questions for Caffeine Chat - throw them at me)

Speaking and Prayers

Yesterday morning I had the honor of speaking at a Mugs and Muffins women's event at FBC Lavaca, AR.  I will never not want to throw up when I'm asked to speak but I will never miss a chance to share about what an awesome God we have. 

(This is me and their women's ministry team)

{Also - I love going to women's events at other churches. Laurie and I decided we might start touring around on Saturdays to other church's events. Go ahead and invite us - we will travel! ha!}

It was a lot of fun because Laurie went with me.  It was so nice to have a smiling familiar face in the audience and company on my trip! We ate an early lunch of Mexican food before going home! We had a great time! 

And while we were out - the girls and their dads had a little pajamas/donut party! They don't look like they miss their moms, huh?

It's good for the girls to have time alone with their dad.  :- )

 Two little sweeties before church today. 

Love them.

Scott and I taught Sunday School.  Fourteen 3/4 year olds.  They are a handful but I love these kids!

When I spoke yesterday I shared my testimony but I also shared about how short life is and how it's so important to take every moment we have to share Christ.  And it becomes more and more evident to me that life can change in a moment. We never know what tomorrow holds - only what's done for Christ matters.

There is a family here in my area - a precious family with four young kids.  The husband, Chad, went in for routine knee surgery on Friday and his heart stopped.  This sweet young mother of four lost her husband and father of her kids. They are good friends of several of my friends.  My heart has been breaking for them.  I have been praying for them constantly.  I didn't realize until this morning that I actually had met her last year and know her on twitter - I just didn't connect the dots.  Her name is Sarah.  Can you PLEASE be praying for her? I have no idea what she is going through but I do know she needs our prayers.

(I'd also LOVE to organize something for her - if any of you feel led to maybe send her a card of encouragement - email me and put Sarah in the subject) 

Also - can you pray for this mother of 6? She is on the mission field and dealing with unexplained pain.
http://theklincks.blogspot.com/2013/04/pray-for-kami.html
http://adayinthelifeofamissionarywife.blogspot.com/2013/04/trust.html


**** Also - there is a girl from Scott's home town - her name is Whitley and she is in her early 20's.  She was diagnosed with cancer last June.  They have done everything possible and she has been sent home with Hospice care.  She just got married in December. Will you pray for this sweet couple?

If you have any prayer requests - please leave them in the comments or I'd love for you to put them on my FB page any time! I'm not always good at getting requests into blog posts so I love having a place to post them quickly!  https://www.facebook.com/KellysKornerBlog

College Girls and Girls in your 20's without kids who blog - CONNECT DAY!

So one thing I ADORE..........

All of you young girls who read here!!!!

And today is for you. I know there are so many of you out there who are in college or your 20's and single or married and without kids who blog.

Today is for you!!! (I know there are a lot of you who are mom's in your 20's but I feel like we do a lot to connect "mom bloggers" - I want today to be for those girls who aren't yet)

So if you meet this demographic - link up!!! I hope maybe some of you can connect with others in the same stage of life!!!!

ALSO - I meant to add this to start with - Beth Moore is having a special thing on her blog this week where if you ARE this 20something girl and would like prayer from older women - go comment!! And all of us who {ahem} aren't in our 20's (even if we would like to think we still are) - should go over there and find a young girl to pray for! Isn't that something else? I hope you will all participate! I'm going to. (When did I become the mentor and not the mentee???? whah!!!!!) ha! 

http://blog.lproof.org/2013/04/for-you-in-your-20s-and-you-who-will-pray-for-them.html

Thank Heavens for Little Girls

I was checking out at Wal-Mart yesterday and the teenage boy checking me out looked at Harper and Hollis and asked me if I was going to try for a boy.  He said "Don't you want a boy?" 

I just laughed.

YES - oh my goodness - I would LOVE a sweet boy.  I always imagined having 3 boys.  I always imagined going to football games and watching my son, Hudson Stamps, playing quarterback. (or as Scott liked to remind me - he might be marching in the band).  But I also liked to imagine what I would wear the day he won the Heisman. ha! I'm sure Scott imagined taking his boys hunting and throwing the ball with them in the backyard.

