Show me how to love like you have loved me

Heal my heart and make it clean

Open up my eyes to the things unseen

Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart for what breaks yours

Everything I am for Your kingdom's cause 

As I walk from earth into eternity

I heard this song by Hillsong/Selah this week and I have just been meditating on this bridge of the song for the last few days.  August and September to me always signal a new beginning.  School starts, Bible studies begin again, programs and the business of life just start to pick up.  I know this year may be the busiest yet.  I am already beginning to say "yes" to a lot of things.  And yet I'm asking myself, "how do I do instead what God wants me to do?"

Heal my heart and make it clean

I have had a few past grudges or hurts that I have finally let go of and I've chosen to try and love people whether they love me back.  It's not easy or fun but I have found that praying for the people that hurt you helps.  It's hard to be mad at someone who you are praying for daily.  Holding on to hurts and conflict will keep you from what God truly has for you to do. 

Open up my eyes to the things unseen

Some of my amazing friends have begun to find opportunities right here in our community that make me aware of needs that are right in my back yard.  Meeting these needs and ministering to others suddenly seems a lot more important than girl night dinners or PTO meetings.  I hope to say yes to a few less things so I can have more time to be able to jump in and help when needs arise around me.

Show me how to love like you have loved me

I want to love my family better.  I want to love my friends better.  But I also want to love people who can't do anything for me in return.  I hope God gives me divine appointments this year to hear the Holy spirit prompt me to just show love when someone needs it most. 

Break my heart for what breaks yours

I worry that we as a society have become more and more comfortable with what is okay in the world and less concerned with what God instructed.  I'm pointing the finger at myself.  I think there are things in my life that I feel like are okay because "everyone does it" even though I know when I read the Bible that's it's not.  I think I have sin patterns that probably break God's heart.  I pray that I try to please Him this year and not man. 

Everything I am for Your Kingdom's cause 

As I walk from earth into eternity

I may live 40 more days or 40 more years.  We never know when God will call us home so I pray that I make every day count.  I just want to live with the sole purpose of making God known and giving Him glory.  I lose sight of that in my daily life when just the business of everyday things take over but I pray that each day I seek Him first. 

What changes do you need to make this "new year" to know God better or to love Him more?

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.  Romans 12:1-2

Beach Vacay 2014

We just spent a wonderful week at the beach.  And now you are going to get a recap.  We took over 1100 pictures.  I will try to spare you. ha! But I will share a few.

We left at 3 a.m.  on Saturday morning to drive.  It took us about 14 hours.  We thought we were brilliant and that the girls would sleep about half the trip. ha! I think Hollis slept 20 min the whole trip.  But I was very proud - the girls were SO great traveling both ways.  I love the trip through the AR and MS delta and Alabama.  It's fun to see so many different places.  

We stayed in Perdido Key, FL at the Indigo Condos.  We usually stay in Gulf Shores but we loved PDK.  It was a lot less crowded.  We had a great condo on the beach.  I think I could live there forever.

One of our favorite things to do is go to the Track in Gulf Shores and the girls ride all the rides.  

The girls loved the beach a little but not a lot.  They didn't love the waves or the sand. So we only spent about an hour or two at the beach every day and then we went to the pool.  They LOVED swimming.  I hadn't had a chance to get the girls in swimming lessons this year but a week at the pool and Harper was basically swimming like a fish.  She LOVED the water.

We would get on the beach every day by 8:30 and eat lunch in the condo and then spend a little more time at the pool and we would be done by about 2 every day.  We like to go out to eat on vacation - that's half of our fun.  I know a lot of people like to cook at the condo but we don't want any part of that.  I love to cook but not on vacation.  Since it's so crowded everywhere in the summer and because we have young kids - we get to the restaurants at 4:30. It worked great - we never waited and we would be done by 6 or so.  Then we had time to do something else and still get the girls to bed at a reasonable hour.

I realized one night that Hollis was wearing the same dress Harper wore on the last trip at the same restaurant.  This is both girls at 3.5 at Louisiana Lagniappe in my favorite little crab dress.  I got this dress from a fellow blogger who has 3 girls.  I think this dress has had a really great life. ha! 

This is pretty much how Hollis felt about the beach.  She is a little OCD so she wanted to wash her hands every time she got a grain of sand on her.  

Sweet Harper 

This girl makes me laugh so hard  

Some of our best friends were about 15 minutes down the road from us the same week.  We all live within 5 minutes of each other and see each other a lot but we don't all get together for dinner much.  Since we were so close - we planned a night to meet up for dinner and it was so fun.  I had to bribe the boys with candy to take a picture with us. ha! 

