Friends

  • Relationships: Reflecting on Memories

    Sunflower / Yellow Flower

    • Across the fields the summer sun
    • Is shining, and the breeze
    • Flows gently through the trees
    • Like waves upon the summer seas.
    • The wild flowers all along the fence
    • Are dancing in the sun.
    • The bees are buzzing through the fields. . .
    • I’ll bet their work is fun.
    • Look, there’s a path upon the hill;
    • Please come and walk with m.
    • For overtop the hill and down,
    • A meadow we will see.
    • For in the meadow there’s a brook
    • That I once waded through,
    • And in the meadow there are flowers
    • Of every shade and hue.
    • Come walk, with me along that brook
    • And share this day with me.
    • As carefree children once again
    • We live in memory.

    – Bonnie Gaunt

    Our lives are sprinkled with a variety of  memories.  Some of those memories bring a smile to our face while others bring a tear of sadness to our eyes.  Memories can come rushing back when one or more of our senses are spiked such as a familiar place, smell, or sound.

    When we walk along a stream or visit a familiar area with a family member or friend we get a glance into the past.  It’s important to take the time to remember those good times.  Relax in a quiet walk with someone dear to us.  Taking the time to laugh at the good times and great memories we have shared over the years.  Life goes by quickly and no one is guaranteed another day, but we have today so let’s make the best of what we have with those we love.

  • Counting My Blessings: Week In Review

    It was a week fun filled week with a lot of work, travel, time with extended family, and neat activities.  Thankful for an opportunity to travel for a few days to spend catching up with family.  I added the weekend since this week as well.  Grateful for safety as we traveled to see people and for the wonderful memories that were made along the way.

    I want to be accountable to you so the following are snip-its of some of the things I am thankful for this past week.

    Counting My Blessings – Week In Review:

    Monday –Thankful for the girls help in getting some tasks done around the house.  It was a busy day of prepping and packing.  The girls packed their entire suitcases by themselves so that saved me time from rounding up all their items and getting them in the suitcase.

    Tuesday – Thankful for friends that are willing to watch our house and pets while we were away visiting family in New England.  It is good knowing that the everything is being cared for while we are away.

    Wednesday – Thankful for a job that I can work part time so I can travel with my family as well.  Jake dropped me off at work this morning and picked me up early afternoon to drive to the airport so we could fly out to see family in New England.  Also, grateful for airplanes and the ability to travel places relatively quickly.  Thankful safety in our travels.

    Thursday – Thankful for time to spend with Jake’s Mom and grandparents in Vermont.  It was cooler in Vermont but the girls had a grand time with Grandma Kay, Nana, PopPop, and their chickens, puppy, and exploring the woods.

    Friday – Thankful for another fun filled day in Vermont to spend time with family.

    Saturday – Thankful for a safe trip to Connecticut and an opportunity to spend time with Jake’s Dad. The girls had a blast!

    Sunday – Thankful for a safe trip to Massachusetts to visit with Jake’s cousin Matt and his family.

    What are you thankful for today?  I encourage you to take the time to write down a few blessings that you have in your life today.  It will help cheer you up and turn your focus on the amazing blessings you encounter each day!

  • Brina & Karlie’s 5th Grade Graduation Party & Celebration!

    5th Grade Graduation Party & Celebration

    Brina and Karlie with Mrs. Johnson at their Graduation Celebration Party!  Mrs. Johnson was Karlie’s homeroom teacher in 2nd Grade, taught Karlie in Gift & Talented Program from 3rd grade up, and was both girls STEM Club Coach for 2 years.  Excellent teacher!!!

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    Such a sweet Daddy spent a lot of time helping get ready for this big day including helping cut starfish, decorate, blow up balloons, and so much more.  Thankful to have a partner that pitches in and takes the time to celebrate with the kids!

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    Luau theme at the Grad Party!  The kids had a blast!

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    Karlie with her homeroom teacher Mr. Moore and her friend David!  Mr. Moore was an awesome teacher!

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    Brina hanging out with her friend at the party!

    P1640622cSweet Sisters!  Thankful for these two girls!

  • Counting My Blessings: Week In Review

    It was a week packed full of a lot of emotions.  With the girls wrapping up at a school they have been attending the past 7 years it has been quite a stepping stone for us.  We are grateful to all the teachers and administration at Crosswell Elementary for the amount of time, energy, and attention they have invested in our girls education.  They have made a positive and lasting impression on our kids.  Wish we could take some of the amazing teachers with us to Middle school.  We are excited to see what Middle School will bring and know that the kids will probably adjust quicker and better than at least their Mom because with them moving up a school their growing up seems more real.  Love my girls and very proud of what they have accomplished over the past year!     There was so much to be thankful for last week.

