random.

hi.

i'm blogging from our last day of vacation. where i should be packing & finishing up getting ready, but i find myself with an itty bitty sound asleep & everyone else out of the condo, so i'm sitting down to write.

oh, how i've missed writing. i find it to be therapeutic, mostly.

and i've found that lately, i've been trying to censor myself from being entirely open on this blog. and i don't like that. i AM an open book. it's just me. i like to tell it like it is in my life. the good, the bad, the funny & the ugly.

hence, the reason for turning it private.

but today, i'm feeling open.

so here i am.

we've been on vacation for a week. we brought tropical storm LEE into town with us. yesterday was our first day of beautiful sunshine. and funnily enough, it was cool & crisp outside. just like fall.

i heart fall. especially after a very long & very very hot summer.

i love the smells of fall. queso, football, texas chilli {YUM. that WILL be on my menu next week}, the state fair, pumpkin patch hay, crisp dewey morning walks, fire places & smores.

yay! i can't wait.

oh - and crotons. i LOVE crotons. can't wait to put one on my front porch next to a small pumpkin patch that i have planned in my mind this year.

who knows if that will ACTUALLY happen. right? right.

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the good thing about being stuck in a tropical storm is the laziness of it all.

reading. watching football. eating. coloring in a coloring book for what seems like the first time in forever. napping. oh - and more eating.

i feel like it makes us slow down. when we SO need to slow down.

so for that i'm super thankful.

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in the spirit of being random, let me catch up on some pictures from before our vacay.

recently, i've been so incredibly thankful for my sweet girlfriends. i'm blessed to have them. in every way, they are a very specific answer to prayer. each of them individually & collectively as a whole. they pray for me, encourage me, challenge me & speak truth in love. they send me scripture at the very moment i need it. they send notes in the mail. they send sweet nothing texts that speak volumes to me about their character & the kinds of friends they are.

i love them.

the friday before vacation though, one of these dear friends had a birthday party for her daughter.

a luau. {is that even how you spell it?}

we had a lot of fun, ate way too many cupcakes & made a huge mess between the itty bitties & the 'big' kids.

but that's the point of a birthday party, right?

i so often feel sad for b. when he's the only boy of the big kids. but he eats. it. up. can you tell?

thanks, harper! we had fun celebrating you, sweet girl.

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so there it is. my random thoughts this morning. and little bit of procrastination on my part.

oh - and before i leave, i want to share an awesome & powerful excerpt of scripture that i've been clinging to these past few days. the Lord has been teaching me more than my fair share lately - some i'm very thankful for - and some i want to turn my eyes from because He is showing me {very clearly, i might add} my ugly side. yuck. 

but i love this. i rest in this. {or i try to}. and i hope you will, too, today.

"do you not know? have you not heard? the Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does NOT become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. though youths grow weary & tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, the will run & not get tired, they will walk & not become weary."

isaiah 40:28-31

i don't know about you, but there are many days as a wife, a mommy, a friend that i feel like i cannot do it. i don't have the strength to do what i need to do. or be who i want to be. 

but HE does.

that's the beauty of it. that's the point.

that if we are going to get through the day in one piece, as a whole, and still have some room left over for our husbands and ourselves, it will be a miracle. and it will be HIS strength, not ours. 

our lives are to POINT to Him. 

that's a challenge for me. a huge one. 

it's one that i'll be wrestling with for the rest of my life. but i'm ready. 

and i'm done with my sermon for today.

love you all for sticking with me & reading until the end. 

happy wednesday.

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PS - remember that i'm turning this blog to private on monday, september 12. please email me or leave me a comment below with your email address if you want to be added to the list! {disregard if you've already let me know!}

a visit.

the wednesday before we went on vacation, macie & kendra were in town for a little visit. we were so excited to play with them! 

now that charlotte is on the move - it's a little different going to the play area at the mall... she is all over the place. and although there were a TON of 'big kids' {who i'm sure were over the height limit} running around like crazy people, she was not phased. 

sweet macie. i can't believe all of her hair!!!

trying to get macie, brady & pierce in a picture proved to be a challenge. we told them to hold hands...

and pierce wanted no part of it. macie & b didn't understand why. ha. 

after lunch the big kids went for a ride on the carousel. 

brady was, of course, on his trusty horse. jo jo. 