But oh my goodness - I LOVE having girls! 

I'm not going to lie - I absolutely love that I'm a Girl Mom.  I know 100% if God would have given me boys - I would be in heaven being a BOY mom.  But He knows exactly what He is doing for each of us.  

I love living in the land of princesses, dresses, sparkly shoes, dolls, lipgloss and ruffles. 

Last night was Princess Night at Chick-fil-a. (how much do I love that they do theme nights? It's so fun!)  So we dressed up and headed there! 

 The girls and one of their Prince Charmings 

 They had two Beauty Queens there to take pictures with.  The girls thought they were Barbie! 

They had a chocolate fountain and a man making balloon animals! It was a lot of fun! 

 We ran into our friend Madeline! I mean how adorable are these girls????

 Yes Scott is a guy's guy.  But I'm 100% sure he wouldn't trade all the boys in the world for these two sweet girls at our house. And he's SUCH a good girl dad.  

Today was Daddy and Donuts day at preschool.  

Harper was thrilled - two of her absolute favorite things - her daddy and donuts! 

These two really are two peas in a pod

Hollis wore this little monkey outfit this week.  Harper wore the same outfit the day before I had Hollis.  They were the same age in this picture.  These girls are the joy of my life. They are crazy and wild and busy and keep me on my toes and exhaust me daily but I have never laughed as hard in my life as they make me laugh.

So no - we aren't trying for a boy.  I'm thanking God every day instead for blessing me with these two precious girls. {And if we DID have a third - I would be secretly hoping for another girl!}

Friendships - making them and keeping them

Today on "Build Em Up" - we are talking a very important subject - FRIENDSHIPS.

I would say the biggest blessing in my life throughout all of my life outside of my family have been all the amazing friendships God has given me.  

I honestly feel like I just lucked out in this department.  Although I know better - God has just really blessed me.  I'm asked about friendships and how to make them so often and I hate to even give advice. I don't know if it's something I have anything to do with - I'm just super super blessed. 

But I know as women we all need and crave friendships.  

Honestly my earliest memories involve friends.  I remember my best friends I had around the age of 4.  We moved a LOT in my childhood so I was constantly having to make new friends.  This may be one of the reasons I have always been able to make friends - it was a forced habit.  But I always had great friends.  In fact I recently have found some of my best friends that I had back in 4th - 6th grade on facebook.  I hadn't seen them in 30 years.

I think there are two key things in having good friendships as an adult woman:

1. You have to put yourself out there
2. You have to be a good friend yourself.

This sounds like a simple thing but these are both difficult.  First of all - it's hard to find and make good friends and it can be extra tough if you are shy or fear rejection. And second - we are busy. We are all wrapped in our lives with our families and it can be tough to make any extra time for friends.

But I urge you to make the effort to find a group of friends.  I can't imagine life without a group of good friends.  We women need other women to be able to share with. We need other women to cry with and pray with and laugh with.  Our husbands are awesome but they just can't always fill that gap that only your girlfriends can.

So you live in a new town or you have lived somewhere for 20 years but you just find yourself without any good friends.  What do you do?

Well - I think the easiest thing to do as a busy mom (or single girl) is to make friends where you are.  Maybe that means making great work friends.  I was always blessed to have people in every job I had that I enjoyed being with.  I went to lunch with them and we talked on breaks and on business trips.
Or maybe you have school aged kids and that means you make friends with other moms on the soccer team. Or other moms of kids in your children's class. It just is going to be easier to maintain frienships if it's with people you see on a regular basis.  I have so many friends that I adore but we just aren't in the same places or don't run in the same circles and although I would love to see them all the time - we can have the hardest time scheduling time to get together.

Maybe you need to join the Junior League or start talking to the cute girls in your zumba class at the gym.  You might go to lunch and find you have a lot in common!