    I want to be accountable to you so the following are snip-its of some of the things I am thankful for this past week.  Counting My Blessings – Week In Review:

    Monday –Thankful to have the laundry room renovation started and that we were still able to get the laundry done so none of us have to run around wearing dirty clothes!

    Tuesday – Thankful for the opportunity to spend some time with the girls after school that didn’t include doing a bunch of homework.  We even had a few extra minutes to do a rapid quick clean up around the house and read some more of our books together.  LOVE catching both of the girls reading independently on their own during free time (for those who know our family you know that for one of our kids this is a really big deal)!

    Wednesday – Thankful for time after work to spend with other Mom’s at school prepping for the kids 5th grade Graduation Celebration Party.   We were able to get a lot accomplished and organized during our time together.

    Thursday – Thankful for Brina’s hard work on her “Cupcakes on the Rise” Science Fair Project because we were able to see her accept a 1st Place Trophy, Medals, Certificate, and Cash Prize (we had no idea there was a cash prize as well) for the Regional Science Fair!  Very proud of our Brina Bee!

    Friday – Thankful for an opportunity to watch the girls Graduation and Awards Ceremony!  They did fantastic and both kids received numerous awards, medals, pins, certificates, trophies and other cool awards for all that they had accomplished throughout this year.  Also, Karlie received a trophy for getting all A’s her entire Elementary School years.  Super proud of these kids and the effort they put into their learning.  Praying they continue to have the love of learning as they get older!

    What are you thankful for today?  I encourage you to take the time to write down a few blessings that you have in your life today.  It will help cheer you up and turn your focus on the amazing blessings you encounter each day!

  • Intentional Living: Weekly Goals

    Last week was crazy, but good as we celebrated a lot of great rewards that the girls had earned for all their hard work throughout this past school year including watching them graduate.  Thankful for our girls and their excitement to learn.  They had a lot of activities and times when it was tough to get everything done, but they pushed through it.  Jake and I are proud of our girls.

    I have added a “kid goals” section to my list of goals.  Now that they are getting older and realizing the importance of improving and maintaining goals I want to be intentional about keeping up with their learning as they grow older.   Here are my goals for this week:

    Last week’s goals

    Family Goals

    1. Finish reading Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein to the kids. – was not able to finish with all the extra school activities this week, but read a couple of night
    2. Read 7 Stories from the Bad Pets on the Loose by Alan Zullo book to the kids. – read a couple, but not 7
    3. Go through 7 more Brain Quest Flash Cards with the kids. – did a handful only
    4. Read through 7 more pages of History Trivia with the kids. – hoping to pick this back up again this week
    5. Do devotions and prayer time with kids every night. – prayers yes, but it was really late a few nights so kept it short
    6. Plan one special activity with the family
    7. Play a Game with the Kids – we didn’t have enough free time in the evenings to play a game
    8. Spend time Monday –Friday helping the kids with Homework
    9. Attend After School Activities – attended all the activities including celebration / graduation meetings, regional Science Fair Competition & Awards, Graduation, Awards Ceremony
    10. Lunch Boxes & Book Bags packed the night before
    11. Prep for upcoming Family Adventure(s) – working on it, but still has some more to go
    12. Prep & Figure out Schedule for upcoming Summer Break – getting closer to finalizing everything
    13. Ride Bikes with the Kids – the extra activities took more time than expected
    14. Work on family projects togetherwe worked on several items together as a family including items in the house including the laundry room.  The girls LOVED helping paint!
    15. Brina & Karlie’s Graduation Ceremonygreat seeing the girls graduate!
    16. Brina & Karlie’s Award Ceremonythe girls received A LOT of amazing rewards!  Both received trophies, several certificates, award pins, medals, and more.  Once again we were blown away by how well they did and all they received.  Evidence that the hours they spent working on school work really did pay off.  They were part of several great groups and had a wonderful team of teachers / coaches.  We will miss this school that they have been at for 7 years, but looking forward to what middle school has to offer!
    17. Prep & decorate for Graduation party (Meet with people Mon / Wed) after school
    18. Take Brina to the Science Fair Competition – not only did we take Brina to the Regional Science Fair Competition – SHE WON!!!  FIRST Place in the Regional Science Competition so proud of her!  Way to go Brina!  She received a trophy, medals, certificates, and a cash prize!  She was shocked, but excited.  The last 3 months of baking cupcakes for her “Cupcakes on the Rise” Science Fair project were worth it.  We calculated that she made over 410 cupcakes by herself these past 3 months.  She’s gotten really good at making cupcakes!