we miss you macie & kendra. 

but i am so challenged by kendra's outlook on their move to wisconsin. even though she's a thousand miles away from her dallas 'home' and hundreds of miles from her HOME home, she's got such a great attitude. she knows that every door opened for them to take this opportunity, and although it might not exactly feel like home yet, she's choosing to make it that way. 

and i love her for it. 

and admire her for how supportive she is of her husband. it's honestly a challenge for me. 

we love you guys!

i have a secret.

we've been on vacation!

all week!

with this couple & this couple.

and it. was. fabulous.

lots of resting. and surprise, surprise... NOT a lot of reading.

this year ended up looking a LOT different for me than previous years.

but i'll talk about that later. when i get around to editing the pictures. {my most favorite part!}

right now, i'm getting ready for a shower for a sweet friend that we're having at our house tomorrow. there is lots on my list of things to do today - and here i sit, procrastinating. with my blog. my coffee. and zac brown on the today show.

regardless... i'm slow moving this morning. slightly sunburnt. slightly sore from the drive yesterday and my eyes are still slightly crossed from finishing the help yesterday in the car. {ah-mazing book... all 525 pages of it.}

so - instead of clearing my head & talking about our fun vacay, lyle style & amazing food.... i will share some pictures with you that i was completely head over heels about taking. this precious girl is a senior at pca & her mom, lisa has 'mentored' joanna & i for two years now. {do you have a mentor? do you even know what i'm talking about? i'm SO thankful to have lisa in my life to challenge my faith, my marriage & my mothering!! so UNBELIEVABLY thankful!}

anyway - camryn wanted some 'fun' pictures - and i offered to snap a few for her... being the novice photographer that i am. {which i made PERFECTLY clear!!!} i love how they turned out.

***disclaimer: i am NOT pretending to be a professional photographer, nor am i trying to be. it is a hobby... and i enjoy it. that is all. i just wanted to share these with you because i think camryn is a beautiful gril inside & out - and i am so honored to have captured that on camera!***

the weekend.

jeff came home last night & while we were eating dinner he said "your blog post today was kind of....... heavy today."

i told him that it was just so heavy on my heart that i didn't feel right posting about our wonderful weekend away. he totally got it. it weighed heavy on him as well, so he knew where my heart was on it.

and thank YOU for letting me share. i love blogging when it becomes an avenue to share some of the deepest thoughts and realities of life.

and when it can becomes an avenue to share my faith. praise the Lord. 

the funeral for this sweet girl is today. she is still on my heart. it must be amazing to be with Jesus. we talked with brady last night about heaven. and i couldn't help but think that maybe pops {jeff's dear grandfather who went home to be with the Lord earlier this year} has found this precious girl in heaven. and they're sweet friends. 

 just a note: i don't presume to know how heaven will look like. and i'm not a theologian, so just know it was just a thought. but a precious one that lifted my spirits and reminded me that we should look forward to going to heaven.

okay. enough of the heavy stuff today.

i wanted to share about our weekend away with some dear friends to the lakehouse!

we didn't have kids with us.

so we woke up late {a.k.a. 8, 9 or 10 for some of us!}

we walked. we sipped coffee instead of gulping it.

and then we packed lunch and went out on the boat.

and stayed out there for a LONG time.

enough time for all the boys {who don't think they need that much sunscreen} to get sunburned. {burnt or burned?}

we ate lunch with plenty of pringles and jalapeno cheetos.

{have you had those? they're actually really good!}

we floated for 3 hours. seriously. and parker only got 'fish bit' twice.

apparently none of the rest of us were appetizing to any fish. hmmmm....

 

we borrowed some crazy cruisers from our neighbor.

they are funny. you have to stick your behind out and wiggle it to get them going.

love it.

and let me say that some of us got it down better than others.

and i won't expose any names.

but i'll say that i did make it up that hill without pushing off.

enough said.

going up the hill was tough.

but coming down it was totally worth it.

as you can tell by the blurry julie pictured below.

we watched the sunset.

we played games.

and it was quiet. just what we all needed.

thankful for sweet friends to share some big laughs with.

as one person put it this weekend...we had a few times where we went to that really happy laughing place.

you know the one.

where there are tears streaming down your face and if you've birthed two kids, you just might be in trouble? 

yeah, that one.