For me the BEST place to make friends has been at church.  That's another reason I URGE you to get involved in a church.  And that doesn't mean showing up on a Sunday morning and sitting in a pew. I've been that person for years at different churches and I never made ANY friends that way.  You HAVE to get involved. Join a Sunday School class, the choir, or a Bible Study.  It may take a little while but go to the social functions they have.  You may have to force yourself for a little bit until you get to know people but I PROMISE you won't regret it.

And once you make those friends - you have to BE a good friend. I'm not always good at this. In fact I'm a complete failure a lot.  But text your friends. Send emails and check on them.  Call up a few friends and meet them at the park with your kids.  Sometimes you might have to be the one to get things going.  Invite a few friends over for a play group.  Take meals when your friends are sick or have babies.  Remember birthdays and organize something fun for them.  Have girl nights. You will be a better wife and a better mom if you get some time away with girlfriends.  I guarantee.  Offer to keep your friends kids when they have appointments or so they can have a date.  Hopefully they will do it for your in return. And if not - you will know you were just being a good friend. Pray for your friends.

Finding good friends can be a lot like dating. And there are friends you may only have for a season. Everyone will not be a lifelong friend. You may even find good friends through blogs! I have made some amazing friends through "the Internet".

Also pray pray pray every day for your children and their friendships. Who they are friends with will affect so many of their life choices. I pray daily for good friends for my girls as they grow.

I can't stress enough how important friends are.  Mine have made my life so rich and I'm thankful for every friend God has put in my life. I'd love to hear what you have to say on this subject.

And don't forget the topics we have coming up! Our next one is going to be extra special!!!

Let's talk about Housework and Work

I thought we would just start off our Monday with our first Caffeine Chat!!!

I LOVED all the questions y'all asked.  My vision for this is for me to take those questions and I'll answer the best I can ........but I'm hoping in the comments we can discuss further - I want to hear your input also.  I want this to be a "chat" - not just me talking to you.

Also - let's keep our discussion friendly.  I never want this to be a place where we have heated talks. We can all be friends here - even if our opinions differ. Okey dokey?


So I picked two of the topics you gave me for today.

1.   Lia asked How I handle Housework (since I admit I'm pretty OCD about my house being clean):

I've learned it's easier if I break up the housework instead of trying to use one day to clean.  Occasionally I will just clean like a mad man for several hours on a day my girls are at MDO but since those hours are just a few each week and I'm also trying to cram appointments and other things in those hours - that doesn't usually work.

So I usually spread it out.  I make a list each week of all the things I need to do.  I break out housework on that list.  Like Mondays I will dust. Tuesdays I vacuum and mop.  Wednesdays I clean bathrooms. Thursdays I deep clean the kitchen.

Every morning I usually start my day with clearing the dishwasher, making the beds and cleaning the kitchen and usually running a load of laundry.  I usually do this as soon as I get up every morning.


2. There were several questions about work (what I did, what my plans are, etc)

My college major was Finance/Economics.  I worked right out of college for a bank for a year and a half.  Then I worked for the Wal-Mart Corporate Office for 8 years as a financial analyst and category manager.  Then I worked for Black & Decker as both an analyst and category advisor for Wal-Mart for 5 years.  I LOVED working. I am SO thankful to be at home now but I honestly do miss working from time to time.  I worked for a LONG time before I stayed home with kids.
I can't say exactly what my plans are yet because I just don't know for sure.  I plan to do some kind of work once both my girls are in school.  I may try to find a job like I had before. I'd love to hopefully do it part time or at home.  Or I've always said I would LOVE to be a school or church secretary.  If I could find a part time analyst/category job once Harper is in school and Hollis is in preschool - I may work sooner.  I'm just taking one year at a time.  I would also LOVE to do office work or some kind of job in an OB/GYN office or some kind of medical work (but not nurse).  I really like working so I'm sure at some point I will work. But I also am SOOO grateful to have had time home with my girls.

I'd LOVE to hear from all of you awesome working moms!!!


So it's your turn to share. How do you handle housework and/or what kind of work do you do and how has that changed or will change with kids?

Red White and Fun

Today was the spring game for the Arkansas razorbacks and they also had just a lot of fun stuff all around the stadium from the morning until night.  So we decided to head down and take the girls. 