Me and my biggest blessings.  I loved having a week to just be with these girls. 

Our family 

 We had so much fun with Laurie & Steve and girls.  This was our 4th time to go with them to the beach and my 8th beach trip with Laurie.  Our girls got along so well on this trip.  They stayed in the same room and there was NO fighting the entire week.  They would just go off and play together and it was so nice.  

 We took a few beach pictures super early one morning and then went to breakfast. 

My secret wish is that we will go to the beach together when they are teenagers and they will still be friends.  Pretty sure they won't let us put them in matching dresses but at least they may still like each other. 

We tried to take sunset pictures one night but it was so windy it was impossible.  I realized we all had green and white clothes (didn't plan it) so we broke those out.  

We ate at some great restaurants.  Thanks to your recommendations - we tried Cobalt for the first time and it was our new favorite.  We even at there twice.  Our next favorite is Louisiana Lagniappe.  We also tried Fisherman's Corner in PDK and it was a little scary looking when we drove up but it was great.  We ate at the Fish House in Pensacola and it was good.  We tried Lillian's Pizza and loved it.  But we ate at our old faithful Oyster House and all decided we hated it and that was the last time we would eat there.  The wait is crazy and the food isn't really very good.

 My favorite girls in my favorite swimsuit. 

My favorite thing to do at the beach is get up really early and go for a walk around sunrise.  There is nothing more beautiful than the ocean at sun rise.  I love it.  I wish I could do that every morning.

And then yesterday we left early morning again and drove the 14 hours home.  We had a wonderful time but I was glad to get home to Arkansas.

Can't wait to do it again.

Monogram Swap

It's Monogram Friday!!!!

Today is a great day to link up and post any monogrammed clothes you have and might want to sell.  If you will just put in the link title "Mary, or M clothes or MTL monogram".

That will help everyone find what they are looking for.

Tell your friends - spread the word - this could be a great day to get monogrammed items!!!

and if ANYONE is having a baby girl with the monogram

HBS

please email me!!!! I can HOOK YOU UP!!!!!! I will be happy to give you things if I can find someone with that monogram!!!

HAPPY SWAPPING!!!!

Go Team Go

If y'all know me.......you know that I love college football!!!

And we are just about a month out!!! WHOOOO Pig Sooie!


I'm writing an article for the September Celebrate Arkansas about the Top 10 ways to have the perfect tailgate.

And I would love to include your ideas, tips, pointers, and traditions.  Send me a few sentences and a high resolution picture and I will try to include a few of you!!!!!!

From decorating and food ideas

To the perfect tailgating and game day outfit. 

I can't wait to hear your traditions and tips!!! Thanks in advance for sharing. 

Singles Day Update - where are they now?

I thought it would be fun to give a little update on all the eight couples who met here on Show Us Your Singles and are now married.  (I have found out that there are three couples seriously dating so we may have some married couples to add to this list before long!!!)

If you are new here - about twice a year for the last 3-4 years, we have a day where people can do blog posts about someone they know and love who is single.  Maybe their brother or sister or friend.  Then people are able to read about them and can leave their contact info.  It sounds a little crazy and I don't take ANY CREDIT but somehow - it works.  Clearly.  Eight couples are married and more are doing well.  I always say "you never know where you might meet someone".  And I would say a mommy blog is about one of the craziest places.

I will give you one hint on these updates .........lots of babies!!!!

I hope these stories will encourage you to think of someone you know that you could share or to consider trying this out in a few weeks when we have our next singles day!!!!!!

SARAH AND CHRISTOPHER

In the three years since our April 2011 wedding, we've lived in five houses across three states. We finally settled into a permanent home in time for the birth of our daughter, Annabelle Lee, this past March. We feel so blessed to have found each other and been given the gift of our sweet little girl! 

TOI AND BRYCE

Bryce and I got married in October 2012.  In December of that year we found out we were expecting and welcomed our sweet Alyson the end of August 2013. In that time we have also opened a restaurant.  My husband had alway dreamed of owning his own place and it has been amazing watching his dream come true.  The past year has been the craziest and hardest of my life, but also the most beautiful and rewarding. We are so truly blessed.

SAVANNAH AND AARON

Aaron and Savannah have been married for 2.5 years and are so grateful for the sweet gifts Jesus has given to them. They welcomed their son, Hudson in February of 2013, three weeks before their one year anniversary and they just welcomed their daughter Millie Grace into the world four weeks ago. They live in Northwest Arkansas.