    Personal Goals

    1. Drink 8 glasses of water each day
    2. Keep up with my FitBit Goals – did so well this week with the exception of forgetting my fitbit at home on a day where I did a lot of moving around at work and after school activities.  Oh well…
    3. Do yoga at least 5 times a week
    4. Go to my Appointments Scheduled this week – Jake took Brina to set up for the Science Fair over lunch on Thursday so I could work my regular hours, thanks Babe!
    5. Update Counting My Blessings and Other journal entries daily
    6. Tackle some lingering projects on my “to do” list – I did get several things moving forward, but nothing completely crossed off so officially I cannot cross this off my list….

    Home (Yard & Pets) Management Goals

    1. All laundry for the week washed, folded, and put away in one day my laundry room is still being renovated, I was unable to get in to do laundry on my normal schedule.  Hopefully this will be complete or at least in a more working condition by the end of next week! 🙂  It’s going to look awesome though, Jake has done a fantastic job and the girls have pitched in and helped a lot too!
    2. Weekly Dinner Menu planned out for the week
    3. Clean House (Focus – Laundry Room Remodeling Work (get all of the subflooring cleaned and help Jake with getting at least 1/2 of it completed) – flooring is up and was stalled a little bit by another issue that caught our attention that needed to be fixed prior to doing more in the laundry room (thankful for a husband who can do so much).  Having an older home can have a lot of fun and unexpected surprises that take extra TLC! 🙂
    4. Organize Chaos (Focus – Find Bins / Containers / Baskets to put on shelves in Laundry Room once up) – I have some ideas, but waiting a couple more days until I figure out how the new laundry room layout will look like prior to committing to any specific bins/containers/baskets.  I want the items I get to be practical, efficient, and uniform as much as possible.
    5. Yard / Garage Cleanup (Focus – Plant Lilly Flower and Blueberry Bush – weather permitting) – the laundry room took up more time than we expected as well as a couple extra activities with school and other events were more time consuming than we original planned.
    6. Pet Care (Focus – Give Skipper her vitamins) – Brina especially is good about keeping up with Skippy’s vitamins!
    7. Repairs – (Focus – Refinishing our Laundry room, tearing out the old linoleum and sprucing it up) – All the old flooring is up, we are starting to paint and work on other areas.  Looking better already, cannot wait until it is complete!  Will be very nice!

    Business Goals

    1. Work on ideas for upcoming blog posts
    2. Respond to Inquiry – Business Relation Emails – few more need to be completed
    3. Keep up with the day to day items that need my attention – a couple of days got away from me with all the activities last week, hoping as we get into rhythm with the new summer schedule I can tackle a few more of this necessary items
    4. Work completed for clientshave a couple more projects to complete
    5. Notes typed for work – I got them started (kids and other family activities took priority this past week.)
    6. Folders Labeled for work – I actually got a decent start of this one.  I finished some of the categories that I was doing, but have a handful more to wrap up before I am officially done. 
    7. Desk drawers organized – getting closer….does that count?!

    Ministry Goals

    1. Meet a friend or family member for Breakfast or Lunch

    Financial Goals

    1. Schedule a meeting with the Financial Advisor – have a couple I need to follow up with this week
    2. Payoff Other Outstanding Debt – made another extra payment
    3. Pay Bills & File Paperwork
    4. Go grocery shopping one time this week and stay within budget – went over with the graduation party celebration and other big activities that filled up our week

    My goals for the upcoming week

    Family Goals

    1. Finish reading Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein to the kids.
    2. Read 7 Stories from the Bad Pets on the Loose by Alan Zullo book to the kids.
    3. Go through 7 more Brain Quest Flash Cards with the kids.
    4. Read through 7 more pages of History Trivia with the kids.
    5. Do devotions, reflecting on our blessings, and prayer time with kids every night.
    6. Plan one special activity with the family
    7. Play a Game with the Kids
    8.  Attend After Work Activities
    9. Lunch Boxes packed the night before work & other planned activities
    10. Prep for upcoming Family Adventure(s)
    11. Prep & Figure out Schedule for upcoming Summer Break
    12. Ride Bikes with the Kids
    13. Work on family projects together
    14. Start packing suitcase for next family adventure
    15. Daily 15 minute “Speed Clean” for entire family to keep the daily clutter under control