 It's been cold (especially for april) but it ended up being just a perfect day and we had so much fun!
(I wore my new camo AR shirt from Riffraff! I feel very hipster when I wear it. ha!)

 Scott and his girls 

 I'm not sure what happened but Harper agreed to wear dog ears/(pigtails) today! Hollis wanted no part of it.  And yes poor Hollis has a black eye.  If you knew how wild that child was - you wouldn't even ask. ha! 

(I had their dresses made last year by a friend who just had a baby and isn't sewing right now)

We walked around and ate lunch at the stadium.  This was the girls' first time to Razorback stadium.

Harper said "I love this place!" 

{That's my girl}

 What is a good game without Dipping Dots? Harper was happy to share hers with Hollis. 

 We sat in the stadium FOREVER before the game even got started so by the time it did - the girls were done.  Harper kept saying "I want to go HOME".   We pretty much figured out it will be a long while before we start taking the girls to games.  

 But it was fun to experience with them at least for a little bit (for free!) 

 Harper yawning pretty much sums up how the game was going for her.  It was also during nap time. They sacked out as soon as we got in the car. 

 But at least they got to see the cheerleaders! Hollis was VERY interested in the cheerleaders and mascots.  

And we watched a few minutes of the game.  Not long enough. We are so excited about our new coach and have hopes for the future of our Razorbacks!!!! There was a great crowd of around 51,000 there today! 

We even got interviewed and were on the local news! They tried to get my girls to call the hogs but they were too "chawed".  ha! 

I have to say my favorite part of the day was when they sang the National Anthem and to hear the words "the home of the BRAVE" - I got so choked up just thinking about all that has gone on this week.  I'm so thankful for our police and the FBI.  Our nation has a lot wrong with it but I'm still so thankful to live here and I'm so thankful for all those who really are SO BRAVE to protect us!

P.S. I love all the discussion topics y'all have given me in the last post!!! Keep them coming if you have any more! This will be fun to get going! 

Caffeine Chat with KK

Two of my new favorite bloggers, Shay and Sheaffer have started new series on their blogs where they are answering questions they frequently get.  

I thought that was a great idea.  I know we do the Show Us Your Life Fridays but I'm hoping that is a good way for you to connect with each others and get good ideas.

I thought it would be fun to do a little "chat" on here from time to time. 

That made me think of "Coffee Talk with Linda Richman" (did you ever watch SNL in the early 90's)

"Talk amongst yourselves.......I will give you a topic"

I'm not a coffee drinker but you may not be a diet coke drinker ..........so we will have Caffeine Chat.
"KK" is what Scott calls me. It's his way of mocking the whole blog thing. ha! It's an affectionate nickname and it cracks me up.

I'm not sure if I will do this every week or every other week or just from time to time.  But I thought if you wanted to leave me a question in the comments or anything you want to discuss or email me - I will start the discussion on here and my thoughts and then y'all can discuss as well in comments. NOTHING extremely controversial. And nothing super personal to me.

I'm not going to answer things like how much money Scott makes or how much I weigh or what kind of birth control we use (I learned my lesson the hard way on Q&A's before) - nothing you wouldn't want to publicly answer on a website or even talk with anyone but your closest friends.

I'm not an expert on anything .............but I will be happy to just open up discussion on topics.

So give me some ideas or questions and we will "chat" over the next few weeks or months! I will bring the diet coke - you bring the coffee.

SUYL - Crafts for Kids

Okay

I'm the least crafty mom alive. I pull out crayons and play dough but I'm not great about doing crafts with my girls. I teach 3 yr old Sunday School and thank goodness they give you ideas in our Sunday School books or I would never know what to do with them.

But I know a lot of you are on pinterest or are former teachers or just crafty by nature and you have all kinds of good ideas. With Summer coming up - I thought it would be good to share ideas - maybe we can come back and refer here when it's hot and we need something to keep our kids busy!!!

Ears and Cheers

 We've had a busy day.  The girls didn't have school today because it was a staff development day. That threw me off and it was almost noon before I realized it wasn't Thursday.  I had been thinking of what all I needed to do tomorrow (Friday)(because I thought tomorrow was Friday) so I was pleasantly surprised to learn I have an extra day this week. ha!