ELIZABETH AND JESSE 

Jesse and I met through SUYL Singles on Kelly's blog in February 2012. We celebrated our first wedding anniversary on June 1, and we are expecting our first child in early December! I'm finishing up my masters in journalism before the baby arrives, and Jesse is a civil engineer. We bought some land recently and hope to start building our dream house soon. We feel so blessed to have found each other and love our life together.

God definitely gets the glory for bringing us together, but I love how it took Kelly's blog, my sister (who wrote the post about me) and Jesse's cousin (who found the post and contacted me) to set us up on our first date.

KATIE AND CHAD

Katie and Chad were married in April 2013 and are expecting a little boy this October!!!! 

LESLIE AND STEPHEN

Since our wedding in 2011 here in NWA, Stephen and I were ecstatic to welcome our first child, a daughter, in October 2013. Caroline Rose has brought so much joy and fun to our lives, and we love her more than words can express. We've been loving our new role as parents and just trying to live in the moment each day. In April, we were surprised and elated to find out that we are expecting another baby! Baby Girl #2 will join our family in December of this year and we couldn't be happier. To say we feel blessed is an understatement. God is so good and we continue to see His work every single day in our marriage and family. We would encourage anyone out there who may be considering participating in SUYL Singles to GO FOR IT! Putting yourself out there can be a little intimidating, but it is the best thing that ever happened to us. 

CHANDLER AND ERIN

Chandler and I met during the February 2012 Show Us Your Singles and were married May 18, 2013! We currently live in Georgia and loving married life. We are so blessed to have each other and so thankful to Kelly for providing the opportunity for us to find each other! We are hoping to start trying for a family in the next year!

AVERY AND CASH

They just celebrated their second anniversary on July 14th.  They live in Texas and Avery says "I love this man and our families and still can't believe 1 picture on a blog changed my world so much."

Wasn't this fun?????? I hope you enjoyed catching up on these couples and I hope we have many many more to add to this one day. Be thinking of the singles in your life who are looking for someone who might want to consider this!!!!!

All about Make-up

Today's show us your life is all about make-up.

Thank goodness for make-up, right????

I'm always looking for new products so I'm interested in reading what you share!

I hate giving any advice because I have none to give on this subject.  I use absolutley no skincare products (which I know at my age I should but I just never have).  

I have always just used drugstore make-up but a couple of years ago I was down on my looks and feeling frumpy and decided to take the plunge with some better makeup.  Angie Smith tweeted about how much she loved the Naked Palette by Urban Decay and she sold me on it.  Especially when I realized there are you tube videos out there that detail how to wear your eye makeup with this palette. It changed my life. Seriously - it LITERALLY opened my eyes. :-)

And then I got so nuts over the naked palette (which is a lot of money for eye shadow but I have been using it for like 8 months and I use almost every color and they barely look like they have been touched.  So I count it as an investment that will last a while) that I tried out a lot more Urban Decay products. 

I LOVE the eyeliner  and my friend Elizabeth uses this eyeliner too and said she thinks it's the best kind. 

I'm also in love with this lipgloss. I use "naked" (there's a lot of naked going on, huh?) and it kind of even plumps up your lips. I used to have the worst dry, peeling lips and mine have been in the best shape since I started wearing this. 

I also wear Bare Minerals base make-up.  I don't like to feel makeup on my face and I just like a light coverage.  I think it works great and I recently added a packed powder on top and it has made a big difference.  

So those are my favorite products..........what are yours???????

Surprised by Motherhood

Well, it's not Wednesday.  But we are going to have book club today! If you have our book "Surprised by Motherhood" - you have probably had plenty of time to catch up on the reading so I hope you will join in and discuss!!!

First - I have to tell you about another book that just released this week by a friend of mine.  Annie Downs is a GIFTED speaker and writer.  She has a new book called "Let's all be brave" that you will want to check out.  You will LOVE IT!

Today we are going to discuss chapters 5 and 6 from "Surprised by Motherhood".

Here are a few questions I would love for you to discuss in the comments:

1.  Have you lost your mother? I'm sure some of you have.  How have you dealt with the grief of that? How has it affected your own motherhood?

2.  Lisa-JO shares about Colleen a friend who showed her that motherhood could be fun and not slow her down and inspired her to be a mother herself.  Did you have a friend pre-motherhood who showed you how great it was to be a mom? 
I feel like I had so many friends who did that for me.  I was last among many friends to have kids.  My best friend from college, Kandi, and her husband fought infertility for so many years before they finally had two beautiful girls and I loved watching how motherhood changed her.  I was still single and I took it all in.  And of course, Laurie going before me, taught me so much because I had such a front seat ticket to what being a mother was like with her.