    Kid Goals

    1. Have kids do 1st week in Summer Workbook(s)
    2. Encourage Kids to read independently at least 30 minutes a day
    3. Sign up kids for the Easley, Anderson, & Greenville County Summer Library Reading Programs
    4. Sign up kids for Barnes & Noble and other similar reading programs
    5. Have kids work on our approved educational websites to encourage growth (at least 2 hours for the week)
    6. Have kids work for at least 1 hour on this week on improving their typing skills
    7. Each kid finish creating at least 2 blogs posts for their Fun with Sis blog
    8. Spend time Monday –Friday encouraging the kids to find creative ways to learn and grown their skills
    9. Kids start packing suitcases for next family adventure
    10. At least 30 minutes of outside play, fresh air, or activity time a day

    Personal Goals

    1. Drink 8 glasses of water each day
    2. Keep up with my FitBit Goals
    3. Do yoga at least 5 times a week
    4. Go to my Appointments Scheduled this week
    5. Update Counting My Blessings and Other journal entries daily
    6. Tackle some lingering projects on my “to do” list

    Home (Yard & Pets) Management Goals

    1. All laundry for the week washed, folded, and put away in one day
    2. Weekly Dinner Menu planned out for the week
    3. Clean House (Focus – Laundry Room Remodeling Work Completed
    4. Organize Chaos (Focus – Refill Kids Snack Bins – hope to focus again on the laundry room in the future once further along)
    5. Yard / Garage Cleanup (Focus – Plant Lilly Flower and Blueberry Bush – weather permitting)
    6. Pet Care (Focus – Replant grass in Goat pen)
    7. Repairs – (Focus – Refinishing our Laundry room, painting and laying new flooring)

    Business Goals

    1. Work on ideas for upcoming blog posts
    2. Respond to Inquiry – Business Relation Emails
    3. Keep up with the day to day items that need my attention
    4. Work completed for clients
    5. Notes typed for work
    6. Folders Labeled for work
    7. Desk drawers organized
    8. Do at least 5 blog posts this week
    9. Catch up on Hootesuite
    10. Upload pictures from last few weeks and update

    Ministry Goals

    1. Meet a friend or family member for Breakfast or Lunch
    2. One-on-one quality time with Jake (talking, date night, or doing an activity together)
    3. One-on-one quality time with Brina (talking, date night, or doing an activity together)
    4. One-on-one quality time with Karlie (talking, date night, or doing an activity together)

    Financial Goals

    1. Schedule a meeting with the Financial Advisor
    2. Payoff Other Outstanding Debt
    3. Pay Bills & File Paperwork
    4. Go grocery shopping one time this week and stay within budget
    5. Sell, giveaway, donate, or through away items no longer use
    6. Take items to the recycling distributor
    7. Make meals with items from pantry, refrigerator, and freezer to use up what we have and eliminate any extra spending

    I think it is important to share and encourage each other as we seek to improve our lives and the lives of those around us.  I want to live intentionally not just hope all my dreams and goals come true.  When I focus on small

    steps of improvement I am able to see results as I get closer to my goals.  Some weeks I get closer to the goals I have in my life and other weeks a take a few steps back (life happens, emergencies occur, people get sick).  Once the goals are written down and shared it provides a guideline for what I aim to accomplish this week.

    Why Share My Goals?

    • To keep me accountable
    • To share a piece of my life with you as I strive to be a better Child of God, Wife, Mom, Friend, Homemaker, Entrepreneur and the many other roles I have each week
    • To have my goals consistently written down so I can gauge progress more accurately
    • Create healthy habits in my life
    • To encourage you to share your goals with me as you continue to grown and learn

    How did you do this week on your goals?  Feel free to share or link to your list of weekly goals.

    The picture above is one that I created for my own purposes, however, The “SMART” acronym was originally coined 30 years ago by Peter Drucker in his classic work, Management by Results.

  • Happy Halloween!

    'Brina made the owl and Karlie designed the scary face pumpkin!'
    We gave the girls a choice about what Halloween activities they wanted to do this year. They chose to stay home, play games, spend time together, carve pumpkins, make a special meal, and more fun instead of going out trick & treating! We had a lot of fun together! Thankful for our girls and sweet time together!
    'BBQ Mustard flavored pumpkin seeds - Jake's favorite this year!'
    Baked and seasoned pumpkin seeds!
    'Karlie working on her pumpkin!'
    Karlie’s scary pumpkin!
    'Caramel coated pumpkin seeds were our other flavor creation this year!'
    Caramel flavored pumpkin seeds!
    'Brina concentrating on carving extra cute hearts on the side of her pumpkin'
    Brina creating her owl pumpkin