We went to Fayetteville today and met with Harper's first speech therapist from AR children's.  It's been over a year since we "graduated" from her and joined a different private therapy group.  She wanted to do an updated Auditory Testing on Harper. 

I thought I would give a little update on Harper and her hearing. If for no other reason than for me to be able to look back and see our journey.  I also hope that if ANY of you ever face a child with hearing loss - I would LOVE to be able to help or encourage you.  Or if you know anyone who maybe is starting this journey - I would love to reach out to them.  I don't know much and I'm learning as I go but it's nice to have someone who understands. There are so many things I'm trying to figure out and I would give anything for a few friends in the same shoes to ask questions to.

It's been two years ago next month that we confirmed Harper had hearing loss and she has been wearing her hearing aids or "special ears" for almost two years.  Honestly when we started I thought she would NEVER be at a point where she wore them full time. I couldn't imagine ever getting there. And now it's such a non issue.  She wears them all the time. She asks for them in the morning if I don't give them to her right away.  I rarely talk about her hearing or speech on here because it's just such a normal part of our life and something we don't struggle with.  She has been a ROCKSTAR. I'm so proud of her. 

We have been doing private speech for about a year and a half and she has done SO well! She has improved DRASTICALLY! It's amazing what speech has done. We have a great therapy team and they have been a HUGE blessing in our lives.  We have had some issues with insurance and they have worked through everything with us. 

As we face kindergarten approaching in a year and a half - our goal is to do everything we can to get her ready for it.  I've been working hard to get her in with the school system. We have had several meetings and we are doing testings coming up.  She should be able to get speech from the school system as well as private speech next year.  We are also working on insurance to be able to hopefully get her a couple of times a week of private.  I'm so thankful for all the help and Harper loves speech.  It's been almost a full time job trying to get all of this lined up.

Hearing loss is something I never thought we would be facing but it's so minor in the scheme of things. It hasn't slowed Harper down one ounce. She LOVES music. She loves to sing and dance. She is so funny and smart. She is such a happy kid and kids seem to really like her.  I'm so thankful that God will hopefully use this obstacle for good in her life. I think He is writing a neat story with her. I wish I could fast forward a few chapters and see just what He does but I love the journey.
 

And just in case you think it's all sunshine and roses - I tried to get Harper to wear pigtails to her choir concert on Sunday night and she looked SOOOOOOOO adorable but you would have thought I killed her best friend or told her she could never eat ice cream again.  Have you ever seen anyone so sad? ha! It was a battle I didn't want to fight and I wanted her to sing in church and not be upset over her hair so we took it down.  Sometimes you have to know when it doesn't matter if you win.
But I sure loved those pigtails. :-(

Tiptoe through the Tulips

I didn't plan to post today.  

In light of yesterday - it feels inappropriate to talk about normal life.  It feels weird to talk about eating lunch at Chick-fil-a or a visit from our grandparents.

But BECAUSE of yesterday - we SHOULD talk about those things. It's COMPLETELY appropriate to talk about life. 

Because if we don't.  If we don't appreciate every moment. If we live in fear - the enemy wins. 

We can't hide away in our homes. We can't be afraid. We can't withdraw from all the things that bring us joy.  We have to remember God has already WON.  There will be hard times - but He is with us always and has overcome!  We just have to pray for Boston and all of those in need. 

I drove by our downtown today and our little square was full of beautiful tulips.  I realized the girls were already in matching dresses because we had been to Bible Study and it's going to rain the rest of the week and tulips have short lives so if we wanted to take pictures - it was today or maybe never.

 So I ran home and got my camera. 

 I didn't get any magical pictures but I got a few sweet ones. 

if we had no winter

if we did not sometimes taste of adversity

the spring would not be so pleasant

prosperity would not be so welcome

 - author unknown.

{real life}

{and of course Harper's shoes are on the wrong feet and they both have on lipgloss. ha!}

HAPPY SPRING!