And once again - I will pick one person who leaves a comment and you will win a free copy of "Surprised by Motherhood".

Moms - you need a standing O

For the last 15 weeks, I had a temporary part time job. It just ended last Friday.   It was the first time I have worked since I had the girls.  Prior to the girls, I worked for 15 years.  I loved working and I worked hard.  Working before kids and after kids is a WORLD of difference.

This isn't a post of mommy wars.  This is my thoughts on why I think ALL moms are awesome and need encouraging.  I learned a lot over the last few months and I just want to share some thoughts after experiencing a little of both sides.

I didn't work full time.  That is a whole different thing.  I admire working moms so much, especially after dabbling in it.  It is TOUGH to balance home life and work life.  You can't really ever leave either one.  It is SO much pressure to do well at work and to get everything done at home.  And then you have occasional sick kids or doctor appointments or school performances and it's hard to do it all.  It's also hard to have friendships and be involved in things when so much goes on during the day - like play groups or Bible Studies or MOPS groups.  Whether you really want to work or need to work for your family or are a single mom and don't really have a choice, it's just a very hard balance.  My prayer is all of you working moms have support at home and a cleaning lady.  :-)  Or fellow working moms who understand.  Or a supportive group of friends who you can do lunch breaks with. (And I was reminded in a comment to mention how thankful I am for all of the working moms who are teachers, speech therapists, nurses, etc ....... all of things that affect my life so much.  Where would we be without you?)

I can tell you that I honestly absolutely LOVED working part time.  I actually found that it made me more organized.  I knew I only had certain times that I could clean the house or grocery shop or work out and I just had to get creative and learn to use my time wisely.  I think it gave me kind of a great outlet to be able to go to work and do something I love (a lot of excel spreadsheets and analyzation!) and participate in work meetings and even go to a work dinner but still be able to be with my girls and take them to speech therapy or to play.  I prayed and prayed that I would get to stay home with my girls and I honestly loved the last 5 years but I feel like I got a little bit of sparkle back to be able to work too.  I loved having co-workers again and I got lucky with my temporary ones - they were so nice.

But it wasn't just unicorns and roses.  The work was usually always in the forefront of my mind and it was hard to work at home with the girls there.  I felt guilty to tell them to go play so I could work (even thought honestly it forced them to learn to play together and do more imagination play.)  And I felt like I missed out on things with friends sometimes because I needed to work.  I didn't do Bible Study this last semester because it didn't fit into my schedule and I really missed it.  But I learned to get up even earlier to spend more time reading my Bible.  Even part time work can be a balance.
As fun as it sounds, working from home can be more difficult than working in an office.  I did a little of both and it was WAY easier when I was in the office.  At home, I would work 10 minutes and then it was "MOOOOOOMMMMMM, I need you".

I realized more than anything how EXTREMELY blessed I was to stay at home and how I really took it for granted.  It was nice to never have the stress of work hanging over my head. I loved getting to be with my girls all the time.   It was nice not to feel guilty to stay in my pajamas and have movie days when I had sick kids.  It was nice to know I could drive my girls to any doctor appointment or activity.  It was nice to pack up and head out of town anytime I wanted to.  I will probably work part time again soon and for the rest of my days. There will probably always be a part of me that looks back on how great these years at home have been.

BUT........ unless it seems like I'm saying that stay at home moms have easy, fluff lives - I need to give a HUGE standing ovation to them as well.  As much as I will miss the days of being home with my girls, they were HARD HARD days.  (Clearly not hard as in someone who has cancer or is homeless or lives in poverty - I'm not joking myself.)  But being home with small children for 12 hours a day and never having time to sit down and eat or take a shower or have a complete thought is not exactly the bon bon eating life some people might think it is.  I enjoy it a million times more now that my girls are older but about a year and a half ago - I really struggled.  I would hide in the bathroom sometimes.  I would FANTASIZE about going to work and sitting at a desk and being able to work in peace and drink a coke without little people needing to touch you or have you do things for them every single second of every day.  And it can be VERY isolating.  I would talk Scott's ears off at night because I missed having someone to talk to about adult things.

We all have different circumstances and I think after experiencing a tiny bit of the different ways to mother, that instead of pointing fingers and judging, it would be so much better if we would instead give a knowing smile, a word of encouragement and extend a hand out to cheer on one another.

Keep Manhattan, Just Give me that Countryside

I need to start out by saying I've been a complete blogging slacker.  (Which really isn't a bad thing, right?)  I totally skipped SUYL this Friday.  I'm going to move the schedule out by a week and we will do makeup this Friday! 

Which by the way - I'm working on a little special post all about the eight couples who met on Singles Day here and are now married.  I'm doing a "where are they now" special.  I'll give you a hint: lots of babies! :-)   I'm hoping to do a Singles Day sometime early fall.  I know of one couple who met on the last one who are very seriously dating so we will keep this train rolling as long as matches keep being made!!!! 

After a busy week of VBS, the girls and I decided to make a quick trip to visit my parents. 

 My girls love to visit their grandparents.  Especially when it involves making brownies together! 

 It's nice to be in the country.  The girls and I fed a few deer before we met my mom at church this morning.  Scott and I have a dream to move to the country one day.  Not out of town - just maybe on a little land.  He's a country boy but I like to be near "town".  But it is fun seeing deer in your yard and enjoying the quiet of the country. 

 I got a fun surprise because one of my friends from college, Doug Compton, is an evangelist and he was preaching at my parents church today.  His wife was one of my really good friends in college.  I met Doug the summer before my freshman year at the camp I worked at.  He speaks at youth camps and does revivals and travels the globe sharing the Gospel.  I admire him so much.  He had their youngest son Lane with him today.  Lane and Harper are the same age.  We are hoping they are at OBU together in about 13 years.  I wouldn't mind an arranged marriage with these two. 

And speaking of the camp I worked at...........

About 8 years ago, one of the very first blogs I ever read belonged to someone who has become a dear real life friend, Amanda.  Amanda at the time lived in Dallas and she had a few close friends and I loved reading about them and reading their blogs as well.  Janelle was one of those friends and we have stayed in touch on social media and email and I saw this week that she was at Camp Siloam - 30 min from me!! I was so excited.  I grew up at that camp and couldn't believe she was so close.  I ran over last Thursday night and we got to meet in person and visit and it was so great.  Even if we had to explain to a few of her friends that we "met on the internet".  ha!

Here's to another week!

VBS And Visitors

We will get back to our regularly scheduled book club next week I promise.  I've had a crazy few weeks and have just been off my blogging norm.

My week is mainly overtaken this week with Vacation Bible School.  We love VBS.  The girls have so much fun and I love working in it.  I do preschool crafts every year.  It's so much fun.  We have almost 600 kids this year.  I love seeing them learn about Jesus. 

One of the directors took this picture of Hollis on the playground yesterday. I thought it was so sweet. 

We wear the same tee shirt every day so I always try to change it up and not just wear the same pair of jeans.  My friend Elizabeth showed up today wearing a very similar striped navy maxi skirt today so we had to take a picture.  We are doing what we can to make VBS Stylish.  ha!  

Today we learned the Golden rule which is just a great policy to live by and one I need to remember more often. 

This week has also been so fun because we had visitors come stay with us last night.  I met Heather when we travelled to El Salvador with Compassion five years ago.  She has such a neat family.  Her husband is a worship leader and travels the country leading worship in churches.  I call them my little gypsy friends because they are always on some kind of trip or road trip.  They just live life differently but so full of life! Carlos wrote a book about their life called "Moment Makers".  

They left Monday on a two month adventure.  And I was so excited when Heather said they were going to come through Arkansas and could they come visit us!!!

They came yesterday afternoon and I took them to eat on our downtown square and we had a little walk around the town that ended with ice cream.  I had to show them the very first Wal-Mart of course.

My girls LOVED having them stay with us.  They were just obsessed with her little boy Losiah.  Hollis cried her eyes out when she didn't get to sit next to him at dinner.  It made me laugh. They also loved the "big girls".  We had a great visit and then they left out before the sun came out to travel west.

We have two more days of Bible School to go.  I need to go to bed early.  :-)

Some Stuff

I had asked y'all for contributions of how you defined family for this month's edition of Celebrate Arkansas and it came out last week.  Thank you to those who sent in your statements and pictures.  We weren't able to use them all but we tried to fit several different ones in.  I'd love for you to read it! I thought it was really fun that several of you were included!!!!!

Here is the link:  http://digital.ipcprintservices.com/publication/?i=214762&p=66

We have Bible School this week and I'm helping with preschool crafts every morning. And then this is the last week for my Temporary Part Time Job I've had for the last 3.5 months.  So things are B-U-S-Y around here.  We also are having some special friends visit us today/tonight.  So blogging is taking a back seat but I hope y'all are having a great week!